Readers Digest Gov't Audit finds waste equals Personal Income Taxes
Posted December 15th, 2007 by AllenTX
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January 2008 issue of Readers Digest is featuring a Special Report (pg. 86) that says the Government wastes nearly $1 trillion of your money EVERY YEAR!
"Almost a decade ago, the federal government dropped $100 million for an Earth-monitoring satellite that never made it into space. Today it sits in a closet in Maryland. Cost to taxpayers for storing it: $1 million a year. And that's just what's hiding in one closet. Who knows what's in the rest of them? Readers Digest decided to find out.
Because we think the government should be held to at least the same standards as a publicly traded company, and because as taxpayers, we're America's shareholders, we performed an audit of sorts of the federal books. We're not economists, but we do have common sense. We tried to be apolitical and get help from Congressional staffers from both parties, as well as various watchdog groups and agencies (GAO, etc. - see list in article). In the end, we found that the federal government wastes nearly $1 trillion every year.
That's roughly equal to the amount collected annually by the Internal Revenue Service in personal income taxes. Put another way, it's also equal to about one-third of the country's $2.9 trillion total annual budget. And reclaiming that lost trillion could help wipe out the country's annual budget deficit, improve education, and provide health insurance for those who don't have it".
This gives me a whole new perspective on cutting the budget. Just think: doing away with the waste they found would be enough to do away with personal income taxes. If we could get rid of that waste, then think about how much more quickly we could pay off our national debt with any additional budget cuts that Dr. Paul could get the pork barrel and bureaucrat crowd to go along with.
(Note: been lurking here for weeks, but just joined tonight. I simply couldn't contain my enthusiasm any longer. I live in Texas and I contacted the Texas campaign folks weeks ago about how I could help, and got nothing back. I suspect that they can't keep up with the huge wave of folks joining ranks. That's fine, but when the Revolution Fever hits you and you get just a tiny whiff of the freedom that is possible if the people stand up and demand change, then it is increasingly impossible to sit still until the phone rings with calls for help needed, or waiting until the UPS man brings my newly ordered campaign materials. Now I see even more reasons why the people are doing their own campaigning and making their own signs. Once it's in your nostrils, you gotta run!
I have signs up at quite a few of my businesses, and have also begun the process to get my Prevost Bus motorhome fitted with some cool Ron Paul wrap/graphics and will be posting pictures early next week before my family and I hit the road thru 4 states til the 1st of January. (see pre-wrap pic of bus as my uploaded account pic) During this process I managed to recruit my Graphics Designer, the vehicle wrap printer and his employees, as well as numerous people I have told about it. I plan to recruit a lot more folks once I hit the road.
I just could not stand by and do nothing any longer. It's too exciting.)
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Welcome Allen
When I read the article in a waiting room yesterday it spurred me onto sharing it within a larger issue I then posted here re: long term Federal commitments.
For our friends that believe the hidden inflation tax is the mother of all issues, it is essentially a 10% suircharge punishing everything throughout the economy. Important of course, dangerous yes but fixable through higher interest rates as the Fed did in the late 70s.
But projected COMMITMENTS to Medicare and Social Security, combined with this annual fiscal waste and tax gap mentioned in the RD piece, quite literally will bankrupt the country within 50 years, and is the most serious threat to the U.S., more than anyone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
The last part there is not my words, but those of the Comptroller General of the United States, David Walker, this summer, as I've posted about before.
Of all the Pres. candidates, only Ron Paul can deliver a 4-punch knockout to this problem with entitlement reform, military empire downsizing, cutting wasteful bureacracy and implementing honest monetary policy.. and even then, he'll need help.
-JP
Also, perfect argument for
Also, perfect argument for drastically reducing the scope of government. Hey, here's an idea... let's ask Ron to do it!
another arrow in the quiver...
when Russert asks the inevitable question of Ron Paul: "Your plan is to eliminate the Income Tax and replace it with nothing... are you just going to shutter the doors on the federal government?"
RP: "Well... you know, Tim, the Readers' Digest just did an audit and found that wasteful spending accounts for almost $1 trillion of the federal budget. That's "trillion" with a "t," Tim. Incidentally, Tim, $1 trillion is about what the federal government steals from the American people every year to fund that waste. Just think, Tim, if I eliminate the waste and the IRS, the federal government would still have about $2 trillion a year to fund its operations. Do you think that would be enough?"
Feedom Bomb
http://www.youtube.com/wa...
"Cheers for liberty, my man."
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The revolution will not be televised.
http://www.myspace.com/go...
Readers Digest January
http://www.rd.com/content...
"In the end, we found that the federal government wastes nearly $1 trillion every year.
That's roughly equal to the amount collected annually by the Internal Revenue Service in personal income taxes.
Put another way, it's also equal to about one-third of the country's $2.9 trillion total annual budget.
And reclaiming that lost trillion could help wipe out the country's annual budget deficit, improve education, and provide health insurance for those who don't have it".
This gives me a whole new perspective on cutting the budget.
Just think: doing away with the waste they found would be enough to do away with personal income taxes. "
http://www.ronpaul2008.co...
One catch with this though
$350 Billion of this "wasted money" is uncollected Income taxes
Overseas meddling
I'll bet the RD report didn't count the part RP plans to cut overseas, or if it did, certainly not to the degree that RP intends to cut it. Theere's your other 350 billion and then some.
Paul.
I'm not an economic expert
however, if we were to go to the gold standard, then our money would be worth much more, right? At least compared to the current dollar worth...So, if we went to gold and silver, would the differnece in the value of the fiat currency versus the gold make up the $350B difference?
The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. James Madison
How can it be considered "waste"...
...just because it hasn't been successfully stolen....?
Join your local Meet Up
If you want to get involved right away, join your local ron paul meet up group;
http://ronpaul.meetup.com
Did Reader's Digest mention the $2 trillion - $3 trillion the Pentagon "misplaces" every year? They just can't account for it
Yep, that's where a lot of
Yep, that's where a lot of help is needed... at people's local level.
For instance, my local meetup has over 260 members but only about 30 are active in the events we do. I was speaking with Tom, from ronpaulstickers.com and ronpaulgrassrootshq.com, yesterday and he said the same thing about his meetup. I'd imagine this is prevalent in most meetups.
The reason I say this is because meetups need people who will participate. If you can't be in NH or IA to spread the word, do it locally and that will be a tremendous help.
Get involved in the MOVEMENT -- go to Meetup.com
Just click here to go to http://ronpaul.meetup.com/ and then type in your ZIP code.
Meetup will show you the groups closest to your home zip code.
Join one (it's normally FREE) and then go to the meetups and GET INVOLVED...
The campaign is NOT going to call you up and give you orders... that is NOT how this works.
Join the rest of us -- see here to view how many of us there are!
Link:
http://tinyurl.com/29ow9y
Perfect justification for getting rid of income tax!
Since that much of our money is wasted it seems easy to justify a tax rebellion!
Welcome--starting off with a bang aren't you!
Thank you for joining in the effort to restore the republic!
Thanks for the info
Good to know. Good work. Keep taking action.