TIME magazine

Read the followin" rel="nofollow">ing article from TIME magazin" rel="nofollow">ine and then tell me what you thin" rel="nofollow">ink. What surprised you the most or what did you fin" rel="nofollow">ind most in" rel="nofollow">interestin" rel="nofollow">ing. The Trump admin" rel="nofollow">inistration and Congress are about to undertake “Tax Reform” - but the real issue before one discusses how much the government will collect is how much should the government spend. The article below discusses what the government provides to us… TIME Magazin" rel="nofollow">ine Monday, Sep. 17, 2012 One Nation On Welfare. Livin" rel="nofollow">ing Your Life On The Dole By Michael Grunwald The sun is shin" rel="nofollow">inin" rel="nofollow">ing on Miami Beach, and I wake up in" rel="nofollow">in subsidized housin" rel="nofollow">ing. I throw on a T-shirt made of subsidized cotton, brush my teeth with subsidized water and eat cereal made of subsidized grain" rel="nofollow">in. Soon the chaos begin" rel="nofollow">ins, two hours of pillow forts, dance parties and other crazin" rel="nofollow">iness with two hyper kids and two hyper Boston terriers, until our subsidized nanny arrives to watch our 2-year-old. My wife Cristin" rel="nofollow">ina then drives to her subsidized job while listenin" rel="nofollow">ing to the subsidized news on public radio. I bike our 4-year-old to school on public roads, play tennis on a public court and head home for a subsidized shower. Then I turn on my computer with subsidized electricity and start work in" rel="nofollow">in my subsidized home office. It's just another manic Monday, brought to us by the deep pockets of Big Government. The sunshin" rel="nofollow">ine is a natural perk, and while our kids are tax-deductible, the fun we have with them is not. The dogs are on our dime too. Otherwise, taxpayers help support just about every aspect of our lives. Of course, we're taxpayers too, and we don't exactly fit the stereotype of entitled welfare queens. Cristin" rel="nofollow">ina is an attorney and until recently was a small-busin" rel="nofollow">iness owner. I'm a journalist, an economic red flag these days, but I work for the company behin" rel="nofollow">ind the Harry Potter and Batman movies, so at press time I was still gettin" rel="nofollow">ing paid. My family's subsidies are not the handouts to the poor that help fuel America's political culture wars but the kin" rel="nofollow">ind of government goodies that make the comfortable even more comfortable. Our federally subsidized housin" rel="nofollow">ing, for example, is a two-story Art Deco home in" rel="nofollow">in the overpriced heart of South Beach. But our mortgage in" rel="nofollow">interest is a personal deduction, my home office is a busin" rel="nofollow">iness deduction, and federal subsidies keep our flood in" rel="nofollow">insurance cheap. Even our property taxes are deductible. So thanks for your help. The 2012 election is shapin" rel="nofollow">ing up as a debate over Big Government, but it is only loosely tethered to the reality of Big Government. The vast majority of federal spendin" rel="nofollow">ing goes to defense, health care and Social Security plus in" rel="nofollow">interest payments on the debt we've run up payin" rel="nofollow">ing for defense, health care and Social Security. Nondefense discretionary spendin" rel="nofollow">ing--Washin" rel="nofollow">ingtonese for "everythin" rel="nofollow">ing else," from the FBI to the TSA to the center for grape genetics--amounts to only 12% of the budget. Still, it's a big government. The U.S. did not spend even $1 billion in" rel="nofollow">in 1912; it will spend $3.8 trillion in" rel="nofollow">in 2012 on everythin" rel="nofollow">ing from Missin" rel="nofollow">ing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Assistance ($593,842) to Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecastin" rel="nofollow">ing ($9,409,400), from mortgage in" rel="nofollow">insurance for manufactured homes ($64,724,187) to ironworker train" rel="nofollow">inin" rel="nofollow">ing on Indian reservations. There will be an additional $1.3 trillion in" rel="nofollow">in tax expenditures, federal benefits (like the deductions for my 401(k) and my nanny's salary) that are basically identical to those normal spendin" rel="nofollow">ing programs except that they happen to be provided through the tax code. The rise of the Tea Party and the weakness of the Obama economy have fueled a Republican narrative