Your Opinion: Spending increases and need for Fair Tax

Dear Editor:

Our debt to GDP ratio ranks up with the European nations identified as the PIIG nations; Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Greece, all nations with a debt/GDP ratio of over 100 percent. In 2011 our debt rating was downgraded for the first time in our history.

Below is some data to be used as food for thought. For more direct comparisons the following figures are all in constant 2009 dollars. Numbers are from Obama's 2016 budget.

The federal government's income hit a pre-recession peak of $2,663 billion in FY2007; by FY2014 it hit a new record high of $2,791. Current projections are that for FY2015 federal receipts will reach another record high, $2,895 billion, and continue to increase to $3,554 billion by 2020.

From 2007 to 2015 the federal government's income will have grown by $232 billion ($700 for every citizen). Spending will have increased $597 billion ($1,800 per citizen). During that same time frame the national defense budget was reduced by $27 billion but Social Security and Medicare expenditures increased by $309 billion.

After subtracting the impact of the defense, Social Security and Medicare expenditures the net result is that the feds will spend $315 billion more in 2015 than they did in 2007. The lowest unemployment rate in 2007 was 4.4 percent, it is currently 5.5 percent.

Who is benefiting from all this additional spending? It amounts to an increase of $950 per citizen, or $7,000 for every one of the 45 million whose incomes are below the poverty level, or $34,600 for every one of the 9.1 million families whose incomes are below the poverty level. This is not total spending; it is only the increased spending since pre-recession highs in FY2007.

There is no need to increase taxes! We need to elect people who don't use our money to buy votes (with more giveaways) or campaign contributions (by enacting legislation favorable to contributors). Save our children from further financial child abuse, support Rand Paul and his push for the Fair Tax/Flat Tax.

It is way past time to get rid of the self-serving members of the federal government.