Congress Says You Have Money To Burn

19Nov2009
"When a man spends his own money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about how much he spends and how he spends it.

When a man spends his own money to buy something for someone else, he is still very careful about how much he spends, but somewhat less what he spends it on.

When a man spends someone else's money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about what he buys, but doesn't care at all how much he spends.

And when a man spends someone else's money on someone else, he doesn't care how much he spends or what he spends it on. And that's government for you. "– Milton Friedman

The progressive left likes to label the tea party movement as a bunch of tax whiners. They like to point out that the government has only collected 15% of Gross Domestic Product in taxes for Fiscal Year 2009 ($2.13 trillion), which is lower than the 40 year average of 18.3%.

That figure makes a nice talking point, but it's a red herring.

That figure uses the Keynes formula for calculating GDP, i.e. it includes federal spending in the calculation. The government has been on a record spending spree in '09, which artificially inflates GDP and makes the percentage of taxes collected lower in comparison. The real number looks something more like this:

Projected 2009 GDP of 14.25 trillion - 3.1 trillion in federal spending = 11.15 trillion in real gdp.

2.13 trillion in collected taxes / 11.15 trillion real GDP = 19.17%

Almost 20%, which is considerably MORE than the 40 years average. I don't care which side of the isle you're on, or which chamber of congress, our government loves to tax. Loves it. The Senate health care bill uses the word "tax" 183 times, and "taxable" 164.

Even so I think most people would happily pay what they do now, maybe a bit more, if they were confident that their money was being spent well. If they felt like government was lowering the debt, and keeping budgets under control to get the most use out of every last dollar.

But it's not. Our government is a bloated pig gorging itself at the trough of American productivity, and a messy eater at that.

A recent oversight report shows more than $98 Billion in wasted government spending for FY09,about 5% of total federal spending, a $26 billion jump from 2008. Let's look at some of the biggest offenders:

Housing and Urban Development: A waste of $1 billion, or 3.5 percent of the departmental budget. It's been attributed to the government granting public housing and rental assistance to those who should not have qualified.

Department of Agriculture: $4.3 billion in improper payments to give food stamps, and federal crop insurance, given to those who did not qualify or who received double payments.

Social Security Administration: $8.0 billion, or 1.2 percent much of it in disability payments, some of which were made to non U.S. citizens.

Department of Labor: $12.3 billion, wasted in providing unemployment benefits to people who did not qualify, or continuing payments after eligibility had run out.

Treasury: $12.3 billion shelled out to people who lied on their taxes to receive the earned income tax credit.

Health and Human Services: $55.1 billion, nearly ten percent of their budget pissed down the drain on fraudulent Medicare payments. But surely the new government option wouldn't have the same problem?

Sen. Tom Carper, chair of the Senate panel on federal financial management, believes that may be just the beginning as many government programs have yet to be evaluated. "It goes without saying that these results would be completely unacceptable in the private sector, as they should be in government, especially at a time of record deficits," Carper said.

This nation has no future if we cannot reign in government. Interest payments on our debt eat up 10% of the federal budget. Defense, Medicare, and Social Security are 60% of the budget. Yet only defense is regarded as discretionary. I have news for Washington, it's ALL discretionary. Entitlements are discretionary by nature, and our nation needs you to make the unpopular decision to cut them, even if it costs you your seat. If you don't, we'll find someone who will.

Call Congress at (202)224-3121 and tell them that a balanced budget and reducing the national debt take precedence over their political goodwill.