about Big Government as a threat to liberty, redistributin" rel="nofollow">ing wealth from honorable Americans to undeservin" rel="nofollow">ing moochers, from taxpayin" rel="nofollow">ing "makers" to freeloadin" rel="nofollow">ing "takers." In fact, most Americans are makers and takers--proud of our makin" rel="nofollow">ing, blin" rel="nofollow">ind to our takin" rel="nofollow">ing. Republicans often poin" rel="nofollow">int out that only half the country pays in" rel="nofollow">income taxes, but just about all Americans pay taxes: payroll taxes, state and local taxes, gas taxes and much more. The problem is that we pay in" rel="nofollow">in $2.5 trillion and pay out $3.8 trillion. And those trillions of dollars don't all go to undeservin" rel="nofollow">ing moochers, except in" rel="nofollow">insofar as we're all undeservin" rel="nofollow">ing moochers. 7 a.m.: Subsidized food, water, electricity and clothin" rel="nofollow">ing The right routin" rel="nofollow">inely portrays government as a giant mess of Solyndra failures, lavish agency conferences in" rel="nofollow">in Vegas and pork for society's leeches. But my taxpayer-supported mornin" rel="nofollow">ing didn't feel like moochin" rel="nofollow">ing at the time. For example, my family pays for that water I use to brush my teeth, about $100 a month. But that's a small fraction of the true cost of deliverin" rel="nofollow">ing clean water to our home and treatin" rel="nofollow">ing the sewage that leaves our home. And it certain" rel="nofollow">inly doesn't reflect the $15 billion federal project to protect and restore the ravaged Everglades, which sit on top of the aquifers that provide our drin" rel="nofollow">inkin" rel="nofollow">ing water. Most Americans thin" rel="nofollow">ink of the water that comes out of our faucets as an entitlement, not a handout, but it's a government service, and it's often subsidized. Similarly, my family pays more than $200 a month for the electricity that powers our toaster at breakfast. But that number would be much higher if the feds didn't subsidize the construction, liability in" rel="nofollow">insurance and just about every other cost associated with my utility's nuclear power plants while also providin" rel="nofollow">ing generous tax advantages ("depletion allowances," "in" rel="nofollow">intangible drillin" rel="nofollow">ing costs" and so forth) for natural gas and other fossil fuels. The $487 we're payin" rel="nofollow">ing this year for federal flood in" rel="nofollow">insurance is also outrageously low, considerin" rel="nofollow">ing that our low-lyin" rel="nofollow">ing street floods all the time, that a major hurricane could wipe out Miami Beach and that the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America estimates that premiums in" rel="nofollow">in high-risk areas would be three times as high without government aid. Some federal largesse--tax breaks for NASCAR racetracks ($40 million) and subsidies for rum distilleries ($172 million) and rural airports ($200 million)--is just silly. There's no reason my poker buddies should be able to deduct the gamblin" rel="nofollow">ing losses I in" rel="nofollow">inflict on them once a month. (Just kiddin" rel="nofollow">ing, guys!) The silliest handouts that brighten my mornin" rel="nofollow">ing are the boondoggles that funnel billions to America's cotton and grain" rel="nofollow">in farmers and maybe knock a few cents off the price of my T-shirts and my kids' breakfast waffles. Uncle Sam sends at least $15 billion every year to farmers and agribusin" rel="nofollow">inesses in" rel="nofollow">in the form of grants, loans, crop in" rel="nofollow">insurance and other goodies. The farm lobby is so omnipotent in" rel="nofollow">in Washin" rel="nofollow">ington that when the World Trade Organization ruled that U.S. handouts give our cotton farmers an unfair advantage over Brazil, the U.S. cut a deal to shovel $147 million a year to Brazilian cotton farmers rather than kick our own farmers off the dole. Our food and clothin" rel="nofollow">ing may seem cheap, but, oh, we pay for them. 9 a.m.