justfunwoes (Government woes ** ) | Church of Jesus Christ Facts

Government woes — unbridled spending and other issues

The US government paid $1 billion of interest expense on its outstanding Treasury debt every 40 hours during the month of February 2012. (source: Treasury Department).
The US government estimates that it will spend $430.4 billion in interest on our Treasury debt in fiscal year 2011, equal to $1 out of every $9 we are expected to spend. (source: Treasury Department)
The US government’s annual budget deficit has increased more than 10 times in just the last 4 fiscal years (2006 to 2010). Our actual budget deficit was $161 billion in fiscal year 2007. Our projected budget deficit for fiscal year 2011 is $1.645 trillion. (source: White House)
Each day, between 80,000 and 100,000 youth worldwide become addicted to tobacco.
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government can not pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.” — Senator Barack Hussein Obama, March 2006
After increasing the nation’s debt ceiling limit to $15.2 trillion per the legislation signed by President Obama on 8/02/11, we have more than doubled our debt ceiling limit in less than 7 years. The debt ceiling was $7.4 trillion as of 10/31/04 (source: Treasury Department).
45.8 million Americans receive food stamps today, an all-time record. That represents 1 out of every 7 Americans. The official name of the Food Stamps program is the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” or SNAP (source: Department of Agriculture)
1 out of every 6 American workers is employed by the government, either at the federal, state or local level. When you remove the 7.9 million public school teachers nationwide from the calculation (teachers are technically local government employees), the ratio falls to 1 out of every 9 American workers is a government employee (source: Department of Labor).
The 9 largest monthly deficits ever in the history of the USA have occurred since February 2009, including the all-time monthly deficit record of $223 billion from February 2011. The 3 worst months ever have occurred in February in each of the last 3 years (2009-2010-2011) (source: Treasury Department).
With 2 months remaining in fiscal year 2011 (i.e., 10/01/10 to 9/30/11), the government is projected to spend $3.8 trillion for the 12-month period. During fiscal year 2001, total government spending was $1.9 trillion (source: Treasury Department).
The population of the USA is 312 million. Only 1 out of every 22 people in the world is an American. Americans make up less than 5% of the population of the planet. (source: Census Bureau).
A total of 488,000 homes were seized by lenders from delinquent homeowners in the first 7 months of 2011, an average of 2,300 per day (source: RealtyTrac).
Wonder who’s to blame for today’s stagnant economy? Look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to see where the buck ought to stop. Though President Barack Obama constantly points fingers at others for America’s economic woes, his policies are to blame for preventing the U.S. economy from getting back on track. Before you watch President Obama present his latest jobs plan in his speech on Thursday, be sure you know the four major measures he has taken to prevent job growth in America:
Obama’s overregulation: During President Obama’s first 26 months in office, his Administration imposed 75 new major regulations, with reported costs to the private sector exceeding $40 billion. The annual cost of regulation–$1.75 trillion by one frequently cited estimate–represents twice the amount of individual income taxes collected last year.
Obamacare: Though correlation doesn’t necessarily equal causation, there’s reason to believe that Obamacare helped turned off the spigot on job growth. The law imposes costly new requirements on businesses, which remain uncertain of what their costs will be down the road, leaving them to postpone hiring decisions. In fact, one survey showed that 33 percent of small business owners said Obamacare was either their greatest or second-greatest obstacle to new hiring.
Big Spending and Runaway Deficits: President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus was supposed to create jobs, but instead deficits mounted and economic growth is now stagnant. Meanwhile, all that money intended to “stimulate” the economy had to come from somewhere, which means taxing or borrowing from other sectors of the economy.
Pro-Union, Anti-Business Policies
In South Carolina, Boeing sought to build a new factory to produce one of its airliners, which would have created new jobs in the state. Enter the Obama Administration’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which filed a complaint against the company, arguing that using a non-union facility constituted an unfair labor practice. And that’s just one example of the Obama Administration’s pro-union, anti-business policies.
Bush or Obama? You decide!
George W. Bush speech after capture of Saddam Hussein: “The success of yesterday’s mission is a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq. The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictator’s footprints in a vast country. The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force. Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers in the hunt for members of the fallen regime, and in their effort to bring hope and freedom to the Iraqi people. Their work continues, and so do the risks. Today, on behalf of the nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and I congratulate them.” [Notice the focus on the men and women of the military]
