The government loves to spend your money, but they REALLY love to spend your money this time of year. That's because September 30 marks the end of the fiscal year, when all federal budgets have to reset. So in order to justify their current budget (and hopefully get a bigger one next year), agencies have to burn off all of the use-it-or-lose-it funds before the month runs out. The watchdog group Open the Books analyzed this practice for fiscal 2019 and found $2.3 billion was spent in the final two business days of that year. That last-minute spending included things like lobster tail, games, toys, musical equipment, and alcohol.
This spending spree comes as federal debt and spending continue rising to unsustainable levels, while taxpayers footing the bill are paying more for groceries, gas, cars, travel...everything. "It blows the mind to think about what they're actually spending this money on," says Vance Ginn, economist with Ginn Economic Consulting. "It is not their money, it's someone else's money---namely the taxpayers' money---so we should expect more from our Congress and our state agencies."
Not only does this type of spending waste taxpayer dollars, it perpetuates continued reckless spending and bloated budgets. "The budget just grows by inertia," says Ginn. "Not really based on the needs of each agency, but just on the basis of this was the amount they were appropriated, so they're going to spend it all."
Ginn tells KTRH the ultimate result of all this spending is what Americans are facing right now. "Too much demand, too little supply, you're going to get massive inflation," he says. "That is what we have, and it was fueled by the excessive spending from Washington, D.C."
"We have more than 30 trillion dollars in national debt already, which amounts to $250,000 per taxpayer," Ginn continues. "We need to focus on responsible budgeting, which starts to rein in the massive budget deficits and spend less overall...because too much of the burden is already being put on Americans."