GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND THE DEFICIT

A large majority of citizens are displeased with the federal deficit and would like to see it eliminated. And polls have shown that reducing spending (as opposed to tax increases) is the approach favored by over three quarters of citizens. Yet when asked which specific components of spending should be reduced, citizens strongly resist spending cuts to all but foreign aid. Unfortunately, as shown below, eliminating foreign aid ($55 billion) would do little to reduce the deficit (over $500 billion). No real progress can, or will ever, be made without significant reform (read downsizing) of Medicare-Medicaid (over $1 trillion), Social Security (nearly $1 trillion), and Defense (over $750 billion)--the big three dominate bars on the right side of the graph. Real progress on reducing the deficit requires that citizens agree to--no, that citizens demand--multi-program cuts that include their particular favored program(s). Since this is implausible, so are significant government spending cuts. And so the deficit will remain (and grow as projected by the Congressional Budget Office).

As for reducing waste and corruption, these are unfortunate consequences of all massive spending programs. The amount of waste and corruption will always be proportional to the size of the particular program. The only way to reduce waste and corruption is to reduce the scale of government spending.

COMPONENTS OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SPENDING (ANNUAL)

Have a nice day.

DWD