(Mike Tanner discusses his new book: Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution, very worthwhile listening.)
“Bush projects record federal deficit,” declared my local paper’s headline. The $482 billion shortfall breaks the old record for borrowed expenditures, set in 2004, by some $69 billion. Of course, if the economy doesn’t perform as expected, or if the housing crisis drags on longer than current projections indicate, or…fill in the blank…the red ink could top $500 billion. For one year. Of course, the Feds will spend more than half a trillion dollars they don’t have in fiscal 2009 because the enormous cost of the Afghan and Iraq wars are “off budget,” not included in the normal balance sheet figures because those expenditures are regarded as “emergency spending.” So, Mr. and Ms. taxpayer, drop ‘em and spread ’em, you are about to receive a record shafting.
I have but one question. Where is the outrage? The editors of my daily aren’t too concerned. After all, the above mentioned headline appeared in the Business portion of the paper, section D! The subhead reveals just how clueless journalists are nowadays. “Shortfall driven by sagging economy, stimulus payments,” claim the cognoscenti of print media. No it isn’t! Here’s the truth: “Shortfall driven by voters eager to elect shills who will spend other people’s money like it grows on trees.” OK, it’s clumsy, but much closer to reality. In any case, after a few days of Bush-bashing by CNN and other Democrats, this budget hubbub will fade away as they all do, revived only as one or both presidential candidates see vote-gaining opportunities by spinning the extravagant spending to their advantage. Joe and Josephine Average American may shake their heads in dismay, but it won’t be long before the cares of this world pull them away from federal budget concerns. The household budget is a more pressing matter. After all, each candidate says he can balance the budget in a few years. What’s the worry?
To put things in perspective, total federal receipts during Ronald Reagan’s first year in office just about equal the projected deficit spending for next year, including the war spending, and not adjusted for inflation. In other words, we are going to borrow in one year an amount that used to fund the entire federal government for one year. Scary? Only for our grand kids. The rest of us frogs-in-a-pot will go on croaking about this or that bum in Washington or Sacramento (if you are a Californian), where a similar if smaller budget implosion is playing out. We will vote in November, returning upwards of 98% of incumbents to their positions of power, griping all the while about the loss of America’s standing in the world, the price of gasoline, and the state of baseball in San Diego. But, take a stand to bring about real change? Throw out the spendthrifts, replacing them with responsible, accountable legislators? No thanks, I haven’t got the time.
By this time next year America will have far surpassed $10 trillion of national debt, and it’s about time someone affixed the blame where it truly belongs. Oh, the politicians are responsible, in part. But let’s face it, we elect them and applaud as they spend money on this bridge or that freeway or one more Robert C. Byrd Social Services Center. Senator Byrd does illustrate what’s wrong with the political landscape in America. A former Ku Klux Klan member, Byrd filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In a better world, he’d be picking cotton somewhere. Instead, he’s the Senate’s longest serving member in American history, having assumed office on January 3, 1959! And, he has the buildings to prove it. Ann Coulter provides the following partial list:
“Some items funded by taxpayers — but still somehow named after “Robert C. Byrd” — are: The Robert C. Byrd Highway; the Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam; the Robert C. Byrd Institute; the Robert C. Byrd Life Long Learning Center; the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program; the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope; the Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing; the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse; the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center; the Robert C. Byrd Academic and Technology Center; the Robert C. Byrd United Technical Center; the Robert C. Byrd Federal Building; the Robert C. Byrd Drive; the Robert C. Byrd Hilltop Office Complex; the Robert C. Byrd Library; the Robert C. Byrd Learning Resource Center; the Robert C. Byrd Rural Health Center.”
The voters of West Virginia will keep this pork barrel king in office until he assumes room temperature. They are, like us, the ones to blame for Washington’s budget woes. Until Americans pay as much attention to the machinations of our political elite as they do to the mundane but nearby things of life, look for wasteful spending as far as the eye can see. Someday, our grandchildren will curse us.
(Dick Armey discusses big government conservatism.)
Posted by Jerry Pomeroy in Budgets, Government Waste, Limiting Government, Video