Pardon Me – We Paid For What?

Pardon Me – We Paid For What?

By Dannie McIntire

City-County Observer

I’m a conservative and one of my favorite rants is over the lack of concern about our country’s debt. Many of us, while quite adept at maintaining a balanced checkbook, give little thought to the financial plight of our nation. 

One of the most often used methods to determine a nation’s financial health is in its percentage of debt against its gross national product (GDP). The GDP is basically the value of the goods and services produced annually in the country. The Debt-to-GDP ratio gives an insight into a country’s ability to service its outstanding debt. 

Many economists consider a “Debt-to GDP” above 77 percent to be an indication of decreasing economical health. In 2008 our Debt-to GDP was 68 percent, by the end of 2021 it has grown to 124 percent.

Our federal government is spending more money than it brings in, thus increasing the national debt through the borrowing of the money to finance its expenditures. If you ran your personal finances as our federal government does, you would have filed for bankruptcy years ago. Our federal government is basically operating by using a “credit card”. It is estimated our federal government will spend 5 percent of its 2022 budget, approximately  $305 billion dollars, simply paying interest on our national debt, Let that sink in…$305 billion in annual interest payments alone on our national debt…and our national debt continues to grow,  

Our nation has to learn to quit the wasteful spending of its revenues (tax dollars) on frivolous items. You may not agree with the politics of Kentucky senator Rand Paul, however each year he publishes an annual “Festivus” report which details wasteful government spending.

These are just a few examples of wasteful government spending detailed in his 2021 “Festivus” report:  

• In Maryland, Baltimore schools received $1.27 million dollars in Covid relief funds for students who actually were not enrolled. (quite a bit of money for ghost students)
• New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio spent $25 million of taxpayer-funded federal COVID relief dollars to launch the “City Arts Corps,” paying 3,000 artists to publicly display creative works in an effort to “resurge the cultural scene” in the City. (I need to find my crayons and get in on this action)  
• Congress gave the Defense Department $259 million dollars to help countries in the Middle East and North Africa border walls. (What about our own southern border?)
• Partnering with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United States Embassy in Seoul is allocating up to a $150,000 grant to send ten Koreans aged 15-30 to Washington, D.C. for two weeks to learn about climate change activism. (That’s $15,000 in vacation money for each participant. I wouldn’t mind receiving a share like that for my annual family vacation.) 
• While your kids and millions of American students were locked out of their schools for more than a year during the COVID-19 pandemic, your government has been paying to translate books into the Georgian language for Georgian students who are in the classroom and spending $182,741 to do it. 
• The State Department U.S. Mission to France plans to allocate up to $200,000 to “enhance the understanding of the United States in France. (Say what…I personally could care less what the people of France think of us…we’ve saved their country in two world wars…shouldn’t that give them a good opinion of us)
• The government used $2.4 million taxpayer dollars to create a dinosaur-centric film in 2D and 3D, a 3-episode TV series, a fictional book, and museum exhibits to “inspire” middle school-aged students. The film features dinosaurs in the Antarctic and hopes to “inspire future polar scientists” and “encourage young people to learn about Antarctica. Even if a young aspiring polar scientist wishes to watch the film, entrance to the exhibit is not free! Tickets for one parent and one child to attend run $34, which could give the museums a profit of up to $5.1 million if they ultimately reach 1.5 million of their aspired “millions” of film viewers.
• The National Institutes Of Health (NIH) granted Reed College of Portland, Oregon $465,339 to create a token-based economy where pigeons are taught to gamble with slot machines. (teaching pigeons to gamble – you can’t make this kind of stuff up)
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted the 12th Congressional District of California $2.1 million to incentivize residents to remove wood-burning systems and replace them with electric heat pumps. (Wait, doesn’t California suffer from rolling power outages due to overuse of their electrical power grid)
• In January 2021, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) posted a notice proposing to spend $11.3 million to “reduce environmental pollution in targeted areas across Vietnam,” which will include encouraging locals to stop burning their trash”.   
• The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) is in on the game, spending $3,428,300,000 and 20 years trying and failing to develop an amphibious combat vehicle (ACV) to replace the 40-year-old amphibious assault vehicle (AAV). (almost $3.5 billion spent and no acceptable vehicle….wow)
• The National Institute on Aging (NIA) used nearly $1.3 million in taxpayer dollars over the course of 5 years to study how hearing good or bad news affects your happiness. (Ugh…good news is good….bad news is bad…there…the study is completed)
• National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) granted the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo $361,011 in federal funding to study if kids crave junk food and gain weight. (seriously…you need a study to know that junk food is bad?)
• The FDA granted Novatel, a Canadian aquaculture company, $337,500 in taxpayer dollars to fatten and raise juvenile eels to keep costs down for those wishing to eat the fish. (Now I’m trying to recall the last time I enjoyed a delicious meal of eel from Canada)

As I said, the above are just a few examples from Senator Rand Paul’s “2021 Festivus

Report” in which he highlights a whopping  $52,598,515,585 in wasteful federal government spending. You can access his report online but I would recommend that you have a bottle of anti-acid on hand when reading it. 

It is time that we as a voter and taxpayers, demand our elected representatives spend our tax dollars in a responsible manner and begin reducing our National Debt.