Moving toward a limited and cost-effective federal government

March 18, 2025

Our country is currently experiencing many problems, and some are quite serious. As President Donald Trump’s opponents constantly remind us, he has not yet corrected these problems, even though he has been in office for almost two months.

But seriously, folks, we do have some real problems. And what the most serious of them is depends to a large degree upon whom you ask about that. Some of them are: the national debt, inflation and the resulting high prices, illegal immigration, military strength, big government.

But in whatever order you rank these problems, none of them can be cured overnight; they will all take time to be worked out. That amount of time will be shortened if everyone involved will work together for that purpose. And perhaps that is the most complicated problem of all.

Of those many problems, one that has attracted much attention, and one that is actively being addressed, is the size, cost, and activities of the federal government. Due to the way things have been going for decades, we have become saddled with a national debt of $35.46 trillion, as of fiscal year 2024, and this figure is rising every second. As of last week, it was $36.22 trillion. And the impact of that is enormous: the interest on the national debt is billions of dollars per day.

Our government is too big, it costs too much to operate, its reach has grown far too broad, and it has expanded its power and authority well beyond its originally designed limits. Almost every year the government has a sizeable budget deficit, which adds more to the national debt.

And not only are we spending far too much, billions of those dollars are being spent improperly. Many decisions on spending are being made not by Congress, as is the constitutional process, but by unelected bureaucrats, many with partisan motives.

The entire operation of the government and its spending practices are currently being examined by the newly created and temporary Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Despite the fact that the people pay taxes on what they earn, on what they spend, annually on property they own, and the Social Security payments they receive, and businesses pay taxes on their operation, the country still spends more than it takes in.

In 1789, several years after the creation of the country, there were only three federal departments: State, War, and Treasury. Today, there are 15 departments. The government has five times the departments it had in the early years. And there are fair points being made that we don’t need some of them, and that others need to be downsized and/or merged.

One example of this is that we don’t need USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and that its work can be done by the State Department. Another is the Department of Education. Its job can be done by the individual states, who handled it before the department was created in 1979.

Liberal criticism of the Trump administration contains the scare tactic that Trump wants to create a dictatorship. That would mean a government that controls everything. But that situation has been building for many years, as evidenced by the increase of government departments and the authority they now exercise.

And what Trump is aiming for is reducing the size, cost and broad authority of the federal government. This is being done by DOGE and other efforts of the administration.

With our oversized federal bureaucracy, we are dependent upon other countries for some of the goods that our people need and want the most. And some of them are things that were once produced here, or that could be.

Due to various causes, many of those things were moved out of the U.S., and for the most part, the reason is that government interfered with domestic production by increased regulations that made production more difficult and more expensive. This caused production of some to be moved to other countries, and made foreign products more necessary.

Why shouldn’t a country as great as America not produce the things its people need and want at home? Why should we be at the mercy of other countries, some of whom love to make us suffer, when we can reorganize our country to produce nearly all of the things we need and want?

By appealing to companies that have moved out of the U.S. and encouraging them to return, and by attracting companies that have not been located here to move here, great things will happen. Thousands of new jobs will be created, and the prices on many items will be better. 

We can act to make domestic products more desirable than foreign made products, if some of them are threatening our own products.

Imagine a country that has an abundance of good jobs creating needed and wanted products. And one with a balanced budget, enough income to allow lowering the national debt, and with national spending low enough to allow a tax system with low tax rates that enable the people to keep more of their earnings.

All of this is possible. But the road to that future is not an easy one.

Why do Democrats oppose making government more efficient?

February 11, 2025

That our federal government is too big, too powerful and too expensive is something that cannot be successfully argued. And President Donald Trump’s efforts to restore the government to its designed size and function has stirred a great deal of comment.

In particular, the examination of the expenditures of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has created quite a buzz on both sides of the political spectrum. USAID employs nearly 10,000 people and has an annual budget of $40-to-$50 billion.

