spending

There's a new study out that documents just how much YOUR money Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups have received, courtesy of the federal government over the past seven years.

As far as Planned Parenthood goes, the figure is over six-hundred and fifty MILLION dollars. - an average of over one hundred million per year.

The report takes a look at all taxpayer supported streams of revenue making their way to the organization - from "Title X" funding for "family planning" to funds from government organizations like USAID and HHS.  The report from the government's General Accounting Office pegs the exact seven year figure at $657.1 million.

Of course, when it comes to the abortion biz, that's not it: (via Lifenews)  read more »

Although it's far from a surprise and has long been predicted, it's finally a reality: Social Security is now officially paying out more than it is taking in.

Of course, Social Security has taken in more than it has paid out pretty much since its inception...which would lead a normal person to think there's a big fat piggy bank just waiting to pay out all those benefits, right?  Wrong.  The truth is that the government has faithfully borrowed every dime of that surplus over the years and spent it on, well, everything.

Bruce Krasting looks at the public data on the Social Security "Trust Fund" and points out that the numbers are headed in the wrong direction...pointing out that this wasn't expected to happen for another five years or so.

This is the cost of the protracted recession and the failure of the
economy to generate new jobs. The 2008-2009 increase in benefits was at
a nosebleed level of 9.5%. That level has collapsed to 3.9% in the
2009-2010 period.  ...  read more »

Although you probably already knew this intuitively, and it certainly comes as no shock given the enormous spending increases, it turns out that government is a bigger part of our economy than ever...and the private economy is a smaller part than ever: (via USA Today)

Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds.

At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

Those records reflect a long-term trend accelerated by the recession and the federal stimulus program to counteract the downturn. The result is a major shift in the source of personal income from private wages to government programs. ...  read more »

In years past, most major political blowups over American fiscal policy that altered the political landscape were over the revenue side of the equation, meaning taxes.  People begin to feel the pinch of higher taxes and they fight back, demanding that elected officials cut taxes, and supporting political candidates who promise that they will do just that.  In some states, they've even been able to get initiatives on the ballot and push tax cuts themselves - California's prop 13 comes to mind.

But as Michael Barone points out, the new Tea Party related political activism over fiscal issues is different from the fiscal fights of the past.  Now it's about spending.

What we are seeing is a spontaneous rush of previously inactive citizens into political activity, a movement symbolized but not limited to the Tea Party movement, in response to the vast increases in federal spending that began with the Troubled Asset Relief Program legislation in fall 2008 and accelerated with the Obama Democrats' stimulus package, budget and health care bills.  read more »

As pretty much anyone and everyone who's paid any attention to the news for the past generation knows, Social Security, as it is currently configured, is going to run out of money.  It's simple math.  But it has always (to a great many people) seemed like a distant prospect, not something that demanded to be dealt with right now.

For decades and decades, the program has muddled along, with a few tweaks here and there, running a surplus of funds paid it by workers versus benefits paid to retirees.  And, of course, the federal government "borrowed" those surpluses from the Social Security fund and spent them on just about everything else under the sun.  Which means there has been an ever growing IOU in the "trust fund".  Couple this with the beginning retirements of baby boomers, and many people have pointed out that it's going to be a problem sooner rather than later.

Well, guess what?  That day of reckoning is here.  Via USA Today:  read more »

The Democrats gave yet another unwanted Christmas present to America's future generations this past weekend as they voted for a monstrous pork-filled Omnibus spending bill (omnibus or consolidated because the Democrats could not get their work done this year by passing the required 12 separate spending bills to keep the government functioning.)   

Incredibly, 3 Republicans joined virtually all the Democrats in voting for this $1.1 TRILLION bill loaded with thousands of pork-projects glommed on to the legislation.  The three Republican Senators who voted for this irresponsible spending bill were Susan Collins from Maine; Thad Cochran and Richard Shelby (up for reelection next year) from the very conservative states of Mississippi and Alabama respectively.  If these three Republican Senators had voted no on the "breaking the Republican filibuster vote," the Democrats would not have been able to even vote on this abominable bill.  

The $1.1 trillion bill is now part of the Democrats' whopping $3.6 trillion annual budget for Fiscal Year 2010 and the president is expected to sign it into law.  The Democrats, contrary to their promises (and the president's campaign promises), increased federal spending by a crushing 12%, by far, the largest increase in many years.    read more »

The Christian Coalition of America will be rewarding those 28 Democrats  --  who joined every single Republican in the House of Representatives voting yesterday  --  with a positive score in its next Christian Coalition of America Congressional Scorecard regarding the bloated and pork-filled Omnibus money bill the House Democrats passed by a margin of 221-202 (with one Democrat voting president, ala state senator Barack Obama who voted present numerous times worried about his political viability if he took a position on many issues; 7 Democrats and 3 Republicans did not vote.) 

Voting for this gigantic spending bill is an absolute disgrace besides the fact that provisions in the bill attack the American family and our culture.  The official name of the bill is the "Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY 2010," H.R. 3288.  The reason the Democrats call it a "consolidated" spending bill or an "omnibus" spending bill is that they could not get their job done, as they promised they would, repeatedly, during the 2006 and 2008 campaigns.  They got only 5 of the 12 spending bills signed into law this year, a record worse than most Republican Congresses.     read more »

From the "who didn't see this coming" department, we find out that
the administration that promised us great leaps for governmental
transparency...to say nothing of the extra steps they promised to take
in order to sell enough members of Congress to pass the stimulus
boondoggle...has failed to deliver.

Via the Denver Post: 

The
goal was to build a reporting system that allows the public to follow
the zigzagging paths of dollars awarded under the $787 billion federal
stimulus package. A financial GPS of sorts. But despite federal
lawmakers’ pledge of transparency, the final stages of most
money trails, along with key information about job impacts, will remain
invisible to users of the Recovery.org website when it debuts next
month.

Only details of a stimulus grant’s passage
through its first two stops after it leaves the federal government must
be reported, according to guidance memos from the White House Office of
Management and Budget. That means billions of dollars will be
untrackable and thousands of recipients will be left unidentified
through the database, officials acknowledge.  read more »

Washington -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asked Congress to increase the $12.1 trillion debt limit on Friday, saying it is "critically important" that they act in the next two months.

Mr. Geithner, in a letter to U.S. lawmakers, said that the Treasury projects that the current debt limit could be reached as early mid-October. Increasing the limit is important to instilling confidence in global investors, Mr. Geithner said.

The Treasury didn't request a specific increase in the letter...

As if Barack Obama's trillion stimulus legislation (which includes interest on the $787 billion final bill) was not enough, Americans found out today that the Democrats' health care legislation  --  which greatly increases government intrusion into Americans' health care  --  will cost American taxpayers another trillion dollars during the next 10 years if it is passed by the Democrat-controlled Congress this year.  This is what the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the Kennedy/Obama health reform bill will cost in a letter to Senator Ted Kennedy today.  

These two one-trillion dollar Obama programs are on top of the nearly 1/2 trillion onnibus bill passed to fund Obama's government until the end of this fiscal year.  Obama's first deficit is estimated by his administration to be $1.8 trillion, but many economists believe it will actually be a gigantic $2 trillion by the end of this fiscal year.  Obama has quadrupled the deficit and quadrupled the debt according to Sean Hannity on his show tonight on the Fox News channel.    read more »