To: US Government – Stop Wasting and Spending our Money
The federal government spends money on a variety of goods, programs, and services to support the American public and pay interest incurred from borrowing. In fiscal year (FY) 2022, the government spent $6.27 trillion, which was more than it collected (revenue), resulting in a deficit. The U.S. Constitution allows Congress to create a federal budget – in other words, to determine how much money the government can spend over the upcoming fiscal year. Congress’s budget is then approved by the President. Every year, Congress decides the amount and the type of discretionary spending and provides resources for mandatory spending.
It is imperative that the US Government become fiscally responsible NOW in spending the People’s money. Enough is enough of the continued wasteful spending at all levels of government (federal, state, and local). The government has lacked discipline and integrity in bleeding money from the Treasury.[1]
Federal Debt now: $31,317,682,511,738.10 (Dollars in Trillions)
What is included in government spending?
- Medicare – 21.3%. $1 trillion.
- Social security – 20.3%. $996.4 billion.
- Health – 13.4% – $658.9 billion.
- Income security – 9.7%. $477.8 billion.
- Net interest payment on borrowing – 9.6%. $470.7 billion.
- General government expenditure – 8.3%. $407.9 billion.[2]
If you read these examples, remember that the U.S. government’s total public debt outstanding was nearly $30.5 trillion. That brings me to a very specific line item from this year’s report: According to the United States Treasury, the United States spent $562.4 billion in the Fiscal Year 2022. Federal spending is careening out of control – as Washington bureaucrats fritter our tax dollars away on slots-playing pigeons and zombified cats.
Four months after the US national debt shot past the $30 trillion mark for the first time in history, a new report from Illinois-based nonprofit American Transparency is detailing some of the foolish, fraudulent, and frivolous federal projects that have spent us into an economic ditch.
“The federal government isn’t just wasting your money. They are literally ripping you off,” said Adam Andrzejewski, the Transparency group’s founder. “They are milking taxpayers like dairy cows.” Andrzejewski pointed to a March report from the Government Accountability Office that tallied $281 billion in improper and mistaken payments in 2021 alone – without even attempting to count the billions wasted on fraud-ridden COVID.
The Democrats, Independents, and Republicans have failed the American people. BOTH PARTIES and all Presidents are responsible for this financial disaster. THEY OWN IT! The Federal deficit has been out of control for years! The following report does not surprise me at all, the two-party system in America has been broken for years. Power, Partisan Politics and Greed have taken over American politics.[3] Attempts to the resolution of Issues and problems are seemingly analyzed by peering through a political prism rather than a Reality Prism.[4]
There is no attention on our children that do not get proper food every day in America. The elderly getting forgotten about in our country. Where are all these people that are not working getting their money to live on? Businesses and Companies cannot get enough workers. This problem is all over America, the land of FREE MONEY! Government assistance has gone too far. Who is watching out for hard-working Americans? How about the billions flowing into Ukraine and for the most part unaccountable?
We cannot control INFLATION unless we get government spending down.
CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options and their effects on the federal budget. This document provides estimates of the budgetary savings from 83 options that would decrease federal spending or increase federal revenues. Congress faces an array of policy choices as it confronts a daunting budgetary situation. At 14.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the deficit in 2020 was the largest it has been since the end of World War II. Much of that deficit stemmed from the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the government’s actions in response —but the projected deficit was large by historical standards ($1.1 trillion, or 4.9 percent of GDP) even before the disruption caused by the pandemic. In the Congressional Budget Office’s projections, deficits as a percent of GDP fall between 2021 and 2027 (from 8.6 percent of GDP to 4.0 percent), and then increase to 5.3 percent of GDP by 2030—more than one-and-a-half times the average over the past 50 years.
