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Government Waste

Government Waste. Notable Quotes:

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Government Waste

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  1. Government Waste • Notable Quotes: By the continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate secretly and unobserved the wealth of its citizens. There is no more subtle way to overturn the existence of a society than to debauch the currency. It engages all the processes of economic law that comes down on the side of destruction in a manner that not one person in a million can diagnose. --- John Maynard Keynes

  2. Government Waste • Notable Quotes: A Democracy can last only as long and until a majority of the people discover they can vote themselves largess or large gifts out of the public treasury and then they will continue to elect politicians promising the most. And the end result will be a fall of that democracy due to economic ruin and chaos. -- Alfred Fraser Tyler

  3. Government Waste • Notable Quotes: I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest of dangers. We must make our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they (the people) will be happy. --- Thomas Jefferson

  4. Government Waste • Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. --- Louis D. Brandeis U.S. Supreme Court Justice

  5. Government Controls • In November, 1994, OSHA Regulators ordered a Kansas City bank to install a Braille keypad at a cost of $5,000, on its drive-through automatic teller machine. • A Boise, Idaho plumbing company was fined $7,875 when company workers rescued a fellow worker. They did not shore up the collapsed trench or don hard hats before pulling the worker to safety.

  6. Government Controls • Thousands of regulations mandate how we conduct virtually every aspect of our lives. The code of Federal regulations totals 131,803 pages. Conservative estimates put regulatory compliance costs in excess of $500 Billion and is expected to rise to $900 Billion by the year 2000. Source: Tax Action Analysis, Economic Scorecard (Second Quarter 1996)

  7. Cost of Government Day • The Cost of Government Day:is the day of the year on which the average American has earned enough in gross income to pay off all his/her direct and hidden taxes (total federal, state, and local government spending plus the costs of regulation). This year, the Cost of Government Day is on July 3rd. The average American spends more time working for the government than for themself.

  8. The Cost of Government Day • The following breakdown gives us the real cost of Government: 1. Your Own Time: 181.4 Days (49%) 2. State, Local Tax & Regulations: 51.2 Days (14%). 3. Federal Regulations: 40.3 Days (11%). 4. S.S./Medicare: 31.4 Days (9%). 5. Other Federal Programs: 32.1 Days (9%). 6. National Defense: 15.5 Days (4%). 7. Interest on National Debt: 14.1 Days (4%). Source: Newsletter of the Institute for Policy Innovation (May/June 1996)

  9. Government Waste Examples: • Health and Human Services - A four year drug study on sexual behavior which included studying how horses masturbate. Cost: $200,000. - An eight year study wherein quail were castrated as a part of the research of sexual behavior. Cost: $333,000.

  10. Government Waste • Health and Human Services: - A four year study of the nasal cavities of male hamsters during intercourse. Cost: $200,000. - A thirteen year study in which rats were given hallucinogens such as LSD to see how they react when “startled.” Cost: $1,200,000. Source: Coalition: National Foundation for Effectivee Treatment Programs and Citizens Commission on Human Rights

  11. Government Waste • $1 million for brown tree snake research, a reptile found only in Guam that is not life threatening to humans. • $15 million for research and development of electric automibiles, on top of $75 million Congress has spent on electric car research over the past two years. • $9.7 million for the Jacksonville (Florida) Automatic Skyway Express extension project that one Transportation Department official says has turned into an expensive “amusement ride.” • $1.2 million in research funds for the potato industry even though USDA requested no funds for it.

  12. Government Waste • $395,000 For Rice Modeling at the Universities of Arkansas and Missouri. Uncle Ben and not Uncle Sam should be funding this research. • $3 million for shrimp aquaculture in Hawaii, Massachusetts, Mississippi and South Carolina. • $3.7 million for wood utilization research in six states on top of the $35 million that has been spent on such R&D since 1985.

  13. Government Waste • Medicare and Medicaid - In 1997 both programs cost over $550 billion and is expected to rise at a rate of 20% - Medicare, over the last 5 years, has had average increases in costs of 13%, three times the rate of inflation. - Medicare covers 35 million people and cost $226 billion in 1997. - Doctors fees account for 30% of total costs - Fraud accounts for 20-30% of total costs

  14. Government Waste • Farm Subsidies: There are 2.2 million farmers in the U.S. Half of them are full-time and less than 500,000 run ongoing commercial farms. The 0-92 program pays farmers not to work, not to plant. The farmer receives 92% of their deficiency. This plan has put 61 million acres to “sleep” -- the equivalent size of the states of Indiana and Ohio. Cost to us: $30 billion.

  15. Government Waste • Milk Subsidies: In 1983 the dairy farmers received $5 billion in milksubsidies. In 1985 Congress passed the Dairy Termination Program which paid dairy farmers to kill their cows for a price of $2,000 per head. Average check to dairy farmers was $128,000. The theory was that this would reduce the supply and eliminate price subsidies.

  16. Government Waste • Milk Subsidies (Continued) Results: Price of beef dropped and cattlemen lost $25 million. The government had to pay out $1.8 billion more above the subsidies for the termination. What happened to milk production? It went up in 1985 from 140 billion pounds to 146 billion pounds. Source: Government Waste from A to Z, by Martin Gross

  17. Government Waste • Farmer Loans: The Farmers Home Administration has a portfolio of $56 billion. Has doubled in the last 5 years. There are 2,200 offices nationwide. This organization writes off about 20% of it’s loans annually, thus resulting in a cost of over $10 billion. Federal aid to the farmer is not a food production project but a giant social program to keep the family farmer on the farm.

