Dollars and Sense

Posted August 8, 2011
Burns shows Homer the trillion dollar bill.

    The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars.  Few people know how much money that is so here is a breakdown of federal spending in simple terms.

    Let's put the 2011 federal budget into perspective:

                U.S. income:  $2,170,000,000,000
                Federal budget:  $3,820,000,000,000
                New debt:  $1,650,000,000,000
                National debt:  $14,271,000,000,000
                Recent budget cut:  $38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)

    It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to.  Let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Simpson family.

                Total annual income for the Simpson family:  $21,700
                Amount of money the Simpson family spends:  $38,200
                Amount of new debt added to their credit card:  $16,500
                Outstanding current balance on the credit card:  $142,710
                Amount cut from the current budget:  $385

    So in effect in July, Congress... or in this example the Simpson family, sat down at the kitchen table and Homer agreed to cut $385 from the family's annual budget.  Cut $385 of spending in order to solve $16,500 in new deficit spending.   (Dah!)

    This type of math is Washington's current system.  This is actually how Rome fell.  Rome's treasury was allowed to be raided.  Incoming tax dollars are limited and must be dispersed with vigilance and fiduciary duty, not squandered on idealistic give-away programs, such as thousands of billions of dollars to the rich in stimulus funds for bailouts and to build alternative energy and red-ink transportation projects.

    The reduction in the U.S. government's Standard & Poor's credit rating has been blamed upon the Tea Party by a prominent Democrat.  Wrong!  The Tea Party has not been around that long and both the Democrats and Republicans are collectively the ones solely to blame.

    The Tea Party is only taking a stand that enough is enough.  We must get back to the princples of the Constitution's limited government if this country is going to survive.

    The U.S. federal government is economically enslaving us and our children whereby the fruits of our labor will not be enjoyed by us as in the past; but totally owed to an all controlling socialistic central government for loan repayments.  This lowers the standard of living for everyone except for the ruling elite.

    If the current path isn't corrected, like the Soviet Union, the U.S. will eventually self-implode upon its own debt, leaving the country and its people in ruin.

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