This coming year, in 1999, our Federal Government will spend over $1.7 trillion. They use this money to support causes that aid to the betterment of society, the health of the people, research for better and new materials, education, and one of the biggest, the military. Each year, by the first Monday if February, the President of the United States presents to Congress the proposed Federal Budget for the next fiscal year. Each fiscal year starts on October 1st of the preceding year. This budget is gathered and created by the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB). They create the budget based on requests made by individual agencies and from consulting with the President's senior advisors and officials from cabinet departments and other agencies. After receiving the proposed budget from the President, the congress meets to overlook it.

During the process of overlooking the budget, the congress, with the President, decide how much they are going to spend to each activity that the government endorses. Some examples are public libraries, police forces, education, national zoo's, the CIA, FBI and other organizations. Once they have a concrete estimate of how much money the government will spend in the next year, they then decide how much they are going to have to tax the American public in order to cover all of the proposed expenditures fo the budget. There is a fine line that the congress has to worry about. If they tax too much, the people in the U.S. will not have enough money to spend on products, therefore hurting our economy. On the other hand, if the government does not tax enough to cover all of the expenditures, then they have to take our loans to cover all that they are paying for. When this happens, it is called a deficit.

The deficit of the United States really made news in the late 80's and early 90's when the deficit climbed dramatically. The government during this time, under the leadership of President Ronald Reagan, spent a huge amount more then the government was bringing in. As of 1997, the Gross Federal Debt had accumulated to $5.37 trillion dollars and is expected to keep rising to a projected