Government Spending Problem

US GDP for 2017 is $18.57 trillion.  The US federal, state and local taxes total $6.7 trillion. 37% or our wealth goes to government. The US federal budget is $4.1 trillion. The US National Debt is $20.6 trillion and US unfunded liabilities total $128 trillion. The federal government is spending $400 billion more than it collects in revenue.

To allow our economy to recover, we will all need to work. We will need to sell everything we can produce as a nation to whoever will buy it.  This includes coal, oil, natural gas, timber, minerals and food. This will lower our trade deficit and create US jobs.

Our politicians have a spending problem and it’s time to look at what to cut. We are attempting to grow the US economy, but that won’t be enough to get us out of trouble. Our best roadmap is the US Constitution (as written). Most federal Departments, Agencies and Programs are unconstitutional and aren’t authorized in “enumerated powers” in the Constitution.  It is a no-brainer to write Amendments for those functions the federal government wants to keep and send these to the states for ratification.  If they don’t pass, then the federal government should follow the 10^th Amendment and give these functions to the states and the people.

The federal government needs to get out of lots of categories of spending completely and let the states pay for whatever they can afford. In turn, the states need to establish spending priorities and so do counties and cities.

The US federal government cannot afford to continue to function as the policeman for the world. The countries we now protect should decide whether or not to pay us to do this or establish their own military.

Recreation is an easy mark. It’s nice, but not critical to have tax dollars go to recreation and I think those days are over. We have already started to turn National Parks over to States.  State parks should become County Parks. Sports teams should pay for their own stadiums.

Public Education is too expensive, underperforming and propagandized. The federal government should get completely out of the education business. The federal government should stop all grants to universities and let the industries pay for their own research.

All federal grants are hard to justify. All funding to groups needs to end including all grants to non-profits. All non-profits need to raise their own money. Taxpayers should not responsible for funding special interest groups. We all need to assimilate not isolate.

Welfare programs need to be cut drastically as soon as jobs become available, so welfare recipients can lift themselves out of poverty with jobs.

Public transportation tax subsidies are hard to justify when private transportation is cheaper and more efficient. States should take over the Interstate Highway System and assume responsibility for maintaining and expanding these highways in their state.

Foreign aid is hard to justify. We’ve spent $ Trillions in military foreign aid over the past decades and these countries are still a wreck. We’ve spent $ Billions on bribes to get rogue countries to behave, but this never works. We’ve given $ Billions to foreign governments and these funds got deposited in the dictators’ bank accounts. We’ve got to start doing things that are less expensive and actually work.

State legislatures need to require ballot votes on all debt assumed by cities and counties. They also need to repeal all UN Agenda 21 implementation laws and deny Regional Commission control over expenditures. They should not fund any public transit.  They should sell all their “wildlife preserves” to the Sierra Club and sell all state parks to the counties.

Our current political campaign funding corrupts the entire government and all legislative processes and removes voter control. Campaign contributions need to be restricted to registered voters, who would be the only ones who could make legal campaign contributions for those candidates who appear on their ballot.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader