Louisiana State University Federal Agency Directory lists over 1,300 distinct organizations across all three branches of federal government: Legislative branch (Congress); Executive branch (President and departments and independent agencies); and Judicial branch (Supreme Court and Circuit Courts). One should question the necessity for these agencies. Excepting the Executive branch, each agency gets a 7.5 percent automatic increase in their budget every year. But, to get their increase, they are mandated to spend every penny of the previous years budget. Just to give you an idea of what that means, the 2010 budget for the department of human services was more than the entire federal budget in 1962.
In 1974 the congress, in order to avoid being held responsible for the increases in spending, enacted "the Congressional Budget Act of 1974", which, at the time, set a 10 percent increase in budget allowance for all agencies and departments within the federal government. The budget act provided that if a department spent its complete allotment, it would receive an automatic increase of 10 percent the following year. In 1984 the republican congress was able to cut the increase down to 7.5 percent. Under this act representatives and senators could no longer be held responsible by their constituents for increases in spending by the federal government. There were 291 Democrats and 144 Republicans 144, in the house of representatives. The Senate, had 61 Democrats, 38 Republicans, and 1 independent. Nothing the democrats wanted could be stopped by a republican vote.
Richard Nixon vetoed this legislation. Congress overrode his veto. He vetoed the legislation because he thought it would lead to deficit spending that would cause inflation. This law, put into place in 1974 was the beginning of what we are experiencing today, a runaway deficit spending government.
The only thing that I know for certain is that during the next decade the census department predicts a 14 percent growth in population. While the projected growth in federal spending, under the current base line budgeting system, is 106.1 percent. The 2010 budget was a whopping $3,456,000,000,000.00. If you are having trouble with that number, it reads, three trillion four hundred fifty six billion. To help you get a mental picture of how much money that is, here is an explanation. A one dollar bill is 6 inches long, put end to end, it would take 10,160 of them to go 1 mile. That many dollars would stretch out to 340,157,480 miles that would be equal to 712 round trips to the moon or 4 round trips to the sun. If the current base line budget is not stopped the amount spent in the year 2020 will be $7,119,360,000,000.00, more than twice the 2010 budget while population growth will be only 14 percent. Frankly, there is no possible justification for that increase in spending.
Here is a quote from President Ronald Reagan. "The scariest thing to hear is someone saying "I am from the government and I am here to help you"". This is the road to destruction that congress does not want to change. After all, who wants to take the responsibility for all that spending? I would encourage all of you to sit down and write your congressmen and women and ask them to repeal the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and make every department in the government justify their budget every year.
"God save me from change, give me improvement." should become the mantra of the people of the United States of America.
This article was written by R. B. Jeffrey who has a degree in sociology from the University of California Sacramento is a businessman who lives in Visalia, CA. Mr. Jeffrey is the owner of Fur Pets Only, a company that makes dog and cat collars, leashes and harnesses right here in America. If you agree with me, let me know. My e-mail address is furpets@comcast.net
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