Tag Archives: Cost of living

Targeting Taxpayers

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Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

The Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association is committed to ensuring that citizens receive accurate information about policies that impact taxes. The election in November will have a major impact on federal taxes. It is important to note that 47% of earners paid no federal income tax in 2022 and the top 1% of earners paid a whopping 76% of federal taxes collected. This means that there are a substantial number of people who have no stake in how much federal taxes increase. Also, be aware that the Left’s constant refrain that the top earners do not pay their fair share is a lie.

What can we as taxpayers expect in the future? Let’s take a look. First, if a leftist Democrat, like Kamala Harris, is elected we can expect that Trump’s tax cuts from 2017 will be allowed to expire in 2025 increasing taxes substantially; particularly on middle class wage earners. Second, we can expect an increase in spending on “green new deal” programs, which are not only a hoax, but will destroy this country. Subsidies and mandates for wind, solar, and electric vehicles will increase your tax debt. The war on fossil fuels is the major cause of the increased price of energy and inflation. Third, runaway government spending has increased the federal deficit to over $35 trillion, which amounts to $104,000 for every man, woman and child in this country. This will only get worse, and ultimately must be paid by you the taxpayer. Fourth, the so-called student loan forgiveness scam (which is really a transfer of the debt to you the taxpayer) will be pursued in order to buy votes from those who actually benefited from the loans. Fifth, the open border policy is costing taxpayers billions of dollars in direct payments, housing subsidies, food stamps and free healthcare. Kamala Harris has previously advocated free healthcare and Medicare/Medicaid for all, including illegal immigrants. Since hospitals are not allowed to turn people away, you are actually paying this bill now, and it will get worse.

Of course the biggest tax of all is rampant inflation, which has increased the cost of living for the average American over 23% since Biden/Harris took office. Even though the inflation rate has diminished somewhat, prices continue to increase and will never return to their previous levels. In the meantime, mortgage rates, housing prices and rising rents are an increasing burden on the American people, especially the young. The American Dream is being shattered by excessive government spending.

By contrast, a Republican administration is likely to expand energy production, which will not only ease inflation, but provide revenue from the sale of oil and gas to other countries. Trump’s “Drill, baby, drill” plan needs to be implemented. Tax rate cuts to stimulate economic growth and productivity can be expected and are the only positive way of attacking the federal debt. Shrinking the federal government such as eliminating the federal Department of Education and cutting agency budgets are planned. President Trump’s commitment to closing the border will not only reduce taxes but ensure greater security and protect American jobs. Last, but not least is Trump’s commitment to revoke China’s most favored nation status which would help level the playing field and return manufacturing to this country, as well as provide revenue from equal tariffs as appropriate.

Regardless of other issues, and there are many, the impact on taxpayers of this coming election could not be more profound. As taxpayers this should be of the highest concern.

Things To Think About Before You Vote

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On Friday, Zero Hedge posted an article about some things that the Biden administration will not be talking about during the presidential campaign.

These are the facts:

1. It takes the typical U.S. household $1,069 more a month just to purchase the same goods and services that it did three years ago.

2. Two-thirds of the respondents to one recent survey indicated that they had to take action to deal with rising financial stress within the past year.  Those actions included “cutting back on spending, skipping monthly bills, or taking an additional job”.

3. Home insurance rates have risen by 38 percent since 2019.

4. Home rental prices are up 30 percent since Joe Biden entered the White House.

5. A whopping 61 percent of U.S. renters cannot afford the rent on a median-priced apartment in the United States right now.

6. Gasoline prices are up 46 percent since Joe Biden entered the White House.

7. The average rate on a 30 year fixed mortgage is up 148 percent since Joe Biden entered the White House.

8. According to Zillow, the monthly mortgage payment on a typical home in this country has almost doubled during the past four years.

9. One recent poll discovered that 44 percent of retired Americans are considering going back to work because the cost of living has become so oppressive.

10. New home sales fell 11.3 percent last month.

11. Pending home sales are dropping at the fastest rate ever recorded.

12. According to the House Budget Committee, there have been more than 8 million migrant encounters nationwide while Joe Biden has been in the White House.  We truly are in the midst of an immigration crisis that is far greater than anything that we have ever witnessed before.

13. Thanks to our unprecedented immigration crisis, the homeless population in the city of Chicago actually tripled in just one year.

