U.S. Debt Clock

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Budget Hero - "If you ever wanted to control where your tax dollars go, here is your chance to decide."

Budget Hero is an online game that allows you see how different policy choices will affect the U.S. fiscal budget in the future. According to the website:

Budget Hero seeks to provide a values- and fiscal-based lens for citizens to examine policy debates during this election year. Partisan messages tend to cloud the real issues at play during campaigns, and most candidates are loath to attach detailed financial impacts to solutions which make up their platform. Budget Hero provides an interactive experience involving policy options that have been extensively researched and vetted with non-partisan government and think tank experts to enable players to objectively evaluate candidates.

We do not want government services cut, but we do not want to pay for them

According to the July 16, 2009 article "Town hall sends message to City Hall: Don't raise taxes and don't cut essential services, city officials are told" in the Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville residents do not want government services cut, but do not want to pay for them either. The budget crunch is a direct result of lower tax revenues because of the 2008 passage of Amendment 1 (which increased the amount of property that could be excluded from taxation) and the ongoing recession.

Though the people attending Wednesday night’s town hall meeting on Jacksonville’s budget crisis fell into two distinct camps, together their message was clear: Balance the city budget without cutting necessary government services and without raising taxes.

There were those who attended the meeting at Florida Community College at Jacksonville’s Deerwood Center to insist that the City Council not support Mayor John Peyton’s proposed property tax increase. They said the budget could be balanced by eliminating waste, including trimming the police and fire department budgets, and all non-essential spending.

Scott MacNaughton, who lives on the Northside and is a member of the Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, said his family recently decided to use its Christmas savings to pay the city’s stormwater and solid waste fees. Just like he is making tough decisions, so should the city’s elected officials.

The focus should be on public safety, infrastructure and parks, what he considers core services.
“If it doesn’t fit easily into these categories it needs to be examined to be cut or be eliminated,” MacNaughton said.

He and others said the city’s books should be balanced without a tax increase. Some went further to say that even funding for nonprofit and social service agencies should be cut if a shortfall remains.

That conflicted with the views of the other half of the crowd who attended to urge the council to do whatever it takes to preserve money for the arts, education programs and crime prevention.

Leon Baxton, chief operating officer of Communities in Schools, said programs like these should be considered economic development.

“All of these programs produce young people who become adults who become taxpaying citizens,” Baxton said.

He said he supported paying higher taxes if it meant preserving after-school sites, summer camps and scholarships that help children succeed.

The town hall meeting was the first of four organized by City Council President Richard Clark to allow residents to weigh in on the city’s next budget and give their own ideas on how to balance it.

For more than two hours, residents that packed the meeting room weighed in on the budget crisis and either touted their support of social services or their opposition to the mayor’s tax increase proposal.

In addition to Clark, council members Stephen Joost, Clay Yarborough, Don Redman, John Crescimbeni and Bill Bishop attended. Alan Mosley, the mayor’s chief administrative officer, was in the crowd, as well as Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland.

At the beginning of the meeting, Yarborough warned that issue isn’t as black and white as Peyton has outlined.

The mayor wants to raise the property tax rate 12 percent, the first rate increase in 17 years. The revenue increase would be added on top of $41 million in cuts Peyton has already proposed to fill a roughly $100 million budget hole.

If the tax rate is not increased, Peyton says fire stations and libraries will close and funding to nonprofit agencies will be severely decreased.

Not so, Yarborough said. The council can balance the budget any way it decides, and the cuts the mayor warns of are not even on the table right now, he said.

During Peyton’s budget address Monday, he challenged council members to find a way to balance the new budget — which includes $22.4 million in additional spending than the current budget — without raising taxes but warned he does not think it can be done without drastically affecting quality of life.

Several speakers at the town hall meeting expressed opinions that both camps could agree on.

Barbara Clingenpeel said that belt-tightening across all city departments, including police and fire, should be the first priority. She praised Joost, chairman of the council’s Finance Committee, for saying previously that the council should not consider a tax hike until it studies the budget and finds any possible cuts.

“Please continue to find savings and efficiencies before raising taxes,” said Clingenpeel, who lives on the Westside.

But she also expressed support of social services, including the Jacksonville Journey anti-crime initiative.

“We need to support public services, the arts, everything that gives our city a good quality of life,” she said.

tia.mitchell@jacksonville.com
(904) 359-4425

Ronald Reagan´s Inaugural Address - 1981

In Ronald Reagan´s inaugural address on January 20, 1981, he claims:

For decades we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals.

Despite these warnings from the beloved Republican leader, the policies pursued in subsequent decades have dramatically increased budget deficits and the public debt.

2010 U.S. Federal Budget - by category of spending

Click on the image above to enlarge it.

The Budget of the United States Government provides a breakdown of federal government spending by category.

