Middle Class Part 9: Government Waste of Our Tax Money

Playing Favorites: I’m not in favor of the government further inclining the progressive/graduated tax bracket (which means taking more tax money from the rich simply because they make more money), for reasons that Milton Friedman and Adam Smith, via P.J. O’Rourke, have outlined somewhat adequately- that the whole nation of accidentally altruistic capitalists might help the poor more if they aren’t forced to. I’m also not in favor of the government raising any of a variety of taxes- income, property, gas, sales (for vehicles or for Snickers bars or anything in between), after bridges collapse, or for any of a variety of reasons that for the sake of brevity, (go figure) I will forego the listing of. Nope, until the government is made to discontinue their mis-allocation of funds they already currently receive, not one penny more should be handed over to the government. One possible exception- tax money derived from corporations which I will get to next time.

The blame game: I haven’t tracked the party most responsible for the below list, but keep in mind, since Franklin Roosevelt (democrat) was president, there have been six republican presidents (Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II), encompasing 36 presidential years since 1933, (through Bush IIs reign- 2008) the year in which New Deal programs began to be initiated and I haven't seen them be all that successful in reducing the number government programs. The New Deal programs are thought to have provided the momentum to grow the government beyond the measure that republicans say they are comfortable with. Certainly, a president cannot be held solely responsible for the government’s spending. I have no idea how often any of them employed the veto on bills passed by Congress, that directly or indirectly grew the government. In short, I don’t know that government (number of programs or spending) shrank under any president- republican or democrat, or under any Congress, however it was constituted- (ie. with a democratic or republican majority). And in terms of the national debt, no three “peace-time” presidents grew the national debt more than the last three republicans. (http://zfacts.com/p/318.html). An economics major, or the ghostly apparitions of Friedman or Smith may be able to convince me that comparing excessive taxation to national debt increases under republican presidents is not an apt comparison, but it doesn’t look good and it would look better if a liberal were the one objectively shooting down the significance of any apparent connection- I am not a liberal- or an animal for that matter (my second Seinfeld reference). I might rather be re-circumcized by a blind Chilean witch doctor using dull coconut shards than listen to the average conservative condescendingly qualify everything a republican politician does, while excusing it. Stop with the “yeah but” that each side essentially employs; forget about “real” money, and “adjusted for inflation” increases using decimals and percentages, etc. All of that is cockamamy fine line rhetoric and both sides are masters at it. Enough! In short, democrats and republicans are both to blame; voters cannot be blamed for a reason I will get into next time.

“It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of truth.” – John Locke

What a Waste: Below is a listing of all of the ways various components of the Federal Government have wasted our tax money. If this money were re-allocated for the building of bridges, border control, rooting out gang-related criminal activity, and put into a fund to pay an independent agency (not necessarily populated with beurocrats) to discover even more excessive misappropriations of our tax money- taxes would not need to be raised. There is no possible justification the reptiles/politicians who “represent” us might provide for the fiscal atrocities listed below. The list is hardly complete- these are just the most aggregious things I could find in a few hours of looking. I haven’t included pork barrel earmarks allocating $350k to the research of the autistic Canadian Whoot Owl, or $1 million to protect a gnat species from extinction, or things like alloting $225k for a mansion in Kansas courtesy of republican Congressman Todd Tiahrt*- in short, things that might be fiscally irresponsible or morally questionable expenditures, things on the state and federal level, things with relatively little justification, compared to say, hm, enforcing a border or two and adequately inspecting and replacing bridges.

Note: the source of the first (10) instances below is courtesy of (The Heritage Foundation, April 4, 2005- http://www.heritage.org/research/budget/bg1840.cfm) The primary source material (footnotes to articles, reports, and audits), which is where the Heritage Foundation gleaned their findings, can all be found within the heritage.org document I cite above:

1) the Pentagon paid nearly $1 million to ship two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas. Over six years, C&D Distributors in Lexington, S.C., run by two sisters, collected $20.5 million in fraudulent shipping charges from the Pentagon. (oh, so many sources for this one- try usatoday.com or do a google search on pertinent terms)

2) between ‘97-‘03, the Defense Department purchased, and then left unused, approximately 270,000 commercial airline tickets at a total cost of $100 million. They never bothered to get a refund for these fully refundable tickets.

3) “Unreconciled Transactions Affecting the Change in Net Position.” This is the unabridged title of a report derived from the “Department of the Treasury’s 2003 Financial Report of the United States Government.” The report explains that the unreconciled transaction totaled $24.5 billion in 2003. This is more disgusting than learning that the average person has between 5 and 22 pounds of fecal matter in their digestive tract . . . but just barely.

4) an audit of Department of Agriculture employee purchases over six months, estimated that 15 percent of a sample of 300 employees abused their government credit cards to the tune of $5.8 million. Taxpayer-funded purchases included Ozzy Osbourne concert tickets, tattoos, lingerie, bartender school tuition, car payments and cash advances. 1,549 USDA credit cards belonging to people who no longer worked at the Dept. of Agriculture were still in circulation (as of 4/4/05).

