From: chriswa@microsoft.com (Chris Waldron)
Subject: Re: Pessimism
Date: 07 Oct 92 02:26:42 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation
Distribution: usa

In article <...>  carroll@cs.uiuc.edu (Alan M. Carroll) writes:

>Lots of reasons, but you'll never believe them. You might want deal
>with some actual numbers. First off, if you look at actual spending
>you'd see that the alledged Reagan military buildup wasn't all that
>large, and that it started under Carter. Since Bush took office,
>government spending as exploded, growing over 40%. Yet military
>spending has been steady or declining the entire time. The Persian
>Gulf was paid for to a large extent by our allies. It's convienent to
>blame the DoD for the budget deficits, but hardly accurate (certainly
>less than believable when the deficit is larger than the entire DoD
>budget!)
>
>I could explain that government doesn't create jobs. It just takes
>money from other people and businesses, puts most of it in some
>political sleaze's pocket and hires a few people with the dregs. I
>find it sadly ironic that the same people who complain about how the
>U.S. government is such a cesspool of white racists bent on oppressing
>blacks want to turn over control of the economy to that very same
>group of people.
>
>-- 
>Alan M. Carroll          "Weren't there yams involved, too?" - J. Ockerbloom
>Epoch Development Team   
>Urbana Il.               "I hate shopping with the reality-impaired" - Susan

Mr. Carroll, apparently you have NO knowledge as to the fraud that is called
the budget process.  Military spending is what has bankrupt this country and
is the number one determinate of our national debt.  What the government has
been doing since the 60's is understating the military expenditure of the 
budget by including the trust fund with the general funds.  The trust fund
by law cannot be transferred to other segments of the budget.  Social Security
is our largest trust and the government no only has been spending the surplus
but is not transfering the benefits money via taxation of SS benefits.

The following is an article that clarifies this fraud ...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

          WHERE YOUR INCOME TAX MONEY REALLY GOES

       The United States Federal Budget for Fiscal Year 1992

The FY 92 Federal Budget is $1,104 trillion. It may be broken down thus:

            Scale: Billions of dollars
0-----------------|10------------------|20-----------------|30----------375|

$334 Billion or 30% for Current Military ------------------------|

$267 Billion  or 24% for Past Military -------------|

$274 Billion  or 25% for Human Resources ------------|

$119 Billion or 11% for General Government
----------------------|

$62 Billion  or 6% Physical Resources
-----------|

$48 Billion or 4% Savings and Loan Crisis/Bank Bailouts
--------|

These amounts can be further broken down as follows.

Current Military ($334 Billion or 30%): Military Personnel, Retired Pay,
     Operation and Maintenance, Family Housing, Procurement, Research and
     Development, Construction, DoE Nuclear Weapons = $11.7 billion,
     International Security Assistance, Coast Guard, 50% estimated military
     portion of NASA = $7 billion, CIA, President's Funds, FEMA)

Past Military ($267 Billion or 24%): Veterans Benefits $32; Interest on
     National Debt (80% estimated to be created by military spending) $235

Human Resources $274 Billion  or 25%): Education, Health and Human
     Services, HUD housing subsidies, Labor Department

General Government $119 Billion or 11%): Government, Justice Department,
     International Affairs, Peace Corps, 20% interest on national debt,
     civilian portion of NASA

Physical Resources $62 Billion or 6%): Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, HUD
     administration/community development, Interior Department,
     Transportation, Environmental Protection

Savings and Loan Crisis/Bank Bailouts $48 Billion or 4%): FDIC and
     Resolution Trust

$1,104 Trillion or  100% Total Federal Funds


             How These Figures Were Determined

     All these dollar figures are for fiscal year 1992, as reported in the
Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 1993. The percentages
are Federal Funds, calculated after removing Trust Funds (such as Social
Security), which are raised and spent separately from income taxes. What
you pay (or don't pay) on April 15 goes only to the Federal Funds portion
of the budget. The government practice of combining Trust Funds and Federal
Funds (the so-called ``Unified Budget'') began in the 1960's during the
Vietnam War. The government presentation makes the human needs portion of
the budget seem larger and the military portion smaller.

     ``Current military'' spending adds together money allocated for the
Department of Defense ($295 billion) plus the ``defense'' portion from
other parts of the budget. Spending on nuclear weapons (without their
delivery systems) amounts to about 1% of the total budget.

     ``Past military'' is represented by veterans' benefits plus 80% of the
interest on the national debt. If there had been no military spending, most
(if not all) of the national debt would have been eliminated. Analysts
differ on how much of the debt stems from the military; estimates range
from 50% to 100%. We felt that 80% may even be conservative.

     This chart is calculated from fiscal year 1992 ``budget outlays''
reported in the President's proposed 1993 budget publication. We use 1992
outlays (bills actually being paid) to show where your taxes due on April
15, 1992, are going. The President's proposed 1993 budget is debated by
Congress through the spring and summer of 1992 for approval by the
beginning of the government's fiscal year in October 1992. Contact your
legislators now with your concerns!


             The Government Deception

     The following figures are the Administration's view of the budget (and
similar to the figures you'll see in your IRS booklet or the media).
This is a distortion of how our income tax dollars are spent because it
includes Trust Funds (e.g., Social Security) and buries the expenses of
past military spending in nonmilitary parts of the pie. For a more accurate
representation of how your Federal income tax dollar is really spent, see
the preceding breakdown.

US Government breakdown of the FY 92 Budget:

     Deposit Insurance 6%

     Other Federal Operations 7%

     Grants to States & Localities 12%

     Net Interest 14%

     National Defense 20%

     Direct Benefit Payments for Individuals 41%
___________________________________________________________________________
The printed version of "WHERE YOUR INCOME TAX MONEY REALLY GOES" is
available for .10 each (1-199), .07 each (200 or more), .05 each (500 plus)
plus postage, from

WAR RESISTERS LEAGUE  339 Lafayette St.  New York, NY 10012  <wrl@igc.org>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

ChrisWa.