Commerce

Okay, show of hands. Who here knew that the national weather service is listed under the Department of Commerce? I must say, the budget for the Department of Commerce is not nearly as user friendly as the budget for the Department of Agriculture. I did, however, learn a few things by looking at it.

The Department of Agriculture has a $95 billion budget. The Department of Commerce has an $8.2 billion budget. I guess not all departments are equal.

The Commerce Department has the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which collects about $2 million in fees and doesn't need any more money to operate because if they did they wouldn't have a budget amount of $0 I'm sure.

The Commerce Department is also in charge of the digital t.v. switch, which has a $2 million budget, and the 2010 Census which has $2 billion dollars being spent on it this 2009 fiscal year and the Office of the Inspector General who gets $23 million. It is, however, interesting to note that while the Commerce Department is responsible for U.S. Travel and Tourism, their current budget isn't spending any money in this area. I guess there's no point in promoting travel and tourism when so few have the money to travel. That makes sense.

After looking over the budget for the Commerce Department I came to the conclusion that maybe they don't have a big enough budget. Agriculture gets $95 billion, Commerce gets $8.2 billion. The primary goal of the budget of the Department of Commerce, however, is, " to create the conditions for economic growth and opportunity by promoting innovation, entrepreneurship, competitiveness, and stewardship." The Commerce Department is responsible for the economy! I don't know about you, but I'm thinking maybe the budget for the Department of Commerce ought to be at least equal to the budget for food stamps. If the Commerce Department spent more money on entrepreneurship, (helping create paying jobs) then perhaps the food stamp budget would go down. It's just a thought.

Copyright © 2009 Annette Fortunato

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