Budget Deficit Activity

Balance the Budget Project

  1. Go to and play with the simulators to balance the budget.
  2. Add or Cut programs that you feel are necessary to balance the budget but also a way to provide necessary services to people.

Summarize Finding: After you Balance the Budget

  1. Once you have a balanced the budget and eliminated the deficit summarize your findings in a table like the one in the summary page of the site.

Analysis & Recommendations:

  1. Pick 3 items that you cut or added and explain to the class the Pros/Cons of why you chose what you chose.
  2. Present your findings in a PPT to the rest of class on what service should be cut or added.

Extra Credit

  • Research any of the government spending programs below. Findings can be presented in a 1-2 page research paper analyzing the program. Additional questions to ask are on the back page.

Pell Grants/Education

Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

Head Start

Planned Parenthood

Medicare

Medicaid

Defense Spending

Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts

Social Security

High-speed rail financing/AMTRAK

Housing assistance programs

Foreign Aid

Clean energy programs

Choose one of interest (perhaps because you have experienced it personally, believe in its purpose, oppose taxpayer financing for it or want to learn more about it). For the program that you choose, students should collect the following information:

  • What the program does and who it benefits.
  • A brief history of the program. (When was it created? What problem was it created to solve? What is different now that it exists?)
  • The cuts that are on the table for this program.
  • How these cuts would affect beneficiaries of the program.
  • The basic arguments for and against the cuts.
  • A graph or chart that shows how much financing may be cut from the program.
  • Quotes from representatives or advocates arguing both for and against cuts to the program.
  • Your personal recommendation – cut or keep? Explain.

Useful resources include the official Web site of their program, if any; the Times Topics page on their program; and the Web site of the government department that oversees.

Debt & Deficit Video Notes

  1. Debt
  2. Deficit
  3. Taxes
  4. Surplus
  5. Budget
  1. What is the difference between the federal debt and deficit?
  1. Why might a government choose to spend more money than it has?
  1. What does it mean to stimulate the economy? How does government spending stimulate theeconomy?
  1. How do bank interest rates relate to the federal debt and deficit? What happens when interest

rates increase and decrease?

  1. Do you think a country carrying a debt or deficit is a bad thing? If so, how would you suggest that the government decrease either?