Discretionary vs Entitlement Spending? What's the difference?

Discretionary spending? Entitlement Spending? What’s the difference?

            In today’s heated rhetoric, much of the conversation seems to center on what we are “entitled to.” The differences highlighting this assumed division are apparent in the current budget and national debt discussions. The numbers being used today split our current spending into - $ 1.3 Trillion discretionary spending and $2.1 Trillion entitlement spending. About $200 Billion go to pay the interest on our debt. The press and much of the public are convinced one side wants to leave the country defenseless and the other side will push our less fortunate over a cliff. While I don’t believe that either argument is accurate, I feel that both sides are trying to paint the others position as completely unreasonable, but not show why their own position is the right one. That’s for another discussion.

            The bottom line is: It’s our money! While it is interesting to me and other tax payers that the expenditures go into different programs; at the end of the day, it is money that we earn and the Federal Government takes from our earnings. When you look at your pay check the government takes out what it considers its share. They split it up between Income Tax, Social Security, Medicare and a myriad of other categories. These divisions have become transparent from the governments point of view ever since they began to use the “Trust Funds” to borrow against. For us, the tax payer, it basically means the federal government gets a significant portion of our hard earned dollars.

On top of this business’s are forced to match several of the taxes you pay. This means that the company you work for has to pay the government earnings from what you earned the company. In other words they have less profit to pay the investors, who put their hard earned money into the business, or pay the workers full value for their work. While the government collects taxes using these different line items, it is still means we get smaller pay checks. I have several issues with this, but for this posting, I would rather the government was up front with us and gave us one bill to be paid.

            I do have a problem with the identification of Discretionary vs. Entitlement. By splitting the expenditures this way, the government is facilitating the argument between the defense of the country against the internal support structure it has established. This is not helpful and only serves the politicians and press. The politicians use the division to play to the fears of their constituencies and the press report on the “conflict” to raise their ratings.

For those of us tax payers, it’s still our blood sweat and tears that pay for everything.

The Federal Government's Responsibility

USA: The Federal Government’s Responsibility                                                                                                                      

            The precepts America was founded on are Individual Liberty, Freedom of Choice and the Opportunity for All to Succeed. Our fathers and mothers fought and won the battle to establish these as rights for every American citizen. We, Americans of all races & creeds, have defeated monarchs and dictators throughout the years all over the world to help establish the same rights for those that are downtrodden and egregiously treated. Our ethos is to: work hard, protect our family, defend the country and provide for those less well off. At least that is what many of us were raised to do.

            This is being broken down. While the often quoted “over half of the population gets a governmental hand out.” is inflated with those that earned their benefit, a significant part of our population is dependent on the government taking money from someone that earned it and giving it to someone who didn’t. Many of us want to help those that are having a hard time: but, most of us would rather teach them to fish, not just give them the fish. Virtually all of us want those that earned their checks (social security, Medicare, government retirees, injured veterans and military retirees) to keep getting them.

            Somehow we must re-instill into those that use the system to get something for nothing a desire to earn their own way. During the current economic downturn, we must continue to provide the safety net to keep those in need housed and fed. However, the best/ only way out of the morass is to get Americans working. As was proven after the last great recession (unemployment: 7.5%, inflation: 13%, mortgage rates: 21.5%), lowering taxes provided the money for businesses to invest. This resulted in more jobs for millions which created more dollars for the workers to enhance their standard of living and more money to be taken by the government in taxes. For the majority of the post Reagan years, most of the people’s money was spent on programs that had been established over many years and provide support the American workers and families.

            In the last few years, this trust has been broken. This should not be a Democrat, Republican, Tea Party or Libertarian issue. This is a Common Sense issue. We, the tax payer, cannot spend more than we take in. Sure in the short run we can run up our credit cards. But, at the end of the day we have to pay what we owe. The Government is made up of people we hired and are obligated to follow the same rules we are. Most of the Cities, Counties and States are beginning to reign in their overspending: ie. live within their budget. The Federal Government is not. Even though we hear the President and Congress talk about “cutting the budget” they are only passing very small limits to the rapid expansion of the budget.

            The Federal government is tasked with very few duties. The bottom line is to protect the country and regulate interstate trade.