We Now Work 7 1/2 Months to Cover Cost of Government

Sunday Paper - August 16th, 2009

According to Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), Americans who pay federal income tax didn’t earn one penny of their own money until August 13th.  In other words, nearly 7 1/2 months is the amount of time it took Americans to earn the total amount of income equal to this year’s cost of our burdensome federal government.  This time period lasted 26 days longer than it did just one year ago.

“In 2009, federal spending has expanded by almost one trillion dollars, mostly due to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the American Recovery and Relief Act of 2009, passed under the guise of economic stimulus,” Ciesielska said in her report.
 
“We have calculated that had Congress not passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that created TARP, Cost of Government Day would have fallen on July 25. That means that it would have been 18 days earlier.”
 
Ciesielska noted that Cost of Government Day 2009 would have fallen about ten days earlier without stimulus-related expenditures.
 
Grover Norquist, president of ATR, said it’s no surprise that Cost of Government Day is taking longer and longer to reach.  “In last year’s report, we cautioned that the looming entitlement crisis and efforts to drastically increase regulations were threatening to move Cost of Government Day later into the year,” Norquist said in a message on ATR’s Web site. “However, no one could have foreseen the magnitude of the federal spending spree which was to begin in the second half of 2008, and has not abated since.”
 
According to ATR, “The recent federal spending spree paints a bleak picture for taxpayers. It started with the passage of the financial market bailout and continued with the “stimulus,” the $410 billion earmark-stuffed “omnibus,” the $3.55 trillion budget, and more bailouts leading to current threats of a national energy tax and a government takeover of health care.”

In 2009, according to ATR’s calculations, the cost of government will exceed 61.3% of national income.

This from CNSNews.com - August 13th, 2009

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/52453

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