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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (217445)	2/10/2007 9:28:44 AM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

OK, here's the latest on US federal budget vs. US GDP: Bernanke: As you know, the deficit in the unified federal budget declined for a second year in fiscal year 2006, falling to $248 billion from $319 billion in fiscal 2005. As was the case in the preceding year, the improvement in 2006 was primarily the result of solid growth in tax receipts, especially in collections of personal and corporate income taxes. Federal government outlays in fiscal 2006 were 20.3 percent of nominal gross domestic product (GDP), receipts were 18.4 percent of GDP, and the deficit (equal to the difference of the two) was 1.9 percent of GDP. These percentages are close to their averages since 1960. The on-budget deficit, which differs from the unified budget deficit primarily in excluding receipts and payments of the Social Security system, was $434 billion, or 3.3 percent of GDP, in fiscal 2006.1 As of the end of fiscal 2006, federal government debt held by the public, which includes holdings by the Federal Reserve but excludes those by the Social Security and other trust funds, amounted to about 37 percent of one year's GDP. federalreserve.gov I don't know what it is for other countries. I do know that about half of the US federal budget is spent on things related to the military, a large portion of which is retirement pay and health care coverage. For example, my father, who is 75, used to be on Medicare, which is federally subsidized health care coverage for retirees, but switched to military health care coverage because he served one year during the Korean war, albeit stateside. The military changed the rules to allow more people to use their health care coverage. This increased the military budget but switched people from the civilian budget, so it's overall a wash, just accounting. Well, it does keep the military hospitals open, and since there is no choice of provider, keeps a ceiling on expenditures. If you find a link to government budget vs. GDP per country for other countries, let me know. I haven't found it yet. Please note that I am not saying that the USA is perfect. Our way of life has a lot of flaws, but some are in the eye of the beholder. But, as you argue, war is not good for the economy. Would you then agree that keeping peace IS good for the economy?