Talk:2010 United States federal budget

Link

The link that purports to be an analysis of the 2010 Federal Budget is not an analysis of the 2010 federal budget. It is titled "The Economic Crisis and the Fiscal Crisis: 2009 and Beyond" and it focuses more on the economic landscape and the federal 'bailout' bills, rather than Obama's budget proposal for 2010.

2009 vs 2010: Budget article discrepancies

Comparing this 2010 United States federal budge page to the 2009 page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_United_States_federal_budget, is confusing. For example, the 2010 article says: "Estimated receipts for fiscal year 2010 are $2.381 trillion, an increase of 8.9%.", whereas the 2009 article says: "Estimated receipts for fiscal year 2009 are 2.7 trillion". In other words, the 2010 receipts don't *appear* to really be an increase of 8.9% over 2009. Or is it an increase in forecasts? If so, that could be more clear. Additionally, the 2010 article states that mandatory spending at $2.184 trillion was a decrease of 17.9%, even though the 2009 article says that mandatory spending was only $1.89 trillion for fiscal 2009. Anyone care to reconcile or explain these discrepancies? -Torrents, 26Mar09

Not POV? Perhaps we should have some crunched numbers from the Republican side of things, this seems to be straight from the Obama website. -Galactic Imperial 23-4-09 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.209.233.222 (talk) 05:40, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

A recent addition has the debt rising to 100% of GDP. In the EU, 70% is the maximum allowable. The annual deficit is, well, large. In the EU, 3% of GDP is allowable. There should be something about this, I suppose. But contrasting could be considered pov if not handled properly. Student7 (talk) 11:26, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Another discrepancy between the 2009 and 2010 budget pages is the budget for the DOD. In 2009 the DOD was listed separately from the budget for the "Global War on Terror" (which is called "Overseas Contingency Operations", apparently, in 2010). This fact is not entirely clear, despite the note after the DOD budget line - due mostly to the change in name. The 12.7% increase in budget is incredibly misleading. If you take the DOD budget for 2009 and add to it the GWOT budget, the increase is only .4%. Additionally, I can't find any numbers that lead to the quoted 12.7% increase; taking the DOD budget from the 2009 page yields a 28.7% increase.

I would suggest putting an asterisk after the budget number leading to a note that says something to the effect of: "The 2010 DOD budget includes 'Oversea Contingency Operations' while the 2009 budget does not. The 2010 DOD budget excluding Overseas Contingency Operations is $533.7 Billion, a +3.5% change". Thoughts? Prnd3825 (talk) 02:14, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

Some considerations

So far, this article seems to have escaped controversy. I will try to keep it that way! But there are some things that might be mentioned. As do all White Houses (for political reasons I don't quite grasp), the projected income is so exaggerated that no one, not even the White House, can support these figures with a straight face. For example, income (taxes) for this year is based on a GDP increase although we are in the middle of a recession. Therefore the actual deficits will be much much higher than those expressed here.

This year's budget deficit ($1.8 billion) will be four times last years. Projected budgets have the government borrowing one half of the money for this year. "Only" one-third for next year. Assuming robust economies (raising the question - if the economy is so robust, why are we borrowing at all?).

No room here for this comment, but Defense spending is due to drop to a lower percentage of GDP by 2016, than before WWII. Student7 (talk) 21:55, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Also, should they be "estimated receipts" or "forecast receipts"? After all, this is still 2009... TastyCakes (talk) 22:33, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

[New comment] Much is being written about the power and effectiveness of public employee unions. At all levels of government, compensation including salaries, benefits, and pensions are at all-time highs and often exceed comparable jobs in the private sector. Example, 17% of Federal employees now make over $100K/yr.

I am not sure this is being written in the right place, but the Wikipedia article on the US budget seems to analyze the budget only by Federal department. (This much for DOD, this much for DOE, etc.) Could the article also show the planned expenditures by what we're buying? Say, entitled payouts to citizens, vs. compensation to government employees? Military hardware and road construction?

Muellerd (talk) 16:51, 7 February 2010 (UTC)D.W. Mueller

Hmm well if I understand you correctly, I don't see any problem with the second part, you're basically asking for more detail on the budget break down, is that right? As for the first bit, I'm not sure this would be the right article for it... Perhaps a new article like US Federal employees could be created? TastyCakes (talk) 18:16, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Half the budget borrowed

I'm pretty sure that half the current budget is being borrowed. And half the states take is from the fed. Since it is being dispensed in handfuls to the states (remember Medicade, School subsidies, roads, and the other stuff the states get from the fed but manage), I believe the story that the states are getting half of their money from the feds. This shouldn't really be that much of a surprise. The funding was really quite high already. All it took was an exceptional push this year to put it over 50%. I agree that George Will may not be the unbiased observer to quote from. But then, who is? Student7 (talk) 00:57, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

105 Billion Other

Where is that additional 105 billion other discretionary spending coming from? I can't find it in the budget proposal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.21.171.30 (talk) 11:27, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

There were some categories gained and some lost. I am thinking that some of them were included in the "Other" category in other years. I wish it weren't so hard to go through and find the numbers myself in the actual budget, but it's a bit overwhelming. Siskind, Rica (talk) 18:55, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

900 Billion - Universal Healthcare

At what point to we add this item? After a bill is signed into law? http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-healthcare_10nat.ART.State.Edition2.4bcc128.html --Robapalooza (talk) 14:47, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Pie chart

I suggest replacing the large pie chart (representing spending by category) with something else. At the moment it is incredibly hard to get any useful information from the chart. There are too many slices and the colors look very much alike. What about marking each slice with a number and connect that number to the list. 1(on the pie chart) = 1 (on the list). 1. social security = 1. 19.63% 2. department of defence = 18.74%

etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.90.255.33 (talk) 02:17, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Speaking as someone who tried to get info from the chart, I agree completely. This chart is unusable. Numbers would be better, or labels.Pdronsard (talk) 03:09, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

Dashes and minus signs

I found this:

• • $663.7 billion (+12.7%) - Department of Defense (including Overseas Contingency Operations)
  • $78.7 billion (-1.7%) - Department of Health and Human Services

I changed it to this:

• • $663.7 billion (+12.7%) – Department of Defense (including Overseas Contingency Operations)
  • $78.7 billion (−1.7%) – Department of Health and Human Services

I'd expect the fact that en-dashes should be used, rather than hyphens to be widely known by now. And to use hyphens instead of minus signs is to be as bad as print journalists. Michael Hardy (talk) 17:57, 31 January 2010 (UTC)