Do YOU want to VOTE on the FEDERAL budget?

 

Do YOU want to VOTE on the FEDERAL budget?

In theory all registered voters could vote on the federal budget every two years.  This would be more of a true DEMOCRACY rather than our representative democracy where our elected representatives vote for us.

Suppose you could vote on each summarized budget item in the federal budget.  Keep in mind the actual budget is over 50,000 pages, so you would just see the top five to 15 groups of spending items for each department.

The department and agencies would appear in order with their spending summarized into groups.

For example let’s take just two; Defense and Education.

Department of Education: Total budget $63.7 billion for 2010

1.    Direct grants to poor schools $32 billion

2.    Programs for women and girls, early learning, reading, math, etc $8 billion

3.    Testing and assessment, race to the top, rural education, Indian education, etc $8 billion

4.    School improvement grants, grants to students, grants to others not identified $7 billion

5.    Research, new program development, training, etc $8 billion

The above is for example only because the current budget is way too hard to break out like this.  Each department would be required to state what it is and how much they want in 15 or fewer categories. 

Okay you can now vote to keep or eliminate any of the above five categories.  For the category to survive and be funded a majority of those voting would have to vote for it.  You could vote against all categories too.

Department of Defense: Total budget $533 billion plus $427 billion for wars,$1 trillion 2010

1.    War in Iraq $80 billion

2.    Support the Iraqi government $40 billion

3.    Private contractor agreements for Iraq $50 billion

4.    War in Afghanistan $80 billion

5.    Support for Afghanistan government $60 billion

6.    Private contractor agreement for Afghanistan $60 billion

7.    New weapons systems $250 billion

8.    US Navy $100 billion

9.    US Army $200 billion

10. US Air Force $50 billion

11. US Marines $30 billion

12. 1,000 US foreign military bases in over 100 countries $200 billion

Again this is just for example, the numbers are not exact.  Okay you can now vote to support those categories you want to pay for with your taxes.

This could be done using the existing technology.  Would it be a good idea?  Would you support this and do you think it would make America better?

Do you trust you elected US senator and representative to vote you wishes on these budget items?

I have mixed feeling about this, but I think allowing just 268 people (one half plus one of the 535 in US House and Senate) to decide for over 300 million Americans is very risky.

The budget is out of control for many reasons, mostly because the America people never see it and don’t know where the money is going. 

I am sure the vast majority of the money is being spent well, but I just don’t know if this is true.  I do not want to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and all the fraud, graft and profit being taken out of these two wars.  These wars are bankrupting America.

What do you think?  Would you like to vote on the federal budget?