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Why is the Federal Budget so BIG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?
Riddle me this Batman? Why is the Federal Budget so immense in size and scope?
I had this question on mind for about a week now (much longer actually, but until last week I never really thought of how to quantify the question against anything that could really contrast it properly) so I started doing the hard core thinking thing. Sure it hurt at first, but I am a giver and I have to give, otherwise I feel physical pain.
I considered measuring it against foreign budgets like Japan, Britain, Germany, France, you know, the other "Industrialized Nations on the World" (that's in italics to sound swarmy, say it like Thurston Howell the Third and it makes sense) but they just don't have the land mass or population that we have. Then I thought about Canada, or China. Well China has way more people and Canada a lot less people, though usable land mass is close; still not a real good fit. I thought Russia, ah yes, our on again off again partner in world Domination, they might be worthy of comparison. But upon looking at them more closely it became clear that their economy isn't anything like ours so they were out.
Then this morning, while standing in the shower (G rated for the audience) it hit me, not what was in the shower with me, but a plan. Oh yes, I stumbled on the only thing that could really compare to the United States of America's budget; that of the United States themselves.
Our Federal Budget according to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Overview/ and titled oddly enough, "A New Era of Responsibility" is $3.55 trillion dollars. I think it is important that we look at this number as it is written out with all the punctuation and zeros to make it real: $3,550,000,000,000.00.
Damn that's a big number. And for that $3.55 trillion we get everything we now receive from National Defense to Welfare, Social Security to Highways, Clean Food and Water to Medicare and from Education to HUDD. Yes folks, this incredible amount of money covers it all except the $1.4 trillion that it didn't this year alone. So really our budget should have been $2.15 trillion dollars because that's all we actually had to spend. But we can debate that another day....
So $3.55 trillion dollars to run the most powerful country on Earth. Certainly, I thought, if you were combine the budgets of all 50 states it should be close to that same number right? I mean they are collectively running the entire country as well right? They do the day to day heavy lifting according to the Constitution.
So off I went to the computer to cuss as Goggle and I went head to head with some huge numbers searching for the best, most accurate information I could find on the individual state budgets from last year. After two hours I called in the troops. I had located exactly 3 of the 50 state budgets. They are all a maze of subtexts and reports and oh my God, I am not getting paid for this. So I contacted a friend who directed me to a site they had found while doing their own research on other subjects. You know my friend as PartysOver and the wonder website: http://cleanhouse2010.webs.com/ . I was directed to http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/24163.html which put all the links, or at least all but four, at my finger tips. I thought, "OK, the rest I can muddle through."
So I started configuring the budgets in a spread sheet making sure to mark which states run two year budgets. There are quite a few, but I threw their total two year numbers in "as is" to better make my point.
Below you should find my rudimentary list of each state:
Alabama $6,359,550,000.00
Alaska 4.400.000.000.00
Arizona $9,900,000,000.00
Arkansas 4,400,000,000.00*
California $90,000,000,000.00
Colorado $19,200,000,000.00
Connecticut $18,000,000,000.00
Delaware $3,400,000,000.00
Florida &...$66,500,000,000.00
Georgia $21,000,000,000.00
Hawaii $22,400,000,000.00
Idaho $2,770,000,000.00
Illinois$49,000,000,000.00
Indiana $13,300,000,000.00
Iowa $6,050,000,000.00
Kansas $10,000,000,000.00
Kentucky 19,000,000,000.00*
Louisiana $30,000,000,000.00
Maine 6,820,000,000.00*
Maryland $1,240,000,000.00
Massachusetts $33,000,000,000.00
Michigan $9,700,000,000.00
Minnesota 37,000,000,000.00*
Mississippi $5,000,000,000.00
Missouri 8,400.000.000.00
Montana 5,720,000,000.00*
Nebraska 7,600,000,000.00*
Nevada 17,200.000.000.00*
New Hampshire 13,300.000.000.00*
New Jersey $33,500,000,000.00
New Mexico $14,960,000,000.00
New York $121,000,000,000.00
North Carolina $7,200,000,000.00
North Dakota 2,750,000,000.00*
Ohio 116,000,000,000.00*
Oklahoma $7,100,000,000.00
Oregon 15,800,000,000.00*
Pennsylvania $28,300,000,000.00
Rhode Island $3,400,000,000.00
South Carolina $7,000,000,000.00
South Dakota $3,400,000,000.00
Tennessee $27,000,000,000.00
Texas 170,000,000,000.00*
Utah $10,800,000,000.00
Vermont $4,300,000,000.00
Virginia 73,000,000,000.00*
Washington 33,500,000,000.00*
West Virginia $3,902,000,000.00
Wisconsin 28,000,000,000.00*
Wyoming8,000,000,000.00*
Total all state budgets$688,681,550,000.00
I hope this come out when I publish it...
