Posted by Tina
I’ve nearly turned beet red (never blue) lamenting about the enormous federal bureaucracy that acts as a huge weight on the American economy and blunts the creative risk takers who are the sources of innovation, growth, and opportunity in America. I’ve never seen a broad accounting of the amount of wealth that’s taken out of the economy to feed the federal bureaucracy beast until now. Keep in mind that the following numbers do not include the bureaucracies of state and local governments or even the full spectrum of offices and Bureaus in Washington DC.
Worldbank lists the U.S. economy at $16.2 trillion and our debt is about equal to that. As you will see in the excerpt from the article below, salaries in DC represent more than $1.2 trillion. Sylvia Bokor of The American Thinker writes about “The Trillion-Plus Heist”:
These numbers — of agencies, employees and salaries — are hugely underestimated. Many federal agencies subsume dozens of agencies and bureaus that are not listed. The National Institutes of Health, for example, consists of 47 separate bureaucracies, the number of their personnel and salaries unstated.
The number of employees and salaries of some agencies is classified, such as the CIA and the NSA. An example is the NSA, which experts estimate employs between 100,000 and 200,000 employees with a budget of “at least $40 billion.” This sum is included under agencies with an estimated 150,000 employees averaging an annual salary of $100,000.Recap:
Executive — 6,546,673 employees; salaries ….. $ 549,126,870,330.
Legislative — 12,835 employees; salaries ……. 5,250,599,780.
Judicial — 1,324 employees; salaries ……. 199,418,700.
Agencies — 5,298,867 employees; salaries ……. 569,886,700,000.
Total = 11,859,699 employees; salaries …. $ 1,124,463,588,810.The consequences of these stupefyingly large numbers are far more devastating than can be seen directly. To grasp the extent of that destruction, consider the level of prosperity that employers and employees achieve today despite regulations, taxes, permits, fines, and wasted time on government paperwork.
Because of government confiscation of producers’ time and money, gone are the businesses that would have been started with that income. Never to be recouped is the time that would have been spent on innovations, inventions, discoveries and products that would have been made. Never to be retrieved is the prosperity that would have inevitably raised the standard of living, elevated the destitute and eventually wiped out poverty.
The money that politicians and bureaucrats have looted has gone and continues to go into the pockets of the nonproductive.
Keep these figures in mind the next time you wonder about the disappearing middle class, wage disparity, or the numbers of people who are no longer in the work force or are unemployed and underemployed. The secret to becoming a nation of opportunity and prosperity is policy that puts money (power) in the hands of individual citizens and leaves it in their control. Ronald Reagan:
“A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take it all away.”
It currently takes too much of what the private sector generates each year just to support the bloated federal bureaucracy…never mind the many programs we must fund that don’t work well and also must have enormous bureaucracies to implement and manage them. Current policies will make things much worse in the years to come. It’s time to think about a well reasoned and methodical dismantling of the big government drain on our economy. It’s time to downsize government so the people can keep more of what we earn.
“Keep these figures in mind the next time you wonder about the disappearing middle class ….”
No, actually, a government salary has, for near a hundred years, been a guaranteed admission to the middle class. You even get to pick: you can join an agency that pays handsome salaries, or an institution that pays modest wages, but guarantees a comfortable retirement … and this is what you propose to do away with?
That don’t make no sense.
It is also an unhappy fact that small business pays s##t wages and no bennies at all. You might try to tell us that small business, relieved of some of its tax burden, would pay better wages. But there is, over several hundred years, no evidence to support this theory … at all.
There is, however, considerable evidence to the contrary: hence, the minimum wage.
We’re going to keep this two-tiered thing going, for as long as we can, so at least some of the wage slaves can live comfortable.
Good article and the links are well worth ones time to read.
I personally think this spending and expansion of Government can be reduced.
(It has to start with effective and selective replacements of the defiantly big spenders in Congress)
When voters unite and put together a Administration as well as both Houses that will work in harmony for the people in total, with a common goal to unite us as a country instead of the current division afoot, we’ll regain and surpass our orphaned economy.
Much like the linked articles reveal, titanic spending has been a tool of big Government, but when non productivity absorbs the largest of such, it proves to be ineffective, and failure is eventual. Should the people of this country allow this course not to be altered, a national financial disaster is immanent.
