Which Federal Items Would You Elect To Pay For If You Could Choose?

[John Kilduff]

Hi Everybody,

This was initially a response to a post by bobcalbk in another thread, but I thought it might be better to place it here.

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What I like about the state:

Ballistic Missile Defense Organization
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms
Bureau of Arms Control
Bureau of Engraving & Printing
Bureau of the Census
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigations Board (USCSB)
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Defense Information Systems Agency
Defense Intelligence Agency
Defense Logistics Agency
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
Defense Security Service
Defense Threat Reduction Agency
Drug Enforcement Administration
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Export-Import Bank of the U.S.
Farm Credit Administration (FCA)
Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
Federal Election Commission (FEC)
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Federal Highway Administration
Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB)
Federal Maritime Commission
Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service
Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Commission
Federal Railroad Administration
Federal Reserve System
Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Food & Drug Administration
General Accounting Office (GAO)

General Services Administration (GSA)
Ginnie Mae
Immigration & Naturalization Services
Internal Revenue Services (IRS)
International Bank for Reconstruction & Development
International Labor Organization
International Monetary Fund
International Trade Commission (USITC)
Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA)
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
National Bioethics Advisory Commission
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
National Imagery & Mapping Agency
National Institute of Justice
National Institute of Mental Health
National Institute of Standards & Technology
National Institutes of Health
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
National Park Service
National Science Foundation (NSF)
National Security Agency (NSA)
National Technology Transfer Center (NTTC)
National Telecommunications Information Administration
National Transportation Safety Board
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission
Patent & Trademark Office
Peace Corps
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
Postal Rate Commission
Securities Exchange Commission (SEC)
Securities Investor Protection Corp.
Selective Service System (SSS)
Small Business Administration (SBA)
Smithsonian Institution
Social Security Administration (SSA)
Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration
Tennessee Valley Authority
Trade and Development Agency
U.S. Customs Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Forest Service
U.S. Government Printing Office
U.S. Institute of Peace
U.S. Marshals Service
U.S. Treasury
United States Postal Service (USPS)

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Let's get hypothetical for a moment and imagine you could elect to pay, or to not pay, for any of those services on a line-by-line basis. The amount you would pay for each would be directly in line with the amount you now pay for each when broken down on a pro-rated basis from your entire applicable tax contributions. So for example, if right now it turns out you are paying $200 per year for the existence of GINNIE MAE, you could elect to scratch that from your list and keep the $200 instead. Further let's say that you KNOW exactly what you pay for each of these every year, because you get a line-by-line itemized receipt from the Dept. of Treasury clearly showing each amount and that it adds up to the total you paid.

Question: How many of the above almost 90 listed services/bureaus/whatevers would you electively pay for if you could choose and if you knew exactly what each line item would cost you? Which would you keep?

Scanning the list now, I could see myself electively financially supporting Defense-related, Patent/Trademark/, Postal, Nuclear Regulatory, INS (with reforms), some Environmental Protection,and maybe a few others (reason for vagueness is I'm not sure just what some of these departments actually do).

I could see myself NOT electing to pay for a lot of the Federal Agencies such as Federal Railroad Commission and Federal Highway Administration. Also, I don't see why things like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are truly needed, when private insurance companies exist which can pool resources liabilities and risks and thereby safely insure even very large amounts.

Hopefully we can get a few responses addressing only the question posed before launching into discussions of things like the practicality of such a program. I'm NOT suggesting that this would be a practical program, I'm just curious as to how much of the federal budget people would personally financially support as far as specific programs go, if they could electively pay for line items or agencies or departments.

Thanks for any responses.

P.S. ACists, I think we already know that you would support "none of the above programs" so no need to reiterate that here [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] Please save your comments for after we get some responses to the question and then there will be more basis for discussion of things like practicality and legal justification and morality and the whole 9 yards, if people want to then discuss that. That's not my purpose in asking the question, though.

Right now I would really like to get a sense for how many federal programs people would personally financially elect to support in a purely hypothetical scenario, or how much of the federal budget on a percentage basis.

My roughest guess is that I personally would probably elect to support about 33% of the current federal budget and programs and frankly I'm surprised it is so high. Anybody have a concise link to easy-to-read chart showing federal budget on a line-for-line (grouped) basis? I saw one once somewhere [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] That would be an ideal tool to work with, as the list by bobcalbk is likely only partial.

