Originally
published on Newsmax: http://www.newsmax.com/ScotFaulkner/democrats-dollars-zika/2016/06/20/id/734683/
Congressional
Republicans and Democrats are lying to Americans.
Congress
is barely halfway through approving the 2017 Appropriations. It has only thirty legislative days before
the start of the next fiscal year. This
all but guarantees a battle over a continuing resolution or omnibus spending
bill.
Recently,
a Republican Congressman let slip that there are billions in “unobligated
balances” that could be reallocated for fighting the Zika Virus. It was a lightning bolt of real information
that everyone ignored. This was an unintended glimpse at one of the biggest
lies in Washington, DC.
Members
from both parties appear on cable news hand wringing about how it is impossible
to stop federal spending from devouring the country. Liberals and Democrats assert the government
is underfunded and understaffed for meeting pressing needs. Raising taxes and expanding hiring are their
only solutions. What now passes for
conservatives and Republicans express helplessness because of Obama’s veto pen
and their concern that any confrontation may lead to another government
shutdown.
Republicans
and Democrats wail over no funds to combat the Zika Virus, terrorism, and other
possible crises. Their machinery for
endlessly taxing, spending, and borrowing incessantly rolls on.
The result
of this united capitulation is the perpetual growth in government spending and
borrowing. Federal spending has risen
from $3.517 trillion in 2009 to $4.147 trillion for 2017. During this same period, government debt has
soared from $11.875 trillion to over $20.149 trillion, with annual increases of
nearly a trillion in borrowing projected every year thereafter.
Every
year funds are allocated for federal projects and programs based on
estimates. Congress adds money when
those estimates fall short, even if caused by waste and fraud. Funds sit idle when spending is less than
expected.
Since
President Obama took office, $914.8 billion in unexpended, unobligated, funds
have piled up across the federal government.
It is dutifully reported under “Assets and Balance Sheets” on page ten
of the budget released each year by the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB).
You
read that correctly, nearly a trillion of your tax dollars is sitting unused in
plain sight.
Another
$1.028 trillion remains unexpended among general accounts and $461 billion
remains unspent in trust funds. While
these funds are technically obligated, the fact that they languish raises
questions about their use and their management.
That is
over $2.405 trillion sitting doing nothing.
It is available right now. It
only takes the push of a button to instantly shift these funds to fighting
Zika, bolstering our military and homeland security, repairing our
infrastructure, debt payments, or tax relief.
This is
how the Establishment from both parties plays Americans for fools. The funds are hiding in plain sight. No one talks about it, because it would reveal
the lie behind the Washington elites claiming helplessness. On rare instances, someone lets slip their
knowledge of this money. In June 2012,
to his eternal credit, Senator Tom Coburn issued a blistering report, “Money
for Nothing” that exposed these funds in detail. Not even conservative media covered it.
The budget
debate would be very different if Americans called out Washington politicians
on their dirty little secret.
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