Government Waste

If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket would be elected swineherd every time,
no matter how much slaughtering he did on the side." - Orson Scott Card

We the People ...ask the following question:
The United States government is bankrupting the United States and thereby enslaving our children and grandchildren who are now condemned and guilty at birth to repay our debt; condemned to pay the bill of another without any due process. How do these actions "establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity" [Preamble to the U.S. Constitution]?

To wrap your mind around government waste, let's take a journey ...

1. Government is wasteful by nature.
It spends other people's money, does not have to compete, invent, or make a profit (it just devours what you make), and is run by politicians who have political payback as a priority.

You and your family are sitting in a restaurant, and you notice a man, named Fred, seated a couple of tables away. Fred is eating expensive lobster and steak and drinking fine wine. You are on a budget and cannot afford these things. As Fred's friends walk into the restaurant, Fred waves them over to his table. “Come and eat and drink with me!” Fred, however, does not wave you or your family over. So, without any concern for the pricetag, Fred and all of his friends eat the most expensive dinners, gorge themselves, and waste a lot of food (Fred's friend owns the restaurant). You and your family order the hamburger and fries. It would break the bank to do what Fred’s doing. Then after everyone at Fred’s table is done eating and drinking, Fred calls the waiter over and tells him to send the bill to you and your children.

2. Government is inefficient and impersonal by nature.
Why? They are large bureaucracies that do not have to compete and do not have to make a profit. Consider the IRS, Katrina, AMTRAK, Fannie & Freddie, Social Security, Medicare. Read more.

3. Government can be easily corrupted.
Let’s say you own your own company. This business is how you feed your family. You hire Fred, a manager to keep you out of trouble and make you some money. Fred makes several stupid and short-sighted decisions that cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. Fred is able to hide this from you until your company collapses. You later find out that Fred was warned by several people not to make the decisions he did. Because Fred was good buddies with some of the people who ripped you off, he ignored the warnings. Now, you are on the hook and owe the bank a lot of money for what Fred did, and you have nothing to show for it. You will have to get a second job and sell your house, car, or any other thing of value. Fred still thinks he should keep his job, votes himself a raise, and continues to send the bill to you.

4. Government has the wrong priorities. Political payback takes priority over you.

5. Government cannot do a better job than the private market. Never in history has government been able to do for society what entrepreneurs in the private market have.

6. Can we agree that if you make $60,000 a year; you cannot spend $120,000 a year?

7. What is your tax bill?

The plan ... the people ... the principles

Remember: We need to save trillions, not just billions
The following websites offer pieces of the puzzle, but do not present the scope and size of government waste. We must grasp the larger picture as presented above.	CNN Bailout Tracker	Citizens Against Government Waste	Americans for Tax Reform	Read the Stimulus	Video on what 9,286 earmarks look like
	Taxpayers for Common Sense	National Taxpayers Union	Project on Government Oversight	Ronald Reagan 1964 speech.	Video on what 9,286 earmarks look like

Why should I care about government spending and federal deficits?
Let's answer this question with another question.
Do we Americans have enough integrity to pay our own way and not forward our bill to our children?


Somehow answering, "we've always had the federal deficit," doesn't quite answer the question, does it? If you think your tax bill is bad, here's the one you're handing to your child.

Government Waste

Updated 12/07/2009 01:05:44 PM