14. Murder rates are up by double digit percentages in many major U.S. cities this year.

15. Continuing jobless claims just shot up to the highest level in almost three years.

16. The number of job openings in the United States has dropped to the lowest level in more than 3 years.

17. Rite Aid just announced that it will be closing 27 more stores.  That is on top of more than 500 stores that it has already decided to shut down.

18. Walgreens plans to close approximately one-fourth of its 8,600 U.S. stores.  If the economy really was “booming”, why would they be doing this?

19. Today, 20 percent of the entire population of the state of California is living in poverty.

20. According to one recent survey, 46 percent of Americans don’t even have 500 dollars saved up.

21. So far, the U.S. has spent a total of approximately 175 billion dollars on the war in Ukraine, and the Russians are still winning.

Hopefully, President Trump will mention some of this during his campaigning.

There Is Spin, And There Is Spin

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On January 18th, Issues & Insights posted an article about the difficulty the Biden presidential campaign is having gaining traction.

The article notes:

Rep. James Clyburn, who is a co-chairman of Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, recently tried to explain the president’s predicament by saying that he’s “delivered for the American people in such a way that nobody seems to grasp.”

As campaign slogans go, that’s not exactly “Morning in America.” But the truth is that everybody grasps what Biden has delivered. It’s what he’s delivered that they don’t like.

Clyburn, talking on MSNBC, said the public just needs to “look at the facts and stop listening to all of this tweeting and stuff that’s going on out there that’s not good for the American people.”

We took the South Carolina Democrat’s word for it, and here’s what we found that Biden has delivered, at home and abroad.

This is the list of what President Biden has delivered:

The cost of living has skyrocketed.

Real wages are down.

Poverty is up.

The national debt has exploded.

Deficits are on the rise.

Illegals are flooding across the border.

Attacks on the U.S. are up.

The world is a more dangerous place.

Please follow the link above for further details.

Does anyone want four more years of this?

The Real Cost Of Living

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Washington always finds a way to lie with statistics when it comes to the economy. Limiting the items included in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is one way to convince Americans that inflation isn’t as bad as it seems and also a way to limit the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) of various federal disbursements. However, those fake numbers don’t help Americans deal with the rising cost of food and gasoline.

On Sunday, PJ Media posted an article about the rising cost of living in America.

The article reports:

Perhaps the most misleading government statistic of all is the Consumer Price Index. The CPI is an incredibly important statistic because so many government programs that benefit American citizens are tied to that number.

It’s usually cited as the inflation rate, but it’s not really. The CPI is the rate of increase in a subjective “market basket” of goods and services. The things that concern you and me the most as far as price increases have very little to do with the CPI. The CPI doesn’t track food or gas prices at the pump, so the CPI that we see every month doesn’t tell us anything useful.

Right now, the CPI stands at 3.1%. That’s down from a high of 9.1% in June 2022. But even that doesn’t tell us the whole inflation story because along with skyrocketing food and gas prices, real wages failed to keep pace with the price increases.

According to The New York Sun:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released jobs numbers this morning that show non-farm wages increased 4.1 percent in the past year, which is above the inflation rate of 3.1 percent. The problem is that inflation-adjusted real hourly wages — those of the average blue-collar or middle-class person — are down 4.7 percent today from when Mr. Biden took office. That’s a weekly earnings decline in real wages to $381 in November 2023 from $399 in January 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“The reason Biden polls so badly is that there’s a decline in wages and an increase in prices,” a former economic adviser to President Trump, Larry Kudlow, tells the Sun. He calls this the “affordability crisis.”

Americans feel it when they walk into the grocery store. Food prices increased nearly 6 percent in 2023, according to the Department of Agriculture. In 2022, at-home food prices — what one buys in a grocery store — increased more than 11 percent. No matter one’s income, it’s hard not to notice the rising cost of food at the grocery store and at restaurants — even fast food.

Are voters going to believe what they are told or what they see?

Policies Have Consequences

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Recently, The Epoch Times posted an article about the village of Ilion, New York. For two centuries, Ilion has been the home of a Remington Arms Co. manufacturing plant.

The article reports:

In the village of Ilion, New York, 80 miles west of the state capital in Albany, residents are mourning the departure of gunmaker Remington Arms Co. after two centuries of continuous operation.

Without fanfare, the company announced last month that the manufacturing plant would be closing its doors on March 4, 2024.

“I feel like a family member has died,” Ilion Mayor John Stephens told The Epoch Times. “My dad raised four kids on a paycheck from there for 37 years. He walked to work and carried his lunch every day.”

