Where are the Deficit hawks???? Both parties are at fault here! America is drowning in RED INK! We spend money like a drunken sailor! Does anybody care but me??????? I feel like I am to old fashion for this world…..I am so tight I squeak!!! I look at Washington D.C. and it seems to me it has turned into a loony bin. That seems to be a Will Rogers type comment!
It seems America is so tied up in hating each other and making claims against each other that the peoples business never gets done. It sure apparent to me that nobody in D.C. is watching the budget deficit.
Federal government spends $4.6M on crab and lobster tails in a month: Report
Fox News
The federal government loves shellfish apparently. Read the full story
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Am I the only who cares about this? I do not hear a sound public discussion going on about American drowning in red ink. Neither the Republicans or Democrats seem to care. All they do is fight each other and the country bleeds. We are leaving our kids a mess.
It used to be the Republican Party that would sound the “Budget Deficit Alarm” but that no longer is the case. Who is going to sound the alarm? Does anyone care? Is any Republican or Democrat fiscally responsible? Any good stewards out there?
Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 1 Corinthians 4:2
From the NY TIMES: The monthly numbers from the Congressional Budget Office also show an increase in spending on federal debt as rising interest rates drive up the cost of the government’s borrowing.
The widening deficit comes despite a booming economy and a low unemployment rate that would typically help fill the government’s coffers. U.S. Deficit Detail
From The Hill:
THE BIG DEAL–Trump releases budget calling for 5 percent cuts in domestic spending:
President Trump on Monday unveiled his 2020 budget proposal, calling for domestic spending cuts of 5 percent across the federal government.
The proposal would raise overall defense spending to $750 billion, up from $716 billion in 2019, while slashing nondefense programs to $567 billion, down from the $597 billion allocated in 2019. The Hill’s Niv Elis breaks down the numbers.
Battles over nondefense spending: The proposed nondefense spending level is aligned with the cap set in the Budget Control Act, a 2011 law that was meant to force Democrats and Republicans to compromise by setting draconian limits on both defense and nondefense spending.
The proposed cuts to nondefense spending target the departments of State, Agriculture, Education, Health and Human Services, Labor and Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
That’s why Democrats say the nondefense cut amounts to 9 percent, given that the legal cap will drop to $543 billion, with most of the difference accounted for by emergency disaster relief and wildfire suppression efforts that do not count toward budgetary ceilings approved under the Budget Control Act.
A lot more bricks (or slats) in the wall: Trump’s latest budget would allocate $8.6 billion to fund his proposed southern border wall, $7 billion more than the president requested in his last budget.
Trump only asked for $1.6 billion for wall funding in his 2019 budget, but boosted his demand to $5 billion and later $5.7 billion in December. Congressional Democrats refused to fork over the cash, Trump declined to sign a bill that didn’t meet his request, leading to the 35-day partial government shutdown.
“President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a statement.
“Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again,” they added. “We hope he learned his lesson.”
IRS funding boost: The proposal called a slight funding increase at the IRS, as the agency faces technology-related challenges and difficulties implementing the GOP’s 2017 tax-cut law.
The White House budget request for fiscal 2020 would boost funding at the IRS to $11.5 billion, up from the current level of $11.3 billion. The proposal allocated $290 million of the funds should go toward the agency’s multiyear efforts to modernize its information technology.
The IRS has long had technology-related struggles. Last year, it had a systems failure on the tax-filing deadline, involving a relatively new piece of software that resulted in the agency extending the filing deadline by one day. Naomi Jagoda explains here.
What comes next: White House budget proposals are little more than messaging documents that reflect the administration’s priorities. Congress controls the federal purse strings and lawmakers typically ignore the vast majority of what the president requests unless it already aligns with their own funding plans.
Republicans declined most of Trump’s proposed nondefense spending cuts when they controlled the House. The Democratic takeover of the lower chamber makes it even less likely that anything controversial in Trump’s budget proposal end up in a funding bill.
And to break it all down, our budget reporter Niv Elis has five takeaways from Trump’s budget.