--1 p.m.: Subsidized transport, shelter, exercise and jobs Reasonable people can disagree about most government aid. I enjoy NPR, even though I don't really see why it needs about $3 million a year of our tax dollars to produce good journalism; public-radio stations receive only about 15% of their revenue from the government anyway. On the other hand, I thin" rel="nofollow">ink my $500 Florida tax rebate for the energy-efficient water heater that warms my shower made great sense, promotin" rel="nofollow">ing economic, environmental and national security by reducin" rel="nofollow">ing fossil-fuel use. Unless you're a hardcore libertarian, it probably doesn't bother you that the city of Miami Beach spends $500 million a year buildin" rel="nofollow">ing roads, fixin" rel="nofollow">ing potholes, pickin" rel="nofollow">ing up trash, puttin" rel="nofollow">ing out fires and creatin" rel="nofollow">ing bike lanes that make my cyclin" rel="nofollow">ing somewhat less life-threatenin" rel="nofollow">ing. The city also owns my local tennis courts, which are receivin" rel="nofollow">ing a somewhat controversial $5 million upgrade, as well as the playground my 2-year-old visits frequently and the track where Cristin" rel="nofollow">ina and I work out much less frequently. My mayor, Matti Herrera Bower, told me tennis players are the city's most aggressive and obnoxious special in" rel="nofollow">interest. We're the farmers of Miami Beach. When I spoke to Bower, a former dental assistant and PTA mom who got in" rel="nofollow">into politics after years of community activism, the FBI had just busted a bunch of city code in" rel="nofollow">inspectors for shakin" rel="nofollow">ing down a nightclub owner, and the city manager had just quit. MIAMI BEACH SINKING IN A VAST SWAMP OF DISHONESTY, a Miami Herald column declared. Citizens notice the bad news, Bower said with a sigh, but they don't appreciate that government keeps them safe and cleans their streets. They're not too in" rel="nofollow">interested in" rel="nofollow">in learnin" rel="nofollow">ing more, either; Bower holds regular Mayor on the Move forums to brin" rel="nofollow">ing City Hall to Miami Beach's neighborhoods, but only two residents showed up to the last one. "There's this perception that government is all dirty, and perception is 99% of what matters," Bower says. "People are busy livin" rel="nofollow">ing their lives. They don't understand where their taxes go and what they get." One thin" rel="nofollow">ing my family gets from government is Cristin" rel="nofollow">ina's paycheck from an advocacy group called Americans for Immigrant Justice, which is nearly 30% funded by the feds. Cristin" rel="nofollow">ina is paid less than she would make at a private law firm, though more than most Americans, to represent undocumented min" rel="nofollow">inors in" rel="nofollow">in detention centers--in" rel="nofollow">in other words, kids in" rel="nofollow">in jail, some as young as 6, many victims of gang rape, gang terror or horrific family abuse. Cristin" rel="nofollow">ina helps save the time of judges and immigration officials by advisin" rel="nofollow">ing these kids about their rights, and she probably saves taxpayers money overall by advisin" rel="nofollow">ing her clients when they have no legal case for stayin" rel="nofollow">ing. That said, it's unlikely that her job would exist without Uncle Sam's help. This is true for huge numbers of Americans. Government is still America's largest job sector, directly employin" rel="nofollow">ing about 22 million workers at the federal, state and local levels--which means teachers, cops, prison guards, park rangers, coroners, prosecutors, you name it. It is impossible to estimate how many jobs the federal government creates in" rel="nofollow">indirectly through contracts for everythin" rel="nofollow">ing from fighter jets to the guys who manage my tennis courts. Other in" rel="nofollow">industries depend on government, like health care, lobbyin" rel="nofollow">ing and Washin" rel="nofollow">ington real estate. And the entire nonprofit world depends on the charitable tax deduction, which costs the Treasury about $40 billion a year. Obama proposed to limit it for rich donors, but charities went berserk, and with antitax Republicans runnin" rel="nofollow">ing the House, Congress isn't elimin" rel="nofollow">inatin" rel="nofollow">ing tax breaks these days. That's especially true of the tax breaks that deprive the Treasury of the most revenue because they tend to go to taxpayers with the most in" rel="nofollow">income. Take that mortgage-in" rel="nofollow">interest deduction, the third-costliest tax expenditure at $94 billion a year. It's available only to homeowners, who tend to be better off than renters. And sin" rel="nofollow">ince it's a deduction from your in" rel="nofollow">income, it's worth more to taxpayers who earn more. That's because the higher your in" rel="nofollow">income, the higher your tax bracket. And if you are in" rel="nofollow">in the top brackets, you can deduct a bigger portion of your mortgage in" rel="nofollow">interest from your taxes. Politicians love providin" rel="nofollow">ing benefits through the tax code because it makes them look like tax cutters rather than spenders. And a politician who tried to get rid of the mortgage deduction would probably become an ex-politician. 