This will make you think...government expenses

[MYSONSDAD]

Cost of Government Day Just Passed
by Bill Wilson, Washington, D.C., correspondent

SUMMARY: It takes the average American until July 4 to pay
off the cost of government.

The Founding Fathers rebelled at less than a penny tax on
tea. Now, government consumes 50.4 percent of all personal
income -- and this July 4 marked the date when the average
American worker has earned enough to pay off his or her
share of government expenses.

Broken down, it takes 125 days to pay for all federal,
state and local spending, 60 days to pay for federal and
state regulations.

Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist said
there is good news and bad news in the fact that Americans
are now working more than half the year until they reach
what's been called Cost of Government Day.

"The good news for the total cost of government is that
the regulatory burden is coming down a little bit with
some of the deregulation under President Bush. State and
local government costs are coming down a little bit," he
explained. "The bad news is that federal government
spending continues to grow."

Daniel Clifton, executive director of the American
Shareholders Association, said the government spends more
than it receives.

"So you've worked half the year just to pay off all costs
imposed at all levels of government," he said. "And
without reform of our major federal programs, we're going
to be working into mid-August."

The future, he added, will be bleak in absence of reform.

"We are obviously headed in the wrong direction," he said.
"As the population ages, the growth of the government is
going to continually grow."

The remedy, Norquist explained, is a tax structure that
reduces government growth and stimulates the economy.

"Step one," he said, "is to have pro-growth tax cuts and
pro-growth deregulation so that the economy grows more
rapidly."

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"Children learn what they live"