Barack Hussein Obama speech, Sunday, May 1, 2011: “And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as I continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network.Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by my intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan. And finally, last week, I determined that I had enough intelligence to take action, and I authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.” [Notice the focus on “I” and “my”]
Just 5% of Americans covered by Medicaid account for 54% of all Medicaid expenditures
China has a population that is 1 billion greater than the population of the USA. The population of China is 1.319 billion. The population of the USA is 313 million.
30% of “middle class” Americans ages 60-69 have accumulated retirement savings less than $25,000
The collective spending budget for all 50 US states for fiscal year 2012 (i.e., the 12 months ending 6/30/12) is projected to be $666.6 billion, an increase of $19.8 billion over fiscal year 2011 spending. $19.4 billion of the $19.8 billion increase are costs related to Medicaid. The other $0.4 billion (i.e., $400 million for all 50 US states combined) is spread over the areas of education, public assistance, corrections and transportation.
The United States has created as much national debt for our country in the last 7 years as we created in our country’s history up to 7 years ago. As of 4/30/04, the total debt of the US government was $7.13 trillion. As of 4/30/11, the total debt of the US government was $14.29 trillion (source: Treasury Department). 5/16/11, By The Numbers issue, # 3
48% of all American adults pay NO federal income tax! 97% of all American adults pay 12% OR LESS of their gross annual salary in federal income tax!
46.4% of the individual income tax returns filed in the USA for tax year 2009 reported less than $30,000 of adjusted gross income (source: Internal Revenue Service).
The number of Americans receiving food stamps increased +59% between fiscal year 2008 and fiscal year 2011, rising from 28.2 million to 44.7 million. One in seven adult Americans receive food stamps.
When John F. Kennedy was President, just over a quarter of federal spending went to fund programs paying for some 21.7 million Americans to be dependent on Uncle Sam. But as high as that spending and dependence on the federal government was then, it has exploded today, with one in five Americans — more than 67.3 million — depending on Washington for assistance.
Today, a full 70 percent of the federal government’s budget goes to pay for housing, food, income, student aid, or other assistance, with recipients ranging from college students to retirees to welfare beneficiaries.
Government dependency jumped 8.1 percent in the past year (2011), with the most assistance going toward housing, health and welfare, and retirement.
The federal government spent more taxpayer dollars than ever before in 2011 to subsidize Americans. The average individual who relies on Washington could receive benefits valued at $32,748, more than the nation’s average disposable personal income ($32,446).
Nearly half of the U.S. population (49.5 percent) does not pay any federal income taxes.
In the next 25 years, more than 77 million baby boomers will retire. They will begin collecting checks from Social Security, drawing benefits from Medicare, and relying on Medicaid for long-term care.
The fiscal year 2013 budget will be submitted by President Barack Obama to Congress this week. The US government spent $3.6 trillion in fiscal year 2011, i.e., the 12 months ending 9/30/11. If you were to spend $1 billion a day, it would take you 9 years, 10 months to spend $3.6 trillion.
From 7/31/11 to 1/31/12 (i.e., a 6-month period), the USA’s national debt grew from $14.3 trillion to $15.4 trillion, an increase of $1.1 trillion. In the first 206 years of our country’s history (i.e., through 8/31/82), the USA accumulated a national debt total of $1.1 trillion.
70% of all African-American babies born in the USA are born to single mothers!
How much is a trillion? One trillion seconds equals 32,000 years!
Social Security trustees announced on 4/23/12 that the trust fund backing the payment of Social Security benefits would be zero in 2033. A zero trust fund does not mean the payment of Social Security benefits would also go to zero, but rather would drop to 73% of their originally promised levels through the year 2086. When the trustees released their report in 2007 (i.e., 5 years ago), the Social Security Trust Fund was projected to be depleted in 2041 (source: Social Security Trustees). The estimated Social Security shortfall as of today (i.e., a present value number) between the future taxes anticipated being collected and the future benefits expected to be paid out over the next 75 years is $8.6 trillion. The entire $8.6 trillion deficit could be eliminated by either an immediate 2.61% increase in the combined Social Security payroll tax rate (i.e., from 12.40% to 15.01%) or an immediate 16.2% reduction in Social Security benefits that are paid out (source: Social Security Trustees).
Per a 4/23/12 report, the Medicare trust fund supporting Medicare Part A (hospital coverage) is projected to be depleted by 2024. The long-term (75-year) present value shortfall in the trust fund however could be corrected by an immediate 1.35% increase in combined Medicare payroll taxes, i.e., from the current 2.90% to 4.25% (source: Medicare Trustees).

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