1 p.m.--6 p.m.: Subsidized medicin" rel="nofollow">ine, savin" rel="nofollow">ings and busin" rel="nofollow">inesses I usually spend most of the afternoon in" rel="nofollow">in my office, with occasional soccer breaks when 2-year-old Lin" rel="nofollow">ina bangs on my door and shouts, "Kick ball me!" I often grab lunch with a friend--maybe Xavier, a private-equity guy, or Damian, a developer, or Alan, an environmental activist. I do physical therapy twice a week for a bum shoulder. Except for my escape with Lin" rel="nofollow">ina, who'd be a more convin" rel="nofollow">incin" rel="nofollow">ing athlete if she didn't carry a doll onto the field, this is all subsidized too. The physical therapy is helpin" rel="nofollow">ing my achin" rel="nofollow">ing shoulder, but it's also helpin" rel="nofollow">ing drive the U.S. toward in" rel="nofollow">insolvency. We're not Greece or anythin" rel="nofollow">ing like Greece, but we do have a long-term debt problem, and it's almost entirely a result of risin" rel="nofollow">ing health care costs. On graphs of long-term government-spendin" rel="nofollow">ing projections, health care looks like a ski slope, and everythin" rel="nofollow">ing else looks like a sidewalk. Most of the problem is Medicare and Medicaid, which spend about $800 billion and risin" rel="nofollow">ing a year to cover the elderly and the poor. But the tax advantages for health care are the country's costliest tax expenditure, drain" rel="nofollow">inin" rel="nofollow">ing the Treasury of $184 billion a year. Health benefits provided by employers are tax exempt, which encourages Time Inc. to give me better benefits than it otherwise might have. That may have encouraged me to get my shoulder checked out earlier than I otherwise would have, which might save me from costly surgery. Then again" rel="nofollow">in, my orthopedist might not have done an MRI in" rel="nofollow">in addition to an X-ray if I didn't have such comprehensive in" rel="nofollow">insurance; when the tax code rewards a behavior, like consumin" rel="nofollow">ing health care, people do more of that behavior. I also benefit from another huge loophole in" rel="nofollow">in the tax code: the exemption for 401(k)s and other savin" rel="nofollow">ings plans, which costs the Treasury $138 billion a year. Every $500 I save for retirement depletes the Treasury of about $135 it would otherwise take from me in" rel="nofollow">in taxes. Yes, there is a legitimate policy in" rel="nofollow">interest in" rel="nofollow">in promotin" rel="nofollow">ing savin" rel="nofollow">ing, but this is another example of the tax code in" rel="nofollow">incentivizin" rel="nofollow">ing people with money to do thin" rel="nofollow">ings they would have done anyway, like own a home, buy health in" rel="nofollow">insurance or hire a nanny. Investors and fin" rel="nofollow">inanciers also enjoy huge tax advantages like Wall Street's $1 billion to $2 billion carried-in" rel="nofollow">interest loophole, which keeps hedge-fund managers' taxes at janitor levels. But my sweetest tax advantage does not come from bein" rel="nofollow">ing a homeowner, a patient or a saver. It comes from bein" rel="nofollow">ing a kin" rel="nofollow">inda-sorta busin" rel="nofollow">inessman. If you make decent money and you're not deductin" rel="nofollow">ing busin" rel="nofollow">iness expenses, get an accountant--which, in" rel="nofollow">incidentally, is also tax-deductible. On my tax forms, I'm not just a dude at a magazin" rel="nofollow">ine. I'm also an "author, lecturer," which lets me slice some personal busin" rel="nofollow">iness expenses off the top of my in" rel="nofollow">income. I'm conservative about deductions--nothin" rel="nofollow">ing to see here, IRS!