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You know, government spending is an odd creature economically. We can all look at numbers as a % of GDP and growth rates and efforts to restrict growth rates, but the truth of the matter is the vast majority of government spending is salaries.

Yep, salaries.

For either government workers or some private sector entity who received a contract.

Salaries are subject to tax. That part which is not taxed and kept gets spent at McDonalds or something and pays for . . . you guessed it, meat, made by ranchers and meat processors. Those places pay more salaries. And those salaries are taxed, too.

Weird thing, government spending. A big chunk of it comes back to the treasury. I don't know what all this means, but it probably means something. If I had to guess, I'd guess it means this is much ado about nothing.

I can only speak for myself, but I think that many here are not disgusted with functions of government such as salaries (to necessary govt. positions), national defense/security, etc. Agencies such as the FDA, the FAA, the border patrol and the FTC perform important and legitimate governmental services that are useful.

The problem I have with government spending is that eventually there is always a demand for higher taxes to repay the borrowed money. Unfortunately, almost half of our nation pays no taxes and that leaves the rest of us (on an escalating basis) to pay for those who pay nothing but receive the greatest benefit from the bloated government spending.

The bulk of the social programs benefit the lower income brackets and if the spending were slashed in these areas, low and behold, we would find the lower income brackets diminshing and the tax base broadening - after all many undisciplined and unscrupulous people need an incentive to work and contribute.

Many of us are disgusted as well with the rapidly increasing education budget, but the schools continue to decline in quality. After all, who will put them out of business if they can keep crying that if only they had more money, they would be able to perform. As a result of this phenomenon, the standards are now federal for them to receive money and the expectations are pathetically low.

Our money is wasted - imagine if we ran our homes this way!!!