A significant portion of the federal budget is focused on defense programs, domestic security, and maintaining foreign relationships. Although the federal budget accounts for several vital aspects like healthcare, education, and social security, where any changes would have an instant effect, the same could not be said about reducing some elements of the defense part. This essay will justify the budget choices I made in the defense category and address possible counterarguments.
The changes I have decided to make to the federal budget include allowing veterans to see doctors outside of the VA, limiting eligibility for the veteran’s benefits, and reducing foreign aid and international program spending. Although allowing veterans to see any doctor outside of the VA would potentially increase the debt by 4% by 2050, this measure involves both social security and healthcare aspects for one category of the population. Moreover, the following measurements I have chosen would equal the effect, so despite a possible future increase in the debt, it is going to be neutralized by the reduction of other points of the defense budget program.
Although the 2018 law has previously covered the issue of delays in the VA, the law did not fully address the community’s needs as it put several restrictions on the veterans. Currently, the veterans can only apply for the program in the VA medical facility and cannot schedule an appointment in the nearest 30 days, or if they live more than 40 miles away from the nearest VA medical facility. Aside from the financial effect, the change would significantly improve the healthcare situation for the veterans by reducing the delays in providing health care services.
The next decision also implies the social aspect of life as it touches on the subject of veterans’ life and social benefits. The measurement implements a revision of the current system of benefits and compensations for the veterans by introducing new limits for compensation on certain health conditions and disabilities that are not combat-related. The limitation of eligibility and scope of veterans’ benefits could possibly decrease the level of debt by 3% by 2050, which is a significant amount for measurements that implies revision and restructuring of a currently existing system. Although the action could be misinterpreted as a reduction of financial aid for the veterans, the correction of current qualifications for financial aid is needed to ensure effective use of the budget. The action would not wholly take away the compensations but limit them to make sure that a particular individual would not get multiple payments from several organizations for the same reason.
The final decision is to reduce the foreign aid and International program spending. In my opinion, the ongoing unsolved problems that include providing care for the veterans should be considered a priority for the government. The federal government spends around $55 billion annually on international affairs, diplomatic programs, and economic and humanitarian aid. Although maintaining friendly international relationships is essential, there should be a limit on spending on this cause as the same amount of budget could cover other valuable issues. As long as domestic problems could be solved or improved with parts of the federal funding like healthcare, education, or veterans care, they should be prioritized over international affairs spending.
In conclusion, this essay explained and justified the budget choices I made in the defense category and addressed some possible counterarguments. The assignment made me understand the importance of the budget process and appreciate the effort the parties put into debates regarding the budget. I think that the budget process should be streamlined so that anyone can educate themselves on the topic and give the people a chance to react to the changes promptly. If the budgeting process was a group project, I think that the first thing on the way to compromise would be setting priorities by the group and then acting based on the conducted tier of importance.