Federal Budget Activity

 This week we learned about how laws get made by the legislative branch of our government. One of the biggest laws that regularly gets made by Congress is the Federal Budget.. The Federal Budget is a law that spells out how the government will spend its money. This is a huge power that Congress has that is often called, “The Power of the Purse.” If the Congress doesn’t give the government money to do something in the Budget, the government won’t have the resources do what it might want to do. 

Part 1 – Create Your Budget

To create your budget, you must use the website:

Once you are at and ready to begin click the “next” button.

Begin to make your budget selections by selecting various check boxes. Click the “i” icon next to each line item if you want more information about any particular budget line item.

Once you have sufficiently addressed each of the specific budget line items and arrived at the tab labeled “results,” click the printer icon beneath the text that says “Print and follow the on-screen instructions detailing how to export your results as a .pdf document. 

*Do not forget to also submit your essay. You can upload multiple files in a single assignment submission. If you need help with this please contact your student advisor or instructor.

**It is strongly recommended that you use the Chrome or Firefox web browserfor this activity. If you are having trouble getting your final results todisplay or are having difficulty exporting your final results as a PDFfile, please try the following steps:
(1) Use the Chrome or Firefox web browser.
(2) Take and upload screen shots of your budget selections to blackboardalong with your essay for this assignment.
(3) Contact your instructor to make alternative arrangements.

 Part 2 – Federal Budget Activity Reflection Essay 

1. Provide a justification of the budget choices you made within one of the following categories: Defense, Domestic, Social Security, Healthcare (you may NOT choose to focus on the categories labeled: “Budget Path,” “Other,” “Revenue,” or “Tax Expenditures”). In this defense you must address possible counter arguments to the budget decisions you made. If you are spending more under this category how are you going to get new revenue or gain public support for more deficit spending? If you are cutting funds – what are you going to do with these surplus funds?
2. Discuss how this assignment impacted your understanding of the budget process, and the debates between the parties and within Congress have regarding the federal budget? Do you think anything should be done to streamline the current budget process?
3. Discuss how difficult this would have been to do this activity as a group project – what budget issues would have been contentious? How could you have come to a compromise?