Dear Fellow Americans, Welcome to the Annual Report of the United States of America. ARUSA is dedicated to explaining and analyzing the federal budget and proposing sustainable fiscal solutions. We hope you use this tool to first learn about the challenges facing American spending policy and then engage your fellow citizens and legislators to enact … Read more
Meet Sam. He’s pretty young, as far as these things go, a good guy, fairly well-liked by his peers, and very, very rich. But he’s made some questionable decisions lately, and money problems are very much on his mind: he’s been borrowing profusely to finance a nasty spending habit, and most of his financial commitments—taking … Read more
Jimmy McMillan visiting Occupy Wall Street One of the odder sides of Occupy Wall Street has been the significant celebrity support for the cause. Throughout the weeks-long protest names such as Michael Moore, Kanye West, and Chris Hedges have shown up to voice their sympathy with the causes being championed at the event, always drawing … Read more
If you ever find yourself in D.C. and want to see something other than the Washington Monument, take a break from D.C.’s swampy summer mornings and its muggy tourism to sit in on a session of drug court. “Smart on crime is tough on crime,” read posters scattered around Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice … Read more
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) is perhaps the defining bipartisan moment of the Clinton Administration. President Clinton promised it would “end welfare as we know it,” and he touted its success ten years later, declaring that it created “a new beginning for millions of Americans.” Not since FDR’s New … Read more
Hidden beneath the public face of the government—the President, Congress, and the Courts—extends the vast iceberg of federal government. Regulatory agencies, bureaucracies and other organizations like the FBI provide millions of jobs and spend billions of dollars, impacting everything from agriculture to commerce to recreation. Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has described the current state … Read more
In May of last year, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) introduced a bill called the “War is Making You Poor Act.” The bill proposed to slash the $159 billion of “supplementary spending” in the defense budget that pays for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, mandating that the Pentagon instead pay for the wars out of … Read more
This year, Americans watched as the national debt rose to $14.7 trillion, nearly matching the GDP. A tumultuous Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011 to raise the debt ceiling on the condition that the federal government decreases future spending. Despite the last-minute compromise, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US credit ranking from an … Read more
Few would disagree that American troops show incredible bravery at war. From World War II to the more recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is no dearth of harrowing accounts from the front lines. But what of those same troops when they return home? The stories often end when their military tour is complete, … Read more
First called the “third rail” of American politics by Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil in 1981, Social Security remains one of the most divisive programs in our budget. Add the fact that it is the single largest expenditure by the federal government, and its sheer size prevents Washington from reaching reform or compromise year … Read more