The President's budget for 2010 totals $3.55 trillion. Percentages in parentheses indicate percentage change compared to 2009. This budget request is broken down by the following expenditures:

Mandatory spending: $2.184 trillion (+15.6%)
$695 billion (+4.9%) - Social Security
$453 billion (+6.6%) - Medicare
$290 billion (+12.0%) - Medicaid
$0 billion (-100%) - Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)
$0 billion (-100%) - Financial stabilization efforts
$11 billion (+275%) - Potential disaster costs
$571 billion (-15.2%) - Other mandatory programs
$164 billion (+18.0%) - Interest on National Debt

Discretionary spending: $1.368 trillion (+13.1%)
$663.7 billion (+12.7%) - Department of Defense (including Overseas Contingency Operations)
$78.7 billion (-1.7%) - Department of Health and Human Services
$72.5 billion (+2.8%) - Department of Transportation
$52.5 billion (+10.3%) - Department of Veterans Affairs
$51.7 billion (+40.9%) - Department of State and Other International Programs
$47.5 billion (+18.5%) - Department of Housing and Urban Development
$46.7 billion (+12.8%) - Department of Education
$42.7 billion (+1.2%) - Department of Homeland Security
$26.3 billion (-0.4%) - Department of Energy
$26.0 billion (+8.8%) - Department of Agriculture
$23.9 billion (-6.3%) - Department of Justice
$18.7 billion (+5.1%) - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
$13.8 billion (+48.4%) - Department of Commerce
$13.3 billion (+4.7%) - Department of Labor
$13.3 billion (+4.7%) - Department of the Treasury
$12.0 billion (+6.2%) - Department of the Interior
$10.5 billion (+34.6%) - Environmental Protection Agency
$9.7 billion (+10.2%) - Social Security Administration
$7.0 billion (+1.4%) - National Science Foundation
$5.1 billion (-3.8%) - Corps of Engineers
$5.0 billion (+100%) - National Infrastructure Bank
$1.1 billion (+22.2%) - Corporation for National and Community Service
$0.7 billion (0.0%) - Small Business Administration
$0.6 billion (-14.3%) - General Services Administration
$19.8 billion (+3.7%) - Other Agencies
$105 billion - Other

SIX CATEGORIES OF SPENDING COMPRISE MORE THAN 75% OF THE U.S. FEDERAL BUDGET:

Social Security
Medicare
Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
Unemployment/Welfare/Other mandatory spending
Interest on National Debt
Department of Defense

SERIOUS DISCUSSIONS ABOUT REDUCING THE SIZE AND SCOPE OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SPENDING MUST ADDRESS THESE CATEGORIES.

2009 U.S. Federal Budget - by category of spending

Click on the image above to enlarge it.

The Budget of the United States Government provides a breakdown of federal government spending by category.

The President's budget for 2009 totals $3.1 trillion. Percentages in parentheses indicate percentage change compared to 2008. This budget request is broken down by the following expenditures:

Mandatory spending: $1.89 trillion (+6.2%)
$644 billion - Social Security
$408 billion - Medicare
$224 billion - Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
$360 billion - Unemployment/Welfare/Other mandatory spending
$260 billion - Interest on National Debt

Discretionary spending: $1.21 trillion (+4.9%)
$515.4 billion - United States Department of Defense
$145.2 billion(2008*) - Global War on Terror
$70.4 billion - United States Department of Health and Human Services
$45.4 billion - United States Department of Education
$44.8 billion - United States Department of Veterans Affairs
$38.5 billion - United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
$38.3 billion - State and Other International Programs
$37.6 billion - United States Department of Homeland Security
$25.0 billion - United States Department of Energy
$20.8 billion - United States Department of Agriculture
$20.3 billion - United States Department of Justice
$17.6 billion - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
$12.5 billion - United States Department of the Treasury
$11.5 billion - United States Department of Transportation
$10.6 billion - United States Department of the Interior
$10.5 billion - United States Department of Labor
$8.4 billion - Social Security Administration
$7.1 billion - United States Environmental Protection Agency
$6.9 billion - National Science Foundation
$6.3 billion - Judicial branch (United States federal courts)
$4.7 billion - Legislative branch (United States Congress)
$4.7 billion - United States Army Corps of Engineers
$0.4 billion - Executive Office of the President
$0.7 billion - Small Business Administration
$7.2 billion - Other agencies
$39.0 billion(2008*) - Other Off-budget Discretionary Spending

The financial cost of the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan are not part of the defense budget; they are appropriations.

SIX CATEGORIES OF SPENDING COMPRISE MORE THAN 75% OF THE U.S. FEDERAL BUDGET:

$644 billion - Social Security
$408 billion - Medicare
$224 billion - Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
$360 billion - Unemployment/Welfare/Other mandatory spending
$260 billion - Interest on National Debt
$515.4 billion - United States Department of Defense

SERIOUS DISCUSSIONS ABOUT REDUCING THE SIZE AND SCOPE OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SPENDING MUST ADDRESS THESE CATEGORIES.