question: what % would 87 billion be of our total budget?

[tooncesj0nes]

I heard the Chimp tonight. I was wondering if any DUers could fill me in. Also, how does this 87 billion compare with other Federal expenses??

[Maple]

1. More importantly

it's in addition to what you've spent on Iraq and Afghanistan so far.

[jab105]

2. Would more than double education spending....

here's the budget data...we could do some damn good things with that money...

http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=1944&sequence=0

[Wwagsthedog]

3. Another question

What percentage of a cut in the tax cuts would $87 bil be?

[Nicholas_J]

4. Well the 2003 budget is 2.1 trillion

so

87,000,000,000/2,100,000,000,000 = 4.1438 percent...

An even more interesting figure is that we spend $12,000 per second on the military, but 6,000 a year per child on education.

[quam]

5. Do Not Think A Reminder Is Necessary...

the budget is an enormous deficit. So, you are asking what part of the pie is $87 billion? Tooncesj0nes, if you saw the pie you would only see darkness, we would all certainly be crushed by its weight.

[punpirate]

6. Of the part of the budget...

... into which such spending falls, almost 10%. Keep in mind that the budget is separated into two parts--discretionary and non-discreditionary. The latter is entitlements, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Federal retirements, etc. Discretionary is everything else--Defense spending and interest payment on the debt are the two largest items in that, now about $750 billion.

Of the two trillion or so in the budget, about $900 billion is discretionary, so it would be roughly 10% of that. It's clearly all deficit spending, since the budget is in the red by large amounts this year as it is.

Were there a demand to balance this item by other cuts in spending, not quite two-thirds of the remaining $150 billion on the discretionary side of the budget would have to be cut.

Cheers.

[tooncesj0nes]

7. thank you!!

thanks DUers for the great feedback on the budget-you all are the best!

[cliss]

8. So what this means, in terms

of everyday life, is that we are edging closer to the abyss. It means that our taxes have to go up astronomically to cover this, or that the government has to cut back drastically. And not too long in the future either. Plan on seeing huge changes by next fall.

This reminds me so much of the USSR before it collapsed. It was spending more and more on its military at the expense of social programs. In the end, it was gutted out from the inside and had to capitulate.

Reminds me a lot of the USA