Damn The Recession, Full Spending Ahead
This weekend Congress will vote to approve the final pieces of our country’s discretionary spending budget for fiscal Year 2010. Discretionary spending is all of the spending that Congress “appropriates” each year that is not already mandatory such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, interest on the debt, etc.
The Final Pieces Fall Into Place This Weekend
While we’ve been fighting the government takeover of more than 1/6 of our economy, Congress has been using this opportunity as cover while they spend like never before. The plan is to pack as much punch into this year’s spending as possible in order to use the following election year to tout a gimmick “spending freeze.” This weekend Congress will approve the appropriations for the final six committees, virtually completing the appropriations process (five of the other six pieces have already been approved, the 6th, Defense, is also set to come up) and setting the complete discretionary budget for 2010. Here are the increases for this weekend’s spend-a-palooza:
Source http://appropriations.house.gov
This Is Obama’s Budget
This is not Obama’s first time in setting the budget with these six committees. Because Congress delayed completing the majority of last year’s appropriation committees’ budgets until AFTER Obama was inaugurated (in order to avoid having to work with President Bush anymore), this is Obama’s second go round in working with Congress to set the budgets for nine of the twelve committees. That includes the six being completed this weekend as shown in the graph above.
The Total Budget
Here’s the complete picture of discretionary spending for 2010 assuming that this final piece of the puzzle falls into place this weekend, as it will.
Earmarks
That’s a story I’ll have to come back to. Right now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to try to keep my head from exploding as I call every member of Congress I possibly can. I suggest you do the same.
For those of you with cast iron stomachs, I attach the following summary breakdown of the budget for the last three years.
