It's time has come:

Wednesday-August 17, 2011

It’s time has come:

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the National Debt. I tried to convey just how much money the government spends in a 24 hour period. Go to http://usdebtclock.org and watch the dollars pile up in the time that it takes you to read the FORUM this morning.

Yesterday, I wrote about my thoughts on tax reform. I quoted a little bit of Kennedy and then gave my two cents about what to do. I hope I made some sense about how the cents are collected.

Today, it’s time to consider how the government spends the cents that it collects because there is very little sense in the process.

Nobody, not even the head of the Federal Government, can give you an accurate accounting of what is spent on a daily, weekly and yearly basis by the Federal Government. The President has his own personal budget that some estimate to be as low as 5 million dollars and as high as 50 million. Why the President needs this kind of money is beyond me. This only opens the door to further secret dealings that most of us abhor anyway.

There are other secret budgets. These are known as Black Budgets that we have no information about and that we gladly give 1 trillion dollars annually to support. Some of these costs are needed, like the Secret Service budget that I believe is never disclosed. We have an intelligence apparatus to operate, because the bad guys make us spend our money to defend our way of life. The military takes a big chunk and that’s fine, because the government must constitutionally provide for the “common defense.” Some activities might challenge the Constitution, but that’s another discussion for another day. These budgets are needed and there could be some waste, however these budgets don’t necessarily cause a budget deficit. I believe there is a cost benefit associated with our National Security.

Our Federal Government operates on the basis of baseline budgeting. For instance, if the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) says it needs 100 billion dollars at the start of its charter to operate with, it will get that 100 billion dollars every year, plus what it says it needs in addition to that figure. In other words, the EPA is guaranteed the same baseline, plus. This only becomes a problem when there is no accountability to the public or to its original charter. Base line budgeting is for dummies, because it doesn’t take any sense of finance to create a budget going out for lets say five years, because all you need to do is add 20% to last years budget plus another 5% because you can. I agree that this is a simplified description of what occurs in the budgeting process, but it is also an accurate one.

This process becomes a problem when there is layer upon layer of agency and other agency sponsored programs that basically do the same thing. If every agency or any arm of the Federal Government adds extra money beyond what they need just because they can, no wonder the country is broke. No wonder that the debt clock keeps ticking and the number grows by the billions with in hours.

Yesterday, I related many quotes that were attributed to President Kennedy in his fight to reform the tax code. In 1962, the tax code was complicated, but it was nothing like it is today. It’s not only taxes, but it is the cost of government that drives up our taxes. In Kennedy’s day, we were talking about billions. Today we are talking in terms of trillions, over 14 and on the way to 19 trillion to be exact and counting.

No matter what government does, no matter how noble the intention is a new program always starts small and grows. The amount of money it takes to run a program just keeps getting bigger and bigger. With government there is never retreat there is always advancement, even if it is unwarranted.

So, where am I going with this? I gave a few examples of how budgeting works and I gave a brief perspective on cost and how that cost grows because it is allowed to because of no accountability. This is the problem with the bureaucrats and the bureaucracies they reign over. The bureaucrat always manages to increase their responsibility not only in scope, but in how they spend your money.

I will be working to advance a budget reform plan in the coming months, but today my goal is to make you aware of what the problem is.

I will be working on a proposal on how to audit the entire government’s function through a targeted financial review and through an organization audit of each agencies charter. This would be similar to what a company does when it acquires another company, it’s called due diligence. We will soon find that each agency has moved so far from there original charter that we just might find that some agencies aren’t needed any more. Along with each agency there are duplicate agencies that support duplicate functions. All these functions take personal and take money to run and to operate them. If we don’t have enough revenue this government for some silly reason thinks that we must fuel the cost of duplicated efforts because that’s what we did last year and the year before and the year before that. This is what needs to change.

If government managers really managed then they would find ways to improve the service and improve their respective bottom line. But government doesn’t hire managers they hire bureaucrats out of college and train them on how to spend tax payer money instead of making tax payer money work for the tax payer. This is the difference between the private and public sector.

In the private sector, if you don’t manage the company’s funds properly, within the law, you will get fired and possibly sent to jail. However, in the public sector if you don’t make waves, manage to spend the money so you can get more next year, you are then considered a fine government employee. There is oversight but there is no oversight in the process of allocation. You see with government there is no accountability because the money will always be there. When government spends it can only do it in three ways, it taxes or it takes it, and in the extreme it prints more of it when it needs to, it then sells the debt to get cash to fuel the sick behavior.

It’s the behavior of the beast that must be cured. When we have the cost of entitlements rise each year because of the scope and dynamics of the participants and the increasing government sponsored programs because of the politically manufactured needs of the participants it is no wonder that the debt clock keeps ticking as each dollar is spent. If a sensible tax structure was created that would pay for these entitlements and if reforms were made to cut fraud and abuse and if true budgets were sought and maintained then we could start to have a continued process of review, through audits and through recommendations that either cut budgets or that cuts out the redundancy and waist that we know exists.

At the end of this process we just might find out that our national defense would become a common defense on the war against the unnecessary growth of government and the cost to support that unnecessary cost. It takes political will and it takes a strong soul. These are the kind of people that we should attract to run for office because it will take a new type of politician to do the peoples work going forward.

Just yesterday, the European Union called for each Euro Region country to have a balanced budget and to monitor closely the expenditures and management of there bureaucracies. If Europe can do this we should be able to do it better here. This is the attitude we need to cultivate. However, when a government fights any form of accountability to its tax payer then a balanced budget amendment will never get passed. Again it’s the behavior of the beast that we must change.

As I said a few weeks ago, there will be another budget battle in Congress in September. This is the time when the budget appropriations are made to run the government and all of the governmental agencies. Congress is the only arm of government that can allocate tax dollars for this process. The president said yesterday he will have a budget plan and job plan in September, he said: “get it done.” I can guarantee that the new budget will come down exactly the way I referenced in today’s FORUM, because that’s the way we did it last year. I will also guarantee that there will be no Balanced Budget talk either.

Some in Congress agree that necessary reforms are needed and a balanced budget is part of the solution. Until political will can be achieved across the board nothing will be done to improve the sick behavior of this budget process. There will be cuts but not in the way that will cure the behavior and the current deficit structure.

Remember these words: “If to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair.”
-George Washington

This is sounding more and more like the breed of politician that is needed today. Those words were spoken for the first time when the course was set for the countries well being. It is not Washington’s fault that they have not been listened to. We know his words to be truthful, because we knew he could never tell a lie. His words are as truthful today as they were when he spoke them for the first time as President. These words have been forgotten by many, but are now being remembered by few today. I am proud to be one of them!

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: It’s time has come to audit, to review and to do away with useless programs and useless agencies. We can replace what needs to be replaced so the needs of today and tomorrow can be met through the principals of our founding history.

Now, go check the debt clock again.