There is no single part of our federal budget that fully explains why the United States is now $14.6 trillion in debt.
Of course, out-of-control entitlement spending, including the addition of recent entitlements such as the Medicare prescription drug benefit and ObamaCare, is a huge part of the problem. But Washington nickels and dimes us to death, too. Besides the huge parts of the budget, there is a vast amount of wasteful, unconstitutional spending on “little things” that adds up to big debt.
For a few of the literally thousands of examples of that, we visited the website of Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog organization that keeps an eye on government spending. Here is a sampling of the unjustified spending that the group mentioned in news alerts over just the past few months:
n A recent funding bill directs $10 million to “Salmon Management Activities Hatcheries.” When did fish hatcheries become federal responsibilities?
n About $5 million goes to the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, whose purpose is “to find and recognize college juniors with exceptional leadership potential who are committed to careers in government, the nonprofit or advocacy sectors, education or elsewhere in the public service … .” There are some worthwhile careers in government. But with all due respect to President Truman, why should taxpayers have to fund this scholarship program – especially when, as Citizens Against Government Waste points out, the program can support itself with its endowment funds?