So you can see here all 50 states and their budgets. Those with (*) by them indicate a two year budget or biennial. I made sure each budget included all sources of revenue, state income taxes, corporate taxes, federal grants etc. as they applied (not all states have income taxes) and so far as I can tell I got them right. I might have missed marking a few biennials but we are including all budget numbers regardless of whether it was for one year or two because either way it makes my point.
Their combined budgets to run every facet of the business they attend to on our behalf is $688 billion dollars. That is a hefty sum to be sure.
Considering the two year numbers that are present it is probably closer to $590 billion for one year, but we can work with the $688 billion dollar number.
So if we divide the Federal Budget of $3.55 trillion by $688 billion we get... humm carry the one, add the square root of "pi" divided by the temperature on the moon... We get 5.15 approximately.
So the Federal Budget is 5.15 times greater than the total of all the state budgets combined?
Constitutionally they have to take care of Defense which according to who you read accounts for about half the Federal Budget and a few other really minor concerns that only they can do on our behalf. Where is the other half going really?
Here's the kicker... The states spend on average (based on a population of 305,000,000 people) $2255.74 on each and every one of us. While the Federal Government spends on average, for every man, woman and child in this country, legal or not, $11,617.06.
That's per year, give or take for the states based on the one to two year budgets, but dead on for the Federal Government.
WTF is going on here?
Really Batman... Why? On what? And to what end?
You can call foreign aid a big deal but it amounts to little in the big picture, I'm talking like 2% tops.
Come on... Someone give me a good reason why the states can run the entire country on under $700 billion per year but it takes Uncle Sam 5.15 times that to do their job.
Can anyone say massive mismanagement?!
But what would I know; I'm just an Average American.
I had this question on mind for about a week now (much longer actually, but until last week I never really thought of how to quantify the question against anything that could really contrast it properly) so I started doing the hard core thinking thing. Sure it hurt at first, but I am a giver and I have to give, otherwise I feel physical pain.
I considered measuring it against foreign budgets like Japan, Britain, Germany, France, you know, the other "Industrialized Nations on the World" (that's in italics to sound swarmy, say it like Thurston Howell the Third and it makes sense) but they just don't have the land mass or population that we have. Then I thought about Canada, or China. Well China has way more people and Canada a lot less people, though usable land mass is close; still not a real good fit. I thought Russia, ah yes, our on again off again partner in world Domination, they might be worthy of comparison. But upon looking at them more closely it became clear that their economy isn't anything like ours so they were out.
Then this morning, while standing in the shower (G rated for the audience) it hit me, not what was in the shower with me, but a plan. Oh yes, I stumbled on the only thing that could really compare to the United States of America's budget; that of the United States themselves.
Our Federal Budget according to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Overview/ and titled oddly enough, "A New Era of Responsibility" is $3.55 trillion dollars. I think it is important that we look at this number as it is written out with all the punctuation and zeros to make it real: $3,550,000,000,000.00.
Damn that's a big number. And for that $3.55 trillion we get everything we now receive from National Defense to Welfare, Social Security to Highways, Clean Food and Water to Medicare and from Education to HUDD. Yes folks, this incredible amount of money covers it all except the $1.4 trillion that it didn't this year alone. So really our budget should have been $2.15 trillion dollars because that's all we actually had to spend. But we can debate that another day....
So $3.55 trillion dollars to run the most powerful country on Earth. Certainly, I thought, if you were combine the budgets of all 50 states it should be close to that same number right? I mean they are collectively running the entire country as well right? They do the day to day heavy lifting according to the Constitution.
So off I went to the computer to cuss as Goggle and I went head to head with some huge numbers searching for the best, most accurate information I could find on the individual state budgets from last year. After two hours I called in the troops. I had located exactly 3 of the 50 state budgets. They are all a maze of subtexts and reports and oh my God, I am not getting paid for this. So I contacted a friend who directed me to a site they had found while doing their own research on other subjects. You know my friend as PartysOver and the wonder website: http://cleanhouse2010.webs.com/ . I was directed to http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/24163.html which put all the links, or at least all but four, at my finger tips. I thought, "OK, the rest I can muddle through."
So I started configuring the budgets in a spread sheet making sure to mark which states run two year budgets. There are quite a few, but I threw their total two year numbers in "as is" to better make my point.
