12/18/2009

from Human Events

Federal Spending Increased to $30,000 per Household in 2009

by Brian Riedl

To get a handle on how out of control federal spending has become, consider this: It surged to $30,000 per household in 2009. That’s up from $21,000 (adjusted for inflation) in the 1980s and ‘90s. Yet rather than cut back, Congress plans to spend even more.

Lawmakers want an additional 11% domestic discretionary spending hike in 2010, as well as an expensive new healthcare entitlement. In the absence of spending restraint, closing these budget deficits would require permanent tax increases exceeding $8,000 per household.

Congress should reform Social Security and Medicare, eliminate outdated programs, and take back unspent stimulus and financial bailout funds. They could at least build budgetary credibility with the American people by cutting indefensible government waste, such as the following examples:

Washington spends $92 billion annually on corporate welfare (not even counting recent corporate bailouts) versus $71 billion on homeland security.

The federal government made at least $72 billion in payment errors in 2008.

Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.

Government auditors spent the last five years examining all federal programs and found no evidence that 22% of them -- costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually -- help the populations they serve.

The Congressional Budget Office published a “Budget Options” series identifying more than $100 billion in potential spending cuts. It went largely ignored.

Government auditors examining wasteful duplication counted 342 economic development programs, 130 programs serving the disabled, 130 programs serving at-risk youth, and 90 early-childhood development programs.

Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.

The Securities and Exchange Commission spent $3.9 million rearranging desks and offices at its Washington headquarters.

The Pentagon spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas, and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida.

Healthcare fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $60 billion annually.

A government audit found that 95 Pentagon weapons systems suffered from a combined $295 billion in cost overruns.

The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades.

Washington spent $126 million in 2009 to enhance the Kennedy family legacy in Massachusetts. Additionally, Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.) diverted $20 million from the 2010 defense budget to subsidize a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute.

The federal government owns more than 50,000 vacant homes.

The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland.

Taxpayers are funding paintings of high-ranking government officials at a cost of up to $50,000 apiece.

Members of Congress have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars supplying their offices with popcorn machines, plasma televisions, DVD equipment, ionic air fresheners, camcorders and signature machines -- plus $24,730 leasing a Lexus, and $84,000 on personalized calendars.

Washington has spent $3 billion re-sanding beaches -- even as this new sand washes back into the ocean.

Last year’s 10,160 earmarks included $200,000 for a tattoo-removal program in Mission Hills, Calif., $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Center in Cody, Wyo., and $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Ga.

The Postal Service spent $13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.

President Obama and Congress have no right to demand higher taxes until they first clean up this wasteful spending.

Mr. Riedl is the Grover M. Hermann fellow in federal budgetary affairs in the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

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Tax Tip:

Jesus Christ said “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s”  (Matthew 22:21). Think about that. The Caesar family went out of business about 1500 years ago when the Roman Empire collapsed. Christ didn't say anything about rendering unto the IRS. - Some might say that he implied that you should pay taxes to the civil authorities, but look at that long list of fraud, waste and abuse; and that's just some examples. If you send your money to the IRS you're an "enabler" like a person giving a hopeless alcoholic money to go buy a bottle to get wasted. Maybe we need to stop giving them money and instead send them to detox. Quit enabling their addiction. Cut them off.