Sometimes I’m an optimist and believe that there is still hope for this country.  But when I consider where this country is now, the debt that it has and the debt it is incurring from a government on a spending spree like an alcoholic who doesn’t know when to say stop, I tend to lapse into being an angry pessimist.  Angry because we the people are expected to live within our means while the government consistently budgets outside of its own, and a pessimist because I don’t see that changing anytime soon.  However, optimists are sometimes only optimistic because they are looking through rose colored glasses.  Pessimists, even if they have a somewhat distorted view, may be willing to make sacrifices that an optimist would not.

I’m to that point now. But rather than sit and stew in my pessimism, I figured it would be more constructive to consider what really needs to be changed.  As Frauline Maria said in the Sound of Music, a movie truly deserving of best picture, “Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”

George Washington created the first Cabinet and appointed four executive level positions and associated departments – the Department of War, the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Justice.  Just like today, the federal government in Washington’s time ran at a deficit.  By the end of Washington’s second term, the deficit was 82 million.  If you average that deficit across the census population for 1790, it was about $29 per person living in the United States.

Fast forward to 2010. The Obama administration has 21 Cabinet level positions, 15 departments and 1 agency.  Reviewing that list of federal governmental departments and agencies quickly reveals why the federal government is now running at an almost 3 trillion dollar deficit.  Those departments and agencies, and their corresponding budgets for 2010 are:

These budget numbers are from the GPOaccess.gov website.

The above total doesn’t include all spending, like social security (another $770 billion), NASA ($18 billion), and the small business administration (another $5 billion).  According to the GPO, the total outlays for 2010 are 3.7 trillion dollars.

If you are like me, you can look at that list and see some areas that the federal government should not be messing around in.  And if you generously assume that for 2010 the deficit will be the same as in 2009 (or 1.75 TRILLION dollars), and the projected population of 2010 is accurate (310 million Americans), that comes to the government spending $5500 more per person than what it is taking in. If we have to spend within our own means, why can’t we expect government to spend no more than it takes in?  We need to trim 1.75 trillion from the budget.  Here’s where I would start:

If we went with this budget, we’d not only be running without a deficit, we’d have almost $100 billion to use to reduce existing debt.  Unfortunately, when it comes to politicians, I’m too much of a pessimist to think that the government would ever do anything in the best interest of the country.  Government now only exists to ensure its own continued existence by creating a state of dependence.  Any futile exercises meant to allay pessimist tendencies prove just how far gone we really are.  There are not enough people left in this country willing to truly declare independence to turn things around.