The Audacity of Dopes: Your Tax Dollars At Work

Posted on December 30, 2009. Filed under: General Info, Soapbox | Tags: 2010 US budget, 2010 US debt, fiscal irresponsitility, the audacity of dopes |

Here is a look at the 2010 Fiscal Year Government Budget, obtained from a very informative website called  USgovernemtspending.com .

Doing the calculations you will find for the US government, spending equals $11,625.45 per capita with public deficit on the federal leval at a whopping $46,799.29 per capita. For a family of four, that means the federal debt is $187,197.16 for this fiscal year.

As if that is not scary enough, lets consider what happens when you add state and local government into the equation: Total government spending is $20,726.45 per capita or $82,905.80 per family of four. Gross public debt for federal, state and local governments is $57,149.56 per person or (you may want to sit down) $228,598.24 per family of four.  

Let’s keep in mind the median household income in the U.S. for 2009 was $50,303. When adjusted for inflation, that parallels the 1997 median household income. With unemployment of 10% in this country, and no real signs of improvement on the horizon, the median income for 2010 is expected to fall to around $47,800.

Keep in mind this is for this fiscal year and before Health Care Non-Reform and before Crap and Tax, before the untold bacon fat thrown into the mix by your well paid government representatives.  You know, the ones who say our previous life styles are “unsustainable”.  I think they need a dictionary and a mirror.

Legislation passed by your elected federal officals will be increasing the amount of tax dollars withheld from that shrinking amount. There are forecasts that inflation or even worse, hyper-inflation will begin to set in sometime in the coming year as well.

Did you get a raise? No?? mmm.. well those you elected to represent you in Washington did. Not only do they get their so called “Cadillac” health care plan you so generously provide for them, along with their very generous pension plan, they also got a raise. The 2009 salary for members of the House and Senate was $174,000, including the $4,700 pay raise they received in January, 2009. House and Senate Minority and Majority leaders receive $193,400. Queen Nancy, Speaker of the House, received $223,500.  It’s estimated they will receive a 3% pay raise for 2010.

This is audacity, alright.  They should have called it the “Audacity of Dopes”.

Let’s make our new year’s resolution to seek a little “economic justice” of our own.

Here is the chart from usgovernmentspending.com

Details, using numbers from FY10 US budget. Includes state and local “guesstimates.”