  18. Government Waste • The Social Security Ripoff: 1. Suppose you began working in 1930 at the age of 20 and retired in 1975: - Between 1937 and 1949, maximum S.S. tax was $60/year or a total of $780. - Between 1950 and 1965, maximum S.S. tax was $348/year or a total of $3,432. - Between 1966 and 1975, maximum S.S. tax was $1,649/year of a total of $14,841.

  19. Government Waste • Social Security Ripoff (Continued): During your lifetime you would have contributed approximately $19,000. - In 1976, your benefit would have been $6,552. - In 1977, your benefit would have been $7,416. - In 1978, your benefit would have been over $8,000. In three years you would have received everything you put in plus more.

  20. Government Waste • Social Security Ripoff (Continued): 2. Ida Fuller, the first Social Security recipient, retired in 1940 after paying a total of $44 in taxes. By the time she died in 1975, she had received nearly $21,000 in benefits. 3. The Social Security System is bankrupt. It currently has $400+ billion in Treasury General Fund IOUs. A Court decision dating back to 1937 has established that Treasury debts to a government trust fund need not be honored.

  21. Government Waste • Social Security Ripoff (Cont.) 4. By 2070 the annual flood of red ink from the S.S. system will be $7 Trillion. 5. An average 36 year old wage earner today will receive $52,132 per year when he retires (couple). The same contributions in a private annuity would yield a return of $58,664 plus the principal at death. Source: The National Tax Foundation

  22. Government Waste • The Social Security Ripoff (continued) 6. In 1997 average real income for house- holds headed by someone older than 65 was 27% higher than it was for similar house- holds in 1980. In contrast, younger households gained just 11%. 7. Social Security reduces national income by approximately 6%

  23. Government Waste • Government Aircraft: - 1,200 private airplanes with pilots, airfields, and mechanics. There are 100 different varieties of aircraft. Purpose: to fly government executives of various departments around the country. Cost of the aircraft was $2 billion, depreciation of $200 million per year, annual upkeep of $800 million. In addition, government agencies lease another 5,000 planes at a cost of $100 million per year.

  24. Government Waste • The 89th Government Airlift Wing: The 89th transports government bureaucrats, congressmen, senators, military brass free of charge. This includes the Presidents two 747 flying palaces, which cost taxpayers $410 million. The 89th has 6,000 employees taking care of 25 planes plus 19 helicopters. The planes make only 800 flights per year. Without Airforce Ones, the cost of the planes plus depreciation is over a half billion dollars per year. Cost per flight is $25,000 per person, per flight.

  25. Government Waste • The Great Frigate Giveaway: During the first six months of 1996, the Pentagon gave away four more Navy frigates - 2 to Turkey and one to Egypt and one to Bahrain. The ships are valued at $104 to $140 million each. It’s business as usual at the Pentagon. Since 1990, the Pentagon has given $7 billion in “excess” military equipment away - including 39 frigates, 5 guided missile destroyers and 13 tank landing ships. It’s considered cheaper to give it away than to store or scrap it. These ships can and likely will be used against American service personnel in the next Persian Gulf crisis.

  26. Government Waste • Shadow Government Consultants: 1. Consultants are hired by all major government departments at a cost of $1,000 per day. 2. While the government agencies have 15,000 full-time lawyers on payroll it still uses enormous amounts of $150-200 an hour legal help. 3. Total cost for consultants is around $20 billion per year.

  27. Government Waste-Pensions • The Hastings Keith Case Keith retired from Congress in the early 1970’s. He currently gets four federal pension payments that total more than $115,000. • $73,896 from his congressional pension • $17,103 from a military pension (5 years active duty + reserves) • $14,748 from social security • $9,630 from a CIA widower’s pension *Federal pension funds presently have an unfunded liability of more than $500 billion that will have to be paid by us “just us.”

  28. They Know Where You Are: IRS • The IRS is using records obtained from other federal agencies, state and local authorities, private organizations, and the media to compile profiles of individual taxpayers. • Every time you fill in any kind of form, a request for a bank loan, a cable-TV application, anything you put your S.S. number on you send personal information about yourself to the IRS. • Information about your credit history, what you eat, the type of car you drive is already contained in dozens of databases scattered throughout cyberspace.

  29. They Know Where You Are: IRS • By consolidating the sources and making them available online to agents across the country on a need-to-know basis, the IRS hopes to upgrade its search engine from the level of a tricycle to that of a Ferrari. • Such intelligence is normally brought to bear upon one’s enemies, not friends, taxpayers, and citizens. • The IRS will use the information “exempt from notification.” That means that the IRS needs no permission to acquire the information, and, even if the information is incorrect, they need not correct it. Source: New York Post, October 16, 1995.

  30. Greenerand Cleaner All the Time • Nearly all objective measures show the U.S. environment is improving • Air Quality: -Carbon monoxide emissions have dropped 14.9% since the U.S. began measuring in 1974. -Nitrogen dioxides have dropped 33.8% since 1975. -Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that form smog have dropped 24.4% since 1970. -Sulfur dioxide in the air has been reduced by 54.5% since 1970. -Lead emissions have dropped by 97% since 1970.

  31. Greenerand Cleaner • Water Quality: • Water quality has improved by over 27% since the first earth day in 1974. • Land Use: • Each year, new growth of U.S. timber, by volume, has far exceeded harvest since 1980. Currently, timber harvest represents only 60% of new growth. Soil erosion due to farming is also slowing in the U.S. Yearly soil loss has dropped by almost 25% since 1982.

  32. Greener and Cleaner • Toxic Chemicals: • According to the EPA, the release of toxic chemicals by industry has dropped by 34% since 1988. • There is still concern about the number of species listed as threatened or endangered since 1980. There are more than 800 plants and animal species on these lists. Question: Would one not expect this if evolution is true. Only the strong survive in a Darwinian world. So what’s the big deal?

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