Government spending in the public sector has reached an all-time low, with the lower and middle classes struggling to keep up. This has put an immense strain between the politicians and more than half of America’s population, with trust in Washington lower than it ever has been. This is due to the fact that the people truly believe that the government doesn’t put enough money in repairing any domestic social issues that are plaguing this country today.
The federal budget keeps rising every year and in 2015, the government set its ceiling number at $1.1 trillion[1]. However, none of this money truly belongs to America because of the toppling $16 trillion in debt it has looming over it[2]. If we try and find out exactly what America has been spending its money on, it seems that $598 billion, exactly 50%, is spent on military expenses[3]. So why does the U.S. have to waste so much on meaningless foreign conflicts when the people in our own country are working harder than ever to try and provide a bright future for themselves and their families?
Education budget cuts have been deep, with only about $69 billion of the budget spent on education, which is definitely not enough for this rapidly growing country. Without that funding, it seems as if every child in a public school will feel the severe impact it will have on their school lives. More teachers will be fired and already congested classrooms will have to make due which is especially bad considering the specialized attention many children need. These children are then thrown into a system that frankly doesn’t care about their futures and isn't interested at all in creating future generations of confident workers and citizens.
One of the other regrettable cuts is in the efforts to find new sources of renewable energy.Environmental and energy spending was only 3% of the total budget.This is posing a problem especially with the ongoing drought in California. Ignoring the fact that humans are sucking this earth dry of its limited resources just brings us closer to a total environmental collapse. Putting more money into renewable energy research really could mean the difference when it comes to the sustainability of future generations.
It’s actually really sad to consider that no more than 10% of the federal budget was spent on citizen’s needs (food/agriculture, veteran’s benefits, housing/community, etc.) while 53% of the budget was used purely for military expenses.Even though it looks ridiculous to an average American citizen, sadly war is what makes the most money, something with America desperately needs.
[1] https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/f...
