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A People's Guide to the Federal Budget, by Mattea Kramer, National Priorities Project
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A comprehensive resource on what every American should know about how our government raises and spends our tax dollars
From history of the budget process to detail about the ongoing conflict in Washington, from charts explaining where every federal dollar goes to simple explanations of budget terminology, this book covers it all.
A People’s Guide to the Federal Budget is for every American who wants to understand and participate in a process that affects all of us. It serves as a foundation for the novice reader, a reference tool for a more advanced audience, and is perfect for high school and college classroom use. Released to coincide with the fiscal year 2013 budget process and the 2012 presidential election, this guide includes up-to-the-minute numbers and explanation of President Obama's 2013 budget request.
Ideally, the federal budget is a reflection of our values and our vision for the role of our government. The $3.7 trillion the government is planning to spend this year is mostly our money. We contribute about 60 percent of the government’s total revenues each year (not including borrowing) through individual income taxes and payroll deductions for such things as Social Security and Medicare. This means we are all stakeholders in the government’s decisions about how this money will be spent.
Understanding the federal budget is essential. Our elected representatives in Washington make choices that impact not just us, but our children, and our children’s children. We need to be in this debate, and be in it for the long haul, if we are to build the kind of government, and the kind of nation, that truly reflects our values.
- Sales Rank: #254078 in eBooks
- Published on: 2012-08-17
- Released on: 2012-08-17
- Format: Kindle eBook
From School Library Journal
At the risk of inundating readers with sheer numbers, pie charts, and assorted graphics, A People's Guide takes a singularly dry topic and admirably makes it accessible to the masses. A solid review of "Where Does the Money Come From?" and "Where Does the Money Go?" lays the groundwork for an analysis of the Federal Debt and Obama's 2013 Budget Request. The specific aim for this text is to help readers understand Obama's 2013 proposed budget, a call to action if you will, with an aim to nonpartisan presentation. The text is carefully laid out in a highly digestible and sequential format. It includes simple, layperson's concepts such as our Social Security wage tax holiday, down to 4.2 percent until the end of 2012, upon which the elucidation of more complex tax topics can be built. A more complex graphic is a bar graph with a 70-year review of "Revenues, Outlays, Deficits and Surpluses" - and current deficits versus outlays aren't looking good! In the "Take Action" chapter, a proactive chart provides a month-by-month layout of "Opportunities to Take Action" leading up to October 1, the new fiscal year. Readers would be well served by having a solid grasp of basic government fiscal machinations prior to reading this guide. With clearly presented concepts, consistently referring back to prior explanatory text, there is a wealth of data packed into every page. Grades 10 and up. -Meredith Toumayan, Topsfield Town Library, MA
Review
"This year the president, the entire House of Representatives, and one-third of the Senate are up for re-election.... The officials we elect in November will have the opportunity to reshape our country for years to come. If we're to have any hope of navigating the federal budget process and understanding the complex decisions our elected officials will make in future years, we need this book. A People's Guide to the Federal Budget is our way in."
-from the foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich, best-selling author of Nickel and Dimed
"Many Americans express dissatisfaction or worse over what's happening in Washington today... they can't understand much of what's going on, especially when it comes to where our tax dollars go. This book is a bridge for Americans from dissatisfaction and confusion to knowledge and action.... Congresswoman Barbara Jordan said: 'If you're going to play the game properly you'd better know every rule.' That's what makes A People's Guide essential. We've got to understand what's going on in Washington so that we can work together and change the rules, so that our elections are not auctions.... All Americans who hope to make their voices heard in Washington must understand that we must take on the issue of money in politics, and play to win."
-from the afterword by Josh Silver, CEO of United Republic
"Nothing will change in Washington unless the American people demand it. A People's Guide to the Federal Budget empowers Americans by explaining the inside-Washington game and offering tools to hold lawmakers accountable."
-Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration and best-selling author of Aftershock and The Work of Nations
“Given the fateful budget choices we now face as a country, A People's Guide to the Federal Budget crucially helps all citizens understand the process by which those choices will be made and how we can all engage to ensure the best possible outcome.”
