Educational Resource
February 2013 Federal Budget Backgrounder
Background information on the Federal Budget, February 2013
Advocating a Circle of Protection
Congress and President Obama continue to focus on the economic crisis and strategies to stimulate job creation and address the deficit, in an environment of continued partisanship and polarization.
Over the course of the next few months, there will be increasing pressure to reduce the budget deficit, especially through efforts to cut discretionary programs focused on poor and vulnerable people. A number of deadlines are approaching, each with the potential to impact people struggling to live in dignity.
The federal budget includes two types of spending: discretionary and mandatory (or entitlement). Discretionary spending is subject to the annual appropriations process where Congress sets the level of spending on programs. These programs include education, various social service programs, housing, environmental stewardship, international assistance, and defense; it makes up about one-third of federal spending. The other two thirds is Mandatory spending, which includes entitlement programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps), Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and low-income tax credits. Mandatory spending is not part of the appropriations process because those programs are not limited--simply put, if someone meets a set of criteria, they receive the benefit. Congress, however, can control spending on these benefits by limiting eligibility.
In the face of unsustainable deficits, the nation faces unavoidable choices about how to balance needs and resources and allocate burdens and sacrifices. These choices have consequences on people’s lives. USCCB has consistently advanced a set of moral criteria for Congress and the President to use in making important budget decisions:
- Every budget decision should be assessed by whether it protects or threatens human life and dignity.
- A central moral measure of any budget proposal is how it affects the lives and dignity of “the least of these” (Matthew 25). The needs of those who are hungry and homeless, without work or in poverty should come first.
- Government and other institutions have a shared responsibility to promote the common good of all, especially ordinary workers and families who struggle to live in dignity in difficult economic times.