Your Tax Dollars... Are They Working?

Putting aside for the moment the whole argument about which Americans are not paying their "fair share" of income taxes, here's an example of how our hard-earned tax dollars are being spent. From the office of Sen. Jim DeMint:

 

How many housing programs should the government run? One? Ten? 50?

How about 160? That’s how many the Government Accountability Office tallied in a recent report that noted, “fiscal realities raise questions about the efficiency of multiple housing programs and activities across federal agencies with similar goals, products, and sometimes parallel delivery systems.” 

Even though there is an entire federal agency devoted to housing issues —the Department of Housing and Urban Development [$ 46.3 Billion in FY2013] — several other government agencies administer programs to subsidize housing construction and rehabilitation, assist homebuyers and renters, and provide aid to state and local governments through spending and loan programs, tax expenditures, regulatory requirements, and other housing-related activities.

Where are they all?

Well, HUD runs the majority of the programs, 91.

The United States Department of Agriculture [$ 154.5 Billion], which also administers farming aid and the nation’s food stamp program, offers 18 different types of housing assistance as well.

The Internal Revenue Service has 14 programs.

The Department of Treasury [$ 110.3 Billion] offers 8 programs;

the Department of Veterans Affairs [$ 139.7 Billion] 7;

the Department of Labor [$ 101.7 Billion]  2;

Federal Home Loan Banks 3.  

The rest of the activities are run through a number of organizations, such as the Department of Interior [$ 13.5 Billion],  the Federal Reserve System, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, Farmer Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to name a few.

Here's GAO's complete inventory of programs,

available in the "Table of Contents" on this page.

 

If President Obama had truly wanted to consolidate wasteful government programs, he sure had the chance. Especially when it comes to housing. He just never took it.

 

Meanwhile, the spending hemorrhage continues and the national debt mounts: (-) $16 Trillion, 45 Billion, 490 Million Dollars last I looked. That's about $140,000 per taxpayer. 

• You can make a contribution online either by credit card, checking or savings account at Pay.gov  
• [OR} You can write a check payable to the Bureau of the Public Debt, and in the memo section, notate that it's a Gift to reduce the Debt Held by the Public. Mail your check to: Attn Dept G, Bureau of the Public Debt, P. O. Box 2188, Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188.

 

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

This may look like madcap multiplication ... frenzied fructification ... and preposterous proliferation of government agencies, but actually there's a method to this madness: The more agencies, the more federal workers. We keep hearing that Romney may lose Virginia because of the heavy infestation of federal employees who live in northern Virginia and always vote Democrat. How many of them, I wonder, work in these otiose housing bureaucracies?

[Mark - Perrys West London]

I have to strongly agree with the consolidation point relating to Obama. It was envisioned that they would be able to put the taxpayer's money towards more meaningful schemes, yet, there has been no change in the number of redundant programs over 'how-many-ever' years. Also, the senators need to learn how to diversify... honestly