On the first of the month President Obama released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2011. He calls for $3.8 trillion in spending, up $300 billion from fiscal year 2009 (the most recent year with complete data). To put the FY2011 budget in perspective, let’s breakdown FY2009 spending numbers (which equaled about $11,000 per citizen):
Note: all years below are referring to fiscal years
The average American worked 111 days to pay off their share of the federal government. This is one month longer than it took a decade ago.
The government is growing fast. Outlays (i.e. spending) increased 18 percent, or $535 billion, from the year before. Over the last four years outlays have grown 42 percent, or more than $1 trillion.
The government is growing faster than the U.S. population. Since 1960 the U.S. population has grown by 70 percent while federal spending has grown by over 500 percent.
Federal spending represents more and more of the economy. As a percentage of the nation’s economy, outlays grew from 20.7 percent in 2008 to 24.7 percent in 2009.
Total revenues cost each citizen $6,500 on average, or $2.1 trillion total. The public paid $915 billion in income taxes.
Taxes and debt burdened America’s families. According to the Tax Foundation, Americans worked five months (until May 29) to pay off the total burden of federal, state, and local taxes and the national debt.
Lastly, here’s the breakdown of how the money was doled out:
About 60 percent of the budget was spent on mandatory spending. Nearly $678 was spent on Social Security programs. $425 billion on Medicare. $251 billion on Medicaid. $607 billion on “Other” mandatory spending programs.
About five percent was spent on paying interest on the national debt. The Department of the Treasury spent $187 billion paying the national debt’s interest.
Departments spent a lot. The Defense Department spent $637 billion. The Agriculture Department spent $114 billion. The Transportation Department spent $73 billion. The Department of Housing and Urban Development spent $61 billion. The Education Department spent $53 billion. The Department of Homeland Security spent $52 billion.
i would like to see a P&L of the federal government. All we hear about is one side of the ledger. We have been outspending all of the other countries in the world on defense for some time and have built up the best military
force in the world. The bottom line though is that it seems to have produced more positive results for our enemy when one compares lives and money expended. It would appear that we need to modify our thinking so that we
can become more successful when engaging unsophisticated combatants. Just throwing more money at the problem
doesn’t insure that an improvement will follow.