National Budget Simulation

[OneBlueSky]

since we're all so smart, here's a chance for us to prove it . . . see if you can balance the federal budget . . .

Welcome to the National Budget Simulation!

http://www.budgetsim.org/nbs/

This simple simulation should give you a better feel of the trade-offs which policy makers need to make in creating federal budgets and dealing with deficits. The National Budget Simulation, originally a project of UC-Berkeley's Center for Community Economic Research, is now hosted at NathanNewman.org. It was created by Nathan Newman and Anders Schneiderman.

This simulation asks you to adjust spending and tax expenditures in the the 2004 budget proposed by the White House in order to achieve either a balanced budget or any other target deficit. In order to make the choices we face in the budget clearer, we assume that you make the adjustments all in one year. According to the White House, the 2004 fiscal deficit is projected to be $307 billion. This does not include the costs of the Iraq War, so it has been increased by a base estimate of $50 billion for those costs in this simulation (which can be increased, lowered or eliminated depending on peoples views of the costs or likelihood of the war.).

The Simulation also allows you to adjust the costs of the 2001 and proposed 2003 tax cuts, either cutting or cancelling them to raise revenue, or increasing them to create larger tax cuts. It also allows you to increase or decrease tax expenditures, also known as tax deductions, credits or "loopholes."

- more . . .

http://www.budgetsim.org/nbs/

[strategery blunder]

1. Hey, I got a $3 billion surplus!

You have cut the deficit by $360.13 billion.
Your new deficit is $-3.12 billion.
Spending ($2208.66 billion: cut $84.14 billion)

$319.34 billion .... Military Spending
Cut $79.83 bil. from base of $399.181 bil.(-20%)

$40 billion ........ Iraq War
Cut $9.99 bil. from base of $50.0 bil.(-20%)

$98.43 billion ..... Veterans and Military Retirement (No Change)

$23.79 billion ..... International affairs (No Change)

$21.15 billion ..... General science, space, and technology
Cut $2.34 bil. from base of $23.500 bil.(-10%)

$0.71 billion ...... Non-Defense Energy Spending
Cut $0.17 bil. from base of $.887 bil.(-20%)

$33.44 billion ..... Natural resources and environment
Increased $3.04 bil. from base of $30.400 bil.( 10%)

$14.8 billion ...... Agriculture
Cut $6.33 bil. from base of $21.139 bil.(-30%)

$51.06 billion ..... Transportation
Cut $12.76 bil. from base of $63.828 bil.(-20%)

$14.98 billion ..... Community and regional development
Increased $1.36 bil. from base of $13.616 bil.( 10%)

$94.6 billion ...... Education, training, employment, and social services
Increased $8.6 bil. from base of $86.002 bil.( 10%)

$247.28 billion .... Non-Medicare Health Spending (No Change)

$258.64 billion .... Medicare (No Change)

$103.52 billion .... Non-SS Retirement & Unemployment Compensation (No Change)

$200.75 billion .... Social Welfare Spending
Increased $18.25 bil. from base of $182.500 bil.( 10%)

$498.84 billion .... Social security (No Change)

$38.76 billion ..... Administration of justice (No Change)

$18.17 billion ..... General government administration
Cut $2.01 bil. from base of $20.190 bil.(-10%)

$176.4 billion ..... Net interest (No Change)

$-53.66 billion .... Undistributed offsetting receipts (No Change)

$7.66 billion ...... Commerce Promotion
Cut $1.9 bil. from base of $9.575 bil.(-20%)

Old budget was $3274.734 billion
($2292.807 billion in spending, $981.927 billion in tax expenditures and cuts).
New budget is $2914.6 billion
($2208.66 billion in spending, $705.94 billion in tax expenditures and cuts).



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tax Expenditures ($705.94 billion: cut $275.98 billion)

$0 billion ......... 2001 Tax Cut
Cut $102.99 bil. from base of $103 bil.(-100%)

$0 billion ......... 2003 Tax Cut
Cut $109.99 bil. from base of $110 bil.(-100%)

$0 billion ......... Corporate Tax Breaks
Cut $68.88 bil. from base of $68.89 bil.(-100%)

$122.95 billion .... Personal Business & Investment Benefits
Cut $13.65 bil. from base of $136.61 bil.(-10%)

$155.7 billion ..... Pension & Retirement Deductions (No Change)

$120.16 billion .... Employer-paid Health Insurance (No Change)

$215.11 billion .... Itemized Deductions
Increased $19.56 bil. from base of $195.55 bil.( 10%)

$92.02 billion ..... Other personal tax expenditures (No Change)

[Old and In the Way]

2. I posted this here awile back...pretty cool.

It's too bad that we can't "vote" on budget priorities. Probably too complex for most people to get, but we could break out things like:

military
education
debt
transportation
welfare
environment
infrastructure

Let Congress allocate the $ within these groups, based on an averaged result.

If not "officially", certainly as a non-binding referrendum for our Legislators to interpolate the voter's priorities. Might be a good thing to do every 4 years when we vote for national office.