Mr. Stephens said no one expected the announcement a week after Thanksgiving that the plant was set to close.

On Nov. 30, at 3:26 p.m., the company notified village officials of the decision by email. The message noted that “all separations” with the village would be completed by March 18, 2024.

Likewise, the company notified its 270 employees that they would soon be out of a job.

The article notes:

Publicly, the company attributed the plant closure in part to a hostile political climate in Albany regarding firearms production.

“I am writing to inform you that RemArms LLC has decided to close its entire operation at 14 Hoefler Avenue, NY 13357,” Remington Arms said in a letter to employees. “The company expects that operations at the Ilion facility will conclude on or about March 4, 2024.”

The Georgia-based company said it would continue to make firearms at its facility in Huntsville, Alabama, which opened in 2014, a year after New York’s passage of the Safe Act, which created stricter gun laws.

The anti-gun political climate in Democrat-controlled Massachusetts prompted competitor Smith & Wesson to move from its longtime base in Springfield to Maryville, Tennessee. The company announced the opening of its new headquarters there in October.

The article notes that the town has been losing population in recent years:

Until recently, Remington Arms employed about 1,500 workers, whose wages helped support the local retail economy, said village public historian Mike Disotelle.

“At noontime, when the employees would go to lunch, there would be a flood of factory employees going to local businesses,” he said.

Mr. Disotelle said Remington Arms was one of the village’s largest employers and a centerpiece of the downtown economy. This remained true even as the village continued to lose residents over the course of several decades, he said.

In 1960, the village had 10,000 residents. Today, that number is down to about 7,700 and could drop below 6,500 by 2030 due to the slow economy, high taxes, and limited housing availability, Mr. Disotelle said.

The northeast is losing its luster because of high taxes, limited housing, and the high cost of living. There is an exodus from blue states to red states. We just need to remind people not to bring their blue politics into red states.

The Biden Economic Policy

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On Tuesday, Townhall posted an article about Joe Biden’s economic plan if he is elected President.

The article reports:

On his campaign website, Biden has a long document of his economic plan that reads like it was torn from any union membership guidebook. Dubbed “THE BIDEN PLAN FOR STRENGTHENING WORKER ORGANIZING, COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, AND UNIONS,” it almost reads like a worker’s manifesto. One telling sentence in the midst of this collectivist screed explains it all: “Yet employers steal about $15 billion a year from working people just by paying workers less than the minimum wage.”

When your platform is rooted on the concept that a business owner who retains their own money is “stealing” it from employees you have already revealed that the economy is not your focus. Donald Trump would do well to expose Biden’s plan for all the flaws it presents, with three targeted topics.

The three topics listed in the article are:

TAXES

Before he called a lid on this week Biden was involved in an earnest battle to explain away his proposed tax increases to pay for his various pipe dreams. The president has run ads declaring Biden is hiking rates on most Americans but Joe is battling this back — with the help of a compliant media — by insisting that he will not raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000. 

The problem: Even as the press struggles to back this claim they give evidence that there will be higher payments for most. Even those nominal brackets that get small increases are going to also feel it as prices rise, and other expenses are called into play. Plus there is the convenient wordplay involved. While Joe is not raising taxes on that sub-400K group he has pledged to repeal the Trump tax cuts. These have been real benefits felt by over 80 percent of Americans. Those cuts led to a number of benefits, from higher paychecks to lowering the unemployment rate, and even had unforeseen results such as lowered utility bills for citizens. So while Joe is not technically raising taxes, he is raising the burden on many workers.

TARGETING CORPORATIONS

No shock that Joe’s union-driven economic plan is hostile toward businesses. That language of demonizing companies as stealing from the employees is peppered throughout his plan, and the entire goal laid out is rather apparent — union jobs are more important than driving the economy. Looking past his promise to raise the tax rate on corporations and to close loopholes and other benefits for companies, this proposal completely targets businesses and does so repeatedly in the name of union stewardship. 

Collective bargaining is prioritized and there is a lengthy list of penalties, done entirely for the repeated promise to “Check the abuse of corporate power over labor.” From top to bottom Biden’s plan continuously mentions how companies will be penalized. He also targets right-to-work states where employees are NOT required to join unions, going so far as to promise to “Ban state laws prohibiting unions from collecting dues or comparable payments from all workers.” (Federalism? Who wants that?!) 

