Quote:
Originally Posted by TSGracchus
There are limits, yes. They are not nearly as restrictive as some would like, but they are there.
First, and most obviously, the government can't do anything that's expressly prohibited. For example, it cannot impart titles of nobility. It can't waive the writ of habeas corpus except in extreme cases. (It was done during the American Civil War, but never before or since then.) It can't impose a state religion, or interfere with free speech or a free press. And so it can't spend money towards any of these ends.
Secondly, the spending of money must be to promote the common defense and the general welfare of the United States -- that is, the defense or welfare of all of the states, all of the people; the government is not allowed to play favorites. (There are some things done by the federal government that might arguably violate this restriction, actually. In my opinion. Don't know whether it's been tested in court.)
Third, the power to spend money is ONLY the power to spend money; it's not the power to legislate by the back door. This came out in the Supreme Court case U.S. v. Butler, in which the Agricultural Adjustment Act was found unconstitutional. The AAA's goal was to regulate agricultural production so as to prop up prices. To do this, the government wanted to get farmers to stop producing so much, to leave some fields fallow. Now the federal government actually has no authority to regulate agricultural production directly; it can regulate the interstate sale or transportation of farm produce, but not production on the farm itself. (The state governments DO have this authority.) What the AAA did, was to levy a tax on food processing plants -- which in itself was constitutional -- and then use the revenue from that tax to provide subsidies to farmers who agreed voluntarily to abide by the restrictions the government imposed. The court ruled that this use of federal spending and taxation amounted to the enforcement of a regulation which the government had no authority to impose, and so was an unconstitutional use of the taxation/spending power.
Today, we have a different system of farm subsidies, which are not tied to attempts to regulate farm production, and so would pass that test (although not IMO the test of common sense -- but that's off-topic). There may be some other things the fed does in the way of conditional grants to the states that might violate the Butler ruling; I'm sure these have been tested in court, but I don't know what arguments allowed them. It's not the method of conditioned spending per se that the Butler decision voided, but rather its use to impose a non-authorized regulation by the back door.
|
Sorry, but what a load of crap.
There are no fucking limits.
Please tell me, what are the limits?
[i]The 11,610 projects represent a 337 percent increase over the 2,658 projects in fiscal year 2007. The $17.2 billion is a 30 percent increase over the fiscal year 2007 total of $13.2 billion. Only the Defense and Homeland Security bills included earmarks in fiscal year 2007, so comparisons of other bills are made between fiscal years 2008 and 2006. Total pork identified by CAGW since 1991 adds up to $271 billion. The latest installment of Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) 18-year exposé of pork-barrel spending includes $3,000,000 for The First Tee; $1,950,000 for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service; and $188,000 for the Lobster Institute in Maine. In the House of Representatives, Republicans want a one-year moratorium but will not unilaterally disarm. Democrats won’t agree because of objections from big porkers such as House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.). On February 11, 2008, Roll Call noted, “Every private entity that received a special project from the Pennsylvania Democrat in last year’s defense spending bill had given him political money at some point since 2005.” At his February 27, 2008 fundraiser for lobbyists, Murtha received a standing ovation. If Washington, D.C. were to export a commodity, it would be rhetoric. Politicians especially love to talk about fiscal responsibility. On March 13, 2008 the Senate had an opportunity to test that rhetoric when Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) offered an amendment to impose a one-year moratorium on earmarks. Pork beat talk as the measure failed by a vote of 29-71.
Citizens Against Government Waste
HOW MANY HOURS HAVE YOU SPENT RESEARCHING GOVERNMENT WASTE, PORK and Lobbying/Campaign contributions?
HERE ARE A FEW TIDBITS ON WASTE.......
1. The Missing $25 Billion
Buried in the Department of the Treasury’s 2003 Financial Report of the United States Government is a short section titled “Unreconciled Transactions Affecting the Change in Net Position,” which explains that these unreconciled transactions totaled $24.5 billion in 2003.[2]
The unreconciled transactions are funds for which auditors cannot account: The government knows that $25 billion was spent by someone, somewhere, on something, but auditors do not know who spent it, where it was spent, or on what it was spent. Blaming these unreconciled transactions on the failure of federal agencies to report their expenditures adequately, the Treasury report con*cludes that locating the money is “a priority.”
The unreconciled $25 billion could have funded the entire Department of Justice for an entire year.
