Review of Revenue Estimates in Federal, State and Local Budgets. Scholarly Activity 2: Review of Revenue Estimates in Federal, State and Local Budgets.

Review of Revenue Estimates in Federal, State and Local Budgets
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Review of Revenue Estimates in Federal, State and Local Budgets
A budget is designed to determine the allocation of the resources held by an entity to its departments, agencies and other subsidiaries in order to achieve its ultimate mission. The budget includes extensive detail regarding the utilization of resources to be made in the fiscal year, the manner in which the resources would be utilized and allocated, the expected return or the source of funding and a number of other aspects. The budget also reflects the policies of the entity, for example, if an entity plans to develop a certain business objective, it would increase the allocation of resources to that particular part of its business. Similarly, the budgets designed by the governmental authorities also reflect their policies for the fiscal year for which the budget has been formulated.
Budgets are formulated at all levels of the governmental structure. The budgets to be considered in this paper would be federal budget, state budget, local budget and budget for an agency of the government. Each budget is a standardized allocation of resources and the level of funding to be done in the fiscal year for which the budget is proposed. Budgets are significantly important in order to maintain a balance between different departments and agencies and to conduct a variance analysis. Budgets are compared to the actual funding done in order to determine whether the funding has been done in accordance with the initial plan or there is difference between the budgeted and actual figures. Budgets also help an entity design strategies and to make decisions. Strategies are designed on the basis of the information provided in the budgets and the implementation of the strategies is conducted by aligning day to day decisions with that strategy. Budgets are very helpful in designing strategies for organizations and in case of government, budgets are important for the designing and implementation of fiscal policies.
United States Federal Budget
The United States Federal Budget is proposed by the President of the United States to the Congress. The federal budget recommends the levels of funding to be done in the fiscal year for which the budget is proposed. Decisions made by the congress are subject to the rules related to federal budget. The spending limits for the House and Senate committees are determined by the budget committees. The committees also decide the spending limits for subcommittees and it also approves bills related to funding of federal projects and agencies. The appropriation bills are approved by the congress, which are sent to the President after approval. The President can sign them into enforcement or can veto them.
The major expenditures in the United States federal budget include Medicare, Defense Department, Non-Defense Discretionary and Social Security. Medicare is one of the significant programs of the federal government. It consists of four separate parts which are separately funded. Social Security is a social insurance program. Social Security is funded by a specifically allocated payroll tax of 12.4%. The military...