Reference no: EM133768228

Assignment:

Provide a peer response to your classmate post below.

If there is one thing everyone knows it is the difference between the public sector and the private sector and for those of us that are in the military, we unfortunately fall into the public sector when it comes to budgeting. According to our book "Public budgeting systems are systems for making choices of ends and means." When it comes to the public budget, I don't think there is a more simple explanation than that.

Our directions were to find a source from The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal and relate it to our chapter readings I wanted to dive into the oh so popular defense budget. This particular article hails from The New York Times and the hook really does pull you in. According to New York Times Writer Karon Demirjian,"The dispute over the $886 billion military policy bill, considered one of the few pieces of legislation Congress is obligated to pass every year, is unlikely to sink the legislation altogether. But it has created a political crisis for Speaker Mike Johnson, who has come under withering criticism from ultraconservative Republicans for his handling of government spending measures and now faces a backlash over what is normally a broadly popular bill." I am sure we can all remember this little tiff a few months back that left some military members on the edge of their seat. Going back to our book for a moment, public budgeting is, at its core, a process in which the government plans, allocates, and controls public funding.

In this particular instance the defense budget is an allocated amount of money set aside for the military for developing personnel and equipment as well as infrastructure. Like any good budget there were things that had to go and things that just simply couldn't be stripped away no matter what side of the aisle you were on. That is really the essence of a budget whether public or private, some things must go and some things must stay and at the end of a very long battle the men and women of congress agreed on a budget that would be set forth and affect the men and women of the armed forces. The bottom line and point I am trying to make here is that I could find any news out and relate it to a budget of some kind, especially in the public sector but if you really want to make that serious connect where you can see that your own way of life is affected then stop and look around because a budget is everywhere and even if you don't know it you have one, your employer has one and everyone around you has one that they constantly make choices of ends and means.

For those curious minds that would like a quick overview, the air force was allocated 216.1 billion dollars. We still can't fix a vehicle in this budget but that's really neither here nor there.

References:

Demirjian, K. (2023, December 8). Defense bill agreement angers hard right, posing a threat to Johnson. The New York Times.

DOD budget request. Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) > Budget Materials > Budget2024. (2023).

S.2226 - 118th Congress (2023-2024): National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024 | congress.gov | library of Congress. congress.gov. (2023).