Stop foreign aid. We give Israel $8 million a day. None of the projects funded with billions of US tax dollars in Iraq have been completed. Just contractors sucking our money away for “reconstruction” that never happens, all while our own roads and bridges crumble.
And get rid of the unions that suck up tax money. If I have to hear one more teacher complain that they had to take pay cuts and want that money reinstated…welcome to the working world people. That is reality.
Furthermore, by the time the 2016 election rolls around it’s gonna be really obvious how many lives the sequester, on top of the crash, has ruined … the GOP will be on the skids … until we have recovered, and are comfortable again, and susceptible once more to the demogogueries of folk like Ronald “Roasting-in-Hell” Reagan.
And I’ll likely, and gratefully, be dead, praise be to the Goddess.
(But in the meantime, I highly recommend Slate, Josh Levin, “The Welfare Queen”. It’s long, and fascinating, and creepy.)
Libby: “That don’t make no sense.”
Of course it does because a thriving economy would guarantee the same opportunity for those people in the private sector. Some might even start businesses of their own! Include a good program of education in our schools about economics and wealth management…saving and investing…and the numbers of people who could grow their own wealth and pass some of it on to their children so they could then build on that would mean a society that is better able to care for itself, its progeny, and, through charity, those who are truly unable to work or are in need.
“It is also an unhappy fact that small business pays s##t wages and no bennies at all.”
No it is not “a fact”. That is a left/progressive lie.
According to the governments own
statistics half of small business does provide good wages and benefits (see charts). The rest of them are very small mom and pop business or fast food level businesses that provide entry level jobs that people stay in for about 18 months on average before they move on. They are not career jobs but they do provide a valuable service for college students and people entering the work force for the first time.
Contrast that with the bloated public sector and you can see that government can afford those benefits and salaries only because they take the money from the wealth producing private sector. They take it from everyone too, not just “the rich”. We pay in taxes; we pay again in higher prices for goods and services. Business has to support both employees and the fat bloated government.
“hence, the minimum wage.”
What a laugh. The mimimum wage is a vote getting construct that destroys entry level jobs and helps to ensure that minorities especially don’t experience first job experience early…many of them are lost forever to the welfare state. Shame on the big government politicians who buy votes and the union bosses who want higher wages for their own greedy pockets and purposes.
“We’re going to keep this two-tiered thing going, for as long as we can, so at least some of the wage slaves can live comfortable.”
What are you…the overseer?
Money earned in the private sector at all levels is earned creating value and wealth. The wealth is then reinvested in the economy (when it isn’t taken by government). That is the only way to grow an economy and create jobs.
The one thing you cannot deny is that government has no money of its own and has no means to generate wealth. It consumes and creates massive debt and if it is not stopped it will be the great destroyer.
Did you happen to notice that more people lost their healthcare insurance by the end of 2012 than signed up for Obamacare? The big government types don’t care about the people. They care about their own power and they all end up millionaires. It’s quite a racket, getting wealthy without producing a thing except the destruction of private industry!
Harold some of the best economists and investors fear we are headed for another big economic disaster. It astounds me that so many people in our country don’t understand the causes of these boom and bust cycles or the way that government largess and debt kills job opportunity, innovation and growth.
I’m praying that we can avoid that. Unfortunately the alternative is several more years of low growth and very little opportunity. I feel for those starting out and looking for a good job and those who are in their best wealth building years. It makes me sick to think of the years of their working life that will be wasted.
Libby: ” by the time the 2016 election rolls around it’s gonna be really obvious how many lives the sequester, on top of the crash, has ruined…”
Oh please. The sequester was Obama’s idea. You voted for him because he was going to get rid of government waste and debt…remember…”It’s irrisposible!”…”It’s unpatriotic!”
The sequester is being credited for the slowing of growth in our debt and for the tiny improvement in our economy and unemployment. NOBODIES life has been “destroyed” because of the sequester.
The crash, as we all now know, was generated by liberal politicians messing with the regulations for political and personal gain! Those harmed by it can thank the Democrats most responsible…Bill Clinton, Chriss Dodd, Barney Frank, and the greedy “managers” over at Fannie and Freddie to name a few. The recession ended in Spring of 2009. Obama’s policies promptly blunted a recovery and we’ve been bumping along at low to slow growth ever since.
