Summary
The book “Where Does the Money Go?” by Scott Biddle and Jean Johnson has been made to reflect the current financial crisis and the extensive legislation passed by the Obama’s administration. The book is unbiased and stable, straightforward, eye-opening, and pleasantly irreverent guide to the federal budget problems. DiBiase (2009) stated that is by no means outdated. It was made when the nationwide debt was only $9 trillion. It talks about the method of setting the federal budget up, where the money derive from, where it goes and the reason the government is spending more that it has. They presented data very clearly through using pictures, side stories, charts and numerous resources for more information. The book also presented a sample budget so that the reader can try to balance it. It is a short read with appealing visuals to assist the conceptualization of the information and issues that the authors are discussing. The authors thoroughly source their data and tackle data handling process comprehensively in order for the reader to go off to understand more detail .
The book discussed the difference between 'debt' and 'deficit.' The book documented the expenses of the country on foreign aid, the status of corporate farm lobby and the extent of pork, fraud and waste problem. There is also the report of the changes in the federal debt, deficit, and top income tax rate throughout the history. There is a chapter that discussed fourteen possible methods of fixing Social Security and Medicare funding underperformance. The authors explained the political climate and how it is good for lobbyists and terrible for bipartisanship. Bittle and Johnson reported that most Americans agree that there is the need for concessions to mend the budget. The book serves as a layman’s guide to understand government financial decisions and how they affect a person’s healthcare, mortgage, retirement and other concerns. It irreverently explains how decision makers are manipulating the federal deficit and tax allocations (DiBiase, 2009)
Issues
The book tackled the issue of the federal debt that went beyond the GDP of all nations collectively. The United States government has burned the citizens with this debt and thus, the debt is an existentially grave problem. The authors have based this book on normally received disinformation. The authors used data to deeply understate their own stands for the most part. Most of the facts that were employed in the book were untrue. They are fictions but the media presented them as facts to serve the elites. The most pertinent of these non-facts is the announcement that the federal debt is only $13 trillion or so. However, many experts have done the investigation and the agreed that the federal debt is close to $200 trillion. The true amount of federal debt is twenty-five times greater than the government admits. The authors provided data of different national programs and breakdowns of revenues.
The book also describes numerous common beliefs that citizens have regarding the budget. Then, the book tackled the issue of why these beliefs are inaccurate. For instance, the book explains that ending the war in Iraq will not make a balanced budget. There is also an issue of the alarming Social Security loss. The book clarifies that this difficult problem into two perspectives: the Social Security must remain, and it must change because the country cannot pay for it as is.
Another issue that was discussed in the book is the high cost of medical care in the USA. According to Lamendol (2011), the authors of the book has used healthcare and medical care interchangeably. These two terms are different things. The high cost of medical care in the USA can be solved by making a continuous reception of it group upon health care. The health care cost is not going to increase but medical care costs will continue to rise. Health care is fairly inexpensive and its costs are not influenced by demographics.
Conclusion
The book gives an excellent explanation of debt and deficit of the United State government. It is easy to read at the same time, pleasing. It is considered very timely and tackled important issues differently. The book is very helpful because it exposes false impressions that many citizens believe as to the cause of the budgetary deficits. The book stated that these deficits are not caused by fraud, pork barreling and government waste. The book also exposes misconceptions as to how citizens can get out from this problem and examines plenty of dynamics that thwarted any grave attempts to take the budgetary process controlled. The true amount of the federal debt is close to $200 trillion which is twenty-five times greater than the government announced it to be. This is an example where the government provides misinformation to the people. The book gives data to support its arguments as well as the author’s perspectives. The major problem is clarified in the book and that is citizens love the popular government programs, however, citizens are not so pleased paying for them. The authors, Bittle and Johnson, are hopeful that people will solve these long-term problems one at a time. These problems include the rising health care cost which is considered as one of the most essential but politically complicated (DiBiase, 2009). The book also discusssed the consequences if nothing is done to solve the budgetary process’ inclination for generating debt.
References
Cassandra, M. (20 April, 2008). Book Review: Where does the money go? Retrieved 30 July, 2016, from Delaware Liberal.
DiBiase, S. (13 September, 2009). Book review: Where Does the Money Go? Retrieved 30 July, 2016, from The Anniston Star.
Lamendol, M. (2011). Book Review of: Where Does The Money Go. Softcover.