USAID was not created by Congress, as federal departments and agencies usually are, but by an executive order of former president John F. Kennedy in 1961. However, Congress later passed a measure giving the agency the same security as one directly created by Congress.

Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) through an executive order he signed on Inauguration Day. DOGE will be a temporary organization within the White House, and will have 18 months — until July 4, 2026 — to carry out its mission.

Its mission is to reduce federal spending, shrink the size and increase the efficiency of the federal government. DOGE, through its leader, Elon Musk, has focused much attention on the actions of USAID.

USAID has great potential to assist in important and valuable efforts across the globe, and has often done just that. However, some of its spending may not be the best use of our tax dollars. This is especially true when you understand that the federal government has been spending ridiculous amounts of money beyond what was available for many years.

This ignoring of economic responsibility has created a National Debt of well over $36 trillion dollars, through many years of budget deficits under a long list of presidents.

Some of the USAID expenditures sound useful. Items such as $37 million to the World Health Organization; $12 million in support services to the Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security; $4 million in funding for the Center for Climate-Positive Development; and maybe even the $6 million spent for non-emergency funding for redundant administrative supports for the Center of Excellence.

But, alas, not all make sense, and some, on a list that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt brought to a press conference, are plainly inappropriate:

* $2 million for sex changes and "LGBT activism" in Guatemala.

* $6 million advertising to fund tourism in Egypt. 

* Over $4.5 million to “combat disinformation” in Kazakhstan.

* Up to $10 million worth of USAID-funded meals went to al Qaeda-linked terrorist group the Nusra Front.

* Nearly $25 million awarded to Deloitte to promote green transportation in Georgia (the country). 

* $4.67 million to EcoHealth Alliance, one of the key nongovernmental organizations funding bat virus research at Wuhan Institute of Virology, in late 2021, which later refused to answer key questions about the funding.  

Administration efforts through DOGE to audit USAID spending have been met with resistance. Newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was also named the USAID’s acting administrator, said in an interview that USAID 

is guilty of "rank insubordination" and is "completely unresponsive" to questions and requests, adding "we had no choice but to bring this thing under control." 

It has “basically evolved into an agency that believes that they’re not even a U.S. Government agency, that they are out – they’re a global charity, that they take the taxpayer money and they spend it as a global charity irrespective of whether it is in the national interest or not in the national interest,” Rubio said.

He refused to say whether the agency should be closed, but instead stressed the goal was always to reform it. "There are things that we do through USAID that we should continue to do, that make sense, and we'll have to decide, is that better through the State Department or is that better through something, you know, a reformed USAID? That's the process we're working through," he said.

Despite plans for restructuring, Rubio said the United States would remain the "most generous nation on Earth," adding, that this must be done in a way that makes sense, that’s in our national interests.

Interestingly, the opposition party has loudly complained about the way the administration has handled the matter. It is also interesting that Democrats seem unconcerned with the way taxpayer money is being misused, and with the resistance of the agency bureaucrats — who are unelected government employees — to respond to legitimate requests and orders from the administration. Instead, they call names, and charge the administration with trying to destroy our democracy and wreck the government.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, “Before our very eyes, an unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government.”

And, as if that ridiculous comment wasn’t enough, he added another one: “This weekend, DOGE staffers also executed what can only be described as an illegal seizure of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.”

No doubt there will be some discomfort, as is necessary in making the broad changes that are needed in these situations. But there should be some real progress towards getting government under control, and that is a badly needed change.

Our government spends too much, and taxes the people too much

April 7, 2024

Several weeks ago, as the April tax filing deadline neared, Facebook featured some comments about how Americans feel about taxes.

Among those comments were these: 

** The biggest scam in life: Paying taxes on money you make; taxes on money you spend; and taxes on things you own that you already paid taxes on with already taxed money.

