NASA and The Department of Ecology (DOE) are funded from the general fund, which is to say from our income taxes, excise taxes, alcohol taxes, etc. These will never run out, and if we don’t collect as much of these taxes as Congress spends, then Congress approves a larger national debt to sell more bonds — or the Treasury Department to prints more money — to make up for the lack of federal income.

Social Security, like Medicare, are funded through special payroll taxes, and if those taxes are insufficient to cover the outlays, then there is no legal recourse. Social Security and Medicare are funds that can run out, just as any Ponzi scheme (previously: bubble scheme, before Ponzi, who was 15 years before Social Security, so FDR knew that he was creating a bubble scheme). Isn’t it fun that government can make things so complex that even government cannot understand them and the ramifications of having them? So what may appear to be a good idea (e.g. Obamacare) can actually be such a hideous mistake that no one dares make corrections for fear of admitting error.

Fortunately, Social Security won’t go broke for another couple of years, or months (or I don’t remember when) giving government an opportunity to do something about it, like breaking the promises made by the Social Security Administration. Four decades ago, they started taxing Social Security as an income tax,, if the recipient’s income was too high, thus moving Social Security funds into the general fund. No wonder Social Security is on the verge of going broke, Congress raided it for four decades.

Completing a project under budget and early was grounds for dressing down and possibly being reassigned.

This is the side effects of living off of congressional apportionments and doing everything to milk them to the max.