I need help understanding just the basics of the federal budget.  It’s not that I don’t understand how a budget works – and they all work basically the same.  There is a certain amount of money and you have to figure out how to spit it up to pay al the bills.  No matter how much money is involved, budgets work the same way.  That is, except for the federal government budget.

As far as I can tell, the way the federal budget should work – basically – is the same as any other budget, just with a lot more money and a lot more bills to pay. However, that’s not how it actually works.

Somehow or another, the federal budget can keep generating bills and paying out money for various projects, issues and efforts, regardless of whether the money is there or not.  There is a little deal called the federal deficit – kind of like an overdraft system from your bank – only with a few extra perks.

For instance, our bank accounts will only cover a certain amount of overdrafts.  Once we get to a point where they get a little nervous – maybe a few hundred to a thousand dollars – they stop our spending spree, knowing that there will be no more “bailouts” until we put the money back and bring our account current.

The way it works with the deficit, the federal government is able to decide to spend a few million or billion dollars here or there and basically say “just put it on my tab.”  So a billion or two or twenty to bail out banks or fight a small war or do whatever they think is needed is no big deal.  These expenses are just put into this deficit if the money is not readily available.

As a result, the United States has gone from billions of dollars in excess money a decade ago to being over three trillion dollars in debt today.  Because of this debt, the government is trying to hold down expenses and get the deficit or debt under control.  They are doing this by cutting various programs and tightening the belt on the American people whose taxes pay these lawmakers’ salaries. 

Healthcare reform – which will affect millions of people in a positive way – will cut benefits to millions who need help the most, those who are elderly, disabled, poor or all of the above.  Part of the reason this reform is necessary is due to skyrocketing healthcare costs.  Besides that, however, healthcare reform has become necessary because the federal budget is so upside down that this is one of the areas that the government is trying to save money. 

So, they are saying that they are not going to strip too many benefits from Medicare while at the same time seniors are saying that their premiums and co-pays are going up and their coverage is going down.  Who knows?  Call me crazy, but funding some projects such as rounding up 20,000 wild horses that are totally fine, healthy and happy in Nevada to move them to a “special” protected area which to this point is undisclosed seems to be spending a lot of money that doesn’t need to be spent.  Why not put the millions involved in the project into healthcare, the schools, or any other area that sorely needs it.

They fund wars like there is unlimited money.  Maybe they think that if they keep printing it, they can keep spending it.  Kind of like if we keep writing checks even if we don’t have money in the bank account.  The problem is that if we keep writing checks like that, we get fees on top of fees on top of fees, plus, we could go to jail for fraud depending upon the amount of the checks and how many we write, plus, whether or not we try to pay the money back.

On the other hand, when the government keeps spending money this way, they get to put it in the “deficit” account and keep spending.  In addition, they can fund wars – which may be a necessary at times; it’s a matter of opinion as to which ones are urgent and necessary – and they can fund healthcare for themselves that the rest of the country can’t get or afford.

In fact, our taxes pay for all of these things, but many of us can’t even get basic insurance, can’t get approved for Medicaid and to add insult to injury, can’t even afford a cup of Starbuck’s coffee.

So, I have decided that I am still not sure how they make the federal budget work, but I want my budget to be able to work that way or I want them to change the way their budget works so that we can get the same perks that they do.  Regardless, since our taxes pay for their perks, wars and “deficit”, I think that either our taxes should be lower, we should be able to choose their perks or we end up with our own “deficit” that is individually proportionate to what the national deficit is. 

That way, no matter what they do with the big the trillion dollar deficit, we have our own little place to fall back on for the perks we want or need.  Time will tell, but it’s doubtful that we are going to get out own “deficit” and perks.  I guess we will just have to keep trying to figure it out or just forget it – which are personal choices – and keep paying our choices or…you just decide for yourself.