One of the most important jobs every President of the United States has to do is come up with a budget proposal for every fiscal year. From education to the military and everything in between, it is the President’s job to allocate the money available as best as possible.
It is not an easy job as every department feels it could seriously use more money and it is rare for everyone to be pleased with the final proposal sent out by the Head of State.
President Barack Obama announced his budget for 2012 on Monday. It requires a total of $3.7 trillion for the year and would help roll back the national deficit by about $1.1 trillion over the course of the subsequent ten years.
The places Obama would find the resources needed to cut back the deficit would be by raising taxes and reducing spending in certain areas.
Obama’s proposal would also see all discretionary spending that is not for security purposes frozen for the next five years. This would save the United States a total of approximately $400 billion in the half-decade alone. However, nondiscretionary spending is only ten percent of the budget. Many are pushing for the government to focus more on the bigger portions of the budget.
One issue with the freeze on discretionary spending is that it would cause programs like the ones that provide heating for families in the lower income brackets to suffer.
In addition, the new proposal would increase funding for education. It would increase the investment in Pell Grants, which would in turn create more opportunities for students in the United States to capitalize on the program and get the financial aid. However, to provide the program with money, interest would begin to accrue on loans for students while they are still in school rather than after they graduate. Thus, more students would be able to get the loans, but it would cost more in the long run to pay them back.
A few programs Obama’s new proposal would not affect include Social Security and Medicare.
Obama’s plan would cut back the national deficit by $1.1 trillion, but it would not help the national debt much as the interest on the debt would accrue to an additional $7.2 trillion at the end of the ten years in 2021.
The reviews on the proposal are not exactly of ultimate approval, but after going over the ideas with Congress, Obama is sure to come up with the best possible budget for the United States.
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