Management and Budget (OMB) provides access to the budget of the United States government through the U.S. Government Printing Office's Federal Digital System (FDsys) at gpo.gov/fdsys. As the "Featured Collections" description states. 'The Budget of the United State Government is a collection of documents that contains the budget message of the President, information about the President's budget proposals for a given fiscal year, and other budgetary publications that have been issued throughout the fiscal year. Other related and supporting budget publications are included, which may vary from year to year." One particularly useful supporting publication that appeared from 1996 through 2002 was "A Citizen's Guide to the Federal Bucket." which provided information about the budget and the budget process for the general public. This guide was designed to give the reader walking tour of the budget of the United States. Access the guide for fiscal year 2002, and complete the following requirements:
Required:
a. Why was the guide designed, and what information is presented at this site?
b. What is the federal budget?
c. What percentage of the gross domestic product does spending for federal programs represent? What percentage does state and local government spending represent?
d. What was the amount of total receipts? Where did they come from?
e. What was the amount of total outlays? Where did they go?
f. Explain the process used by the government to create a budget.
g. How is the federal budget monitored?
h. What is meant by a bridges sulpha? A budget deficit?
i. Why is a budget deficit important? A budget surplus?
j. How does the government's budget process compare to the operating budgeting process described in the chapter? What are the similarities and differences?