Our Government: Local, State, and National: Idaho Edition eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 219 pages of information about Our Government.

Our Government: Local, State, and National: Idaho Edition eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 219 pages of information about Our Government.

The bills introduced into Congress which provide for taxation are called “bills for raising revenue.”  They must originate in the House of Representatives (Article I, Section 7, Clause 1).  The Committee on Ways and Means frames these bills.  In the Senate such bills are referred to the Committee on Finance, and here the bills may be amended.

The Appropriation of Money.—­Appropriation bills are those which provide for the expenditure of the government’s funds, and these bills are in charge of the committee on appropriations in each house.

Below is a list of the principal items in the revenues and appropriations for the year ending June 30, 1910.

          REVENUES. 
Duties $333,000,000
Internal revenue 290,000,000
Miscellaneous 52,000,000
                                -----------
Total $675,000,000

        EXPENDITURES. 
War Department $156,000,000
Navy Department 123,000,000
Indian Bureau 18,000,000
Pensions 160,000,000
Interest on public debt 21,000,000
Civil list and miscellaneous 180,000,000
                                -----------
Total $659,000,000

The Power to Borrow Money.—­We have now seen how money is provided for the government under ordinary circumstances.  In extraordinary cases this revenue is not sufficient; accordingly, Congress has been given power by Article 1, Section 8, Clause 2, To borrow money on the credit of the United States.

Money is borrowed in most cases by the sale of bonds.  These are of the same nature as the promissory notes by which individuals obtain loans.  National bonds state the promise of the United States to pay a certain amount, at a stated time, with interest.  A “registered” bond contains the name of the owner, and this is a matter of record at the Treasury Department.  When this bond is sold, the record must be changed.  “Coupon” bonds are usually payable to bearer; they have attached to them a number of coupons equal to the number of interest payments due during the term of the bond.  Each of these is cut off as the payment becomes due, and can be cashed at any bank.

Bonds are bought and sold on the market, and their prices are quoted in the daily papers.  When the bonds fall due, they are redeemed by the government at their face value, or “at par.”  On the market all United States bonds are now selling “at a premium.”  Issues of bonds were made in 1898, the rate of interest being 3 per cent, and in 1900, the rate being 2 per cent.  The Public Debt Statement issued monthly by the Treasury Department gives the divisions of the bonded debt and the amount outstanding.  On December 1, 1910, the amount of the interest-bearing debt was $913,000,000.

II.  THE POWER OF CONGRESS OVER COMMERCE.

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Our Government: Local, State, and National: Idaho Edition from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.