Below you should find my rudimentary list of each state:
Alabama $6,359,550,000.00
Alaska 4.400.000.000.00
Arizona $9,900,000,000.00
Arkansas 4,400,000,000.00*
California $90,000,000,000.00
Colorado $19,200,000,000.00
Connecticut $18,000,000,000.00
Delaware $3,400,000,000.00
Florida &...$66,500,000,000.00
Georgia $21,000,000,000.00
Hawaii $22,400,000,000.00
Idaho $2,770,000,000.00
Illinois$49,000,000,000.00
Indiana $13,300,000,000.00
Iowa $6,050,000,000.00
Kansas $10,000,000,000.00
Kentucky 19,000,000,000.00*
Louisiana $30,000,000,000.00
Maine 6,820,000,000.00*
Maryland $1,240,000,000.00
Massachusetts $33,000,000,000.00
Michigan $9,700,000,000.00
Minnesota 37,000,000,000.00*
Mississippi $5,000,000,000.00
Missouri 8,400.000.000.00
Montana 5,720,000,000.00*
Nebraska 7,600,000,000.00*
Nevada 17,200.000.000.00*
New Hampshire 13,300.000.000.00*
New Jersey $33,500,000,000.00
New Mexico $14,960,000,000.00
New York $121,000,000,000.00
North Carolina $7,200,000,000.00
North Dakota 2,750,000,000.00*
Ohio 116,000,000,000.00*
Oklahoma $7,100,000,000.00
Oregon 15,800,000,000.00*
Pennsylvania $28,300,000,000.00
Rhode Island $3,400,000,000.00
South Carolina $7,000,000,000.00
South Dakota $3,400,000,000.00
Tennessee $27,000,000,000.00
Texas 170,000,000,000.00*
Utah $10,800,000,000.00
Vermont $4,300,000,000.00
Virginia 73,000,000,000.00*
Washington 33,500,000,000.00*
West Virginia $3,902,000,000.00
Wisconsin 28,000,000,000.00*
Wyoming8,000,000,000.00*
Total all state budgets$688,681,550,000.00
I hope this come out when I publish it...
So you can see here all 50 states and their budgets. Those with (*) by them indicate a two year budget or biennial. I made sure each budget included all sources of revenue, state income taxes, corporate taxes, federal grants etc. as they applied (not all states have income taxes) and so far as I can tell I got them right. I might have missed marking a few biennials but we are including all budget numbers regardless of whether it was for one year or two because either way it makes my point.
Their combined budgets to run every facet of the business they attend to on our behalf is $688 billion dollars. That is a hefty sum to be sure.
Considering the two year numbers that are present it is probably closer to $590 billion for one year, but we can work with the $688 billion dollar number.
So if we divide the Federal Budget of $3.55 trillion by $688 billion we get... humm carry the one, add the square root of "pi" divided by the temperature on the moon... We get 5.15 approximately.
So the Federal Budget is 5.15 times greater than the total of all the state budgets combined?
Constitutionally they have to take care of Defense which according to who you read accounts for about half the Federal Budget and a few other really minor concerns that only they can do on our behalf. Where is the other half going really?
Here's the kicker... The states spend on average (based on a population of 305,000,000 people) $2255.74 on each and every one of us. While the Federal Government spends on average, for every man, woman and child in this country, legal or not, $11,617.06.
That's per year, give or take for the states based on the one to two year budgets, but dead on for the Federal Government.
WTF is going on here?
Really Batman... Why? On what? And to what end?
You can call foreign aid a big deal but it amounts to little in the big picture, I'm talking like 2% tops.
Come on... Someone give me a good reason why the states can run the entire country on under $700 billion per year but it takes Uncle Sam 5.15 times that to do their job.
Can anyone say massive mismanagement?!
But what would I know; I'm just an Average American.
What an interesting exercise AA, one which I had not considered doing. As for explaining the disparity, it is the bitter fruit of a philosophy that deems the federal government the only solution to any problem, the only savior in any crisis. We primitives in fly-over country would surely perish if not for the benevolence of our leaders in DC managing an ever increasing amount of our lives. To the ascendant liberal Dimocrat-Progryssve the obligation to define and do what's "best" for us justifies creating a managed economy via onerous federal spending.
You can see this philosophy at work with the Porkulus spending. Roughly 10X as much money has been spent padding the government's DC payroll as has been passed along to other parts of the country. It is a latter day implementation of the Eldrige Cleaver grant money technique, first you spend your grant to set up an office with staff to administer the program then, you go back for yet more cash to run the program you claimed was needed to justify the grant in the first place. NObama having immersed himself in the writings of Cleaver and other radicals in the privacy of the bedroom provided by his grandparents practices this approach on a grand scale as our President.
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