Question

Congratulations!
The Congressional Budget Office has assigned you to balance the
nation’s budget and allow the United States to pay off its debt. You
will be given a fake current budget and will be responsible for
reforming it to ensure that after revenue from taxes is considered,
you can decrease allocations to various departments to result in a
balance of zero dollars.
Why Are We Doing This?:
This article by Jeff Stein discusses how the current pandemic has
pushed the budget deficit to “unprecedented levels”. Given a mock
breakdown of our current budget, you now need to think about a
plan to implement a reformed plan for it so the United States can
pay off its debt.
Steps:
1. Closely analyze the mock budget and figure out what changes
need to be made in order to balance it out.
2. Brainstorm reasons for why you chose to change each part of
the budget (i.e. did you increase/decrease the amount of money
allocated to the military or education? Why?).
3. Think about the possible objections that someone could have
and how you would answer them.
4. Consider researching some countries that have allocated a
similar proportion of their budget to each department and how it
turned out for them.
5. Share with the group and see if you can convince them that the
United States should adopt your budget plan.
Current Budget ($1 million):
• Military- $530,600
• Food/Agriculture- $30,300
• Education- $81,300
• Government- $83,900
• Medicare/Health- $77,800
• International Affairs- $55,200
• Energy and Environment- $53,600
• Science- $45,200
• Transportation- $42,100
Assume we are collecting 750,000 in revenue from taxes:
•
o How much money do you have to allocate for in a 1 million
dollar budget?
• Hint: Subtract 750,000 from 1 million.
Things to Keep in Mind:
• You do not have to simply decrease the funds for each part of
the budget. Consider which programs might need more or less
funding.
• Do you agree or disagree with your country’s current allocations
for each department?
• You don’t have to worry about answering all possible objections,
but you should have some defense of why you think your
allocations are properly divided amongst the departments.

Answer 1

Respuesta:

no te entiendo en español