Wednesday, November 26, 2008

A Little Perspective

If we were to entirely eliminate:
  • $10.6 billion - United States Department of the Interior
  • $10.5 billion - United States Department of Labor
  • $8.4 billion - Social Security Administration
  • $7.1 billion - United States Environmental Protection Agency
  • $6.9 billion - National Science Foundation
  • $6.3 billion - Judicial branch (United States federal courts)
  • $4.7 billion - Legislative branch (United States Congress)
  • $4.7 billion - United States Army Corps of Engineers
  • $0.4 billion - Executive Office of the President
  • $0.7 billion - Small Business Administration
  • $7.2 billion - Other agencies
  • $39.0 billion - Other Off-budget Discretionary Spending

We’ve still only reached just over $100 billion or one-tenth of the deficit. On we go:

  • $44.8 billion - United States Department of Veterans Affairs
  • $38.5 billion - United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
  • $38.3 billion - State and Other International Programs
  • $37.6 billion - United States Department of Homeland Security
  • $25.0 billion - United States Department of Energy
  • $20.8 billion - United States Department of Agriculture
  • $20.3 billion - United States Department of Justice
  • $17.6 billion - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • $12.5 billion - United States Department of the Treasury
  • $11.5 billion - United States Department of Transportation

If we eliminate all of these departments too, we’re at $373 billion, or just over a third of the deficit. So we keep cutting:

  • $70.4 billion - United States Department of Health and Human Services
  • $59.2 billion - United States Department of Education

$503 billion! Halfway there...

  • $515.4 billion - United States Department of Defense
  • $145.2 billion - Global War on Terror

Um... that’s all that’s left. Defense and the War on Terror. And we’d have to pretty much eliminate those entirely to close the gap.

Right now we’re running nearly one-third of the entire federal government on borrowed money. That is not sustainable. That is a destined to collapse.

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