Thanks everybody!. I really do find this interesting and I'm not just hypothesizing on this in order to make some points.

It is easy for me to first think I would support stripping the federal budget down to just a few items, but when I look at a list I find there are many things I wouldn't have thought of which I do think have significant value and I might well support if I knew how much (or how little) they would cost actually me. Some good things I would still not elect to pay for if I had the power to choose to save my money instead. All in all, I found just looking at a list rather eye-opening.

The reason the hypothetical elective to pay on a line by line basis matters so much, is that that is the dividing line between something being merely "a good thing" and something being "a good enough thing to actually pay for" in the eyes of the payor. So the stipulation that the Treasury sends you a line-by-line itemized receipt from which you can elect to pay or not pay for each item next year is important to this question, even if it is purely hypothetical.

Let's also forget the free rider discussion "for the moment" if we can, please. I'd like to know which federal programs YOU think are actually WORTH paying for out of your own pocket. Alternatively (though not the same question), what percentage of the federal budget do YOU think is WORTH actually paying for, given the hypothetical ability to choose on a line item basis?

Thanks again everybody...and thanks for wading through this long post [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[iron81]

Would it be fair to say that we can look at this as though we were having a referendum on each agency? I mean, if we are ignoring free riders, then its probably a bad idea to look at government as ala carte.

BTW, where did you get the list?

[WordWhiz]

Can I pay extra to get rid of some of this crap, like the DEA? Or is there some sort of free rider problem if I receive the wonderful service of the war on drugs without paying for it?

[tomdemaine]

Are we assuming that the things we elect not to pay for are opened up to private competition or simply stop happening?

[John Kilduff]

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Would it be fair to say that we can look at this as though we were having a referendum on each agency? I mean, if we are ignoring free riders, then its probably a bad idea to look at government as ala carte.

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I think that is a pretty good proxy for what I am trying to discover, Iron81. Good thinking and a great way to simplify it!

Just be sure to bear in mind that, before voting on each department or program, you KNOW exactly what it will cost you in dollars personally to maintain the specific program or department, and that costs are ongoing every year.

[John Kilduff]

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Are we assuming that the things we elect not to pay for are opened up to private competition or simply stop happening?

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Assume they become open to private competition unless there is some good reason they couldn't. I'd guess things like the CIA would be in the category of things that "wouldn't".

[John Kilduff]

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BTW, where did you get the list?

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The list was provided in another thread by bobcalbk, but I would guess it is not a complete list. He said it was things he "liked" about the state, in that thread. Sorry for not doing my own research but the post actually started out to be much simpler and shorter and I was eager to post it when I finally got done [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[iron81]

Given the fact that I love big government, I operated under a default where I presumed an agency valuable. There were a few in there that I'm not familiar with, but an agency that small probably has a specialized function and doesn't cost too much.

The only agency I would get rid of is the DEA. Drug enforcement can be done by the states.

[bocablkr]

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BTW, where did you get the list?

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The list was provided in another thread by bobcalbk, but I would guess it is not a complete list. He said it was things he "liked" about the state, in that thread. Sorry for not doing my own research but the post actually started out to be much simpler and shorter and I was eager to post it when I finally got done [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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It is Bocablkr - I made the list in response to an AC post a while back and have kept it for responses to similar posts. It was a little longer but it has been narrowed down to programs I thought were important. As has been said, a lot of people do not realize what their tax dollars are spent on.

[John Kilduff]

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BTW, where did you get the list?

[/ QUOTE ]

The list was provided in another thread by bobcalbk, but I would guess it is not a complete list. He said it was things he "liked" about the state, in that thread. Sorry for not doing my own research but the post actually started out to be much simpler and shorter and I was eager to post it when I finally got done [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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It is Bocablkr - I made the list in response to an AC post a while back and have kept it for responses to similar posts. It was a little longer but it has been narrowed down to programs I thought were important. As has been said, a lot of people do not realize what their tax dollars are spent on.

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Sorry for getting your name wrong. And yes...I would bet most people are not much aware of what their tax dollars are spent on. I also wonder just how much things might change if people were to become much more aware of that.