Since resources are finite, we have to decide where and how much to apply those resources to best satisfy our needs. For families, that varies greatly, as spending priorities are quite individual, according to taste, income levels, credit balances, legal and medical bills, and a myriad of other factors. The same is true for countries as it is for individuals. Tax dollars collected yearly represent a MASSIVE sum of cash (in 2019, that was $2.6T!), the question is how to spend it (or borrow it, as with deficit spending)? Here is where political friction takes place: money spent on the military is money that cannot be spent on social programs. Money spent on COVID-19 vaccinations cannot be spent on The Border Wall, and so on. We will ignore the deficit spending in this discussion, since if resources are infinite, we can have EVERYTHING we want (to the limits of our ability to borrow). From an Economics standpoint, that is a short-term policy that will eventually implode, so we’ll set it aside for now. The problem statement is: what do we have the political will to do? Let’s dig.
Since the ratification of the 16th Amendment (Income Taxes) in 1913, the US has had resources to spend. Slowly at first, but gaining momentum as time advances, revenues from Income Taxes provide the Federal government with the resources to accomplish many things. And nearly every decade had its focal point for those dollars to be targeted: in the 1930s, it was the Great Depression; in the 1940s, it was WWII, then the Marshall Plan to re-build Europe; in the 1950s, it was the Korean War, the electrification of rural areas, and the Interstate Highway System; in the 1960s, it was the Viet Nam War and the Space Race to the moon; in the 1970s, it was the Energy Crisis; in the 1980s, it was the computerization of the entire government, the development of the Space Shuttle program, along with a few Middle East battles. Since 2000, we have continued our military presence in Iraq, Afghanistan, and a few other hot-spots around the globe. Somewhere along the way, government and private business launched satellites and built cell towers to create GPS, cable, internet, cell phone, and many other technologies.
Since the early 1960s, social programs (Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, Welfare, SSDI, etc.) took their places as ever-expanding budgetary items. I include these here because those programs, along with Social Security disbursements (another topic of its own), now surpass any other item in the Federal budget. While some of these programs have separate funding mechanisms (payroll taxes, etc.), whenever those dollars are not sufficient to meet funding requirements, Income Tax dollars supplement them. At their current trend, social and health care expenses will consume ALL of the Federal budget in a few years. To say this is not sustainable is to fulfill my role as ‘Captain Obvious’.
But let’s break this author’s personal rule here, and pretend that a static, rather than dynamic, analysis is worthwhile. Let’s assume military and social spending are fixed (although each is rather large) amounts. What do we have the political will to do with the remaining funds?
If we, as a country, chose to do something, it would get DONE. Granted, in this fairy tale example, Congress would have to align its spending priorities with ours, but one can dream. What should our NATIONAL spending priorities be? Here is an ‘off the top of my head’ list of possibilities:
1. End the Oxycontin/Oxycodone/opiate crisis
2. Build and man/maintain the Southern Border Wall
3. Solve the homeless problem
4. Solve the entire college funding crisis
5. Modernize our roads and bridges
6. Update our power grid to EMP-proof and weatherproof status
7. Upgrade the care of our Veterans, both physically and mentally
8. AUDIT the Federal Reserve System
9. AUDIT the entire Congressional budget
10. Implement fraud-proof election systems
I’m sure everyone can add or subtract elements from this list. It is intended to be a starting point, not an exhaustive list. Now comes the hard part: we have to not only agree on the priority sort, we have to agree on the amounts. Do item 1, maybe there isn’t funding available for items 7-10, etc. In effect, WHAT DO WE HAVE THE POLITICAL WILL TO ACCOMPLISH? The only thing stopping us (other than Congress itself) is the lack of that political will.