--but my accountant says those busin" rel="nofollow">iness-ish lunches with my work-related pals are partly deductible. So are most books I buy, 17% of my utility bills--my home office is 17% of our home--and some of my travel. I don't know how much I'll deduct from my trip to San Francisco for my brother's weddin" rel="nofollow">ing, but it won't be nothin" rel="nofollow">ing, because I did some book in" rel="nofollow">interviews while I was there. The busin" rel="nofollow">iness community frequently complain" rel="nofollow">ins about taxes, but the tax code turns out to be cluttered with pro-busin" rel="nofollow">iness in" rel="nofollow">incentives. In fact, as we discovered when Cristin" rel="nofollow">ina opened a retail store just as the recession hit, the only thin" rel="nofollow">ing that's more advantageous for tax purposes than openin" rel="nofollow">ing a busin" rel="nofollow">iness is openin" rel="nofollow">ing a failin" rel="nofollow">ing busin" rel="nofollow">iness. When the store lost money durin" rel="nofollow">ing the Great Recession, the losses helped reduce our tax liability by more than half. We learned an expensive lesson in" rel="nofollow">in entrepreneurial risk takin" rel="nofollow">ing, but Uncle Sam made it much less expensive. 6 p.m.: Even the electronic babysitter is subsidized The workday ends. Cristin" rel="nofollow">ina drives home, past a $49 million federally funded rail tunnel, and gets cash from our bank, which was bailed out to the tune of $45 billion by the U.S. government. Our nanny takes a public bus home. Then it's another hour of gymnastics, charades and other unsubsidized fun before we deposit the kids in" rel="nofollow">in front of the TV--not to watch min" rel="nofollow">indless crap, because we would never tranquilize them that way, but to watch worthy programs like Din" rel="nofollow">inosaur Train" rel="nofollow">in and Sid the Science Kid that tend to be supported by federal grants. It's a much better way to tranquilize them. My life on the dole is hardly unique. The website cfda.gov lists 2,238 federal assistance programs, from the $7.5 million Incentive Grant to Prohibit Racial Profilin" rel="nofollow">ing to the $4 million Wild Horse and Burro Resource Management. Redundancies jump off the screen. The $24 billion-a-year Agriculture Department is essentially runnin" rel="nofollow">ing a bonus government for rural America with its own education, housin" rel="nofollow">ing, transportation, energy, health, busin" rel="nofollow">iness-promotion and environmental-regulation programs. The $2.5 billion-a-year Bureau of Indian Affairs supports a duplicate government for Native Americans. I suggested to one Admin" rel="nofollow">inistration official that the $662 billion the Pentagon spends on service members, their families and veterans is yet another U.S. government. "No, the Pentagon runs a Swedish government," he corrected me. "It's a socialist paradise!" Government in" rel="nofollow">investments affect our lives in" rel="nofollow">in all kin" rel="nofollow">inds of subtler ways, from the Pentagon research that led to the development of the Internet I use for work to the one-sided deal that subsidized a $213 million arena for the basketball team I root for obsessively. Americans tell pollsters they don't like government, much less the taxes they pay to fund government, but they tend to support Medicare, the military and most other services that government provides. This is why politicians tend to spend a lot more time talkin" rel="nofollow">ing about shrin" rel="nofollow">inkin" rel="nofollow">ing government than actually shrin" rel="nofollow">inkin" rel="nofollow">ing government. President Obama talks a lot about trimmin" rel="nofollow">ing the fat, and Republican leaders talk about almost nothin" rel="nofollow">ing but trimmin" rel="nofollow">ing the fat. But the status quo has largely prevailed. The explosion of Big Government under Obama is mostly a myth; the public workforce has actually shrunk by half a million workers durin" rel="nofollow">ing his presidency. That said, Obama hasn't been much of a fat trimmer, either. His halfhearted efforts to rein" rel="nofollow">in in" rel="nofollow">in excessive spendin" rel="nofollow">ing got off to a laughable start in" rel="nofollow">in April 2009, when he publicly ordered his Cabin" rel="nofollow">inet to fin" rel="nofollow">ind $100 million-with-an-m worth of waste to cut, a roundin" rel="nofollow">ing error in" rel="nofollow">in a $3.6 trillion-with-a-t budget. He later killed a $143 million fighter jet the Pentagon didn't want as well as a $190 million maritime navigation system rendered obsolete by GPS, then agreed to more than $2 trillion in" rel="nofollow">in long-range cuts after Republicans threatened to force the Treasury in" rel="nofollow">into default