The States and local bodies have in the past
expended more than their revenues, making up their deficiency by loans
on their credit.
The chief objects of Federal expenditure (in addition to the postal
system already considered and for the most part supported by its own
revenue) are: 1st, interest on the public debt; 2d, pensions to disabled
soldiers; 3d, for the support of the civil branch of the government;
4th, war and naval expenditures.
Total expenditures for the year 1889 were $299,288,988. The chief items
were:
1. Interest on the public debt, $41,000,484
2. Pensions, 87,624,779
3. Civil service, 80,664,064
4. War and Navy, 65,815,079
5. Indians, 6,892,207
Money can be expended by the government only after it has been
appropriated by Congress in its annual appropriation bills. The
appropriation of supplies by Congress is the most important business
that it transacts. Every year the heads of all the different departments
frame estimates of the amounts of money needed to support their
departments during the following year, which estimates they send to the
Secretary of the Treasury, who, after considering and revising them,
transmits them to Congress in his "Annual Letter." This letter is
considered by the Appropriation Committee, whose duty it is to consider
and frame bills for the appropriation of moneys.
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