The U.S. Government is wasting money at an alarming Rate!
Correction: The U.S. Government is wasting OUR Taxpayer money at an alarming Rate!
The are certain rules to a basic budget that are unchangeable, you have to bring in more money than you spend is rule #1 and well for the everyday families that would normally be unbreakable. But not for our government. How can they defy that logic, well I can give you two reasons, first they have unlimited access to borrow endless amounts of money at interest rates that are paid by the We the People and second well it is not their money it is ours.
Conversations like these are going to be very important going into 2025 because We the People have to be involved in our government on a more regular basis. Fortunately, with the introduction of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) we may have the opportunity to finally look behind the curtain of our countries’ spending. However, we have to know what is going so we can ensure even departments such as DOGE are doing what is in our countries best interest for the American People.
When Donald Trump, won the latest election his intent was and has been since 2016 to Give the power back to the people. We cannot let this go in vain, we have to educate ourselves, on the U.S Constitution, Foreign Policy, U.S. Finances, etc. We are very busy and I understand that but if we don’t take care of the country that we have and allow others to just do it for us, I can assure you they WILL NOT have your best interest in mind. The best people to look out for everyday Americans, is well everyday Americans.
So let’s start with the basics as I wanted to briefly discuss our budget. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in 2023 the U.S Government received $4.4 Trillion dollars. Yes, you read that right, $4.4 Trillion dollars. But thats only half the equation, unfortunately we spent $6.1 Trillion dollars in 2023 alone.
So our government is spending $1.7 Trillion dollars more than they are taking from America. How is this so? Again we go back to the availability of access to the printing press while strapping American Citizens with the interest tax bill. Our “Representatives” take absolutely no accountability and lose nothing. But why would they, they always get re-elected, take home a lucrative paycheck, have the best benefits a country can offer and it doesn’t really matter to them what is happening in our daily lives.
But let’s dive into this deeper, we already know they are spending more than what is coming in, but on what? It must all be required for our daily lives right? If you look at the graphic above, the CBO so neatly categorizes the overspending in three neatly packed categories, $3.8 Trillion is Mandatory, $1.7 Trillion is Discretionary and $7 Billion is Net Interest. Well shouldn’t we trust they are spending responsibly. well No, absolutely not and NO, NO, NO! Thats why we are where we are. This must change!
Next, let’s take a brief look at government spending, in the current year of 2024 because this must have had to have been corrected. Unfortunately it has not. In a story published by The Daily Signal 5 Facts and 5 Worst Offenses From Report Showing Government Made $161B in Improper Payments in 2024
Although this amount marked a decrease from the pandemic-era average of $238 billion per year in improper payments between 2020 and 2023, $161 billion is still an egregious amount. It’s almost twice as much as the $89 billion budget of the Department of Homeland Security. And the total reported covers only the programs tracked and the improper payments discovered.
Here are 5 facts:
The federal government sent $161 billion in improper and unknown payments. This equals over $1,200 for every household in America.
Over the past five years, the government spent $1.1 trillion in taxpayer dollars on improper payments. That’s $8,300 for every household in America.
Almost all improper payments are overpayments. In 2024, only $7.8 billion of the total $161 billion in improper and unknown payments was in underpayments.
Once out the door, improper payments are difficult to recover. Over the past five years, only 10% of improper payments was recovered. Such recovery is expensive.
Despite legislation designed to impose accountability and integrity, no real consequences exist for improper payments. Rather, agencies often are rewarded with larger budgets to cover their errors.
Hers are 5 that had the worst spending:
Federal health care programs top the charts for improper payments. Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program accounted for more than half of all improper payments in fiscal 2024. The three programs’ combined $87 billion in improper payments equals the cost of health insurance premiums for 9.7 million individuals or 3.4 million families.
The Treasury Department has the worst improper payments rate. Of four tax-credit programs that track improper payments, three have improper payments above 27%. In total, wrong payments amounted to $21 billion, or more than 1 in 5 dollars distributed by the Treasury Department through the earned income tax credit, additional child tax credit, American opportunity tax credit, and refundable Obamacare tax credit.
Pandemic-related programs were awash with fraud and abuse. Even after most improper payments in these programs were accounted for in prior years (including at least $191 billion in unemployment benefits), the Restaurant Revitalization Program issued $8.7 billion, or 30% of all payments, improperly in fiscal 2024. In addition, 25% of remaining Paycheck Protection Program payments were improper.
Improper payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs are particularly indefensible. Payments such as veterans’ pensions should be highly accurate because eligibility is based on decades of service and Veterans Affairs has extensive data on veterans. Yet, the VA pension system had an improper payment rate of 14% in fiscal 2024. Moreover, although most agencies assert that the bulk of improper payments are outside of their control, the VA admitted that 100% of its reported $600 million in overpayments was within the agency’s control.
Welfare programs are plagued by large improper payments. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, had an improper payment rate of 11.7%, issuing $10.5 billion in improper payments. The Supplemental Security Income program had an improper payment rate of 10.6%, with $10.6 billion in improper payments. SNAP and SSI are mandatory programs, so they receive whatever funding is needed to pay benefits, regardless of whether the payments are accurate. But when discretionary programs such as Head Start have an improper payment rate of 12%, that prevents wait-listed low-income families and children from participating.
The waste outlined above all fall into the category of Mandatory spending, this demonstrates the waste that has fallen to the government bureaucracy. We have to make sure this stops, our taxpayer dollars are being wasted due to the inability for our government to run efficiently and with accountability and this isn't even going into spending on illegal immigration and payments to foreign countries, those are two areas that will be explored in a future Substack. So when you hear your “representative” say they want to cut medicare, healthcare for everyone, etc. The answer is yes, ok, thats a start let’s see where money can be cut. Don’t let them scare you into thinking you are not helping people. Our first goal is to help American citizens, hard stop! We can do that by getting our budget under control.
Everyday Americans know if we are trying to pay off debt, you can do two things, bring in more money or tighten the belt and bring down costs. We have given, let me correct that, the U.S Government has taken more and more taxes from Americans annually and the debt just increases, so it is is time to tighten our belts and stop the spending.
This is where We the People come in, we have to be aware of what they are cutting, because again if we give away our power they will not keep our best interest in mind. In fact they will do what they can to hurt Americans so they can try and prove their necessity, we have gone down that road already, it has to stop. I can go on and on, but I won’t for now.
We just need to accept the power being given back to us by Donald Trump so we can take our country back. Our Founding Fathers had very little trust for central government, they wanted power localized, we have to understand the gift they left us. I fully appreciate you taking the time to read my writing, and support my efforts to bring awareness to our situation as Americans.
God Bless You and God Bless America!
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