How Your Government Spends Your Money

Did you know that the spending per person by our government has doubled in the past forty years, and that takes inflation into account? By reading this booklet, you are going to learn some amazing and surprising information about where your government spends your money. This booklet is written for us, the taxpayer. It is nonpartisan. It uses clear and understandable words and colorful graphics to reveal the facts, and they are not confusing. You will be able to talk about budget issues with your federal representatives and from these conversations you will see how to act. Most things in our lives follow this pattern. We begin with understanding and end with committed actions. For example, you will learn that the "Social Security Trust Fund" is neither a fund nor a trust in the normally accepted definition of the words. We are often led to believe that our Social Security payroll tax money has been invested in trust and there is some asset that will be used to finance our retirement. However, some of our payroll tax money is used to make payments to retirees each year. The excess is borrowed by the federal government and spent on other programs. Chapter Two explains the sources of income and outlays of our federal government for Fiscal Year 2011. Social Security, the largest government trust fund, and Medicare, the third-largest fund are then discussed in some detail in Chapter Three. Graphs show the growth of these two funds over the past forty years. Chapter Three also discusses "deficit spending," the difference between income and outgo, with a graph showing the history of the budget surplus and deficit over the past forty years. When there is deficit spending, money must be borrowed and we accumulate to the "National Debt." National Debt information follows, which distinguishes public debt and government debt. The histories of both are presented in graphical form. Chapter Four of this booklet gives outlay histories for various government spending areas over the past 40 years. Each historical spending graph is shown as the percent of total spending for that year. By showing spending in this manner, one can get a sense of priorities that we have as a nation and how they vary with time. The last chapter gives information about our Congress, their average time in office, salaries and the average amount of money they raise to be elected. Since Congress has become more dysfunctional at our expense, we seem to be the only hope to solve the problems that this booklet brings to light. Several ideas are offered, including a link to the Simpson-Bowles "The Moment of Truth," a 65 page document offered by the Bipartisan Commission to bring the deficit spending of Congress to an end. Try it. You'll like it Then pass it on. If you would like to order this full color version or the black and white version in quantity at a large discount, please contact the author at RNHager@Wholeschool.org for a quotation.