Government Spending

Addressing federal deficit

Government spending is a fiscal policy used by the government to improve the welfare of its citizens. There are two types of expenditure, recurrent and development expenditure. Recurrent expenditure is the spending used to  settle  the salaries and benefits of government employees while developmental expenditure are used in improving infrastructure  to foster growth and development in the economy (Strawser & Ryan, 2008). However, increased spending has resulted to increased deficits in the federal budget (Rao, 2006). The paper looks to examine various types of government spending. In addition, it seeks to unravel various ways of reducing the budget deficits while at the same time improving and maintaining the welfare of the citizens.

1. Categories and changes

There are several change s I advanced in relation to category contribution to the general welfare of individuals and the state as a whole. Some of the greatest changes are decrease in the military spending, Iraq war and Afghanistan operations (Christoff, 2009). Military spending was chosen because it is already enjoying a massive allocation in the budget. The country muscle in terms of military gadgets is up to date and the country is not under an imminent threat that calls for such budget allocation. Social security and Medicare remained the same; the two categories are important for the wellbeing of the citizens and are already enjoying a good amount of funding from the government. In my opinion, there was no need to make the changes because of the level satisfactions associated with them.

2. Beliefs regarding what the government should do

The government is responsible for both the social and economic developments of the country (Strawser & Ryan, 2008). Several changes are paramount to harmonize these two responsibilities of the state. First, I proposed a tax reduction; this move will boost the income of the public, relatively improving their welfare. It is heart breaking seeing several citizens are unable to afford their daily needs i.e. shelter. The government needs to devise several ways of ensuring that unemployed citizens are employed. This is possible only if the government increases spending in the category of Training, labor and unemployment Programs.

3. Three important Changes

Several changes are paramount in bringing down budget deficit while at the same time improve the general standing of the general citizen. According to me, decreasing military spending, Iraq and afghan operations and cutting tax are vital changes.  The move apart from reducing budget deficit by a large margin boosts the level of individual incomes in the economy. In addition, the state will have additional funds to plough back to important development projects that will largely reduce the levels of unemployment. Tax cut has direct impact to the welfare of citizens. With a boost in the level of individual income, demand for products and services will increase, growing the market (Rao, 2006). Moreover, improved welfare and relative increase in product demand will induce investment to the trade sector. The attracted investors will address the increased demand by improving the traditional industries and establishing new ventures (Strawser & Ryan, 2008). In addition, the pumping of investor funds into the trade market leads to economic growth in the long run, as a lot of employment opportunities will be created.

4. Ways of reducing federal deficit.

It is apparent that policy makers face an uphill task trying to review down the spending in order to reduce federal deficit. The review is often a painful capsule to several individual as its impacts are huge to individual citizens and the economy at large.  However, there are several ways of reducing this budget deficit, prioritization of projects relevant to revamping the economy and promote the livelihood of citizens are important. Cutting of international affairs allocations, military spending and Iraq War and Afghanistan operations is one ultimate way of reducing budget deficit without negatively affecting the general growth of the state (Christoff, 2009). Security is a major compromise in the reduction of budget deficit. Foreign aggressors may take advantage of the reduced funding in the military to pose threats in the short run. In addition, the reduction of international affair funding may dent the image of the country globally. Moreover, the state position in containing terrorism will experience a blow, considering there is a reduction of budgetary allocation to Iraq War and Afghanistan operations category. Reducing military spending is a worthy compromise, as the impacts are mild unlike the ones relating to international affairs that may affect state image negatively (Christoff, 2009).

5. Roles of government as a social institution

Government is an important institution in the contemporary society.  The state has a mandate of ensuring that the welfare of her citizens is taken care of through the formulation of sound policies (Christoff, 2009). In addition, accountability and transparency are pillars of a society, and the role of government is ensuring that structure which foster the aforementioned factors are in place. In conclusion, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that equity prevails in a nation. Equity is achieved by bridging the gap between the rich and the poor.