We’ve all heard a lot about it these days. It really is doom and gloom as critics point out that the cuts just won’t go deep enough to avert an economic Apocalypse. Raise taxes some say. Cut spending others say. Don’t raise the debt ceiling, said a few angry and hardcore Tea Partiers.
But where is all the money going? What’s being spent and how much can really be cut? Is there a gravy train that requires Washington to dial up the “Brothers Ford” . Well, the New York Times, in their clever and innovative way, have sought to break it all down with this amazing interactive graphic.
Below I’ve clipped an image. Click on it and go to the Time’s site. There you’ll be able to interact with Obama’s 2011 budget. It’s pretty damn nifty. Couple initial observations:
1) They’re spending as much on National Defense ($738 billion) as they are on Social Security
2) Education (ie preparing the young for their bright futures – where they’ll continue to pay the elderly’s medicare, medicaid and social insurance bills) gets $122 billion – that’s like 16% of defense funding and that’s with a Democratic president.
3) They cut Space funding by 20%! What the hell – how are we ever going to accomplish George W Bush’s goal of getting to Mars now?
While the spending on “defense” is striking, one interesting point is that, even if they completely cut spending on the military, i.e., pulled out of everywhere, fired everyone and shut down the FBI, the federal budget would still be almost $3 trillion. Based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_United_States, it looks like total tax revenue in 2009 was just over $2 trillion, so the budget still wouldn’t be balanced. Completely eliminating the military AND doubling income tax looks like it would just about do it, but even that wouldn’t start to pay down the debt.
Shudder…. Wow, that sort of puts it in perspective doesn’t it? I guess this shows how decades of spending more than you earn can catch up with you. Story of many people’s lives.
You can’t compare profligate people with debtor countries; most people don’t have the services of a home-based mint.
; )