pdham
Aug 25, 2009, 01:39 PM
The link is to a some charts depicting the 2010 budget according to the White House OMB. All of them are worthy of discussion, but the one below caught my attention.
Good news from that graph is that revenues are projected to jump, likely becasue Bush's tax cuts will expire, and the gap between outlays and revenues will close slightly. However, at around 2012 they seem to begin to grow at a relatively similar rate, meaning spending will continue to exceed revenues, just at a constant amount.
My interpretation of those projections is that we are failing to spend money on things that offer us a return on investment. I fully support government spending on social programs becasue I beleive that when administered properly they spur economic growth. It is actually pretty basic economics: when one can eat, pay rent, not go bankrupt due to medical bills etc., one can put their effort into being productive. Likewise, spending on education, infrastructure, technology, etc. also can contribute to economic growth and therefore can offer a return on investment equal to or greater than outlays.
The elephant in the room is defense spending. At 20 percent of outlays for 2010, one has to wonder what our return on investment is. Certainly some level of defense spending is necessary, but when does it become wasted money. Don't get me wrong, I know there are other areas that need cutting besides defense, but the conservative camp seems to preach that defenise spending is one of the only justified outlays. But, it seems to me that at least some (maybe much) of our defense spending offers us no return on investment.
sorry these aren't well constructed thoughts, just my quick ramblings.
Edit: Forgot the link http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/
Good news from that graph is that revenues are projected to jump, likely becasue Bush's tax cuts will expire, and the gap between outlays and revenues will close slightly. However, at around 2012 they seem to begin to grow at a relatively similar rate, meaning spending will continue to exceed revenues, just at a constant amount.
My interpretation of those projections is that we are failing to spend money on things that offer us a return on investment. I fully support government spending on social programs becasue I beleive that when administered properly they spur economic growth. It is actually pretty basic economics: when one can eat, pay rent, not go bankrupt due to medical bills etc., one can put their effort into being productive. Likewise, spending on education, infrastructure, technology, etc. also can contribute to economic growth and therefore can offer a return on investment equal to or greater than outlays.
The elephant in the room is defense spending. At 20 percent of outlays for 2010, one has to wonder what our return on investment is. Certainly some level of defense spending is necessary, but when does it become wasted money. Don't get me wrong, I know there are other areas that need cutting besides defense, but the conservative camp seems to preach that defenise spending is one of the only justified outlays. But, it seems to me that at least some (maybe much) of our defense spending offers us no return on investment.
sorry these aren't well constructed thoughts, just my quick ramblings.
Edit: Forgot the link http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/
