Federal Spending

The Cato Institute reports that federal spending, aside from interest, has risen 54% since 2001, while the consumer price index (what we usually call inflation) has risen just 16%. There have been very large increases for the Department of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, State and Veterans Affairs. I do not vote for many spending bills that I might support if the federal government had surplus cash. However, many bills that sound good on the surface have wasteful, pork barrel spending buried deep within the bill. And every bill is given a motherhood and apple pie title. But with a national debt of almost nine trillion dollars, the simple but unpleasant truth is that we cannot afford everything that every department or agency wants, even if that department or agency happens to be one that is politically popular.