5) Defense Department (Air Force and Navy personnel) over an 18-month period used government-funded credit cards for entertainment events, gambling, cruises, exotic dance clubs and prostitutes- charging a total of nearly $300k.

6) “Medicare pays as much as eight times what other federal agencies pay for the same drugs and medical supplies.” In 2002 the Department of Veterans Affairs paid $1.02 for 1,000 ml of saline solution and Medicare paid $8.68; the DVA paid $127.72 for a standard wheelchair and Medicare paid $570.68; the DVA paid $762.10 and Medicare $1754.55 for a semi-electric hospital bed.

7) in 2002, the Department of Education loaned $55,000 to three students who didn’t exist in order for them to attend a college that also did not exist.

8) “The Army Corps of Engineers spends $5 billion annually constructing dams and other water projects . . . the Corps has repeatedly been accused of deliberately manipulating its economic studies to justify unworthy projects” because it is in charge of “evaluating the science and economics of each proposed water project.” (That is kind of like a pedaphile running the daycare).

9) the earned income tax credit (EITC), which can be refunded to 19 million low-income families was overpayed by an IRS estimated $8.5 to $9.9.

10) Department of Redundancy Department- the government allows for 342 economic development programs, 130 programs serving the disabled, and 23 agencies providing aid to the former Soviet republics. (No wonder the unemployment rate is so low).

11) the “Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction concluded that the Coalition Provisional Authority” (those responsible for rebuilding Iraq) “could not track over $8 billion it had transferred to Iraqi ministries.” Numerous Special Inspector General reports have documented a range of problems- including “excessive reliance on sole source contracts” (ie. relying on one contracting company- any chance the Coalition was getting the best bid if they only approach one contracting company?), “instances of contractor fraud.” Just another thing I would regulate- contractors. Has anyone had an enjoyable experience, regardless of how much money it cost? Seriously, root canal work performed through one’s own nostrils by a dentist with tourettes would be more enjoyable. The press release quoted from above can be found on any state senator’s website.

12) Minnesota State Senator Norm Coleman (the chairman aof the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations) in his annual report addressed findings of government waste: “the subcommittee identified $12 billion in government waste, fraud, and abuse;” “more than 27,000 military contractors owed roughly $3 billion in unpaid taxes-while continuing to do business as usual with the federal government.” Just a thought, how about we hire an independent state and federal money tracking firm and pay them half as much as we pay politicians to police themselves- (see my concluding remark to #8 above). Maybe I could begin by hiring a well-dressed arthropod (think Jiminy Cricket) to whisper into the ears of legislators and governmental consigliares (an Italian word, often associated with the mob; this person serves the role of say chief of staff, or vice president in the current administration to guys like Al Capone, John Gotti, or President Bush) to have a conscience when the politicians figure on misspending our money. Hell, most of the politicians are wooden, so you can see how I could make the connection. And yes, I am making a comparison between plenty of current and former politicians to the mafia, at least in terms of a fiscal abuse of power where it translates to societal irresponsibility (ie. excessive taxation)

13) a United States Coast Guard project known as Deepwater paid $24 billion for water and air craft. $100 million of that was intended to upgrade cutter watercraft, “lengthen them to 123 feet, and extend their service lives [but] has produced 8 cracking hulks that are now tied up in Baltimore, unable to return to service and waiting for the scrap heap” . . . courtesy of two of the world’s largest defense contractors, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. (see- http://www.tscm.com/deepwaterdoodoo for further information about the project from this April 18, 2007 press release).

14) go to: www.taxpayersleague.org/pdf/2006PigletBook.pdf for a listing of 2006 Minnesota state budgetary misallocations according to taxpayersleague.org. Some of what they deem as unnecessary state expenditures could be argued by one person or another as justifiable allocations- but just a couple of examples of what you will find contained in their report: “A new $776 million Twins Stadium to be paid for with a Hennepin County sales tax increase (approved by state legislators with no voter referendum)” and “Becoming an Outdoorswoman – $45,000- A series of workshops and classes for women on hunting, fishing and other activities, including ‘dutch oven cooking’ and ‘food dehydrating.’ These types of classes are already being provided by the private sector.”

*- http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/070706b

Keep in mind: we, the voters, are to blame for the excessive taxation and the misuse of the money excessively taxated . . . (just kidding- there is no such word as taxated; and that first part about the voter being blamed for how much we are taxed and where it is spent- yeah, only complete morons and who think they have their finger on the rash of problems constituting our social ills think that- some of us think that there is an ointment for that rash). Can you imagine what we could do in this country with the money misspent by the federal and state governments . . . run by republicans and democrats? “Ahhh,” you might say, “it is the voter’s fault we are in this predicament.” Only to a point.

Next time: Corporate Welfare, tax shelters and the “consent of the governed.”