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Originally Posted by j.locke777
Another phrase we hear thrown around a lot is "wasteful spending." In my opinion, there's no such thing.
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"Earmarks" are appropriations tacked onto the end of bills that sometimes have nothing whatsoever to do with the bill itself and sometimes it goes to causes that many people wouldn't want to spend their tax dollars on. If the community wants something raise funds locally for it. It certainly isn't the obligation of every American to pay for things they may never even have access to.
Also, these appropriations are not a part of the budget, hence the term appropriation and to pay for these things we've been dipping into whats known as Intergovernmental Holdings, aka the "social security fund". You really think there's no such thing as wasteful spending? Sheesh, lets look at some of the stuff we pay for:
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The Missing $25 Billion
Buried in the Department of the Treasury’s 2003 Financial Report of the United States Government is a short section titled “Unreconciled Transactions Affecting the Change in Net Position,” which explains that these unreconciled transactions totaled $24.5 billion in 2003.[2]
The unreconciled transactions are funds for which auditors cannot account: The government knows that $25 billion was spent by someone, somewhere, on something, but auditors do not know who spent it, where it was spent, or on what it was spent. Blaming these unreconciled transactions on the failure of federal agencies to report their expenditures adequately, the Treasury report con(*)cludes that locating the money is “a priority.”
The unreconciled $25 billion could have funded the entire Department of Justice for an entire year.
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Unused Flight Tickets Totaling $100 Million
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Embezzled Funds at the Department of Agriculture
Federal employee credit card programs were designed to save money. Rather than weaving through a lengthy procurement process to acquire basic supplies, federal employees could purchase job-related products with credit cards that would be paid by their agency. What began as a smart way to streamline government has since been corrupted by some federal employees who have abused the public trust.
A recent audit revealed that employees of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) diverted mil(*)lions of dollars to personal purchases through their government-issued credit cards. Sampling 300 employees’ purchases over six months, investigators estimated that 15 percent abused their government credit cards at a cost of $5.8 million. Taxpayer-funded purchases included Ozzy Osbourne concert tickets, tattoos, lingerie, bartender school tuition, car payments, and cash advances.
The USDA has pledged a thorough investigation, but it will have a huge task: 55,000 USDA credit cards are in circulation, including 1,549 that are still held by people who no longer work at the USDA.[4]
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Source
09-17-2008, 05:54 PM
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