Posted on 01/02/2013 10:40:35 AM PST by chessplayer
(CNSNews.com) – Fifty percent of Americans now believe the country’s best years are past, according to Gallup, while 47 percent still say America’s best years are still to come.
Indeed - the 50% who pay taxes
Response: The election of the current occupant of the White House conclusively proves that America's best years are behind us.
The shuttle and the space station were wasted funding but the Space program itself helped to give us our onetime monopoly on Super Power status. We must cut the socialist entitlement programs... there is the real goblin that is eating us alive... just like the cancer that it is. Food stamps cost us more than NASA does. NASA had a 2012 budget that asked for 18.2 billion and got about 16.2 billion.
"WASHINGTON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department has said the auto industry bailout will cost taxpayers $3.4 billion more than previously thought.
Treasury now estimates the 2009 bailout will eventually cost the government $25.1 billion, according to a report sent to Congress on Friday.
That is up from the last quarterly estimate of $21.7 billion.
Acorn got 2 billion. This is chump change compared to the real problem.
LLS
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/10/federal-spending-by-the-numbers-2012
Federal Spending by the Numbers - 2012By Alison Acosta Fraser
October 16, 2012
The federal government has closed out its fourth straight year of trillion-dollar-plus deficits, and the imperative to rein in spending has never been greater. Because all government spending gets paid for through either taxes or borrowing—both of which burden the economy—spending reduction is an essential condition for promoting economic growth.
As this 2012 edition of Federal Spending by the Numbers shows, total federal spending for fiscal year 2012[1] reached $3.6 trillion, or 22.9 percent the size of the entire U.S. economy. In the past 20 years, federal outlays have grown 71 percent faster than inflation. The average American household’s share of this spending is $29,691, roughly two-thirds of median household income. This relentless growth is projected to continue, pushing total government outlays to $5.5 trillion a decade from now, and to about 36 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the next 25 years.
Federal entitlements are driving this spending growth, having increased from less than half of total federal outlays just 20 years ago to nearly 62 percent in 2012. Three major programs—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—dominate in size and growth, soaking up about 44 percent of the budget. All three programs are growing faster than inflation, and—when joined with $1.7 trillion in new Obamacare spending—will drain about 18.5 percent of the nation’s total economic output by mid-century. Because that is about the historical annual average of total federal tax revenue, it means all other government programs—national defense, veterans health care, transportation, federal law enforcement, and others—would effectively have to be financed on borrowed money.
Other entitlements continue growing as well. Anti-poverty programs have surged by 49 percent in just the past decade, even after adjusting for inflation. Spending for food stamps alone has more than tripled since 2002. Health programs, including Medicaid, have increased by 38 percent, and housing assistance by 48 percent.
Although these entitlement programs have dominated the government’s spending growth, discretionary spending—spending authorized by annual appropriations bills—also has grown by 40 percent more than inflation, to $1.289 trillion. Spending on non-defense programs has grown 29 percent. These outlays peaked in 2010 due to the stimulus bill, but remain 7 percent higher than their pre-stimulus level of 2008.
The result of this increasing deficit spending—which is financed by borrowing—is growing debt. If current policies continue, debt held by the public will approach 90 percent of total economic output by 2022, and will be twice the size of the entire economy 25 years from now.
There is still time to change course—but that time is growing short. The Heritage Foundation’s budget plan, Saving the American Dream,[2] reforms entitlements to make them affordable and sustainable, reins in other spending while adequately funding defense, and balances the budget in 10 years. The budget can be put on a stable, sustainable course if policymakers act soon.
Overall Budget Trends
■Over the past 20 years, federal spending grew 71 percent faster than inflation.
■Entitlement spending more than doubled over the past 20 years, growing by 110 percent (after adjusting for inflation). Discretionary spending grew by 60 percent.
■Deficits have pushed up the debt each year since 2002 as federal spending exceeded revenue. Fiscal year 2012 marked the fourth consecutive year of $1 trillion deficits.
■Although debt held by the public surged from 33.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2002 to 73 percent in 2012, net interest costs have held below 2 percent of GDP because interest rates have fallen to all-time lows.
■In 1962, defense spending was nearly half the total federal budget (49 percent); Social Security and other mandatory programs were less than one-third of the budget (31 percent). Two major entitlement programs, Medicaid and Medicare, were signed into law by President Johnson in 1965.
■In 2012 entitlements were nearly 62 percent of total spending, while defense dropped to less than one-fifth (18.7 percent) of the budget.
LLS
Without space... we will all be speaking chinese in 20 years.
With spending on Space, we will be speaking Chinese even sooner.....although you have some valid points in your posts.
hmmm...looks like mr. gallup was intrigued by my screen
name and tagline.
When the world is running down/
you make the best of what’s still around
Just like when Carter roamed the earth.
I never thought I’d say it, but I wish he was prez.
-— I am 58 and I would give up BOTH if the government would GTF out of my life. -—
I’m with you.
Our slogan: GTGTFOOML Catchy!
Merle said it best... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxLtXJzo3Ew
Don't be too surprised when they come at the other 50% with malicious intent.
Keep yyour powder dry,
GtG
I like it!!!!!!!!!!!!
LLS
And, the current state of Europe. We are sitting on a house of cards. And, so is the European Union. It could be 2013 or 2023.
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