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Here is an apparently common scene today from the U.S. Senate’s first session to attempt to mark up a budget for the first time in almost three years (we’re nearly a week away from the official anniversary of the last time the Democratic Party-controlled body acted to do so, as they are required to do by law):

Townhall’s Guy Benson explains:

What you’re looking at is a view of today’s Senate Budget Committee meeting, at which Chairman Kent Conrad conducted a faux “markup” of his party’s FY 2013 budget resolution. The near side of the table is where Democrats were supposed to sit. Granted, this entire exercise was somewhat academic because its resulting product would receive neither a vote in this committee, nor in the Senate at large. Details! Throughout much of the session, all 11 Republican members were present to, you know, do their jobs. Of the 12 committee Democrats, no more than 3 or 4 were in attendance at any given time, according to sources inside the meeting. “[The Democrats] showed absolutely no interest in discussing our big picture problems or offering solutions,” a GOP budget aide tells Townhall. “Those who were there showed up only to make a brief statement for the record, then took off. The photo speaks for itself.”

We don’t expect much good to ever come out of Washington D.C., but we at least expect elected officials to attend their photo ops....

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta defended his government-plane trips to his California home Monday, but said he regretted the cost to taxpayers—about $870,000—at a time when the Pentagon faces billions of dollars in spending cuts.

“I regret that it does ... add costs that the taxpayer has to pick up,” Mr. Panetta said, adding he is looking at alternatives that could save money.

Since becoming defense secretary on July 1, Mr. Panetta has made 29 trips home to Carmel, Calif., where his wife lives on their walnut farm. Mr. Panetta has three grown sons and six grandchildren, most of whom also live in California.

Mr. Panetta has reimbursed the government about $630 per round trip, or about 2% of the $30,000 cost to taxpayers per trip.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand wanting to go home. But costing taxpayers almost 1 million dollars in a time of financial crisis to do so is utterly unacceptable.

Read Full Article Here

Photo credit: greatdiscountsforyou.com

What happens when the federal government’s bureaucrats, such as those of the General Services Administration, don’t have any effective oversight in the executive branch when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars?

Well, rather than us tell you, let’s have the reporters of the Washington Post describe the agency’s Inspector General’s findings of fiscal malfeasance, which directly led to the untimely resignation of the agency’s chief bureaucrat, Martha N. Johnson:

Among the “excessive, wasteful and in some cases impermissable” spending the inspector general documented: $5,600 for three semi-private catered in-room parties and $44 per person daily breakfasts; $75,000 for a “team-building” exercise — the goal was to build a bicycle; $146,000 on catered food and drinks; and $6,325 on commemorative coins in velvet boxes to reward all participants for their work on stimulus projects. The $31,208 “networking” reception featured a $19-per-person artisanal cheese display and $7,000 of sushi. At the conference’s closing-night dinner, employees received “yearbooks” with their pictures, at a cost of $8,130.

Altogether, we would estimate that all the line items of wasteful spending at this single regional conference documented by the agency’s Inspector General account for about half of the $830,000 total bill for the event that was picked up by the taxpayers.

Funny how loose a government agency’s purse strings become when there’s an opportunity for its employees to cash in on perks.

For the sake of sending the right message to other federal government bureaucrats, we would suggest that the benefits of the individuals who joined in the employee porkfest at taxpayer expense represented by the GSA’s Western Regions conference ought to be permanently reduced by a percentage equal to the documented percentage of money wasted.

CNS News reports:

The government spent at least $205,075 in 2010 to “translocate” a single bush in San Francisco that stood in the path of a $1.045 billion highway-renovation project that was partially funded by the economic stimulus legislation President Barack Obama signed in 2009.

It must be easy to spend this kind of money at such frivolous rates when it isn’t yours to begin with. Here are a few of the breakdown expenses for bill:

The $100,000 to pay for the “hard removal,” the $79,470 to pay for the “establishment, nurturing and monitoring” of the plant for a decade after its “hard removal,” and the $25,605 to cover the “reporting requirements” for the decade after the “hard removal,” equaled a total cost of $205,075 for “translocating” this manzanita bush.

Almost $80,000 for plant nurturing??? The problem with Washington is the government “machine” doesn’t have a bottom line. At the end of the day Uncle Sam ensures that they continue receiving the funding they “need” whether they deserve it or not. The government is the one institution where frivolous and irresponsible spending is tolerated and in some cases seemingly applauded as seen in the recent example with the GSA.

Read Full Article Here

If the United States were make a real effort to run a budget surplus for the sake of cutting its national debt burden in half by the year 2050, how big would those budget surpluses have to be?

The Economist answers the question for the U.S. and 25 other nations in chart form:

The Economist’s Ryan Avent explains:

Let me explain what you’re looking at here. We’ve charted a fiscal gap, which is defined as the budget surplus (net of interest) that a government would need to run from 2013 on if it wanted to reduce its sovereign-debt load to 50% of GDP by 2050.

