By Kyle Maule - November 9, 2010
Americans Have Made It Clear What They Want
Americans have made it clear. They want:
- A smaller government
- Less spending.
- Fiscal responsibility.
They want their elected officials to LEAD the way. They want their “representatives” to actually represent them but it just seems like they don’t “get it.” The President travels to India with FORTY planes. Does he really need that many? Could this cost be cut back a little? I have a one word possibility: Teleconferencing. Otherwise, the officials of other countries could come over here because – trust me- they will come for a LOT less! We could just pay their way and save money. Our elected politicians need to reflect the desires of the country they serve. So here are some examples of leading the way by example and in shrinking the size of government.
The Department of Agriculture
We have 105,000 total USDA employees and the BLS figure of 1.2 million farmers and farm workers — this gives us a ratio of 1 employee for every 11.4 farmers. We should ask the farmers how much benefit they get from all these “employees”. If they lost 90% of these employees – would the farmers even notice?
One important issue is whether the Department of Agriculture should actually exist. Does it perform duties authorized by the U.S. Constitution and consistent with a limited government? Regardless, this department has been growing enormously over the last decade. Has farming grown with or without the help of this behemoth?
According to the USDA, the number of farms in the U.S. in 1935 was 7 million. That number has since declined to estimates around 2 million (depending on how a farm is identified). Has the Department of Agriculture shrunk proportionately? To follow the will of the people without suffering (or even notice) we could eliminate more than 90 percent of the USDA’s budget, saving federal taxpayers $131 billion annually.
The Department of Education
The Department of Education will spend $107 billion in 2010. The schools are under the control of the state and local authorities. The people elect their own school boards and set their own rules and they pay for it with their own taxes. We have proven with our HUGE investment of federal government spending in education that money has nothing to do with improving the quality of education or we would be WAY above the world. Many believe that this is an EASY place to cut and never be felt by “the people.” Cutting the Department of Education by 90% would save taxpayers 100 billion a year.
The Department of Commerce
The Department of Commerce is the Census Bureau and Patent and Trademark Office. It is also home to unneeded programs that subsidize businesses and fund local development projects. Further, the department administers misguided foreign trade policies that try to boost exports and restrict imports.
The department will spend about $17 billion in 2010. It employs 53,000 workers and has more than 250 offices in the United States and abroad. It operates 97 different subsidy programs. We can find a way to cut this in half without hurting service to “the people” and save another 9 billion a year!
The Department of Health and Human Services
If you want to talk about an area of huge growth and expansion of government control – hold on to your hat – this one is HUGE! The Department of Health and Human Services administers the huge and fast-growing Medicare and Medicaid programs. The department also runs an array of other expensive subsidy programs, including Head Start, TANF, and LIHEAP. Growth in HHS spending is creating a federal financial crisis, and the 2010 health care law sadly makes the situation worse. We don’t need to cut the benefits to our seniors until we have cut all the government fat first. This department will spend $869 billion in 2010, or about $7,400 for every U.S. household. It employs 65,000 workers and operates more than 400 programs. Is that big or what? Even a 20% reduction in their “stuff” would save the tax payers nearly 200 billion dollars a year – let’s do it!!!!
The TSA Alone
How much does it cost you to have your shoes screened and your water thrown away before getting on the plane? The TSA annual budget is 8 billion. You say, “That doesn’t sound like much.” Oh yeah? Do the math. There are only 600 airports in America and 90% of them are small airports. Not six thousand airports – just a measly six hundred. Any private company could do TWICE the quality and service for 10% of this cost and make a GREAT profit!!!!!! We just saved 7 billion a year.
Elected Officials: Lead The Way –It Starts With You!
Our congress and President have been so kind as to tell us what “rich” is. RICH is a joint income of $250,000 a year. They have also told us that we should go after these RICH people and take their money – they can afford it. Nobody needs that much money. Okay – lead the way! Prove your convictions. If any elected official has a joint income of $250,000 outside of their government salary – be an example. They should not take any “civil servant” money. That should go back to the middle class or their designation of the poor. They themselves should get no additional income – they are rich. Now, if they make less than $250,000, we will pay them up to that amount so that they are now RICH too!!! We wouldn’t want them to be middle class. That ‘s fair.
