A Citizens Guide To The Federal Budget Budget Of The United States Government

Provides a basic sense of what the budget is, how the Government raises and spends money, why it has generated budget deficits over the years, and why you should care about the deficit. Also provides an explanation of the President's budget policies to date, and what he plans for the future.

Next year, your Federal Government will spend nearly $2.0 trillion. Needless to say, that's a lot of money. In fact, that's almost $7,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country; nearly $5.4 billion per day; and about $3.7 million per minute. And most of that money comes from taxes on the American people. The Government spends it on lots of things-on programs as large as Social Security, and on activities as small and unknown as repairs to the National Zoo. Together, these programs are what make up the Federal budget. How much do you know about the budget? If your answer is "not much," you're not alone. In fact, hardly anybody knows everything that's in the thousands of pages, and several books, that make up the budget each year. But we know you care a lot about how the Government spends your money. That's why A Citizen's Guide to the Federal Budget was created. With this seventh edition, we hope to make the budget more accessible and understandable. The Guide is designed to give you a walking tour of the budget. In these pages, we will outline for you how the Government raises revenues and spends money, how the President and Congress enact the budget, how the Nation has been able to move from deficit to surplus, and what the President hopes to accomplish with his 2002 Budget. After you read these pages, we hope that you will think the tour was worth your time.