Summary of Federal Budget Activities
as related to the Charity option in the
What follows below is a very brief review and simplification of what is included in various Federal Activity Budgets and charity options available in the Taxpayer Directed Budget. There are many detailed sources for studying the Federal Budget Process. The Concord Coalition and other groups have simulation programs that individuals can use to gain some understanding of the complexity of the Congressional budget process. The purpose of the Taxpayer Directed Budget is not to replace the constitutional responsibility of Congress to design a responsible federal budget, but rather to provide the average concerned productive citizen some input to help guide Congress in making reasonable decisions in guiding the future of our great nation and society -- E Plurbus Unum.
This is the budget for the Agriculture Department. It also includes Food Stamp and School Lunch programs. The federal government has a constitutional role in promoting agriculture and food availability in the interests of the general welfare. However, except in emergency situations, it is not necessary or desirable for the Federal government to mandate or directly control the provision of these aspects of our economy, even for the needy. The TDB would allow for diversifying this social marketplace to numerous private sector food banks, as well and state and community run food programs.
This is the budget for the Defense Department. Historically, over the past several decades, defense spending in real terms using has fallen from a little over 10% of the Gross National Product.in the 1960s to around 5% through most of the 80s and 90s. There are no charity options in the TDB to defense spending since it is clearly a constitutionally defined duty of the Federal Government to provide.
While promoting education helps the general welfare, providing education through a centralized federal agency is not a constitutionally defined role of the federal government. With a functional TDB, you could direct your federal education dollars to the many existing outlets nonprofit sources for education from private and local public schooling to job training. The role, if any, for the federal government in education might be limited to a modest accrediting process to see that the general welfare was promoted in education in accordance to existing constitutional guidelines.
There are many local and national environmental issues that need to be addressed. However, there is no constitutional mandate that this activity be largely provided and regulated by the federal government. Prudent private stewardship could provide equal or better results for much less cost. The constitutional premise is for the federal government to promote (not necessarily mandate) environmental quality for the general welfare and to do so without unduly interfering with people's liberty and property rights. Clearly, TDB would allow any of a number of nonprofit charity environmental and conservation groups as well as state and local governments to effectively provide many of the services and results now mandated and regulated by the federal government. They would do with without an undue impact on individual liberty and personal property rights.
General & Miscellaneous Services
Government has some basic services that it must have revenue to perform. This includes payment of operation of the various basic operations of the federal government (Congress, Courts and the White House). The natural checks and balances and openness of the TDB process should prevent this category from being abused by Congress or the President to become a catch all to hide funding for other federal Activities as defined in the TDB.
There are numerous people in any society that are unable to afford to pay for their health care. There is no constitutional mandate that the federal government provide health care services to the population. There is a premise that the federal government promote (not provide) the general welfare of the people. To this end, a TDB could fund numerous private charities, nonprofit organizations and state operated programs to effectively deliver quality health care to the needy that would qualify for charity credit against one's federal tax bill.
The preamble of the Constitution clearly states that one of its tasks is to "preserve liberty to ourselves and our posterity". The liberty of our future generations has been sacrificed by the excessive spending by recent Congresses and the 13 trillion dollar debt it has created. There are also many more trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities in Medicare and Social Security that future generations must pay for unless these socialist programs are reformed to include greater individual accountability and opportunity. No principle on the national debt has been reduced in recent history. This is like 'maxing' out your credit card and only paying off the minimal interest. With a functional TDB, if you direct more than the minimum payment to the National Debt, you would be directing the federal government to actually start paying off the principle of that debt. Since the politicians have been unable to make the tough choices on budgeting issues, perhaps it is time that the citizens of this great nation be provided the opportunity to make the tough decisions through at TDB.
The Federal government manages an enormous amount of the land in the country through the Interior Department. Some of this is in the form of parks, some in the form of national forests with renewable resources, some is range land, etc. While there are clearly good reasons to have some centralized oversight of these resources, there is clearly room for taxpayers to directly fund various state and nonprofit charity organizations to more effectively maintain and steward our parks and lands. For example, a TDB would allow for nonprofit organizations to bid for operating a national park or monument or open lands and you would be able to directly contribute money to support that park or land management through that agency. For many years, maintaining our parks and open lands has taken back seat to other political concerns. It need not be this way.
Promoting a functional and diverse transportation network is essential to the economy and general welfare of our nation. Clearly there is a federal role in designing standards and oversight of that network's development. However, it is not particularly efficient or desirable to have many if not most of local transportation system rely upon dollars going to the federal government only to be sent back to that community as a political payoff of some sort to the federal government. The TDB would allow individuals in any community to directly contribute to their local transportation needs to more effectively and efficiently support highways, mass transit and other transportation needs and to deduct that contribution from their federal tax dollars.
Promoting the general welfare is one of the primary responsibilities of our federal government. However, this duty does not imply that the federal government should be providing for welfare of the needy. Rather, the federal government could promote various private sector charities, state and local government agencies to meet this need through individual guidance. Such a system would also address 'campaign finance reform' directly by putting individuals, not politicians in charge of how much of the social marketplace operates. The TDB would allow individuals to fund a wide variety of charities and local government agencies to more effectively provide for the needy in their community. The role of the federal government might be better defined to accrediting these various agencies but not actually controlling the agency operation. It is quite possible that more charity/welfare would reach the needy with less money being wasted in government bureaucracies. A TDB would perhaps allow for a general tax cut and/or faster payment of the federal debt -- both of which would promote the general welfare through lower interest rates and higher economic activity.