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It has been a very long time since our elected and appointed representatives actually paid attention to how and where our tax dollars are being spent. Regardless of which party is in charge in D.C., they spend more money than they take from we taxpayers. I could say they spend money like drunken sailors, but that would insult drunken sailors. You see, drunken sailors stop drinking when they run out of money. Our government carelessly throws our money around as if it is Monopoly money. Like Parker Brothers, the manufacturer of Monopoly, Congress just prints more money when it runs out. We are mistaken to think the halls of government are filled with exceedingly intelligent people. It is fair, however, to expect them to understand that the spending of $5 trillion when you only have $3 trillion, can’t go on forever. The fact is they do understand. They just don’t care. They are making a reckless bet that when this great nation goes bankrupt, someone else will be sitting in their seats and therefore get the blame. That is a careless, self centered, bet that will eventually destroy the lives of most Americans.

It is my belief that generalizations are made by lazy and/or stupid people. It is for that reason that I avoid making them. Therefore, I will not accuse every elected representative, or every member of the bureaucracy, of carelessly wasting taxpayer dollars. I am comfortable in blaming both political parties, and most government departments, of maintaining a very cavalier attitude toward the use of “other people’s money”. Government employees have either a stated, or implied, fiduciary responsibility to protect the assets entrusted to their care. Too many elected representatives treat those assets as personal reelection funds. (Had members of Congress not “borrowed” Social Security deposits to use for pet projects that help them get reelected, there would be a $2.4+/- trillion surplus in the account. We would not be worrying about Soc. Sec. going bankrupt). Too many heads of departments treat their departments as their own little personal fiefdoms. If the USA is to regain fiscal solvency, both of these attitudes must be changed very soon.

Barack Obama created more debt in his 8 years in office than all previous presidents, combined. Donald Trump, in his 4 years in office, was on pace to create more debt than Obama. In his first 3 years, Joe Biden has made both of them look like pikers. Our national debt has exploded to something over $33 trillion. This past year our government paid nearly $700 billion in interest on that national debt. (For reference, that is equivalent to the entire federal budget in 1986). Interest payments are on pace to become the second largest item on our national budget, after defense, in a couple of years. Elected officials enjoy giving money away to people who like getting things for free. (In exchange for their votes). Especially when the money they give away isn’t theirs. They pass thousand page Omnibus spending bills every year. Those bills include billions of dollars “earmarked” for pet projects in their congressional districts. The bills could more accurately be called the incumbent reelection bills. No member of Congress knows what is in the bill when they pass it. Most don’t care what their peers receive as long as they get theirs. These bills are very expensive for every taxpaying American. On the receiving end, there are really stupid people who believe the money the government gives them is free. There are also useless people who don’t care where politicians get the money. They don’t pay any taxes, so the funds ARE free to them. The rest of us recognize that every freebie the government gives away must first be confiscated from those who go to work every day.

Most of us are aware of the mountains of money that is wasted by our politicians. You many not be aware that bureaucrats rip us off in a different way. Every year departments receive a budget from the federal government. That budget is designed to facilitate the efficient management of the various departments for the entire fiscal year. The government operates under an October-September fiscal year. Over the years, bureaucrats have come to believe that if those funds weren’t spent, they were at risk of receiving a reduced amount the following year. That fear of losing budgeted money has created what is known as the “use it or lose it” spending phenomenon. This system creates a real government spending frenzy in the month of September. In Sept. 2019, the government let contracts totaling $91 billion. This was significantly more than any other month of that year. The last 2 business days of the year saw $23.8 billion spent. The last 9 days saw government contractors receive contracts totaling $51 billion. That was more than any previous MONTH. If you feel your blood pressure rising, you’d better take a blood pressure pill before reading what these thieves are buying with our tax dollars. What follows is just a sampling. All departments combined spent $457 million on new furniture in Sept. Apparently the old furniture was only sufficient for 11 months. They desperately needed $253 million of new vehicles, $53 million for new batteries, and $25 million on workout and exercise equipment. Seeing as how it seemed to be Christmas in Sept., there was a need for some items to help celebrate. So they spent $4.6 million on lobster tails and snow crabs, $3.7 million on toys and musical equipment. They felt they needed $1.5 million for guns and ammunition at HHS, the VA, and the Education Department, not one of which has anything to do with defense, or law enforcement. Finally, in order to toast in the new fiscal year, they spent $500,000 on assorted alcoholic beverages. We pay the heads of government departments six figure incomes, combined with world class perks. We have a right to expect them to do a better job of handling our tax dollars.

I have repeatedly said that the government could cut the budgets of every department by 10% and nobody would notice. We must elect people who pledge to make such cuts. It is time for us to demand that our government be more responsible in how it spends our hard earned tax dollars. We must demand the separation of requests for funds into 2 classes. The first being for government departments, the second into requests for reelection funds in the form of earmarks. When they are lumped together it is easier for elected representatives to hide their nefarious bribes. As the people who are providing the funds we have the right to see which elected representatives are guilty of wasting our money. Finally, we have to demand receipts, along with a written statement explaining why the requests are necessary. It all begins in the primary elections. Let’s be sure to elect those people who will do what is best for us.

Thank you for taking the time to read my latest writing. I hope you found them interesting and informative. Bob