Uncommon Thought Journal: Comparing the 1999 Budget to the 2006 Budget

February 08, 2005

Comparing the 1999 Budget to the 2006 Budget

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It is interesting to compare the 1999 Budget to the 2006 Budget. As you might recall, the US was running a budget surplus going into the first Bush administration so I thought it might be interesting to see what had changed. The projected surplus for 2006 under the Clinton 1999 budget was $164 billion, which went up to $216 in 2007 and $258 billion in 2008. Under the Bush 2006 Budget, the estimated deficit (excluding funding for the "war" and certain other items) is $390 billion. Another deficit of $312 billion is added for 2007 and $251 billion in 2008.

It is instructive to look at the FY 2006 Budget Total Tables from the Office of Management and Budget, and the figures below for the 2006 Budget are taken from that document. The 1999 figures come from the 1999 Budget.

Item	1999 Budget	2006 Budget
Defense Funding	$271.6 (306.9)	$419 (increases to $492 in 2010)a
Homeland Security (New office)	not applicable	$32 (increases to $39 in 2010)a
Non-Defense portion of the Discretionary Budget	$290.7 (328.5)	$497
Total Discretionary Expense	$570.6 (644.8)	$895 (increased to $971 in 2010)a
Total Revenues	$1,742.7 (1942.7)	$2,178

Notes: Dollars are in Billions; Numbers in parentheses are year 2004 equivalents - $1 in 1999 - $1.13 in 2004; a - from Table S-10

Homeland Security is one of the so-called "cross cutting" areas. Effectively, this means they have their hands in a lot of pots (agriculture, commerce, defense, education, energy, health & human services, HUD, DoI, DoJ, DoL, State, Transportation, Treasury, ... Smithonian, Holocaust Museum - see page 50 of the online budget). Anyway, when you add in all the funding for their "cross cutting," their budget jumps from $32 billion to $49,942.9 Billion.

Individual income tax accounted for 46% of revenues in the 199 budget, and corporate income taxes were 11%. Under the Bush 2006 budget, individual income tax has droped to 44% and corporate income tax to 10%.

Now I know that we now have three wars going on - the war on terrorism, the war in Afghanistan, and the war in Iraq. However, neither Afghanistan or Iraq are included in the budget. THe expenses for those are being submitted separate from the usual budget process. The new Department of Homeland Security is roughly $50 billion of the increase. Much of the remainder is an increase for the Department of Defense - $147.4 billion (plus an addtional $9 billion for Homeland issues). However, the size of the military has not expanded dramatically. Bases are still being closed. The cost of the wars is not in the budget. So where is all that additional money going? Oh yeah, Star Wars and the development of the next generation of nuclear bombs (and other more secret activities).

p.s. Also not included in the Bush budget is the permantizing his tax cuts. That is expected to further reduce revenue by $1.4 trillion over ten years.

Posted by rowan at February 8, 2005 02:41 PM | TrackBack | Printable Version | [eMail this article!] |

Comments

To give some tangibles, here's a list of educational programs being cut from the budget for FY 2006: http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget06/summary/edlite-section3.html

Posted by: Emily at February 8, 2005 11:02 PM

Emily,

Thank you for the excellent run-down of the specific programs being impacted--many of which were already impacted by deep cuts from W2's last budget.

Frankly, the trend is that, unless you are moneyed, or have access to money, you won't be able to afford an education. This from the "No Child Left Behind" President, the guy with the vapid smile, surrounded by children, holding a book upside down. That the small majority of this country finds it more important to invade a small middle-eastern country than provide educational benefits, health care, retirement benefits (SS), and revamping of our roads and infrastructures is incomprehensible to me.

This proposed budget makes me sick to my stomach. It WILL impact many of us here at UTJ as we seek to find the means by which to complete our educations, even as tuition costs increase with each term.

Posted by: Pamela at February 9, 2005 11:19 AM

In my view that is the point,without education, social security and other safety nets we are all subject to being "good little worker bees" economic oppression....keeps you in line and shut up !

Posted by: bill hooked at February 9, 2005 01:42 PM