Believe it or not, the federal debt during the time of President Ronald Reagan was $1 trillion. By 2020, it had grown to $30 trillion. Then, in less than three years, Joe Biden has increased the debt by another $2.5 trillion.
Our total debt is now more than 75 times that of 1920. As the government grows irrevocably, our individual liberties suffer. More legislation and regulation, and more of everything, hampers the ability of citizens to live their lives freely. The far-Left Biden Administration is well aware of this.
Self-regarded Elites
Unimaginably, a staggering 500 federal agencies currently operate with almost no oversight. They procure items that our nation cannot afford, launch studies that are marginal at best, and manipulate the government in ways that the Founding Fathers could not have foreseen.
These government agencies, headed by self-regarded elites, hire contractors in ever-burgeoning numbers. Since Biden took office, federal contracts that fall outside the regulations have made quantum leaps. Biden and company cannot issue them fast enough. Government Accountability Office (GAO) data shows that even before the useless expenditures to contain COVID-19, the Federal Government spent $665 billion on contracts, a $70 billion increase from the year before.
Does this wave of contractors fulfill needs? Not often. With sleight-of-hand maneuvers, many contractors fail to resolve issues and add to them. Worse, many contractors are awarded sums that do not remain within the bounds of the federal acquisition regulations.
Massive Debt is Not Pretty
What about the debt on these expenditures and the rising federal deficit itself? Accumulating debt costs money, and federal debt interest is paid to countries such as China and Japan. Since Biden was installed, the nation's annual interest on our accumulated debt now stands at $663 billion, projected to rise to $745 billion in 2024 and $1.4 trillion in 2033. This is not mere fiscal irresponsibility; it is insanity.
Our finances are now a house of cards. Not only are we vulnerable to countries that would prefer to see us destroyed, but the Federal Reserve also cannot manage effectively. Combined with the utterly foolish Biden Administration policy of reducing our domestic energy production, inflation has nowhere to go but dramatically upward.
Conversations in typical households across America are about the rising prices in supermarkets. Our Federal Government spends far more money than it collects via taxes, so it is forced to print money not backed by anything. Thus, the value of the dollar incessantly diminishes with the passage of time.
In 1940, federal employment hovered at around 700,000 people, and federal contracting was minimal. By 2014, federal civilian employment had grown to 2 million people, 2.85 million by 2020, and around 3 million today. Growth in the number of federal employees, in and of itself, speaks volumes. All of those workers, many of whom contribute little or nothing to our economy, are paid wages and benefits and then, in retirement, continue to feed at the government trough for decades.
A Branch of Government unto Themselves
President Harry Truman once said, "You can't get rich in politics unless you're a crook." That might have been true at the time. Today, federal employees and elected officials are well off and becoming more so as we speak. We already know the vast wealth accumulated by those elected to Congress and how much more they can gain once they leave Congress and work for lobbying firms, big pharma, and big energy.
From an employment standpoint, the federal government is so out of control that we are approaching one federal employee for every 100 citizens as if anybody in the 50 states ever needed such bureaucracy. And those figures do not include government contractors.
Many of these employees are lifers with well-established agendas that might or might not coincide with the government's executive, legislative, and judicial branches. In essence, they are a branch of government unto themselves, stifling policies that they don't like and advocating and promulgating those that they do without your vote.
They operate as if they alone know what’s best for society. Much of what they do is simply best for them. So, it's unsurprising that six of the most affluent counties in America circle Washington DC.