** Paying taxes in the USA is like having a never-ending car payment on a car that won't run.

** If your country has enough money to give to illegals, your taxes are too high.

** If they can pay all these student loans, they can stop taxes on seniors!

Clearly, taxes are not popular with the American people, despite the need for the government to collect taxes to pay its bills.

Founder Benjamin Franklin in the very early days of the republic said the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. But he wasn't talking about income taxes, because they did not exist then.

In order to help pay for the Civil War, the United States government imposed its first personal income tax, on August 5, 1861, as part of the Revenue Act of 1861. Tax rates were 3 percent on income exceeding $600 and less than $10,000, and 5 percent on income exceeding $10,000. But this tax didn’t last very long. There were other income taxes of short duration.

The income tax we pay today came into existence in 1913 when the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution made the income tax a permanent fixture in the U.S. tax system. It was a tax on incomes of both individuals and corporations. 

As much as people dislike the taxes they must pay, they generally understand that taxes are necessary for governments at the federal, state, and local levels to operate. And here in America, with our commitment to personal freedom, those governments are expected to be lean, efficient, not overbearing, and not overly expensive.

On the federal level, those characteristics are not being followed as our Founders expected.

USA Facts tells us that the “federal government collected nearly $4.5 trillion in revenue in fiscal year 2023 (FY2023). About half was collected through individual income taxes, while 37 percent was through payroll taxes. Other revenue sources included corporate income taxes, customs duties, and sales taxes.”

However, the report continues, the “federal government spent almost $6.2 trillion in FY 2023, including funds distributed to states, Medicare, Social Security, defense and veterans, transfers to states, interest on the debt, and aid to individuals such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and refundable tax credits accounted for 90 percent of spending.”

Worldometer online said that “the current population of the United States of America is 341,531,428 as of Sunday, May 5, 2024.” That’s about $13,000 in federal income collected per person. Spending, however, ran up to more than $18,000 per person.

Today, the National Debt stands at roughly $34 trillion. In 2006 the National Debt was around $8 trillion. A steady increase put it at about $23 trillion in 2020. And then the government stepped on the gas and the National Debt soared by $11 trillion in just 4 years to today’s $34 trillion. As a result, the per person amount to clear the National Debt today is more than $99,500.

The federal government is not as designed: small and limited in function. Today, it is too big, too expensive, not very efficient, and often quite over-bearing.

There are 15 executive departments and hundreds of federal agencies and commissions, employing approximately 1,427,700 federal employees, not including the military. Given the limited government philosophy of the Founders, many/most of these are not appropriate.

Which ones are needed? Here are a few of those executive branch departments that are sensible and needed: Department of Justice, Department of Defense, Department of State, and Department of the Treasury. While others may function well and sometimes provide positive guidance, are they really appropriate under the founding principles?

Why do we need a federal Department of Education to tell states how to educate the young? Why do we need the Environmental Protection Agency to tell private land owners what they can and cannot do with their own property? Why do we need a Department of Labor to tell businesses how they must operate? Under our system of federalism, these and other functions should be under control of the states, not the federal government.

In many of these departments, agencies or commissions unelected bureaucrats set rules in place with the force of law, complete with penalties. However, they are not approved by Congress, the law-making body. These bureaucrats tell the people that they work for, and who pay their salaries, what they can and cannot do, and can render punishment for them if they do not comply.

Over the decades the limited government philosophy of the Founders has fattened up and grown far beyond what it was designed to be, and what is needed and appropriate.

With every such step, the freedom of Americans becomes a little bit more limited. And if this concept continues much longer, America will no longer be the Land of the Free.

Annual budget deficits must end, and the debt must be reduced

May 30, 2023

The National Debt is a monstrous cloud hanging over the United States. It is money owed that is not being repaid, but growing each year.

As of May 25, the National Debt stood at $31,800,000,000,000 ($31.8 trillion). That is a number so huge that it is difficult to understand.

The U.S. Census Bureau tells us that as of July 1, 2022 there were 333,287,557 U.S. citizens. That means that for each citizen — man, woman and child — there is about $94.00 of debt, and about $430.00 per person 18 years-old and older.

