A Brief History Of Following The Money
The United States was paying for the Vietnam War when I reported my first story in 1967. Here’s how President Lyndon Johnson laid out his federal budget proposal for the 1967-68 fiscal year —
Federal expenditures, as measured in the national income accounts will rise from $153.6 billion in fiscal year 1967 to $169.2 billion in 1968. That increase is composed of four major elements:
• $5.8 billion for Vietnam and other national defense outlays;
• $6.2 billion in benefits under the Federal Government's social
security and other trust funds, two-thirds of which results from
the new social security legislation I am proposing;
• $1 billion for the cost of military and civilian pay increases, to
keep abreast of rising salaries in private industry; and
• $2.6 billion for all other programs of the Federal Government.Federal revenues will increase more rapidly than expenditures, from
$149.8 billion in fiscal year 1967 to $167.1 billion in 1968, reflecting both
the growth in the economy and the effect of the tax legislation I am
recommending. The Federal deficit, as measured in the national in-
come accounts will, therefore, decline between 1967 and 1968 from $3.8
billion to $2.1 billion.The Budget of the United States Government For The Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1968
Those were big numbers in the late 1960s. Not so much anymore. We’ve moved from billions to trillions of dollars. President Joe Biden proposed a 6.011 trillion dollar federal budget for fiscal year 2022. The U.S. Government estimated it will receive 4.174 trillion dollars in revenue this year, which would create a 1.837 trillion dollar deficit for October 1, 2022. Those numbers may change a little, but we’re still talking in the trillions.
The projections for the federal budget for the next decade include a budget deficit of more than a trillion dollars each year — adding about 14.531 trillion dollars to the deficit by 2031. That’s on top of the current deficit. That means the U.S. Government will spend at least 14.531 trillion dollars more than it takes in through tax revenue in just one decade.
The federal government, unlike local and state governments, is allowed by law to go into debt. How can it do that? Easy — just print more money. Our current national debt is more than 30-trillion dollars. That’s more than 91-thousand dollars per citizen — 242-thousand dollars per taxpayer. The four largest budget items are —
Medicare/Medicaid (almost 1.3 trillion dollars per year)
Social Security (more than 1.1 trillion dollars per year)
Defense (almost 725 billion dollars a year)
Interest on the Debt (more than 430 billion dollars per year).
Federal budgets in the trillions are not new for the United States. We moved into the era of trillion-dollar budgets under President Ronald Reagan in the late 1980s. That budget has continued to increase from his 1.1 trillion dollars to President Biden’s current 6-trillion dollar budget.
As for budget deficits, the last time our country had a budget surplus was 2001. Our federal government has gone from a budget surplus to a massive deficit since then.
I remember covering city and county budget meetings beginning in the 1960s. The budget numbers were usually in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some larger cities had budgets of a few million dollars. Those same city and county budgets are now in the tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars. Governmental budgets almost always go up — not down. Who pays for government spending? The taxpaying public.
Show Me The Money!
Journalists have an obligation to cover news that affects their readers or audience. Money affects everyone. That’s why all journalists should cover news about money. Whether it’s how government agencies spend taxpayer dollars, the cost of gasoline or groceries, or what’s happening to peoples’ retirement funds, journalists should explain how decisions and events are financially affecting the public. If you talk with people in your community about what matters to them you will hear them say, “Show me the money.” They want to know how what’s happening to their money. The journalist’s job is to show them.
Following the money is hard work. I know because I’ve been doing it for decades and it strains your eyes, neck, back, and patience. Many journalists don’t like to do financial stories for a variety of reasons. Some say the work is too hard. Some say they’re not good at math. Some say that covering financial stories is less interesting than other stories they can cover. Some say there are already plenty of financial journalists doing those kinds of stories for newspapers, networks, and cable outlets. Why should they concern themselves with covering financial news?
Yes, following the money is hard work. However, it’s also some of the most important work a journalist can do. Just about every story you cover has some financial aspect to it — especially if you cover any government agencies and departments (e.g. city, county, state, federal). You don’t have to have a degree in finance to be a journalist, but you do need to cover the news that affects the lives of your readers, listeners, or viewers.
Twelve Points for Economic Coverage
Here are twelve points to consider as you cover the financial allocation of funds approved by local, state and federal government agencies.
Find out how much money is allocated for the story you’re researching. Is that amount available to read? If so, where? If not, why not? Do you know who to contact in a department or agency of government to find out? If you do, contact them. If you don’t, find out who to contact and contact them. Get everything in printed form along with the names of the government employees who gave you the information.
Which department/agency will allocate the money? Federal? State? Local? Do you have a copy of their allocation? If not, get one. You can start with the text of bills from the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate and follow the bill through the process of joint body approval. Once the President signs the bill into law, you can get copies from the office of your local congress person or senator. You can also get copies of private and public laws from Gov.info. You can stay in touch with proposed legislation at Congress.gov. There are more allocation bills being proposed and considered every week, so keep your eyes open for what’s coming.