“…until we have recovered”
How long must people wait under these progressive conditions? Four years is already too long! Recessions under former Presidents from both parties lasted 18-24 months.
Hell, dear Libby, is in charge of progressive abuses of all Americans rich to poor.
Ah yes, the “The Welfare Queen”. Reagan spoke of her in an early speech. The left doesn’t want us to know or remember the truth about the criminal who earned the name:
The article goes on to describe this woman’s many criminal talents. And what did our progressive friends do with this information? They ignored it completely and instead used the reference as a weapon to label and wound Reagan.
There are many people, many of them progressives, who will be “roasting in hell”…Reagan will not be one of them. It gripes your butt too or you wouldn’t have to be so danged nasty about him and the success he inspired in America and all around the globe!
Tina, all your charts say things along these lines:
“In private industry, 64 percent of employees had access to retirement benefits, significantly less
than the 89 percent of state and local government employees with access. Additionally, only 49
percent of private industry employees actually participated in a retirement plan (had current
coverage)[because they were not paid wages high enough to enable participation … so there], significantly less than the 85 percent participation rate of state and local government
employees.”
But I did not know that coverage for government employees was as low as 85%. That’s not good. But government benefits are much easier to improve than private sector benefits, which is another reason why your average wage slave would have their nose in that trough … if they could.
And re the Linda Taylor piece, it would be better if you read the actual article, and not some blogger’s mischaracterization of it. And Josh is not vociferous at all, he just makes the point: Reagan demonized the woman for her welfare fraud, making it politically impossible for the authorities to build cases against her for baby-selling and murder.
If you read the real deal, you can hear from the cop who, 45 years later, is still pissed.
South Carolina is sure stepping up to the plate.
South Carolina Set to Block Implementation of Obamacare:
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/south-carolina-set-block-implementation-obamacare
Libby you think the stats support your idea of big government because of the higher percentage of bennies government (taxpayers) provides.
I contend that it only proves that big BLOATED government results in less money available for both individuals and for employers to pay benefits AND create jobs in the private sector.
Money taken out of the private sector where wealth is created is important. Taking it to pay nonproductive positions in government leads to higher unemployment, permanent dependency, and massive debt.
Your preference leads to an America that is service oriented…a third world style nation rather than a bastion of freedom, creativity and opportunity with a thriving (alive!) private sector.
“government benefits are much easier to improve than private sector benefits”
Not true. Individuals acting on their own behalf will do a much better job every single time. it will work even better as people learn the value of individual wealth building.
You liberal fail to teach people the value of freedom and independence so you can sell that utopian dream and dependence. In the process you diminish human capability and make citizens little more than serfs…you divide society into neat little groups to manage and control. People aren’t people anymore…they just numbers.
Mind your own reading lady…an original SLATE article was the source and that “blogger” you refer to was a journalist quoting from Slate:
If any entity made it impossible to prosecute it was the Chicago Tribune! I would bet that her race played a big part in stopping a conviction…that and the Chicago Political Machine. You liberals have poisoned our courts as well as our educational system! And in Chicago…fagetaboudit! Cop probably knows it too…or maybe he’s just part of the machine!
By the time Reagan spoke of her the record was already out there. If it was politically impossible to prosecute its because of the lefts irrational protection of black criminals and the Chicago machine.
Bill Whittle: Into the River!
http://youtu.be/5VENKn9Y648
Legal Insurrection reports folks in Chicago that vote Democrat have had enough…call for a Tea Party style movement…not happy with Chicago machine, the mayor or Obama…stupid that Obama got every black vote.
Looks like the Democrats might have their own trouble makers to contend with in the coming elections.
Will the Senate confirm Watts as Federal Housing Finance Authority Director today? Hope NOT!!
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/01/06/the-obama-appointee-set-to-take-office-today-and-his-concerning-past/
Student loan profit used to pay for ObamaCare.
http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/01/05/scholar-obama-administration-cooked-books-used-student-loan-profits-make-obamacare-look
“By the time Reagan spoke of her the record was already out there. If it was politically impossible to prosecute its because of the lefts irrational protection of black criminals and the Chicago machine.”