-Anthony W. Marx, President, New York Public Library
"Young adults are underrepresented at the polls. That would begin to change if high school curricula provided a strong grounding in the federal budget-- so that young people have the tools to base their judgments on evidence. A People's Guide to the Federal Budget is an invaluable resource."
- Dr. Anand Marri, Teachers College, Columbia University
"Kramer (senior research analyst, National Priorities Project) here provides an understandable explanation of federal spending and revenues. The text explains why readers should care about the federal budget and how it affects them…. This book is worthwhile reading for all U.S. citizens."
-Library Journal
“This guide seeks to inform general readers and high school and college students about the federal budget to make them more active citizens. It explains the budget's terminology and language, its history, its decision makers, where the money comes from and how it is allocated, the federal debt, and how to take action.”
-Book News
“This primer on the complicated federal budget process is offered in readily understandable language for all readers…. The book clearly addresses such issues as discretionary spending … and the federal debt. In the foreword, Ehrenreich reflects on the challenges people face in trying to make ends meet.... This is a valuable resource.”
-Booklist
From the Back Cover
From history of the budget process to detail about the ongoing conflict in Washington, from charts explaining where every federal dollar goes to simple explanations of budget terminology, this book covers it all. A People’s Guide to the Federal Budget is for every American who wants to understand and participate in a process that affects all of us. It serves as a foundation for the novice reader, a reference tool for a more advanced audience, and is perfect for high school and college classroom use. Released to coincide with the fiscal year 2013 budget process and the 2012 presidential election, this guide includes up-to-the-minute numbers and explanation of President Obama’s 2013 budget request.
Most helpful customer reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
MUST READ!
By The Stray
If anyone had started talking with me about the federal budget before I read this book, I probably would have rolled my eyes and groaned before quickly changing the subject.
Luckily for me and anyone else who has had a similar reaction, A People's Guide to the Federal Budget is a breath of fresh air in today's cloudy political climate. No matter which side of the political fence you are on, reading this book will be illuminating. No partisan rhetoric, no arguing about who's right or wrong - just the hard facts.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand what political candidates are ACTUALLY saying when they talk about taxes, spending cuts, and deficits during the election season.
Despite the huge amount of budget information presented in the book, I could make sense of all the revenue and spending charts. The other graphics and political cartoons were helpful in making the content seem less daunting - and even funny!
I closed the book feeling like I had the information I need to make my own decisions about what politicians are saying - and why I should care. If YOU care about our democracy and what the federal government does with your money, you should read this book, too.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Librarian -- 4 stars!
By Lori
I wanted to review this book from a very personal vantage point: I've been a public librarian for nearly two decades.
"A People's Guide to the Federal Budget" is a very useful new resource from National Priorities Project that has relevance and appeal to a wide audience. This book will save hours of research for anyone looking to understand how the federal government raises and spends money, and how our legislators make those decisions. With a glossary of terms, a summary of key points at the end of each chapter, clear diagrams and charts, and a comprehensive bibliography, this book is a cleanly-presented and well-researched reference about the federal budget.
To my knowledge, there is no other book like "A People's Guide to the Federal Budget" that has the goal of "helping folks like you across the country...understand the steps of the federal budget process and identify the impact of federal spending and tax policies on your own family and community." The National Priorities Project team clearly had the average American in mind when they wrote this book, shown by the lack of jargon and the inclusion of graphics and cartoons to illustrate complex concepts.
I was especially interested in the Appendix for Educators, which provides sample discussion questions and activities for high school classrooms. Some of the materials are great for adults, too - I plan to use them as a starting point for book group discussions at my library.
The one downside of the book is that it grounds part of its analysis in President Obama's 2013 Budget proposal. While this is great for readers between now and the election, it makes that portion of the book quickly outdated. Certainly, the concepts will apply to future budget proposals and the numbers will remain relevant even once the 2013 budget is passed; however, people picking up this book more than six months from now should know that the numbers are not current.
Overall, "A People's Guide to the Federal Budget" is a tremendous resource for anyone curious to learn more about the inner workings of the federal budget and how it affects our everyday lives.
29 of 33 people found the following review helpful.
When Will We Be Given The Truth?