…AB-5

In California last year they passed a new employment law based on state Assembly Bill-5, which was targeting the gig-economy, independent contractors, and freelance workers. The intent of this union-derived bill was to target the workers at Uber, Lyft, and food delivery companies. It was said to be an effort to move these workers to full employment status so they could receive higher salaries and benefits, but what it actually was designed to do was shift these independent workers onto company payrolls so they could in turn become unionized.

None of these proposals would actually help ‘working people.’ They would actually strengthen unions and the elite who run them, raise the cost of living for the average person, and generally weaken the economy. The economic proposals of Joe Biden would simply undo the economic progress we have made in the past four years.

Voting With Their Feet

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Breitbart is reporting today that the population of the State of New York dropped by about 77,000 residents over the last year — the steepest statewide population drop in the United States.

The article notes:

New Census Bureau data released this week reveals that ten states in the U.S. saw their populations decline from 2018 to 2019. New York saw the largest decline with nearly 77,000 residents fleeing the state, helping to drop the population by about 0.4 percent.

…Likewise, Illinois lost about 51,250 residents over the last year, while West Virginia’s population declined by about 12,000 residents. About 11,000 residents fled Louisiana, 6,200 residents left Connecticut, 4,900 left Mississippi, 4,700 left Hawaii, more than 3,800 left New Jersey, about 3,600 left Alaska, and about 370 left Vermont.

In New York, between 2018 and 2019, about 45,753 foreign-born residents were added to the population, which is the lowest level of immigration to the state since 2010 and the second-lowest level in nearly 60 years, according to an Empire Center analysis published in the New York Post.

“The cost of living in New York — the high taxes, regulations, and housing costs — are making it untenable to live the American dream here,” New York City Councilman for Staten Island Joe Borelli told the Post. “It’s hard to see how this changes with progressive Democrats entrenched in government.”

The article concludes:

New York’s population decline comes as mass immigration and rapid corporate development by billionaire developers, with the approval of Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), has helped drive up rents and housing costs in New York City. The results have forced working and middle-class Americans out of the state.

Between 2005 and 2017, household incomes for single adults in New York grew by less than two percent per year, a study by the state’s comptroller found. At the same time, overall median rents in New York City increased by about four percent per year, resulting in a 61 percent rent hike for one-bedroom apartments and a 53 percent rent hike for two-bedroom apartments.

This is information you can’t ignore, even if you don’t live in one of the states that is losing population. When New York State (and probably California) finally declare bankruptcy because of bad fiscal policies, the rest of the states will be called on to bail them out. I have no idea how that will work, but I am ready to guarantee it will happen. States that practice fiscal sanity will be asked to bail out states that practice fiscal insanity. The only way that works is if the states practicing fiscal insanity are willing to change their ways. This could get very interesting.

Voting With Their Feet

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Yesterday The New York Post posted an article about what is happening to the cost of living in New York City.

The article reports:

More than a third of all city residents say they can’t afford to live anywhere in the state — much less the Big Apple — and believe economic hardship will send them packing in five years or less, according to a dismal new poll.

That’s 41 percent of city dwellers who say they can’t cope with New York’s high cost of living, according to a Quinnipiac poll published Wednesday.

Separately, 41 percent fear they’ll be “forced” to pull up stakes and seek greener pastures where the economic climate is more welcoming.

“They are making this city a city for the wealthy, and they are really choking out the middle class,’’ said Ari Buitron, a 49-year-old paralegal and born-and-bred New Yorker from Forest Hills, Queens.

The cost of taxes and housing have driven many residents south:

Even well-heeled New Yorkers are being lured down south thanks to New York’s hefty tax burden and new federal tax policies that punish high-tax states, according to Miami property magnate Gil Dezer.

“Because of the city tax and the non-deductibility of your real estate taxes, we’re seeing a lot more people with piqued interest,” he told The Post.

The poll’s findings reinforce research done by the Empire Center for Public Policy that shows that New York leads the nation in terms of residents jumping ship.

“It’s not surprising. The out migration downstate is first and foremost about affordability. Rent and property taxes downstate are very high,” said the Empire Center’s E.J. McMahon.

Right now, a very large percentage of Americans live in New York City and Los Angeles. If the electoral college were eliminated, these cities would essentially elect our President. However, if these cities continue to lose population, eliminating the electoral college, despite the fact that it would be a foolish move, might not have the effect those calling for its elimination desire.

A Few Observations From The Polls

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I have visited my local voting place twice today. Don’t worry–I didn’t vote twice–my husband was handing out information, and I went to provide food and moral support. While I was there, I picked up some literature from the Democrats and investigated the talking points on their local website.

