2007 TOTAL FEDERAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES: $2,472,200,000,000.00
How have our elected national leaders chosen to spend our tax dollars? As the pie chart below reveals...for every $1000 the federal government siphons off the top of your gross income, approximately $214 goes to pay current Social Security benefit recipients; $198 goes to pay for national defense; $177 goes to pay for domestic affairs like internal security, education, transportation, and agricultural programs; $165 goes to welfare and retirement programs like food stamps, supplemental security income, housing assistance, and government and military retirees; $129 goes to Medicare; $76 goes to Medicaid, $70 goes to paying the net interest on our national debt; and $15 goes to the rest of the world because we want them to like us.
Fifty four percent of total expenditures are mandatory by law, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare payments (food stamps, supplemental security income, housing assistance). That equals $1,237,000,000,000.00. Can you say the word Socialism?
Does anyone remember the concept of small government? Usually that translates into more freedom for you and I. That's a good thing. We're heading in the wrong direction however. We must reduce the size of the federal government. Starving the beast is likely the best solution. That means always working to keeps taxes low.
