Issue Position: Balancing the Federal Budget

Issue Position

$2,380,000,000,000 Receipts expected this year
$3,550,000,000,000 Spending expected this year
($1,170,000,000,000) Shortfall dragging us deeper into debt
Long story short: Our federal government is bleeding to death.

Tax reform and paying for federal programs are important issues to me, but I'll save the discussions on that side of our balance sheet for another time. Right now I'd like you to take a glance at our 2010 federal budget …

1. Social Security (19.63%)
2. Defense (18.74%)
3. Welfare/Unemployment (16.13%)
4. Medicare (12.79%)
5. Medicaid (8.19%)
6. Interest (4.63%)
7. Health and Human Services (2.22%)
8. Transportation (2.05%)
9. Dept of Veterans Affairs (1.48%)
10. Dept of State and International Programs (1.46%)
11. Dept of Housing and Urban Development (1.34%)
12. Dept of Education (1.32%)
13. Dept of Homeland Security (1.21%)
14. Dept of Energy (0.74%)
15. Dept of Agriculture (0.73%)
16. Dept of Justice (0.67%)
17. NASA (0.53%)
18. Dept of Commerce (0.39%)
19. Dept of Labor (0.38%)
20. Dept of Treasury (0.38%)

Do you find this list as illuminating as I did?

Most people get riled up over pork barrel projects, earmarks, farm subsidies, foreign aid, and so on; but however valid these concerns may be they are miniscule in comparison to our top five spenders this year: Social Security, Defense, Welfare, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Each of these, too sacred for any of our elected politicians to even consider cutting, have swollen like unchecked parasites. And of course each is screaming for more money. If so much of our federal resources are so focused on performing such specific functions and are still not fulfilling them completely, we are doing something wrong.

There's an old saying: When the only tool you have is a hammer then eventually every problem starts to look like a nail. It's easy to look at the size and capability of our military, our country, and assume that placing any task in federal hands will be accomplished. It's easy to believe a politician when they assure us that, if elected, they can make the government take a variety of responsibilities off our shoulders. But this is not the right tool for these tasks.

How do we balance the budget? Don't spend more than we have. How do we control spending? Elect a Congress who understands what they are there to do … and knows what a nail looks like.

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