Entitlement spending | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's weekly column appears in the Beaufort Observer.

    We are being told that some very large percentage (well over half) of the American population is partaking of (and presumably enjoying) the largess of government entitlement spending. It would seem that the purpose of making a big deal out of this is to help get folks stirred up enough about it to begin to support a rather serious reform effort, which probably isn't a bad idea.

    Suddenly, things we have been told for years were investments in our future security (i.e. Social Security, Medicare) are being lumped together with a lot of "freebies" and called entitlements. Take out Social Security and Medicare and according to the latest information, the number drops down to only about 100 million - or roughly one third of us instead of one half. Wow. Some improvement....

    The "freebies" (which we hardly ever hear mentioned by the Dems.) include Medicaid, Food Stamps (by whatever name), rent subsidies, AFDC, and more as well as a long list of other handouts and "credits". To name a few of the credits: Adoption Credit; Child and Dependent Care Credit; Child Tax Credit; Electric Vehicle Credit; Foreign Tax Credit; Residential Energy Credit. Other "freebies" include things which are frequently referred to as tax "loopholes" and include the types of things that are deducted on schedule A of your tax return; interest on your home loan, medical expenses to the extent that they exceed 7.5% (soon to be increased by Obamacare to 10%) of your adjusted gross income (AGI). There are plenty more. I am not suggesting that Social Security and Medicare should be excused from reformation, because they should not.. What I am suggesting is that it looks as though the Anointed One and his spear carriers are striving mightily to mislead us again by focusing mainly on social security and medicare.. At the same time, the Reps seem to be focusing on the so called "freebies", which is about time.

    The Dems seem to be taking the same type of approach to this issue as they have with the "illegal immigration" issue. In the case of the immigration problem, their approach seems to be to do whatever will endear the most folks to them and ensure reelection. Let's make the illegals legal and then we won't have an "illegal immigrant" problem any more; but we will have a whole lot of "new" supporters. Never mind fixing the fence, or enforcing laws we already have on the books. Just reel in the votes.

    Entitlement spending seems to get the same treatment. Lets rein in social security and medicare spending. Until the Reps on the Senate Budget Committee focused on the remaining spending, the Dems seemed to act as though it (the "freebie" spending) didn't exist. Their approach (as one might expect) seemed to be, let us not fool with the "freebies". As long as these "tax expenditures" potentially provide a lot of votes for the anointed one, his henchmen are not very likely to want to give them any serious scrutiny.

    Speaking of "tax expenditures", the following is quoted from an article by David Roberts entitled "Tax expenditures: a boring thing you should be outraged about."

    What kind of money are we talking about here? This is what economists Leonard Burman and Marvin Phaup conclude from their comprehensive analysis:

   Income tax expenditures will amount to about $1.2 trillion in fiscal year 2011 based on US Treasury estimates. That is significantly larger than nondefense or defense discretionary spending. Tax expenditures would roughly equal total discretionary spending were it not for the extra outlays authorized in an effort to boost the economy out of recession. Overall, income tax expenditures are one quarter of total spending, or about 8 percent of GDP. Put another way, excluding income tax expenditures causes spending to be understated by about one third.

   Click here to read the entire article.

    1.2 Trillion dollars of "tax expenditures?? Yes!! And that is money that, once ensconced in the tax code will almost never be discussed in the annual appropriation hearings. It just goes on and on. Out of sight; out of mind.

    One quarter of total spending?? Yes!!

    Wow!! Well, maybe we should be looking reining in tax expenditures.

    Of course we should. There is only one problem with that notion. That would be finding enough politicians who have the "guts" (i.e. political will or whatever else you would like to call it) to take on this historically contentious subject.

    D'ya think??