Focusing on the U.S., whose national debt burden (the ratio of its total public debt outstanding to the nation’s GDP), is just over 100%:

So take America (please!). Currently its gross debt-to-GDP ratio is a bit over 100%. In order to reduce its debt load, as a share of GDP, by half by the year 2050, the government would need to average a budget surplus of nearly 10% of GDP (before taking into account interest payments). That’s a much bigger surplus than it would have needed to run had debt remained stable through the Great Recession; gross debt-to-GDP was just 65% in 2007 (it was 57% in 2000, since you ask).

He goes on to identify the factors that caused the U.S.’ fiscal gap to increase, and compares it with the plight of other nations that have seen similar increases in recent years.

For America, the increase in this fiscal gap is mostly due to the substantial deficits run over the past 5 years. Elsewhere, the substantial rise in the debt stock is to blame (like in Ireland, where the government took on massive bank debts). In a handful of countries, a big rise in interest rates is to blame, whereas in Britain and America interest rates have actually shrunk the gap a bit.

So there’s the silver lining: It’s not as bad as it could be! Of course, we should probably recognize that other nations’ pain has been to the U.S.’ gain where investors seeking safer havens have been concerned. In a really perverse way, it is to the government’s current advantage for other nations to go through their own debt-driven crises, because that makes our own debt-driven crisis better.

Do you ever feel like you need a scorecard to keep track of all the various spending proposals being put forward for the U.S. federal government’s budget?

If so, you’re in luck! The Mercatus Center has put together the following chart that you can use as a scorecard to see how well each of the major proposals to date do at bringing the nation’s skyrocketing debt into control:

Some quick notes:

The varies trajectories shown above apply only to the “publically-held” portion of the nation’s total public debt outstanding. It does not include the “intragovernmental” portion of the national debt, even though this portion of the debt accounts for over 30% of the total U.S. national debt and will shift more and more over time to the publically-held side of the government’s ledger, given the currently active and much-faster-than-previously-projected depletion of the Social Security trust fund.

The CBO’s baseline budget, which relies on the expiration of major tax hikes and no new government spending to achieve its debt reductions, should not be considered to be a serious proposal. It relies on both today’s and tomorrow’s politicians to do absolutely nothing other than to follow the current law with respect to the budget exactly as it is written, which is something that U.S. politicians have proven to be unable to do for any sustained period of time where their interests are involved, with the current leadership of the U.S. Senate being the only exception in modern U.S. budgetary history, unless there is actually something to the speculation surrounding their inaction.

The Republican and Fiscal Commission proposal debt trajectories rely mainly upon spending reductions to achieve their debt reductions, although the Fiscal Commission’s proposal also employs a number of tax increases. The Republican proposal also includes a number of tax reforms that would increase the government’s net tax collections (reducing loopholes, broadening the tax base, etc.), but to a lesser degree.

Meanwhile, President Obama’s two proposals rely primarily upon major tax hikes to achieve the bulk of his projected debt reduction, seeking to preserve spending. Also, note the difference between what President Obama proposed in September 2011 and in his official budget proposal just five months later. That’s a significant increase in proposed future spending, which is why the President’s newest proposal never meaningfully reduces the national debt with respect to the nation’s GDP.

The last trajectory is the CBO’s alternative fiscal scenario, which projects the nation’s debt trajectory if today’s and tomorrow’s politicians continue to act as if there is no problem with the growth of the U.S. debt.

And that’s the scorecard! Which trajectory are you rooting for to win?

In “Bad Rap: Video Spoof Amplifies Agency Ill” (Wall Street Journal), Peter Landers reports that in a rap video produced by a Government Service Agency (GSA) employee, he fantasizes about being a GSA Commissioner and spending lavish amounts of taxpayers’ dollars with no accountability. For the video, he won a GSA contest, which was held at a lavish four-day, GSA conference in Las Vegas that cost taxpayers $822,751. (The GSA manages federal government buildings and other properties, and the awards ceremony from the conference is at the end of the video, found below.)

A music video in which a young employee of the General Services Administration fantasized about being a big-spending commissioner at the agency has added a heap of embarrassment to the scandal that toppled the agency’s chief earlier in the week.

GSA staffer Hank Terlaje modeled his video on the song “Billionaire” by Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars. He opened with, “I wanna be commissioner so frickin’ bad,” and sang in the refrain, “Every time I close my eyes, I see my name on Federal Times.”

Mr. Terlaje described the lavish spending he would order if he attained “a corner office with a scene,” saying he would “buy everything a field office can’t afford.” Even with such exploits, he boasted that he would “never be under OIG investigation,” referring to the agency’s office of the inspector general.

The video won a contest among employees of the agency, which manages government buildings and other property, at a 2010 gathering outside Las Vegas—the very event that spawned the scandal. The inspector general’s office on Monday released a report saying the conference cost taxpayers $822,751, including “excessive” and “wasteful” trips by officials to the hotel to plan the event. GSA Administrator Martha Johnson resigned the same day after firing two of her deputies.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), released the video. “Wow. Just wow,” Mr. Issa tweeted Friday morning, saying he had just viewed the video again.

A GSA spokesman said, “This video is another example of the complete lack of judgment exhibited during the 2010 Western Regions Conference. Our agency continues to be appalled by this indefensible behavior, and we are taking every step possible to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.”