Oh, fer heaven’s sake. Your source for this, please? Out of your crazy head … I think … is the source for this.
WILL you go read the thing! One of the many fascinating things you will read (that might actually cause you to think) is that she was not, it would seem, of African descent.
Libby: “Oh, fer heaven’s sake. Your source for this, please? Out of your crazy head … I think … is the source for this.
It was printed in the newspaper, The Chicago Tribune…that’s the source and it’s the source Reagan used…for heavens sake! What is so difficult about that?
The source for the article I cited was SLATE…which you failed to notice first time around…what’s difficult about that?
The Chicago machine is well known and well known for it’s protection racket. This woman apparently passed for black, Spanish, and other nationalities and races…so? So, if she was a minority, or looked like a minority, then the Al Sharpton Jesse Jackson wing of the Democrat Party would call on the Chicago elected to remember who got them elected.
Reagan was targeted as “responsible” for the miscarriage of justice simply because the left wanted to destroy him.
Peggy I’m very impressed by Nikkie Haley. The bill she will sign sounds interesting and will certainly stand as yet another example of what people can do when the federal government oversteps its boundaries.
South Carolina Freedom of Health Care Protection Act (H 3101)
She’s right, of course, the people of her state don’t need the added state taxes that will be necessary to fund it. Most Americans are taxed enough already!
It’s going to be a chaotic year.
Tina, we’re headed for another boat load of more bailouts and bankruptcies. Haley is very smart to try and protect the residents of her state, but she can’t protect them from the Feds. The only way her state and others can be saved is if OC is buried six feet under.
Krauthammer is correct when he says Obama will moving forward on bailing out the health care insurance companies because of the failed enrollment, and the republicans need to pass legislation that prevents it.
Government insured student loans in ObamaCare with the forgiveness clause is another bailout. The profits from the students goes to pay off the ObamaCare debt and the forgiveness clause cost will have to be picked up as a bailout. It will be the Chicago shuffle from one account to another with the added debt pushing us toward the $20 trillion mark.
Oh, and today the democrats are talking about extending the unemployment without offsetting cost, because it’s inhumane to not extend it beyond two years during this “emergency.” I’ve never heard of an emergency lasting for FIVE YEARS. It’s not unemployment insurance any more it’s welfare with a needed new job training component added. (News flash for those low-informed voters. Employees do NOT contribute out of their pay for the insurance, therefore, it is not an entitlement or earned benefit. It is 100% paid for by the employer.”
Oh, and the income and equality gap is riding on the back of the unemployment issue. Raising the minimum wage for those lucky enough to have a job they are over qualified for will only result in employers laying off more employees.
The news has been full of employers saying they will have to decrease cost to keep their doors open. With cutting the workers hours to below 30 hours per week, raising the minimum wage is a guaranteed path to raising the unemployment rate creating an even bigger gap in the income between the rich and poor. The poor will get poorer and the mega rich will be rolling in the dough. (Just look at the stock market boom.)
2007 NAACP letter said Obamacare-style Medicare Advantage cuts would hurt millions of minorities:
“Reduced funding for the MA program would have a negative impact on the health and health care of millions of Medicare beneficiaries – particularly for low-income and minority beneficiaries,” the letter continued.
“We urge you not to backtrack on these priorities by cutting funding for the MA program. This program is vitally important to the health and well-being of racial and ethnic minorities who rely on MA to provide them with the comprehensive, affordable, and coordinated care they need,” the NAACP letter added.
“Ensuring access to high quality, affordable health care is one of our top priorities, and one that is especially critical in the Hispanic community. We firmly believe Medicare Advantage is helping meet this challenge for Hispanic seniors,” the League of United Latin American Citizens stated in its own letter to Congress.
“Minorities across the country would be hit especially hard by the Democratic cuts to Medicare Advantage, because 40 percent of all Medicare-eligible African Americans and 53 percent of all eligible Latinos are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans,” Republican Rep. Pat Tibieri stated in 2007.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/07/2007-naacp-letter-said-obamacare-style-medicare-advantage-cuts-would-hurt-millions-of-minorities/#ixzz2pkJBkLCx