Federal Budget Cuts are Made... By GW Students!

GW students were able to accomplish a task Congress hasn't been able to do in over a year. Groups of students were able to agree to trillions of dollars in cuts from the Federal Budget over the next ten years. The only caveat: it was only a simulation.

Students from the GW Graduate School of Political Management and GW undergraduate students from the Political Science Department and School of Media & Public Affairs woke up early on Saturday morning to join professors from the Graduate School of Political Management, former members of Congress, and staff from The Concord Coalition to participate in an activity where they simulated the federal budget process.

The event titled: "Fixing the Federal Deficit- A Simulation" was sponsored by the Graduate School of Political Management. The Graduate School partnered with both The Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan Arlington, Virginia organization that examines the federal budget, and the United States Association of Former Members of Congress.

The activity consisted of the students being divided into ten groups of anywhere from three to six students. In each group there was at least one former member of Congress who offered their own thoughts and discussed with the students the different aspects of each item that could be added to or cut from the budget.

The students were using an activity packet created by The Concord Coalition called "Principles & Priorities Group Budget Exercise Workbook." The book split items that could be cut - or in a few cases added to the budget- into five categories. One of these categories included "General Government Spending," and included items such as creating an infrastructure program to repair public schools across the country. The groups were forced to weigh the pro of improving schools with the con that it would increase the debt by 30 billion dollars over the next ten years. 

Some current federal expenses surprised students. Under the same category of general expenses the groups had to decide whether to reduce the federal subsidy for the AMTRAK rail company and other rail companies. The group I watched decided to agree to reducing the subsidy and thereby cut the deficit by 45 billion dollars.

Other major categories included Defense and Homeland Security, Health Care and Social Security, and revenue and taxes. One of the most debated issues in the group I watched was whether to increase the gas tax by 25 cents. The students wanted to do it but were concerned about how it would, if they were real politicians, affect them politically. In the end, they decided not to. Other major decisions the group made included not repealing The 2010 Affordable Care Act (known by some as "Obama Care") because a repeal would add 124 billion over ten years to the deficit according to the Concord Coalition's calculations. The group also decided to cut a major portion of Homeland Security's budget.

In total, the group I watched cut 4 trillion dollars from the federal deficit over the next ten years. 62% of the cutting was through tax cuts and 38% was through gaining new revenue. Almost all of the ten groups were able to meet the goal of cutting at least 1.2 trillion dollars, which was the goal of the Congressional Super Committee this fall. In the discussion that followed the exercise students mentioned that they learned how insignificant discretionary spending, spending that does not include programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and defense, is in comparison to the total budget.

During the discussion Political Management Professor Michael Cornfield, who organized the event, asked the students at the program their thoughts on whether the budget cycle should be every two years rather than the current annual cycle. All the students who responded to the question said they thought this would be a good idea because it would help politicians focus their attention on the budget rather than on how their choices in the process would affect their chances of reelection. Others said it would also help with long-term fiscal planning.

Former Congressman Dennis Hertel, a Democrat from Michigan who served in Congress from 1981-1993, believes that the best hope for solving the budget debate is educating the public more on the issues involved.

"The public is not engaged [in the details of the budget], but when they become informed they'll be able to reach the decisions we did," Hertel said.

He added, "It's taking way too long in this information age, ironically, for the information to come out."