Can you balance the federal budget by stopping earmarks?

Vaughn Ward has indicated that he wants to balance the federal budget by stopping bailouts and earmarks. Will this balance the budget?

Bailouts: are a huge issue. We cannot continue to use bailouts to stimulate the economy for two reasons. First, it is debt which must be paid back. Second, much of the bailout money went to special interest groups including Fanny Mae. Very little of the stimulus money went to the private sector to create jobs.

However, we had massive deficits before the bailout era. So that leaves us with balancing the budget by stopping earmarks.

Earmarks: in 2009 there were 9287 total earmarks that cost $12.8 billion. If all earmarks were eliminated that would save us $12.8 billion. However, $12.8 billion is only .3 percent of the total budget. The deficit is $1.8 trillion. We need to find savings 140 times larger.

Conclusion: while stopping earmarks is wonderful and a good idea, by itself this strategy does absolutely nothing and only plays to the prejudices of the voters. Real solutions must also focus on social spending and military cuts. I hope someone running for national office will have the courage to say it.

The Sweet Bridge

The Gem Country Commissioners tell a sad story. A bridge needed to be built over a small river in the community of Sweet Idaho. The Commissioners figured they could build the bridge in about four months at a cost of $300,000. A federal grant was available so they decided to work with the federal government to save local tax dollars. The sad part is that with federal “help” the project took 14 months to complete and cost $1.3 million dollars. The bridge, with federal “help” ended up costing the local taxpayers more than if the local community had build and financed the bridge alone.

Think of what this $1 million of wasted resources could have been used for. It could have paid for as many as 20 teachers or heated hundreds of homes or vaccinated many of the children in the state. The Sweet Bridge is one example of thousands of examples that could be found. How many billions are being wasted by our federal government? In my opinion, the waste caused by the federal government is a national disgrace. It is time that this wastefulness ends.