in" rel="nofollow">in 2011. But those cuts are still mostly theoretical, dependin" rel="nofollow">ing on what happens in" rel="nofollow">in the fall election. Meanwhile, the Republican Party has rallied around House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan's long-term blueprin" rel="nofollow">int for deep (and specified) deficit-expandin" rel="nofollow">ing tax cuts paired with deep (but mostly unspecified) cuts in" rel="nofollow">in nondefense spendin" rel="nofollow">ing. GOP presidential nomin" rel="nofollow">inee Mitt Romney embraced the Ryan plan durin" rel="nofollow">ing the primaries and then put Ryan on his ticket, but he has been even cagier about what he in" rel="nofollow">intends to cut beyond small-dollar Republican targets like Amtrak and NPR. Independent analysts have suggested that if the U.S. actually followed the Ryan outlin" rel="nofollow">ine, by 2050 there would be no room in" rel="nofollow">in the budget for anythin" rel="nofollow">ing but defense, Social Security and health care. But even if Republicans take back Washin" rel="nofollow">ington, cuttin" rel="nofollow">ing isn't a foregone conclusion; government spendin" rel="nofollow">ing exploded when they controlled the nation's capital in" rel="nofollow">in the Bush era. Every lin" rel="nofollow">ine item has lobbyists watchin" rel="nofollow">ing its back, and when you can get a reputation as a fiscally responsible budget cutter without doin" rel="nofollow">ing the politically difficult budget cuttin" rel="nofollow">ing, why bother? 10 p.m.: Subsidized delivery My family's asleep. I'm readin" rel="nofollow">ing the mail, courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service, which is hemorrhagin" rel="nofollow">ing cash in" rel="nofollow">in the e-mail era. The USPS is a classic example of a problem Washin" rel="nofollow">ington can't fix. It clearly needs to cut costs and raise revenues. But the obvious cost reducers, like endin" rel="nofollow">ing Saturday snail-mail delivery and closin" rel="nofollow">ing rural post offices, and the obvious revenue enhancer, in" rel="nofollow">increasin" rel="nofollow">ing stamp prices, are DOA on Capitol Hill. Liberals are correct that we rely on government much more than we realize. Conservatives are correct that government tries to do too many thin" rel="nofollow">ings. Republicans have seized on the Obama campaign's Life of Julia onlin" rel="nofollow">ine tool--showin" rel="nofollow">ing how one woman might benefit from Head Start, tuition aid, Medicare and other federal programs durin" rel="nofollow">ing her life--to accuse Democrats of viewin" rel="nofollow">ing Americans as cradle-to-grave wards of the state. Democrats have portrayed Republicans as antigovernment absolutists in" rel="nofollow">in thrall to the Tea Party, eager to deprive Americans of benefits we like and expect. There's some truth in" rel="nofollow">in those critiques too. But those of us who thin" rel="nofollow">ink government has an important role to play in" rel="nofollow">in American life ought to support rein" rel="nofollow">inin" rel="nofollow">ing in" rel="nofollow">in the excesses that give government a bad name. When I asked analysts at the antigovernment Cato Institute and the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities what was the most wasteful government spendin" rel="nofollow">ing, they all gave the same answer: farm subsidies. A coalition of taxpayer activists and green groups recently proposed axin" rel="nofollow">ing $700 billion worth of environmentally destructive federal largesse, from fossil-fuel subsidies to sprawl roads to pork-barrel water projects that drain" rel="nofollow">in wetlands. There is broad agreement among eggheads that tax perks for yachts, corporate jets and mortgage in" rel="nofollow">interest on mansions ought to go as well. But it's hard to see the fin" rel="nofollow">inger-in" rel="nofollow">in-the-win" rel="nofollow">ind political world followin" rel="nofollow">ing the wonk world's lead. The costliest spendin" rel="nofollow">ing programs affect the military and the elderly. And the costliest tax expenditures affect families like min" rel="nofollow">ine. We're the kin" rel="nofollow">ind of moochers who vote. Pick a subject related to petroleum geology and write a 1 page font 12, sin" rel="nofollow">ingle spaced report excludin" rel="nofollow">ing figures. It could be anythin" rel="nofollow">ing like capillary pressure, oil migration, fractures, microseismic, Monte Carlo Simulation.