Political Extortion
Posted by Ed Wolff on July 12, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Politicians (both national and local) are notorious, when facing an income stream insufficient to fund their favorite boondoggles, for threatening their constituents with cuts in necessary services (by cutting teachers, firemen, policemen, librarians, lifeguards, dog catchers, pension checks, etc.) unless these constituents agree to increases in their taxes. These politicians seek to extort additional tax money for their favorite programs. These politicians never talk about cutting a bloated bureaucracy or eliminating or reducing failed and ineffective programs to generate more income for their favorite programs. These politicians are happy to inflict pain on their constituents to feather their nests. The priorities of these politicians are with their favorite expenditures, not the taxpayers who elected them. President will not guarantee Social Security checks will go out
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data shows expected revenue to the U.S. Treasury for 2011 of $2,228.45 billion and “mandatory” expenses of $2,108.28 billion to give a net income before other expenses of $120.17billion . The CBO lists interest on the debt as $225 billion. This means the “mandatory” expenses have to be reduced by $105 billion to service the debt.
The “mandatory” expenses include funds for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, veterans, civilian and military pensions, agriculture, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ($11 billion), food stamps ($77 billion), earned income and child tax credits ($77 billion), family support ($27 billion), child nutrition ($18 billion), foster care ($7 billion), and Making Work Pay and other tax credits ($21 billion). The items in parentheses add up to $238 billion, more than enough to service the debt with $133 billion left for welfare and other programs.
If servicing the debt is given the top priority over welfare programs and other expenses, the debt is easily serviced but the expansive government would have to be reigned in.