Who will receive the allocations? Other government agencies? Businesses? Organizations? Non-profits? Individuals? Are any of the scheduled recipients relatives, associates or favored groups of government employees or elected officials? Can you identify bias preference in the allocation process? If so, ask questions and find out why that’s being allowed and what people in power are going to do about it.
What, if any, requirements do recipients have to meet to receive allocations? If so, are those requirements available to read? If so, where? If not, why not? Get printed copies and the names of government employees who gave you the information.
What happens if recipients do not meet allocation requirements? Do they have to return money received? All of it? Part of it? What’s left? How will the public know if money is returned? Who is responsible for determining whether a recipient meets requirements? Do you have their contact information? Do they respond when you contact them? If not, how can you hold them responsible?
How often will allocations be made? Once? Weekly? Monthly? Annually? Who is responsible for determining whether allocations are made in a timely manner? Do you have their contact information? Do they respond when you contact them? If not, how can you hold them responsible?
When do the allocations begin? Immediately? Within days, weeks, months? A specific date?
When do the allocations end? When the money runs out? By a certain date or period of time? What happens if all the money is not spent by the deadline?
Who in government is responsible for allocating the money? Do you have their contact information? Do they respond when you contact them? If not, how can you hold them responsible?
Who in government is responsible for reporting the allocation of money? Will the reports be made public? If so, how and where? If not, why not? Do you have their contact information? Do they respond when you contact them? If not, how can you hold them responsible?
Who in government is responsible for overseeing the spending of money in individual allocations? Do you have their contact information? Do they respond when you contact them? If not, how can you hold them responsible?
Do the math carefully and hold each department/agency of government responsible for how they spend taxpayer money.
Once you have completed your research and confirmed information with government employees, elected officials and private experts, write and broadcast/publish your story.
Follow Up
Economic stories have an extremely long life, especially when the dollar amounts are in the millions, billions, and (gulp) trillions. It’s important that journalists follow up on their initial stories until there’s nothing more to report.
Follow up to make sure the government department/agency you’re covering is spending the money the way they said they would. Be sure to get a government representative on the record (e.g. video interview, quotes for article, etc) about their plans to spend taxpayer money. Politely, but firmly, hold them accountable for every dollar.
Follow up to see if government officials/employees have diverted money when they think the media/public is looking at something else or no longer paying attention. The diversions may be illegal, so it’s important to catch corrupt government officials/employees in the act. Having them on the record saying they will faithfully follow the law in spending taxpayer money goes a long way to demonstrating their bad intent if they divert money to other expenses. Journalists are advocates for the public and must be vigilant in making sure government employees do what they said they would do. Journalists hold people in power responsible and accountable for their actions.
Follow up to see if the government department/agency you’re covering is asking for more money. A good story for journalists to do is an in-depth look at how a government department/agency spent their first allocation. How they used taxpayer money in the past is one indication of how they would use taxpayer money in the future. The taxpaying public needs to know when government officials/employees have a history of misspending their money.
Look for anything the GAO reports about the department/agency you’re covering. Remember that government agencies reporting on government agencies is a tool. Journalists need to be skeptical until they’ve confirmed information to be true.
Follow up with your state and local government auditors (e.g. comptrollers) to look at their most recent reports and ask them questions to understand what they’re seeing with spending.
Follow up with health and medical experts you’ve used for your stories to see if they have new information that might impact the economic aspects of what you’ve reported. In the case of a public health crisis, ask them if they’ve changed their minds about the cost of their response.
Follow up with the economic experts you’ve used for your stories to see if they have new information that might impact the stories you’ve reported. Ask them if they’ve changed their minds about expenditures and revenues. Experts often change their minds as new data becomes available, so be sure to check in with them regularly.
Follow up means not letting the stories you do slip away from you. Even as you are assigned new stories, stay in touch with your sources to make sure you don’t overlook an important aspect of a previous story that will impact your viewers/listeners/readers.
The Money Trail
Money almost always leaves a trail. What journalists need to learn is how to follow the money trail to its source. They can do that through researching bank documents, credit card receipts, online money transfers, computer data, etc. Finding the source usually reveals two important things —
The Reason
The People
Next Newsletter
We’ll take a closer look at how to “follow the people” in the next newsletter.
Comments Welcome
I hope these thoughts are helpful to you as a journalist or news consumer. Please share your comments and I’ll respond as quickly as I can. If you like what we’re doing in this newsletter, please let your friends know about it so they can subscribe.
Newsletter Purpose
The purpose of this newsletter is to help journalists understand how to do real journalism and the public know how they can find news they can trust on a daily basis. It’s a simple purpose, but complicated to accomplish. We’ll do our best to make it as clear as we can in future newsletters.