This is what I learned.

Their website states:

Democrats are standing up for the American Dream: an economy and government that works for everyone, not just the few.

Found on their Twitter page:

Hi kids, this is your Mom. Remember to vote on 11/6. If Trump cuts my Social Security and Medicare I’m moving in with you!

Both these statements are totally misleading.

The American Dream is more accessible to everyone under President Trump than it was under President Obama, a Democrat. According to a Western Journal article posted December 18, 2017:

The national unemployment rate for black Americans, ages 16 and over, is the lowest it has been in 17 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In November 2016, the unemployment rate for black people was at 8 percent, and in November 2017 that rate dropped to 7.3 percent — a percentage not seen since the months of September, October and November 2000.

As reported by CNS News, black unemployment rate during the Bush and Obama era’s fluctuated between 7 and 17 percent.

BLS data also shows that labor force participation among African-Americans rose from 61.9 percent in November 2016 to 62.2 percent in November 2017.

Unemployment rate for the Hispanic demographic fell from 5.7 percent to 4.7 percent — the lowest it’s been in 44 years, while the unemployment rate for whites and Asians hovered around 3 percent, roughly the same as one year prior.

About Social Security cuts–none of us can predict the future, but we can draw conclusions based on past behavior. This is the chart showing Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) to Social Security in recent years:

I know that it’s only a coincidence that one of the biggest increases in Social Security occurred in 2011, a year before the 2012 election.

As far as Medicare is concerned, the statements are also misleading. The Republicans are not the ones who have cut Medicare. Medicare funding was cut to fund ObamaCare. On August 13, 2012, Forbes Magazine reported:

You wouldn’t know it from listening to the Obama campaign, but there’s only one Presidential candidate in 2012 who has cut Medicare: Barack Obama, whose Affordable Care Act cuts Medicare by $716 billion from 2013-2022. Today, the Romney campaign reiterated its pledge to repeal Obamacare, and promised to “restore the funding to Medicare [and] ensure that no changes are made to the program for those 55 and older.”

If any of the above is news to you, you need to reconsider where you are getting your news. If you were already aware of the above information and voted Democrat, then it is obvious that facts will not get in the way of your opinion. Facts are such inconvenient things.

Move Along, Nothing To See Here

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Yesterday the Washington Examiner posted an article with the headline, “Fun with the Fed: Inflation is low, but the cost of living is up.” Meanwhile, CNS News posted the following graph yesterday:

Price of Ground Beef Hits All-Time High in November

It is hard for anyone who has been in a grocery store in the past year to believe that inflation is low.

The Washington Examiner reports:

From July to August, the “Core Consumer Price Index” did not move. That means zero inflation, if you use the measure of inflation the Federal Reserve uses when setting monetary policy. But core CPI omits volatile prices like food and energy. If you have a family, you’re probably pretty aware that food and utility bills are a big factor.

The result: The inflation measure that guides Fed decisionmaking has little resemblance to the inflation measure that guides family budgetmaking.

This is another example of the government manipulating numbers to get the desired result. Any resemblance to what is actually taking place and what the government is reporting is purely coincidental.

The Washington Examiner lists some of the price increases in the last year that impact families trying to live within their budget:

Food at home is up 2.9 percent.

Electricity is up 4.1 percent and gas bills are up 5.8 percent.

Coffee is up more than 50 percent from last year.

The article reports:

The net result is that life has gotten considerably more expensive for me since this time last year. I’m not saying this ought to guide our monetary policy. I’m just saying that core CPI doesn’t track the cost of living.

Further Information On The COLA Cuts To Military Pensions

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As someone with a family member in the military, the cuts to the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) on military pensions hit close to home. Not only are they the ONLY cuts made in the budget agreement, they also represent a broken promise to our military troops. One of the best articles I have seen on the subject is posted at Allen West’s website.

The article reminds us that the four retired senior officers — three generals and one admiral–who supported the cut would not be impacted by the change in the rules. However, there are some retired senior enlisted men who are impacted who are speaking out.

One of those senior enlisted men shares the story of a friend who landed a high-paying job with a defense contractor in the same field he worked in on active duty:

But several years later, the company went bankrupt, and Hoynes, a former chief operations specialist, found himself jobless. Now Hoynes and his wife must rely on his $1,600-a-month military retirement pay (after taxes, health care and insurance payments) and her small retail salary to pay the bills.

