Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (222242)	1/25/2002 4:02:13 PM
From: DOUG H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

I really don't understand Michael how any oridinary citizen could look at today's budget and not conclude that the problem is not that the government takes in too little but that it spends way too much. The only conclusion I'm left with is that either the critic is illinformed or that they are involved in the pork frenzy. cagw.org NO EXCUSE FOR DEFICITS Are there any waste cutters left in Washington? Hello? (Washington, D.C.) - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today wondered aloud whether any elected officials in Washington, DC were willing to challenge the culture of waste that pervades the federal government. "In the last two decades, both parties have studiously avoided cutting the waste marbled throughout the federal government," CAGW President Tom Schatz said. "Now, with the economy down, new spending priorities for defense and homeland security, and looming deficits, there are no more excuses: Congress must act to cut bloat and redirect wasted resources. There is no excuse for deficits." CAGW calls for five areas of spending reform to be instituted immediately: 1) No spurious new spending. After Sept. 11, more than $300 billion was proposed in bailouts for Amtrak, the U.S. Postal Service, steel manufacturers, bus companies, travel agents, and the highway lobby. Most were completely unrelated to real security concerns. In the fall, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) attempted to add another $20 billion to the $686 billion budget agreed to in October. Farm-state senators are pushing the bloated $170 billion farm bill that would increase subsidies 65 percent over current levels. 2) Cut pork. CAGW has identified $120 billion in pork since 1991. Last year alone, pork totaled $18.5 billion, including $1.5 million to refurbish the Vulcan Statue in Birmingham, Ala; $648,000 for ornamental fish research; and $550,000 for a Dr. Seuss Memorial in Springfield, Mass. Coincidentally, the shortfall between what the administration requested for supplemental Pentagon spending in fiscal 2001 and what Congress said it could afford was . . . about $18 billion. This year, pork surpassed $20 billion. 3) Eliminate corporate welfare. This would not only reduce political market meddling, it would save taxpayers about $80 billion annually. For example, cutting the Advanced Technology Program, the Economic Development Administration, and steel industry subsidies would save $4 billion in the next five years. If Congress heeds the president's advice to eliminate the Export-Import Bank, that would save another $3.2 billion over five years. 4) End improper payments. The government annually writes at least $20 billion in checks to the deceased or imprisoned, and provides benefits for others who game and cheat the system. For example, Medicare lost about $12 billion this way last year. Worse, there are few mechanisms for recouping lost funds, even though private companies exist that would do it for a fraction of the returned revenue. 5) Make the 543 cuts recommended in CAGW's annual Prime Cuts, which catalogues wasteful, fraudulent, duplicative, and inefficient programs. In fiscal 2002, these cuts would save $159 billion, with no substantive alteration of government services. Tallied over five years, these changes would save a whopping $1.27 trillion -- more than the entire Bush tax cut over the same period. Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.