CBO projects that if current laws governing taxes and spending generally remained unchanged, federal debt held by the public would first exceed 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021 and would reach 107 percent of GDP, its highest level in the nation’s history, by 2023. Debt would continue to increase in most years thereafter, reaching 195 percent of GDP by 2050. High and rising federal debt makes the economy more vulnerable to rising interest rates and, depending on how that debt is financed, rising inflation. The growing debt burden also raises borrowing costs, slowing the growth of the economy and national income, and it increases the risk of a fiscal crisis or a gradual decline in the value of Treasury sec No political speech or press event can finish without at least one question linking whatever the topic may be back to the budget and its impact on the national debt. From the campaign to the inauguration to the State of the Union address, the underlying theme was balancing the budget and eliminating or getting our national debt under control. There is a serious question as to whether this can even be done considering the size and scope of federal spending. However, it is possible, and if we look at the size and scope of the government, military spending, entitlements, and tax reform, there are several suggested ways to eliminate our deficit by 2030.
- Cut Foreign Aid in Half – $17 billion. As a country, we are facing huge deficits and cannot continue to provide aid at current amounts. If we cannot help ourselves, how can we help others? My solution is not to eliminate foreign aid. Countries must earn our aid and give no aid based on international politics. Give based on need! Aid to Ukraine is above and beyond this amount.
- Eliminate Earmarks – $14 billion. Earmarks have been a great talking point for both parties during campaign season, but no one ever does anything about it, because these pet projects for home districts are a good way to keep securing votes. Let’s finally put an end to the practice.
- Cut 250,000 Government Contractors – $17 billion. Contractors typically are cheaper than actual employees, but when the number of contractors greatly outnumbers employees, something needs to be done. Either see if current employees can do the job or outsource it to the private market.
- Reduce the Size of World-Wide Troop Presence – $49 billion. We can produce savings by reducing the size of the military to the pre–Iraq War size and reducing our presence in Europe and Asia by 26%, which would also be less (33%) than future projected levels. Acting as the police of the world only stretch our defenses out, and as history has proven all great empires fall when they stretch their defenses too far.
- Cap Medicare Growth – $562 billion. If we cap Medicare growth at G.D.P. plus one percentage point, we can start saving significantly. One piece of reform this could spark is looking at the hospitals and doctors with the highest costs and look for ways to reduce them.
- Reduce Benefits for Those with High Incomes – $54 billion. Social Security will continue to be a hot topic. One way to produce savings that is not talked about widely is reducing the benefits of high earners. This is not eliminating their benefits or giving the benefits they paid for to someone else. What it does do, is grow its benefits at a slower clip.
- Return Estate and Investment Taxes back to Clinton-Era Levels – $150 billion. The Clinton era is the last time we had a balanced budget and a surplus. Since that time both presidents have run deficits and run our debt to all-time highs. It makes sense to return tax rates to the Clinton levels since that was the last time the government was prosperous.
- Payroll Tax: Subject Incomes Over $106,000 to the tax – $100 billion. This is the tax that pays for Social Security and Medicare, but we cap how much income can be taxed. If we remove or increase this cap, we can generate a lot more money for these programs that can increase their longevity.
- Eliminate Loopholes, Credits, and Lower Rates – $229 billion. The deficit commission came up with a plan to lower rates while eliminating some tax breaks in the Bowles-Simpson Plan. The plan cut all breaks except for the child and earned income credits and those for mortgages, health, and retirement benefits while cutting the corporate tax rate and individual rates for all brackets. I take this one step further by adding the mortgage deduction as well. Currently, high earners benefit the most from the credit and not middle to lower-income homeowners. If we are lowering rates across the board we can eliminate this credit, or at a minimum think of ways to reform it.
Trying to find a balanced approach is never easy but doable and my final numbers came from 60% spending cuts and 40% tax increases. Our leaders in Washington are more focused on their respective party lines than doing what is right for the country. As a result, we have people resigned to the fact that we may never have a balanced budget or eliminate our debt. The fact of the matter is that if our political leaders can stop looking for the easy way out and instead focus on the size and scope of the government, military spending, entitlements, and tax reform we can eliminate our federal debt by 2030.
[5] Securities and Exchange Commission 2022
Released and Distributed by the Stand Up America US Foundation
Contact: standupamericaus@protonmail.com
[1] Fiscal Data Official Website USG 2022
[2] GAO Report 2022
[3] NY Post
[4] Reality Prism, Amazon Books 2022
