Your Portion of the Federal Debt is $50,563
This week we looked at the budget process and the role of the president, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Congress and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in developing a Fiscal Year (FY) budget for the U.S. government. Along the way we discovered that a budget simply determines government activities for the coming year, specifies when they will take place and puts a price tag on them. We compared the annual budget deficit or surplus for the years 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2000 though 2012 and the increase in the Gross National Debt and the Annual Interest on that Debt over those years. The FY 2010 budget was examined and controllable outlays were defined and identified and contrasted with uncontrollable outlays which include the various government entitlement programs.
The homework assignment requires the student to review the actual U.S. Government Budget totals for FY 2012 that ended September 30, 2012. You should view the Joint Statement of Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury, and Jeffrey Zients, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, on Budget Results for Fiscal Year 2012 found under "Useful Links" and answer questions 1-5 of your homework assignment. Questions 6 & 7 are answered by reading the two articles found on the blog under "Useful Links" entitled: "What Would Leo XIII Say About the Social Security System" and "Fiddling While Social Security Burns".
Finally, we did discuss in class the potential impact of the "Fiscal Cliff", but what often gets lost in the discussion is that "Bush's tax cuts" and "Obama's spending binge" don't begin to address the real problem and that is our Constitution gives Congress ultimate taxing and spending authority and they are ultimately responsible for the mess we are in, not this President nor any President before him. See Professor Walter Williams article addressing this "Who May Tax and Spend?" on this blog under "Useful Links".
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