Federal entitlements, which comprise 60% of the budget, have been correctly identified as the root cause of our growing annual deficit. We certainly need to enact significant reforms of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. However, in order to achieve some level of fiscal integrity, there is an equally important change that we must all accept – just saying no.
This became apparent when Congress went home for their August break without an agreement on an FAA funding bill – leaving 4,000 federal employees out of work for 13 days. The center of this dispute – and a pristine illustration of how callously Congress regards our money – is the allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars for construction and operation of airports so remotely located that they are, in effect, rarely used. Our Congress, far more comfortable with trading favors than budgetary discipline, continues to underwrite these pointless expenses when what we need more than ever is the ghost of Susan Powter to descend over our capital, screaming “Stop the Insanity!”
The preceding is just one example of our irrational spending habits. Here are others:
1. The Postal Service. The USPS was transformed in 1971 as an independent, self-supporting entity – which last year was underwritten to the tune of $8 billion. Congress should have dictated a balanced budget for the service years ago, but individual members demand that underutilized post offices remain open and that money-losing services are maintained. Of course, they have a franking privilege (free mailing), so it doesn’t affect them personally. If this boondoggle weren’t underwritten with OPM (other people’s money), this operation would have been either slashed or in bankruptcy years ago.
2. Defense bases. There is a legitimate debate about the cost of our defense, but unfortunately this contains too little discussion about the need to consolidate our military bases (principally because every time this topic arises, a national war breaks out). There’s no doubt that federal funds expended to support these bases inject a huge amount of money into local economies. In a time of overwhelming deficits, it’s time that Congress put the interests of the nation ahead of those of their individual districts.
Many bases could be reduced in size (or closed). Land could be sold off; excess supplies liquidated, and scrap metal exchanged for valuable dollars. Once again, this generally isn’t done because it’s OPM.