Morning Bell: Is This Program Worth Bankrupting My Child?

Conn Carroll / February 17, 2011

Under President Barack Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget, by 2014 net interest payments on our debt will surpass the amount spent on education, transportation, energy, and all other discretionary programs outside defense combined. Over the next decade, every citizen will be paying more than $2,500 a year in interest alone. Simply put: Our current spending habits are bankrupting our children. This must stop. The culture of overspending must change, and this week’s debate over the remaining months over the FY 2011 budget is the beginning of that fight. Substantive cuts this year, like the ones conservatives are fighting for in the House, will not balance the budget by themselves, but they are imperative for building momentum for additional spending reforms in the future.

Not all government spending is bad. Government does provide some core functions that must be paid for. This is why the duty to “provide for the common defense” is right there in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. While it is true that our current defense spending practices are far from perfect, Heritage Foundation defense policy analysts Mackenzie Eaglen and Julia Pollack have identified defense spending reforms that could save taxpayers more than $70 billion. But these savings should be used to stabilize our armed services. The effects of the short-term continuing resolutions are already wreaking havoc on defense plans for maintenance of equipment and readiness levels of U.S. forces. Congress should live up to its constitutional duty and pass a defense spending bill that fully funds the President’s budget request for FY 2011.

Other public safety measures that Congress funds may sound necessary but really are not. Yesterday, liberals succeeded in restoring funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighter Grant (AFG)—$510 million—and the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)—$310 million—programs. Both of these programs are inherently suspect on federalism grounds alone, but let’s set aside that issue for a second and just talk spending. At the bare minimum, all taxpayers should expect that the federal government will not waste their money on ineffective programs. Safety is vitally important. But if a safety program isn’t keeping us safe, it’s just wasting our money. Both COPS and the FEMA fire grant programs are complete wastes of money. The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis (CDA) collected data from 1999 to 2006 on 10,033 fire departments and, using regression analysis, estimated the impact of fire grants on fire casualties. The CDA evaluation found that AFG grants had no impact on fire casualties. Research by The Heritage Foundation has demonstrated that COPS failed to add 100,000 additional officers to America’s streets and was ineffective at reducing crime. Why are we bankrupting our children to pay for these completely ineffective programs? (more…)