2. Unused Flight Tickets Totaling $100 Million
A recent audit revealed that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department purchased and then left unused approximately 270,000 commercial airline tickets at a total cost of $100 million. Even worse, the Pentagon never bothered to get a refund for these fully refundable tickets. The GAO blamed a system that relied on department personnel to notify the travel office when purchased tickets went unused.[3]
Auditors also found 27,000 transactions between 2001 and 2002 in which the Pentagon paid twice for the same ticket. The department would purchase the ticket directly and then inex*plicably reimburse the employee for the cost of the ticket. (In one case, an employee who allegedly made seven false claims for airline tickets professed not to have noticed that $9,700 was deposited into his/her account). These additional transactions cost taxpayers $8 million.
This $108 million could have purchased seven Blackhawk helicopters, 17 M1 Abrams tanks, or a large supply of additional body armor for U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
3. Embezzled Funds at the Department of Agriculture
Federal employee credit card programs were designed to save money. Rather than weaving through a lengthy procurement process to acquire basic supplies, federal employees could purchase job-related products with credit cards that would be paid by their agency. What began as a smart way to streamline government has since been corrupted by some federal employees who have abused the public trust.
A recent audit revealed that employees of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) diverted mil*lions of dollars to personal purchases through their government-issued credit cards. Sampling 300 employees’ purchases over six months, investigators estimated that 15 percent abused their government credit cards at a cost of $5.8 million. Taxpayer-funded purchases included Ozzy Osbourne concert tickets, tattoos, lingerie, bartender school tuition, car payments, and cash advances.
The USDA has pledged a thorough investigation, but it will have a huge task: 55,000 USDA credit cards are in circulation, including 1,549 that are still held by people who no longer work at the USDA.[4]
4. Credit Card Abuse at the Department of Defense
The Defense Department has uncovered its own credit card scandal. Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used govern*ment-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 for admission to entertainment events, $48,250 for gambling, $69,300 for cruises, and $73,950 for exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.[5]
5. Medicare Overspending
Medicare wastes more money than any other federal program, yet its strong public support leaves lawmakers hesitant to address program effi*ciencies, which cost taxpayers and Medicare recip*ients billions of dollars annually.
For example, Medicare pays as much as eight times what other federal agencies pay for the same drugs and medical supplies.[6] The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently com*pared the prices paid by Medicare and the Depart*ment of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care program for 16 types of medical equipment and supplies, which account for one-quarter of Medicare’s equip*ment and supplies purchases. The evidence showed that Medicare paid an average of more than double what the VA paid for the same items. The largest difference was for saline solution, with Medicare paying $8.26 per liter compared to the $1.02 paid by the VA.[7] (See Table 1.)
Top 10 Examples of Government Waste
# A White House review of just a sample of the federal budget identified $90 billion spent on programs deemed that were either ineffective, marginally adequate, or operating under a flawed purpose or design.
# The Congressional Budget Office published a “Budget Options” book identifying $140 billion in potential spending cuts.
# The federal government spends $23 billion annually on special interest pork projects such as grants to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, or funds to combat teenage “goth” culture in Blue Springs, Missouri.
# The federal government made $20 billion in overpayments in 2001.
# The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s $3.3 billion in overpayments in 2001 accounted for over 10 percent of the department’s total budget.
Examples of wasteful duplication include: 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 federal programs dedicated to assuring safe water.
The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses, and 40% of this goes to Fortune 500 companies.
# The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually to not farm their land.
# Washington spends $60 billion annually on corporate welfare, versus $43 billion on homeland security.
# The Department of Agriculture spends $12 billion to $30 billion annually on farm subsidies, the vast majority of which go to agribusinesses and farmers averaging $135,000 in annual income.
# Massive farm subsidies also go to several members of Congress, and celebrity “hobby farmers” such as David Rockefeller, Ted Turner, Scottie Pippen, and former Enron CEO Ken Lay.
# Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.
# The Army Corps of Engineers has been accused of illegally manipulating data to justify expensive but unnecessary public works projects.
# Food stamp overpayments cost $600 million annually.
# School lunch program abuse costs $120 million annually.
# Veterans’ program overpayments cost $800 million annually.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/wm839-list.cfm
Please tell me..........
WHAT ARE THE FUCKING LIMITS?