On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced that she would offer up $70 million, out of the $129 million in highway bill earmarks that she won for her district, to offset the cost of the Katrina relief effort, surpassing the 50 percent target set in the Heritage Foundation???s initial highway bill “give-back” proposal. And on Wednesday, members of the House???s Republican Study Committee (RSC), a conservative group, made a similar pledge.
It is shameful that the ones who want to raise the taxes should get any leverage on this issue. Conservatives should have led the way on this issue at every opportunity. No one should think that there isn’t enough money to pay for the war and the damage to the Gulf Coast. No one made this offer prior to Katrina and now the democrats move to gain political positon. Yet spending per household is huge.
“With federal spending now topping $22,000 per household, the average American believes that about half of his or her tax dollars are wasted,” writes Riedl.
We have become so invested in the projects that devour limited public funds, yet the only solution the democrats have routinely touted is tax increases. So is this the turn around for the democrats? Hardly! Just wait and soon you will once again hear from them that money is short and the only way to pay is take more from the businesses which create jobs. For an more examples of waste, see the following article.
* The federal government cannot account for $24.5 billion spent in 2003.
* A White House review of just a sample of the federal budget identified $90 billion spent on programs deemed that were either ineffective, marginally adequate, or operating under a flawed purpose or design.
* The Congressional Budget Office published a ???Budget Options??? book identifying $140 billion in potential spending cuts.
* The federal government spends $23 billion annually on special interest pork projects such as grants to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, or funds to combat teenage ???goth??? culture in Blue Springs, Missouri.
* The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets, and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were reimbursable.
* The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually to not farm their land.
* The Medicare program pays as much as eight times the cost that other federal agencies pay for the same drugs and medical supplies.
* Food stamp overpayments cost $600 million annually.
* Medicare contractors owe the federal government $7 billion.
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