It is bad enough that the country still does not have a budget but what progress that has been made to formulate and approve one has also been a travesty. As you know, the United States government’s national debt is now well north of $14 TRILLION and rising at a record pace. Government expenditures in fiscal year 2011 are expected to be about $3.8 TRILLION but the government is only collecting about $2.3 TRILLION in taxes, creating a budget deficit of roughly $1.5 TRILLION on top of the $14 TRILLION. Thus, the Federal government will spend about $.40 more for every dollar in taxes it collects.
Given these dire circumstances, one would have hoped, even dared, that some politicians would have assumed a leadership role in drastically cutting government spending before our debt becomes unpayable and our country and its freedoms become untenable. As always, however, our political class continues to disappoint. Despite months of wrangling, name calling, and inaction, today’s news reports indicate that a budget agreement may be reached soon that cuts $33 billion out of Federal spending. $33 billion is only .87% of all Federal spending.
To understand how sad and inadequate this effort at responsible government and finances has been, consider some simple math examples:
• If the typical American household earns about $60,000 a year, then a .87% reduction in its spending would be equal to about $522 a year, about $10 a week or about $1.43 a day, less than the cost of a latte at Starbucks, hardly a drastic cut in spending or lifestyle.
• Unfortunately, if that household spent and borrowed like the Federal government, it would have spent $84,000, about $24,000 more than it earned in one year. Within about two and half years it would have spent more, and owed more, than the equivalent of its annual gross earnings.
• If .87% fewer people attended the Super Bowl last season, there still would have been 102,321 people watching the game in person, making hardly a dent in traffic or concession lines.
• If you were in a leaking row boat and water was coming over the sides at the rate of 14 gallons a minute (representing the 2011 Federal deficit), the political class would be removing that water at the rate of about a cup a minute (the equivalent to the .87% budget cut), an action that would quickly result in both you and the boat sinking to the bottom.
• If the typical human should consume about 2.500 calories a day, a human eating like the Federal deficit would be eating at the rate of 3,500 calories a day, a sure fire recipe for obesity and a variety of diseases, including death, in a short period. Reducing that 3,500 calorie intake by .87% is equivalent to just over 30 calories or about one ounce of yogurt. Hello heart disease!
You could also come up with other, more qualitative and sillier analogies (e.g. if the .87% was Viagra the human race would be extinct within forty years, if that .87% was a calculator we would still be using an abacus, etc.) but you get the idea. Not only is the budget late, it is a disaster. The people sitting in Congress and in the White House either are not smart enough to be fiscally responsible, do not know how to be fiscally responsible, or do not want to be fiscally responsible since it might cost them some votes in the next election, i.e. better to protect their political career than the future financial solvency of the United States. Whatever the case, the boat is sinking, our arteries are clogging, and economic death is fast approaching.
And the situation is getting worse due to events outside of Washington. President Obama has recently attacked a sovereign country, Libya that posed no risk to the United States, without approval from Congress or the American people. This attack has already cost the country over $550 million, eating up 2% of the $33 billion in budget cuts within the first week of military activity. At this rate, the measly $33 billion budget reduction could be wiped out by Labor Day due to Libyan military operations.
The earthquake in Japan has caused widespread devastation that will require years to repair and untold hundreds of billions of dollars. According to an article in the March 23, 2011 issue of The Week magazine, Japan holds almost $900 billion of U.S. debt. What happens when 1) Japan no longer buys new U.S. debt since it needs all the cash it has to rebuild its own country and 2) Japan decides to start selling billions and billions of its U.S. debt to raise cash for its reconstruction effort? What happens is that the U.S. Treasury will find it much more difficult to find buyers of Treasury notes to finance annual TRILLION dollar deficits.
$33 billion, how pathetic of an effort is that? Think how easy it could be if someone in Congress had just a little creativity, ingenuity, and courage:
• Last year the Associated Press reported on a government analysis that showed the Federal government annually wastes up to about $96 billion in improper payments through some of its government programs because of fraud or incompetence. Just reducing this waste of money by one third would get us to about $33 billion without any typical American suffering, only the crooks that rip off the system would feel the pain.
• If President Obama had gotten U.S. troops out of Iraq, where we still have about 50,000 troops stationed, quicker than the Bush timetable, we probably would have been already saving $20 to $30 billion a year without any typical American suffering.
• If the President really showed some leadership and brought home the hundred thousand or so U.S. troops from Germany, South Korea, and Japan, where they now serve no legitimate purpose, well over $33 billion could be saved annually without any typical American suffering, only the military industrial complex would feel the pain.
• If the political class finally decided to terminate the practice of earmarks, which are nothing more than a way for politicians to raise money for their re-election campaigns by using taxpayer money, then most conservative estimates say that almost half of the $33 billion reduction could be realized without any typical American suffering, only incumbent politicians would feel the financial pain.
• If the political class implemented the findings of a recent General Accounting Office report, a report that indicated military procurement processes were so inefficient that over $40 billion a year was spent on military items that were either unused or never required, suggested purchasing reforms could be implemented to save tens of billions of dollars a year without any typical American suffering, only the providers of the unneeded equipment would see a drop in business
• If the political class stopped funding the Market Access program, a program which subsidizes the foreign advertising and promotion efforts of large American companies, and forced those companies to fund their own foreign promotions, the budget could be reduced by about $250 million a year without any typical American suffering only those large corporations would feel the pain in their increased advertising and promotion budgets. Terminate about 130 other corporate welfare programs and you may have your $33 billion in savings.
There, that wasn’t so hard and I am not even a government budget expert. Cutting the government spending relatively painlessly can be done very easily when you are talking about a bloated $3.8 TRILLION budget. The fact that the political class is months late and hundreds of billions of dollars away from a realistic and financially sane budget is indeed a travesty and an embarrassment. That is why two steps from “Love my Country, Loathe My Government” are critically important if we are to save the country from a financial collapse:
• Step 6 would allow only individual Americans to contribute to political campaigns. It would ban campaign donations from any organized entity including businesses, unions, PACs, etc. It is these “entity” donations that prevent the politicians in Washington from making even the simplest budget cuts since they are dependent on the entities’ campaign donations. Eliminate the campaign financing from these groups and maybe some politicians would finally act for the good of the country, not the good of their campaign coffers.
• Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federal political offices. The current crop of politicians sitting in Washington have now proven without a doubt that they are incompetent to run the country. They are oblivious to the coming financial crash and unable to run any aspect of government efficiently and effectively. They need to be removed from office, either via the ballot box or via term limits. They are too dangerous to remain in Congress and to remain in charge.
They are indeed a travesty and an embarrassment, we should also make them history.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/ http://www.repealamendmen.com/
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