Part 4- Government Spending

Here’s another mystical arena, where does all that money go? And how much goes? Well, after a small amount of research I found a very interesting website, http://www.usaspending.gov/, which lists the spending of the Federal Government and breaks it down if you wish and I wished! So to sum up the spending in 2009 (and just on the top 10 contractors for each department are listed!) I have put this small list together for you to review and to consider how much more money you want to freely hand over to the government for wasteful spending.
Total governmental contracted spending for Fiscal Year 2009 is just above $523 Billion and it breaks down like so:
Department, Contracted Amounts, % of ALL awarded $
1. Agriculture, $5.08 Billion, 1%
2. Commerce*, $3.10 Billion, 0.6%
3. Defense*, $365.8 Billion, 69.8%
4. Education, $1.42 Billion, 0.3%
5. Energy*, $31.15 Billion, 5.9%
6. Health & Human Svc’s*, $18.75 Billion, 3.6%
7. Homeland Security*, $13.62 Billion, 2.6%
8. HUD*, $739.4 Million, 0.1%
9. Interior, $4.17 Billion, 0.8%
10. Justice*, $6.74 Billion, 1.3%
11. Labor, $2.24 Billion, 0.4%
12. State, $6.86 Billion, 1.3%
13. Transportation*, $5.06 Billion, 1.0%
14. Treasury*, $4.59 Billion, 0.9%
15. Veterans Affairs, $14.4 Billion, 2.7%
16. EPA*, $1.75 Billion, 0.3%
17. General Svc’s Admin, $14.09 Billion, 2.7%
18. NASA*, $14.86 Billion, 2.8%
19. Nat’l Science Foundation, $488.5 Million, -0.1%
20. Nuclear Regulatory Comm*, $203.6 Million, -0.1%
21. Office of Personnel Mgmt, $781.3 Million, 0.1%
22. Small Business Admin, $86.9 Million, -0.1%
23. Social Security Admin, $1.03 Billion, 0.2%
24. US Agency for Int’l Dvpm't, $5.17 Billion, 1.0%
25. All other Agencies*, $1.46 Billion, 0.3%
*Lockheed Martin is on the Top 10 list of contractors for these (*) Departments and their total contracted awards for 2009 from the US Government EXCEED $37.8 Billion!!

How scary are those numbers? Now why, after reading Part 3 on banks and the above figures, would anyone consider donating anymore money than necessary to those two giants of gross spending or gross over-spending?

“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we save means that their life will be so much the more abundant.” - President Calvin Coolidge

I don’t know why anyone would rather allow their unused money revert to bank and government coffers instead of directing it to a charity of their choice and having it utilized in a very helpful way by very grateful people!

Darren Cannao
President, Matter Of Change
Darren@MatterOfChange.com