If the cost-of-living adjustment reduction to military retired pay included in the Bipartisan Budget Act goes into effect in December 2015, the retired chief, now 50, stands to lose as much as $55,000 in retirement pay over his lifetime.

This is obscene simply on the facts, but it is even more obscene that it represents a broken promise to our military.

Allen West also points out:

There are close to 350,000,000 Americans and 840,000 have to be sacrificed to support the legislative budgetary process? That’s two-tenths of a percent. All over $6 billion? You mean to tell me that lawmakers in Washington DC — Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray specifically — could not find $6 billion dollars elsewhere? Hmm, will one of them explain to retired Chief Chip Hoynes and his wife that a Member of Congress only needs to serve 5 years to earn 70 percent retirement, for life (since it goes to the spouse upon death of the Member)?

This needs to be corrected as soon as Congress resumes. Otherwise the Republicans who signed on to this deal should be quickly voted out of office.

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We The People Need To Act

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On Wednesday, MilitaryOneClick.com posted the following:

Making it in the MilLife®

Grassroots Efforts to Repeal Bipartisan Budget Act

Jan 15 2014

Published by Karen

A provision in the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) that reduces working age retirees’ annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) by one percentage point until the age of 62 has evoked outrage in the military community. To date, over 250,000 MOAA suggested messages have been sent to Congress on this issue alone.

Leading the grassroots efforts is the #KeepYourPromise Alliance. The alliance started on December 14, when various military organizations pulled together a grassroots campaign stating “enough is enough” to the continual military benefit cuts targeted by legislators seeking to balance the national budget. MOAA participated in a Twitter Town Hall that took place on December 16, quickly generating over 44,327 tweets. A second Twitter Town Hall and Facebook Spreecast took place on January 7th generating almost 10,000 tweets and nearly 6,000 Facebook views.

“MOAA strongly supports the groundswell of grass roots activities currently serving and retired military families are taking part in to voice their outrage about the COLA cut in the 2013 Bipartisan Budget Act,” MOAA President Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, USN (Ret) said. “They also correctly surmise that this step is only the beginning, and that if they don’t speak up now, more attacks on the All-Volunteer Force will surely be easier to accomplish.”

To join the social media action, visit and “like” the MOAA Spouse on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @MOAA_MilLife.

– See more at: http://militaryoneclick.com/grassroots-efforts-to-repeal-   bipartisan-budget-act/#sthash.8nlRIYv8.dpuf

The omnibus budget bill passed by the House and the Senate is a breach of contract with the American military. Our military has been fighting wars overseas for the past twelve years–this is how we reward them. It is a shame that the only budget cuts in this budget are to military retirement–there are no other budget cuts until later years, when Congress will probably repeal them.
It’s time for Americans to speak out on behalf of our military. There should be some serious outrage about this bill.
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The Personal Impact Of The Budget Deal–One Person’s Story

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Somehow because of the size of our government and the amount of money taken from taxpayers to run it, we sometimes forget what some of the spending represents. Every now and then it’s a good idea to look at a story that illustrates where the money goes and why. Here is a story that explains one aspect of government spending.

Stacy Huisman posted an article at Militaryspouse.com recently. The article explains how the recent budget deal will impact her husband’s retirement pay and her family. The money cut from his retirement pay was the money they had planned to use to pay for their children’s’ college education. Please follow the link above to read the entire article. It illustrates beautifully the price our military families pay when one of their family members serves in the military.

There are a few aspects to the cut to retirement pay. First of all, that retirement pay was promised to our military when they signed up–they earned it. It was assumed that the cost of living increases in that pay were included in that promise. There is also the aspect of the price military families pay for having a family member in the military for twenty or more years. One on my own granddaughters is in fifth grade. She started attending her third elementary school in six years in September. Another granddaughter is in third grade. She is attending her second elementary school in three years. That is a high price to pay. She is living near her grandparents (my husband and I) because we chose to move to be close to her family–not because her family had a choice as to where they would live.

The thing that really bothers me about the budget deal is that military retirement was cut, but civil service retirement was not cut. Public sector workers make more than private sector workers to begin with. The public sector workers are now required to contribute a small amount to their pensions–something private sector workers have been doing for years, but they are still better compensated than the private sector.

The chart below is taken from a 2010 post by the Congressional Budget Office. As you can see, unless you have an advanced degree, it pays to work for the government.

 

The budget did not need to be cut at the expense of our military–there was enough pork in the public sector to avoid breaking a promise to those military families who serve our country.

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