Having a National Debt is not new. Its history is a fascinating thing to study.

There was a National Debt when President George Washington, took office in 1789. It was slightly more than $71 million. And, it increased by 11 million during his term that ended in 1797. 

Most of our presidents have seen the Debt increase during their terms in office, although 12 had a decrease in the Debt when they left office: Thomas Jefferson in 1809; James Monroe in 1825; John Adams in 1829; Andrew Jackson in 1837; Millard Fillmore in 1853; Franklin Pierce in 1857; Andrew Johnson in 1869; Ulysses S. Grant in 1877; Rutherford B Hayes in 1881; Chester Arthur in 1885; Grover Cleveland in 1889; Benjamin Harrison in 1893; Warren Harding in 1923; and Calvin Coolidge in 1929. 

Two presidents saw no change. James Garfield was assassinated during his first term after only 200 days in office. And after only 31 days in office, William Henry Harrison died.

It has been more than 90 years since the Debt was lowered under Coolidge. The reduction was $5.4 trillion for a total Debt of $16.9 trillion, slightly more than half of today’s Debt.

Since then, every president — 16 of them — has seen an increase during their time in office.

While things that a president does can affect the Debt, sometimes things beyond his control cause an increase. Factors like wars, recessions and national crises can affect the Debt. A recent crisis was the Covid pandemic. Another was the 9-11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon that led to spending that was not planned.

Also, because the U.S. fiscal year begins in October and ends the following September, and presidents take office on January 21, during most of a president’s first year in office, he is at the mercy of his predecessor’s budget.

The Debt Ceiling is the limit on borrowing that can be done, and Congress has control of it. It is part of a law (Title 31 USC, section 3101) that sets a legislative limit on the amount of national debt that can be incurred by the U.S. Treasury. 

When the debt ceiling is reached, as it often is, these days, the President and Congress must work toward an agreement on raising it. If they succeed, the government can borrow more money to meet its obligations. If not, a government shutdown occurs until an agreement is reached. The latter option is not really a viable one.

For the last nine decades the National Debt has continued to rise.  The smallest increases since Coolidge’s lowering of the Debt in 1929 are from three consecutive presidents who served from 1981 to 2001: Ronald Reagan at $1.86 trillion; George H.W. Bush at $1.55 trillion; and Bill Clinton at $1.4 trillion.

Since Clinton’s tenure, the next three presidents have seen larger increases: George W. Bush at $6.1 trillion; Barack Obama at $8.3 trillion, and Donald Trump at $8.2 trillion. Joseph Biden has seen the Debt increase by $2.5 trillion in his two-plus years in office.

In December of 2022, interest on the National Debt — which at that time was $31.4 trillion — was $210 billion, roughly 15 percent of total government spending for the year, according to Visual Capitalist online.

“The current revenue of the federal government is approximately $4.6 trillion while spending exceeds $6.0 trillion,” Forbes online reported in April. “Thus, the current budget deficit is over $1.4 trillion. It’s clear that members of Congress are spending like drunken sailors and like the Titanic, the U.S. is on a collision course with a financial iceberg.” 

The article goes on to say that high interest rates make this situation worse for the government to meet its financial obligations. Meanwhile, politicians seeking reelection prefer to keep spending.

The Republican-led House of Representatives passed a measure to raise the Debt Ceiling, but also to make significant spending cuts. Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, and President Joe Biden have been meeting trying to reach an agreement.

Hopefully, by the time this column is published, an agreement will have been reached.

At some point, elected members of Congress and the President of the United States must recognize that this unconscionable spending must stop, and the country must trim down, and develop a budget that pays current obligations and begins to pay down this humongous debt.

Our country was designed to be small, efficient, and non-intrusive. A government that protects the freedoms of its people, would not intrude on their good lives, and would not grow into the gargantuan monstrosity it has become. That is what the government needs to again become.