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GOVERNMENT SPENDING IN 2009
Each American family will be responsible for nearly $31,000 in 2010 due to this year’s excessive, irresponsible and unsustainable government spending.
-- 1/12/2010

In the eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency, he was continuously criticized for spending too much taxpayer money. And rightfully so. In those eight years, Bush raised the national debt by $4 trillion, mostly to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However that figure pales in comparison to just the first 11 months of the Obama administration.

In 2009, Obama raised the national debt by $3.2 trillion alone. In one year, he spent more than all other previous presidents combined. Let us examine the spending by the numbers to get a better perspective on how our tax dollars are being spent:

H.R. 1: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This “stimulus plan” supposedly allocated $787 billion to create jobs and stimulate the economy, but unemployment is worse after Obama signed it into law. Studies have shown that most money went to favorable political districts as a thank-you for the 2008 elections. This cost roughly $6,300 per family.

H.R. 1105: Omnibus Appropriations Act. This was a temporary spending bill to keep government running through September 2009. This should have been done in 2008 but Congress was late, most likely because in January the Democratic majorities took their seats and more money could be allocated to their districts and states. This bill contained over 9,000 pork barrel spending projects, and Obama signed it even though he said he would not sign pork-laden bills during his campaign. This cost roughly $4,274 per family.

H.R. 2918: Continuing Appropriations for the Legislative Branch. Since the fiscal year began on October 1, 2009, and no spending bill had been passed to keep government running (the politicians must have been too busy overhauling the health care system), this was just a provisional bill to fund Congress until a bigger one could be passed. This cost roughly $1,850 per family.

H.R. 2997: Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. This funds several food and agriculture-related bureaucracies through September 2010 at a cost of roughly $1,200 per family.

H.R. 2982: Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act. This funds Homeland Security through September 2010 at a cost of roughly $440 per family.

H.R. 3183: Department of Energy and Water Appropriations Act. This funds the wasteful Energy Department and other bureaucracies through September 2010 at a cost of roughly $316 per family.

H.R. 2996: Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. This funds several environmental bureaucracies through September 2010 at a cost of roughly $320 per family.

H.R. 3288: Department of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. The name of this bill is misleading; since Congress did nothing through November, members had to scramble to pass a “consolidated” spending bill that covered not only the bureaucracies mentioned in this bill, but several other bills that had not yet passed:

-->  H.R. 2847: Department of Commerce, Justice and Science and Related Agencies. Cost $665 per family.
-->  H.R. 3081: Department of State and Foreign Operations and Related Agencies. Cost $443 per family.
-->  H.R. 3082: Military Construction and Veterans’ Affairs. Cost $1,200 per family.
-->  H.R. 3170: Financial Services and General Appropriations. Cost $430 per family.
-->  H.R. 3288: The original Department of Transportation, HUD and Related Agencies. Cost $1,250 per family.
-->  H.R. 3293: Department of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services. Cost a whopping $7,200 per family.

This “consolidated” spending bill, signed in December cost roughly $11,188 per family.

H.R. 3326: Department of Defense Appropriations Act. The year ended with this bill, which was two and a half months late. This also included many pork-barrel spending projects unrelated to defense. This cost roughly $5,100 per family.

When all these bills are added up, they cost nearly $31,000 per family. This was hardly reported by the media in 2009, and even less coverage was given to the fact that this represents money the federal government does not have.

So how will the government come up with the money to fund these bills? It can only be done by taxing (thus raising taxes), printing more money (thus creating inflation) or borrowing from foreign nations (thus weakening credit and increasing debt).

This year looks no better. In fact, if the health care reform bill passes, it will add yet another $15,650 per family. That means that each American taxpaying family will be responsible for $46,650 thanks to profligate government spending. This is an ominous warning that 2010 could be a very difficult year.

Primary source:  www.WashingtonWatch.com