The retirement benefits received by former Presidents include a pension, Secret Service protection, and reimbursements for staff, travel, mail, and office expenses. The Presidential pension is not a fixed amount, rather it matches the current salary of Cabinet members (or Executive Level I personnel), which is $191,300/year as of March, 2008. Are you sure they need this money that from sacrificing tax payers across the country? Are you sure they don’t make an incredible amount of money already from books and speaking and simply appearing? If they have an income of $250,000 a year outside of this pension – they are RICH and they don’t need it. Lead by example!
Don’t you think that our elected officials should live by the same pension rules as everybody else? As of October 1, 2006, 413 retired Members of Congress were receiving federal pensions based fully or in part on their congressional service. Of this number, 290 had retired under CSRS and were receiving an average annual pension of $60,972. If they serve for 5 years or more – the average pension is $54,000. Is this the way it works for all the other Americans? Hey, middle class: If you work a job for 5 years will you get a guaranteed income of $54,000 a year? Nobody else gets this kind of pension – why do they? Why don’t they have to live by the pension rules THEY set?
As of now, they should lead by example. If they have a joint income of $250,000 or more they should get no pension period – they are rich. If they do need a pension because they make less than that – they should live by the same rules as us. We are told we can only put in or save a small limited amount of money every year into an IRA for retirement. Not only that but of that money – it must be put into the stock market. We have no say outside of the market as to how we can invest. Does that sound like freedom when it is our money? There are a few loopholes for real estate as an example but they have made it so hard nobody can qualify. Americans have no idea how much their “retirement” will be worth because of this required investment and right now – millions can’t retire because they are stuck with the market that congress told us we must invest in and you sure can’t get to $54,000 in five years on what they allow us to save – but our elected officials have not put themselves under the same “system”. HMMM… I wonder why? Remember, they are the ones who created these laws that WE must live by… but they don’t.
These collective cuts alone would save us about 500 billion dollars a year – and we just got started – there is much more!
The Surest way to Balance The Budget and Get ALL of Congress and The President Working Together in a Bipartisan way.
Even if you don’t like my cost cutting ideas – I understand – so what should we do? Here is the one LAW that would GUARANTEE a balanced budget and get all of those politicians working together:
No small business owner would have a budget greater than their income. Why? Any owner of a small business knows that if your spending is more than your income – at the end of the day it comes out of YOUR pocket – because it is YOUR responsibility – YOU did it. You can’t just buy what you “believe” in or what you want or what others want you to buy. If your spending is more than your income YOU have to pay it – that is just the way it is. A business owner knows this – we can’t print more money. We made the budget and we pay for it.
If the budget makers – the President, the Senate and the House of Representatives – if they spend more than they make – whatever the overage is – THEY pay for it!!! You want to go over by a trillion dollars – no problem – it comes out of your collective pockets! A home has to do this. A small business has to do this. Why don’t THEY have to do this?
I promise you this – we will now find out what they REALLY believe in and how much they want it. I also believe we would all of a sudden a government working together to balance the budget!
Problem solved!
Why doesn’t raising taxes work to solve the problem?
You already know the obvious reasons that are stated over and over – don’t kick the very ones who will stimulate jobs, etc. But let me give you one reason that is never talked about.
In real life we know that if a family is in the habit of spending more money than they make and they are going deeper an deeper in debt – their problem wasn’t solved when they got a raise. Why? They simply raised their level of spending so that they still go into debt – the numbers just got bigger. The raise didn’t help because they have not learned to spend less than they make. You can go broke at ANY income level.
The Congress can raise taxes and and raise taxes and raise taxes and that raises their income but it doesn’t solve the problem. Why? They now just RAISE their level of spending and raise their level of spending and raise heir level of spending. The problem is NEVER solved until THEY resolve to spend less than they make. Forget raising taxes for now and solve the REAL problem: Stop spending more than you make. This makes you credible when you want to raise taxes.
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