Spending US Federal Government Money

Those are your tax dollars, kids

WHERE TO START!?!?!?

Yesterday, we looked at unemployment, and the related factors that the fascist regime is using to destroy the economy. Today, we’re going to look at how the government spends YOUR money. Let’s start with where the money went in 2024. Note that “Health insurance” includes Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and ACA funding. This is the source for the chart, and it’s a good read because we need to understand what is being spent BEFORE we look at solutions. And by “we”, I mean the US Congress.

CBPP’s summary:

In fiscal year 2024, the federal government spent $6.9 trillion, amounting to 24 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to the June 2024 estimates of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). About nine-tenths of the total went toward federal programs; the remainder went toward interest payments on the federal debt. Of that $6.9 trillion, almost $4.9 trillion was financed by federal revenues. The remaining amount was financed by borrowing.

Elmo contends that he’s saving us a ton of our tax dollars by cutting programs and positions and doing other damage, but it’s not true. Source.

The overall process for spending our money is that the President comes up with a budget (which is huge, and no one ever reads all of it) and sends it to Congress so that they can come up with 12 Appropriations Bills that will spend the money over the next fiscal year. The fiscal year starts on 1 October, and so far, Congress hasn’t done its job for 2025 — we live in Continuing Resolution (CR) hell.

You’re now all caught up¹.

The current CR expires on 14 March 2025. That’s less than a month from now, in regular time, but only 11 House-in-session days. The Senate says they’ll be working, but it’s iffy.

So, what are they doing?

Both the House and Senate have come up with “plans” which show what the “topline” number is: how much they plan on spending. It also includes deficit spending, and takes aim at what they’ll cut so that deficit spending is decreased, or cut to zero². Finally, they look at revenue sources, and debt.

In normal times, each chamber has a plan, which is voted on, and then there a conference committee to iron out the differences³.

The House has a framework. Pages 3 - 34 have a lot of this:

And this…

Not joking, here’s the whole document.

It doesn’t mean they don’t have ideas. They do —> they want to extend the 2017 millionaire and billionaire tax cuts. Here’s what that means for you:

AND THERE’S MORE!

Look back at the chart at the top of the page - and you see a lot of money going to “Health care”. They want to cut a ton of that. In various ways, and some parts more than others, but remember, cruelty and suffering are features and not bugs. Take Medicaid, they want to cut it, because they hope poor people will just die. But lots of seniors have Medicaid in addition to Medicare: if you are, say, 90 and in a care home, and your personal monies run out, it’s Medicaid that picks up the tab since Medicare has no provision for long term care. Those people would likely just be pushed out into the street in their wheelchairs⁴.

Here is one of many articles detailing the horror show proposed. Do a web search and you’ll find lots of information about cutting the social net, and increasing border security and the rest of the Orange Menace’s dreams. The deportations are causing him angst.

I could go on for literally pages about the problems the House will face in getting their blueprint passed (with numbers), but it doesn’t matter - in both the House and Senate they will need Democratic votes, and that’s where YOU come in.

You’ll notice I didn’t mention the debt ceiling. We’ve talked about that before, and there’s a question about whether it will get rolled into the current bills.

Action Item

First, look at the voting record for 2025 for both your Congressman/woman and your Senators, if they are Democrats. For this action item, we don’t care about the other side.

Determine if your Democrat Rep/Senator has voted in favour of ANY Rethuglican bill. Note the bill number, bill name, and vote date.

• House votes are here.

• Senate votes are here.

Then go to the “Contact Me”⁵ page for each person.

• House members are here.

• Senators are here.

Then compose a letter to each person and say the following. (Feel free to personalize, and you should if you can cite something specific that will impact you.)

I am your constituent, and I voted for you in (list the year(s)). I voted for you because I believed we shared the same values, and that you would work on my behalf.

You voted against my interests when you vote for Bill #___________, <title>, on <date>. But I’m willing to overlook that error in judgement.

I want you to vote against any and all of the appropriations and budgets bills that the Republicans put forth. From everything I’ve read, their aim is to deficit-fund millionaires and billionaires at the expense of regular people, like my family and me. They want to eviscerate the social safety net, and instead deficit spend on the border, and likely wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

No matter what you think about anything Democrats can negotiate, there is no guarantee that the administration will follow the law. There is NO up side to voting with MAGA-world.

I understand that without Democratic votes, it’s highly unlikely that the other side will be able to pass either the Appropriations bills or another CR. I know you don’t want to be “blamed” for a government shut down, because you think it will hurt you in your next election. THEY OWN IT - it’s up to them.

PLEASE VOTE NO!!!

I know the majority of you won’t do this. It’s work to find out how your Rep and Senators voted. It’s work to compose actual letters under “Contact Me”. It’s not easy. But this is what standing up is all about - doing things that are difficult, but worthwhile. For every person who does NOT write, that’s another voice silenced, another opportunity for any elected person to feel that his/her constituency doesn’t care enough to push them to vote NO.

Perhaps I’m screaming into the wilderness. But I have to try. My letters have been sent.

1. I really hope you’ll read the CBPP piece, so you understand where money goes. BE A TRUSTED SOURCE!!! Scroll down to the second section of the “Trusted Source” link.

2. They never cut to zero.

3. Theoretically, the House is supposed to do the bills and send them to the Senate, but Rethuglican Houses just plain can’t.

4. It happens illegally now, but will become legal if Medicaid doesn’t pay.

5. We’re going to use the “Contact Me” page because there will be a written record, and a response. They are SUPPOSED to keep track of all emails, faxes, postcards and calls - but this is the one system where they HAVE to, and they have to respond.