Mr. Terlaje, who works in the GSA’s Honolulu office, couldn’t be located for comment.

The video also includes footage from the awards ceremony at the 2010 conference.

“Sometimes, dreams do come true. So I’m here to officially make you commissioner for a day,” a GSA official told Mr. Terlaje at the ceremony. The official joked that Mr. Terlaje needed to talk to the hotel “about paying for the party that was held in the commissioner’s suite last night.”

Via the Associated Press, all values below are in millions of U.S. dollars (because apparently, to save ink, the AP cut them off. We’ve added the dollar signs and better punctuation):

WASHINGTON (AP) –
Figures on government spending and debt (last six digits are eliminated). The government’s fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

• Total public debt subject to limit April 4: $15,574,371
• Statutory debt limit: $16,394,000
• Total public debt outstanding, April 4: $15,617,723

Just a quick reality check – that last figure is really $15,617,723,000,000, or if you want to hear that value approximated in English, it’s over 15.6 trillion dollars.

• Interest fiscal year 2012 through February: $99,386
• Interest same period 2011: $94,459

Even though its interest rates are dirt cheap (near 0% for short term Treasuries!), the amount of interest the U.S. government has paid out in the first five months of its fiscal year has increased by $4,927,000,000 (over 4.9 billion dollars) compared to what it paid in the first five months of its previous fiscal year.

• Deficit fiscal year 2012 through February: $580,830
• Deficit same period 2011: $641,264

This values are more promising, in that they reflect a stronger economy now than in 2011, along with the effect of spending cuts that were negotiated last summer. Combined, these changes have reduced the government’s deficit through the first five months of its current fiscal year by $60,434,000,000 (over 60.4 billion dollars) compared to the same period in the government’s previous fiscal year.

• Receipts fiscal year 2012 through February: $893,169
• Receipts same period 2011: $869,003

Here, we find that the U.S. government has successfully collected $24,166,000,000 (just under 24.2 billion dollars) more through this point in its 2012 fiscal year than it did through the same point in its 2011 fiscal year. This is a confirmation that the U.S. economy is performing better now than it did then.

• Outlays fiscal year 2012 through February: $1,473,999
• Outlays same period 2011: $1,510,266

This is where we really see the effect of the budget deal from last summer, as the U.S. government’s spending has fallen by $36,267,000,000 (over 36.2 billion dollars) through this point in fiscal year 2012, as compared to the same period of time for fiscal year 2011.

We should note however that this positive reduction in the U.S. federal government’s spending will diminish over time, since President Obama’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year (2013) breaks last summer’s spending agreement.

A recent article in the Huffington Post points out that our country is officially on spending autopilot.

What do I mean when I say the budget is “on autopilot”? Right now, vast swaths of government spending are classified as “mandatory.” That means certain programs are funded automatically. In other words, they are funded outside of the yearly congressional budget and appropriations process.

Most Americans don’t realize it, but more than half of federal spending falls into the mandatory spending category: think Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. (To be exact, 56 percent of all federal spending was spent on mandatory spending during the government’s last fiscal year.) Meanwhile, as of last year, just over a third (37 percent) of the federal budget is categorized as “discretionary” spending. This is the part of the budget over which Congress has decision-making power through the yearly budget and appropriations process.

What is it going to take for Washington to take a closer look at what they consider mandatory?

Read Full Article Here 

The U.S. Treasury has revised its data indicating which nation’s institutions through the end of the U.S. government’s 2011 Fiscal Year, which ended on 30 September 2011. With that revision, we’ve updated our chart revealing who the biggest holders of all the U.S. government’s public debt outstanding were as of 30 September 2011:

Source: Political Calculations

Compared to the preliminary version of this chart, we see a large decrease in debt appearing to be held by the United Kingdom, but large increases in debt actually held by other foreign entities. This is due to the role of financial institutions in the U.K. acting as international intermediaries for the interests of other foreign entities. The Treasury Department’s annual revision of this data accounts for the actual foreign ownership of U.S. government-issued debt.

We note that some $1,773 billion of the U.S. government-issued debt we’ve recorded as being held by U.S. individuals and institutions as of 30 September 2011 was held by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The U.S. Federal Reserve then accounts for 28% of all the debt held by U.S. individuals and institutions and works out to be nearly 12% of all the nation’s public debt outstanding, as the Federal Reserve increased its U.S. debt holdings by $807 billion during the U.S. governments 2011 fiscal year.

Combined, the U.S. government-issued debt holdings of foreign individuals and institutions account for just shy of one-third of all the U.S. government’s public debt outstanding.

Data Sources:

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Monthly Report on Credit and Liquidity Programs and the Balance Sheet, October 2011. Table 1. Assets, liabilities, and capital of the Federal Reserve System.

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Monthly Report on Credit and Liquidity Programs and the Balance Sheet, October 2010. Table 1. Assets, liabilities, and capital of the Federal Reserve System.

U.S. Treasury Department. Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities. Accessed 24 March 2012.

U.S. Treasury Department. Monthly Statement of the Public Debt of the United States, September 30, 2011. Table III – Detail of Treasury Securities Outstanding, September 30, 2011.