Saturday, October 29, 2011

Federal Spending Simplified

A good friend of mine sent me an email today with the information below. 

I have written in the past about the way the public has become numb to the billions and trillions in spending that our politicians throw around.  This does a great job of putting the governmental spending and debt problem into a format that every individual can relate to.

U.S. Tax revenue:          $  2,170,000,000,000
Fed budget:                $  3,820,000,000,000
New debt:                  $  1,650,000,000,000
National debt:             $ 14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cut:         $     38,500,000,000

Let's remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

Annual family income:                      $  21,700
Money the family spent:                    $  38,200
New debt on the credit card:               $  16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card:    $ 142,710
Total budget cuts:                         $     385

So to deal with our spending problem, this administration thinks cuts of 1.00% of current spending are the way to solve our problem.  This is like you and I taking a bag lunch to work 1 day a week instead of going out to lunch.


You would not be able to conduct your financial affairs in this manner, so why do we think it is OK for the federal government to do so?  If these numbers were really from an individual or household, they would be filing bankruptcy.  This is a serious situation and we need serious leadership.

The situation we find ourselves in should come as no surprise as the Senate has not passed a budget for the past two years and has no intention of passing a budget for next year.  The House has approved a budget, most families have a budget, so why don't we hold the Senate accountable?

We have already seen from my previous post that taxing companies and people more will not solve the problem.  The Simpson-Bowles report contained a plethora of ideas on spending cuts and revenue improvements, but the President ignored it, even though he commissioned the report.  Paul Ryan has proposed the Path to Prosperity and again all he got for his great work was criticism from the Administration.  All we hear from this President is that no one if presenting solutions to the problem.  The reality is, there are people of both sides of the aisle making recommendations, this President just doesn't want to use them.

Well, we the people, will have a chance to hear our voice heard.  This fall the choice is clear, are you better off now than you were 4 years ago and do you think the country is better off than it was 4 years ago?  It is unfortunate, but for the vast majority of Americans would probably answer no.  We have seen excessive government spending and regulation that has cost businesses trillion in additional expense that will ultimately be borne by use in the form of higher prices.

You need to make your voice heard.  Task a stand and tell your elected representatives that you are sick and tiered of the way this country manages our hard earned money/  If they can't fix this fiscal mess, we will elect others who are willing to make the tough choices and put this country back on the road to fiscal stability.

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