What Can You Live Without?

Budgets happen. Some people actively monitor their budget. Some plan their budgets and stick to them. Others spend and look back and call that a budget. Either way everyone has a budget.

One of the purposes of advance budgeting is to consider whether current spending patterns are sustainable into the future. We may figure this out for ourselves or someone may come along and decide for us that our spending is not sustainable and force us to give up a house or a car or a credit card.  If we  consider our own patterns in advance we may have some choice about what to change or give up to make the remaining spending pattern sustainable.

The same thing is true for our gov't spending pattern.  The real question is whether it is sustainable into the future or if some countries holding our debt will come to foreclose.  I know, you believe that it can't happen to America.  Why not?

Currently we have the Dept of Housing and Urban development with the mandate to make housing affordable for the majority of Americans at the cost to a few Americans. They had 10,600 employees in 2004. Current number not easily available but imagine 6 years of growth. Budget $43.7 billion in 2010.

We have the Health and Human Services dept intended to take care of our health and well being. They have 67,000 employees and a budget of $872 billion in 2010.

We have the Education Dept with the mandate of "no child left behind" basically creating a federal standard of measurement of education that is applied to all states, all counties, all cities and towns and all citizens across the nation. They have 5000 employees with an annual budget of $69billion and a special funding from the ARRA (bailout act 2009) of $96 billion.

We have the Defense Dept tasked with protecting us from external threats. 700,000 civilian employees, 2,300, 000 military (2004), $782 billion budget (2009)

We have the Justice Dept tasked with protecting us from internal threats. 112,500 employees and $46.2 billion budget (2008).

Discretionary spending of $437 billion. What the heck is that? A slush fund for ice cream for constituents?

Social Security ($678 billion), Medicare & Medicaid ($676 billion), Interest on the existing Federal debt ($187 billion).

Total federal budget 2009 ($3.518 trillion). Total Federal Income 2009 $2.1 trillion. Overspent $1.4 trillion. (tthat's without the proposed healthcare reform.) Where did that extra money come from? It was borrowed from places like China, Russia, Japan, et al.

There are a large number of people in the country and in the gov't who believe that on top of all the Depts and programs already in place we must add another one, potentially dwarfing all of the others, gov't run healthcare.

How about it? What programs could you live without? Don't stop with saying no to healthcare. We should have said no a long time ago to these other programs. Which one will you be willing to live without in order to cut the Federal budget? Maybe you feel that the defense dept should get all the funds it needs in spite of the waste. What will you live without to keep the Defense dept well funded?

Are there any of these depts and programs that should be stopped or funded and operated at the state level? Why should the standards of education be the same for MA as TX or NY and NM? Why should there even be a Federal Housing Authority or a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to make buying housing easier for people?  The current real estate crisis is proof that it never should be easy to buy a house. Do we really need a Federal dept to be concerned for our health? Do we need a nanny? Aren't we adults able to care for our own health? Sure people still do stupid things. They smoke. They eat badly. They drink too much. They climb. They ski. They race. But is there anyone engaged in these things that doesn't know that they are hazardous?

I know, I know. Your own budget is as much as you can manage. You feel that you must trust others, assumed to be much smarter than you, to handle the budget matters of such a huge organization as the gov't. But frankly haven't we tried that? We have some of the most educated people on the planet running the gov't and they have overspent and overpromised. They have mortgaged the futures of your children so that they will see income tax rates topping 70%. That is likely even in our generation.

Bottom line, ALL of these programs are going away someday if some are not cut now. Like the family who lost their house because they were not willing to get rid of a car and cut down their dining out spending or clothing expenses or whatever else. The House of America is heading for bankruptcy. Someone else will own it and occupy it.