Public Agenda Issue Guide: Federal Budget

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You Can't Do It Alone: A New Guide to Creating Sustainable Change in Education Reform

Allison Rizzolo
Jan 24, 2012

Far too often, throughout our work in the education field, we've seen even the most earnest and promising ideas from experts and reformers for improving schools and ramping up student learning met with confusion, anxiety or even anger from teachers, parents, students or community members.

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Community Conversations: Working together to improve student success

Allison Rizzolo
Oct 20, 2011

The guest list for a community conversation in Coolidge, Arizona two weeks ago included small business owners, faculty and administration of colleges and universities, students, K-12 teachers and principals, representatives from local community-based organizations and even the chief of police. It was an impressively diverse group gathering to talk to about how to improve the success and completion rates of college and university students in their community.

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OVERVIEW

The Federal Budget

The federal budget isn't just about money, it's about values and priorities. The question of what services the government provides, and who pays for them, goes to the heart of our choices as a nation. Unfortunately, the federal government is facing long-term trends that could mean big problems for the government's finances.

The government ran a $1.3 trillion deficit in 2010, on top of a 2009 deficit of nearly $1.5 trillion. That's largely because of the global financial crisis and "Great Recession" of 2008-2009. But even after the recession goes away, the government faces huge financial challenges as the baby boom generation retires, health care costs rise, and the Social Security and Medicare systems start to feel the strain. In fact, if current trends continue, the national debt will be larger than our entire gross domestic product in about a decade.

All three of the government's budget agencies -- the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office and the White House Office of Management and Budget – use the same word to describe the federal budget: unsustainable. The good news is most economists and budget analysts argue that there is a wide range of practical solutions to the government's budget problems. But actually putting them into practice requires taking on a lot of hot-button political issues.

GET THE FACTS

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CONSIDER THE CHOICES

Ease the burden on taxpayers with a smaller government

Balance the budget to avoid long-term financial disaster

Address public problems too long deferred

The public knows how to spend its money better than the government does. Its the hard work and productivity of the average American that creates jobs, drives innovation, and builds wealth. By contrast, the federal government takes on far too much and mostly produces red tape. So its only right that average Americans keep as much of their wealth as possible. High taxes slow the economy and keep people from getting ahead, so the government should keep the necessary evil of taxes as low as possible. In the future, the federal government should be smaller, only taking on the tasks no one else in society is suited to do. In the meantime, we may run deficits occasionally, but a deficit is preferable to a tax increase particularly when the economy needs a boost.
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The federal budget is on a course for disaster and our first priority should be to turn it around. By allowing the government to run a deficit, we run the risk of harming the economy and burdening our children with the debts we were unwilling to pay. The federal government has to stop living beyond its means and giving out tax cuts like party favors. Unless we act now, senior entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare will end up both breaking the budget and failing to serve the elderly when the baby boomers retire en masse. The critical task is balancing the budget and reforming the entitlement programs. Anything less means failing in our obligations to both our children and the elderly.
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You get what you pay for and taxes are an investment we make as a society for the public services we need. What good is it to have a balanced budget or lower taxes if our schools are falling apart, our homeland security is poor, or sick people cant afford to get treatment? The question isn't what the government spends; its what you want the government to do. For decades the deficit has been an excuse to avoid pressing public needs, even though the deficit never seemed to cause any tangible harm. After all, the country prospered during this period. Besides, deficits have their uses, particularly when it comes to stimulating the economy. Its time to address some of these long-delayed problems in education, health care, counter-terrorism, child care and other areas. If the government needs more money, it should tax the wealthy and cut back on corporate tax breaks.
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