Politics 101
11/29/14
Federal Budget?
The debate this week is on the federal budget. The federal government gets their money from taxing the people in the United States. This money is spent on the social security, military, education, sciences, transportation, Medicare, energy, housing etcetera. The 2015 federal spending has a budget of $3.72 trillion dollars. Mandatory spending makes up two-thirds the total budget and is largely made up of earned-benefit or entitlement programs, and the spending for those programs is determined by eligibility rules rather than the appropriations process. This is comprised of $2.56 trillion dollars. The largest mandatory program is Social Security, which comprises more than a third of mandatory spending and around 23 percent of the total federal budget. The last third is the presidents discretionary spending which is the portion of the budget that the president requests and Congress appropriates every year. This is comprised of $1.16 trillion dollars and goes mostly to the military and other organizations. The two actors in the debate on the federal budget consist of the Americans for Democratic Action and the Republican Party. The Americans for Democratic Action argue for more federal spending while the Republicans argue for less federal spending. The Americans for Democratic Action make over 40,000 phone calls and more than 12,000 door-to-door visits, Americans for Democratic Actions organize, volunteer and pay canvassers contributed that most basic and valuable element of a campaign: personal voter contact. The Americans for Democratic Action express their ideas to people showing support to candidates that support more liberal candidates. The Americans for Democratic Action argue for more discretionary spending. They feel like the government needs to spend more money on Medicare, infrastructure and social security. This could possibly help out the American public because they would have more