By George Fulmore
The full title of this book is "A People's Guide to The Federal Budget." This title would lead one to believe that the book's content would include a straight-forward explanation of our federal budget, plus a clear explanation of how we get significant deficits each year and have continually increased our total federal debt over the past 10 years. But this is exactly what this book does not do.
First off, the book perpetuates the lies of the George W. Bush administration about the deficits in the 2002 through 2008 fiscal year period, when Social Security surpluses were "borrowed" to pay down the deficit, and, most inexcusably, when the costs of the two wars were NOT included in the reported annual deficits.
What a farce. Why does this lie need to continue? And why does the Office of Budget and Management and the White House not correct these figures, historically? That is part of the problem. In the book, for example, Figure 7.1 is a graph that shows the purported annual deficits in the years 1940 through 2010. It says the source of the data is the IRS. But for the fiscal years of 2002 through 2008 the graph lies. It shows the "reported" deficits from the Bush administration, not the true ones.
In fact, the annual deficits during the fiscal years 2002 through 2008 averaged more than $600 billion per year, not as little as $160 billion per year, as is shown on the graph. And - as an item almost never reported -- the 2007/2008 fiscal year under the George W. Bush administration was the first fiscal year in our country's history with more than a $1 trillion deficit in just one year. That is how the Bush administration gave us an increase in nearly $5 trillion in just eight years. That is what this book should have told us! (For proof of all this, go to [...] There, enter the date 10/01/07 as the starting date and 10/01/08 as the ending date. Subtract the starting value from the ending value for the true annual deficit for the 2007/2008 fiscal year. You should get the value $1.062 trillion.)
A second major point that needs to be known is that the entitlements of Social Security and Medicare have revenue offsets; thus, it is ridiculous to say or imply, as this book does, that the entitlements are the main costs of the federal government. This is untrue and ridiculous. In fact, the NET cost of Social Security, annually, to the federal government is essentially nil: The annual cost is offset by the revenue from the payroll tax, plus the interest due on the Social Security Trust Fund of nearly $2.7 trillion. For Medicare, the NET cost is in the $350 billion range, annually. This is NOT a significant amount in a federal spending budget of $3.73 trillion!
This misinformation is represented in the pie chart, figure 8.2, in the book. It shows Social Security, Unemployment Insurance and Labor expenses to consume 34% of the total federal budget. That is simply not true when you figure in the offset revenue from the payroll tax. Figure 8.2 also shows inflated costs of Medicare and Health services at 24%. Again, Medicare has revenue offsets, both from the payroll tax and from premium payments by Medicare enrollees. Figure 8.2 perpetuates the common lies of what causes our federal deficits.
No, in fact, a correct pie chart of federal spending would NOT include Social Security nor much of Medicare. It would show a federal spending budget of approximately $2.73 trillion, not $3.73 trillion. And it would show that of this spending budget, approximately $1.3 trillion, or about 50% of the total budget --after the offsets for the entitlements -- is spent on the military-security industrial complex. THAT is how we get our annual federal deficit of approximately $1.3 trillion, not because of the entitlements. THAT is what this book should have told us.
You see, the $1.3 trillion spent on the military-security industrial complex each year has no revenue offsets. Zilch. This $1.3 trillion has to be paid for by federal income taxes...except that we do not collect enough in federal income taxes to PAY for this expense. THAT is why we need to BORROW $1.3 trillion every year. THAT is why we have an annual deficit and increasing federal debt. (For a trustworthy explanation of this concept, see [...]
And, for sure, President Obama shares some of the blame. Under his watch, our total federal deficit has soared nearly $6 trillion higher in a bit more than four years. As ugly as this is, this truth needs to be told. But as I have been explaining, it will NOT be found in this book.
The book does some good things, like tell you about the annual budget process: Who does what and when between Congress and the president. It also includes some basics that some might be missing: definitions of words and concepts about the federal budget.
But when it gets to encouraging readers to contact their legislators and such on the subject of the annual deficit or total debt, I have to protest. The book has not really given us the true scoop on how annual deficits get created. It has essentially perpetuated the lies that keep most Americans in the dark on the subject in the first place. For this reason, I cannot recommend the purchase of the book.
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