Why Congress Can't Balance the 2012 Budget

COMMENTARY | One of the biggest disappoints in recent years has been overlooked by most of the media, the failure of Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment. There were a few news outlets that covered the story, but it was short lived as the so-called "Super Committee" failed to cut $1.2 trillion from the budget over the next 10 years.

The headline today should be, "Congress decides to continue to spend more of Americans money than it receives". It's important for Americans to know that our elected officials can't come together and cut $1.2 trillion from the budget. Families and businesses across America have had to cut their expenses as incomes and revenue declined. Perhaps our politicians could take a lesson from their constituents on how to make tough money decisions when required.

At the same time shouldn't there be outrage beyond compare that Congress continues to borrow money to cover the budget expenses each year. President Obama's budget plan for 2012 has a $1.1 trillion deficit and the Republican budget plan contains a $1 trillion deficit as well. With the current American debt over $15 trillion there appears to be no end in sight of the rise in deficit spending by our elected politicians.

In third grade we learn about deficits in subtraction . After opening our first checking account around High School we learn the rules of managing money. If we try to write a check for more than we have in the account the bank rejects the check and we are charged fees for the inconvenience to the bank. There are simple lessons we learn in life about managing money and it appears Congress has forgotten those.

As Congress tries to answer questions about what it's going to do about the "super committee's" failure to cut $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years, perhaps they should also be working on a budget that doesn't have a $1.1 trillion deficit next year alone.

The following is the spending proposal in the Obama 2012 budget plan.

2012 Obama Budget Proposal

• Social Security $761 billion (+2.6%)
  
• Medicare $485 billion (-0.6%)
  
• Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) $269 billion (-2.5%)
  
• Unemployment/Welfare/Other mandatory spending $612 billion (-14.0%)
  
• Interest on National Debt $242 billion (+17.1%)
  
• Troubled Asset Relief Program $13.0 billion (-54.0%)
  
• Department of Defense $553.0 billion (+0.7%)
  
• Overseas Contingency Operations $118.0 billion (-26.0%)
  
• Department of Health and Human Services $79.9 billion (-1.8%)
  
• Department of Education $77.4 billion (+6.2%)
  
• Department of Veterans Affairs $58.8 billion (+3.1%)
  
• Department of Housing and Urban Development $49.8 billion (+0.5%)
  
• Department of State and Other International Programs $50.1 billion (-0.9%)
  
• Department of Homeland Security $43.2 billion (-0.9%)
  
• Department of Energy $29.6 billion (+4.2%)
  
• Department of Justice $28.2 billion (-7.2%)
  
• Department of Agriculture $23.8 billion (-7.1%)
  
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration $18.2 billion (-6.7%)
  
• Department of Transportation $13.4 billion (-4.1%)
  
• Department of the Treasury $14.0 billion (+0.8%)
  
• Department of the Interior $12.1 billion (+0.3%)
  
• Department of Labor $12.8 billion (-8.3%)
  
• Department of Commerce $8.8 billion (-2.3%)
  
• Army Corps of Engineers $4.6 billion (-6.2%)
  
• Environmental Protection Agency $9.0 billion (-10.3%)
  
• National Science Foundation $7.8 billion (+4.6%)
  
• Small Business Administration $1.0 billion (-1.0%)
  
• Corporation for National and Community Service $1.3 billion (-11.1%)
  
• Disaster costs $6.0 billion (+200%)
  
• Other On-budget Discretionary Spending $44.9 billion (-3.9%)

The total spending is $3.729 trillion. The percentages in parentheses indicate percentage change compared to 2011.

Congress would need to cut 29.56% of the expenses to balance the budget.

How would you cut the budget?

How long would it take you to decide?