Balanced Federal Budgets The federal government has a wide variety of responsibilities, most of which stem from programs that the government has created. Some of these outlays are discretionary, but many are not. The trade-offs for the federal government are usually not a question economics, but politics. The current federal budget for FY2016 shows a deficit of $474 billion. The largest outlays are for social security ($891 billion), other mandatory programs ($627), defense ($589), Medicare ($529) and non-defense discretionary, which covers a wide variety of different programs. Finding $474 billion to cut there -- or some of that money in conjunction with tax increases -- is inevitably going to be a challenge. Much of government spending in the budget is in the form of mandatory programs. Further, many of these are impossible, politically, to reduce. One does not simply cut Medicare payouts without losing a strong voting bloc, for example. The military is separated out from other discretionary items because it is only somewhat discretionary. The military is tied to the power and influence that the United States has in this world, and that power and influence is itself tied to economic opportunity, quality of life and other such issues. Thus, a reduction in military spending to some degree can be achieved, but there...
has in the world. This leaves non-defense discretionary spending at $563 billion for the 2016 fiscal year. To balance the budget would mean eliminating almost all this type of spending, so all agencies would be affected, and profoundly. The bare bones of federal government would be maintained only, with all other agencies -- be they the FDA, the Park Service, HHS or anything else -- would either cease to exist or would be gutted to the point of being non-functional in any way that we would recognize. The benefits of this are dubious at best - the pursuit of a balanced budget makes more sense by other means, like targeting major spending or revenue areas that have generally been spared.
" (Huang & Chen, 1) This characterization of using the budgetary process to play 'games' carries with it a negative connotation, which is driven by the inherently threatening implications of tying personal income to performance evaluation. That said, budgetary clarity is among the most important features to creating and implementing an effective plan of operation in any context. This is to argue that there is never an excuse for a failure
This is exactly the case with the European Union; a European-Union-Member-State that fails to pay on its public arrears will cause weakening of capital amidst its financers. The danger that this financial catastrophe will extend towards the remaining Euro-Area would position the ECB under immense stress to help and rescue the dissolute Member-State, despite the fact that this move may undermine Euro-Area value in the progression (Eichengreen and Wyplosz,
Origins, History of the IMF The International Monetary Fund was first conceived between July 1-22, 1944, at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The conference was attended by representatives of 45 nations, which were called together in order to plan and lay the groundwork for a cooperative economic framework to solve global financial crises before they occur. One key reason for the conference was to
Types of BudgetsExecutive SummaryThe budgetary process is a key part of any organization�s financial planning. This paper examines the impact of structural and procedural changes of public budgeting reforms, specifically by identifying the advantages and disadvantages of line item budgeting, program budgeting, and performance budgeting. It also looks at how politics and economics impact the budgetary process. Finally, it examines the impact of internal and external stakeholders, domestically and internationally,
A b) Consider the articles on behavioral economics at http://myweb.liu.edu/~uroy/eco54/histlist/behav-econ/index.html. Summarizethe main thrust of some of these articles. Based on these articles, what's your opinion of behavioral economics? Do you think behavioral economics represents a return to Veblen's ideas? In many respects it can be agreed that behavioral economics has much in common with Veblen's theories. Behavioral economists agree with Veblen that in most cases humans act illogically, because they are
Many organizations have sufficient control over their cost drivers, specifically those that work with activity-based costing; these companies can locate a sufficient amount of cost information within the company to accomplish these analyses in a timely fashion (Chatzkel, 2003). In reality, though, ABC systems are typically structurally complex and, in spite of the need for complete integration of such ABC systems, many such systems remain as stand-alone analysis tools
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now