Downsizing Blog
Today is that unofficial American holiday where we mourn the loss of a year’s worth of productive private resources to our bloated federal government. And it’s not just the actual dollars paid to Uncle Sam – it’s also the economic loss due to all the time and money wasted trying to comply with an increasingly complex tax code:
The 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act sparked a huge increase in federal education spending and regulations. The legislation’s Title I was supposed to provide aid to K–12 schools in high-poverty areas, but by the end of the 1960s it was providing aid to 60 percent of the nation’s school districts. Today, Title I is the largest federal subsidy program for K–12 education.
The budgetary recklessness that was a hallmark of the Bush presidency has gotten worse under President Obama. Like the previous administration, the Obama administration was fully aware when it took office that the country is facing an entitlement-driven budgetary crisis.
One of the topics Chris Edwards will be discussing with Glenn Beck this evening (5:00 EST, Fox) is the “Not-So-Great Depression” of 1920-21.
A couple of weeks ago I discussed the rising cost of the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Pentagon officials told the Senate Armed Services Committee that costs for the F-35 had jumped more than 50 percent since the program began in 2001. Now the Pentagon has informed Congress that the price tag is going to be even higher when new estimates are completed in the summer.
Sentiment for reducing government spending is rising, and the unstructured tea party movement is its most visible representation. However, Americans unhappy with overspending in Washington need to get more specific about where it thinks the federal budget ought to be cut.
National Journal reports that two key policymakers don’t support the U.S. Postal Service’s desire to
eliminate Saturday mail delivery. House Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jose Serrano (D-NY) says he’ll be working with USPS management and the postal unions to avoid service cuts. And House Oversight and Government Reform Federal Workforce Subcommittee ranking member Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) announced that he too opposes the move.
Policy wonks on the left are sometimes willing to concede that particular ideas they supported for micromanaging the economy haven’t worked out as planned. But they are rarely willing to admit that there are deeper problems with central planning in general.
Federal politicians launch expensive new programs on a regular basis. With all the adding, it would be nice if policymakers also did some subtracting. But trying to cut programs makes you unpopular with your colleagues and special interest groups. As a result, it is rare to find a member of Congress who seriously tries to kill particular programs rather than just complaining that “Washington spends too much.”
When the president’s health care reform was causing public angst, the administration announced a
crackdown on fraud and abuse in government health programs. Now that the public is getting agitated over the president’s massive deficits, the administration
says that it is going to crack down on improper payments made by all government programs, which totaled $100 billion in 2009 according to government estimates.
Pages
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by
WeebPal.
