Wes Vernon
Friday, Apr. 16, 2004

“The federal government will spend $21,671 per household this year, the most since World War 2,” the Heritage Foundation’s Brian Riedl informed a news conference at the National Press Club.

But that’s just the warm-up.

We have not even mentioned the looming crises in Social Security and Medicare “which will cause a tax increase of 5 to 10 thousand dollars per household eventually - and you can see why taxpayers are frustrated on April 15th. Their money is not spent well, and the tax burden is going to get much, much worse in the future,” he added.

“60 billion dollars will subsidize Fortune 500 companies and other businesses. About 20 billion dollars will fund pork projects” whose main purpose is “to get politicians re-elected,” the Heritage analyst declared.

Does that raise the taxpayers’ blood pressure? Read on, there’s more.

“The federal government cannot even account for where 25 billion dollars of it goes, and billions more will be lost in waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Which gets us back to that $22.9 billion pork figure. Enter “The Pig Book.”

“Never, ever ever read ‘The Pig Book’ just before going to sleep. You will have a sleepless night,” declared Charles Jarvis, President of the United Seniors Association, another of the nearly dozen grassroots-oriented groups at the Press Club gathering.

“The Pig Book,” subtitled “The Book Washington Doesn’t Want You to Read,” was issued by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW). It lists 10,656 pork projects representing your hard-earned tax dollars at work.

These include $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Iowa, which CAGW’s Tom Schatz thought was a bit strange, given that — absent a leaking roof — it never rains indoors.

Yet another gem is $225,000 to rehabilitate the Deer Park Pool in Sparks, Nevada. Seems Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., used to swim there when he was a young lad.

The Taxpayers Get Scrooged Award cited $2.2 million in pork for North Pole, Alaska (pop. 1,570).

CAGW even singled out a specific lawmaker, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., for the Hall of Shame Award, “for his 23 years of pork barreling at taxpayers’ expense.”

That is one reason many Pennsylvania Republicans have had it with “Darlin’ Arlen,” and have put up a conservative challenger in the April 27 GOP primary.

Grover Norquist, whose Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) organized the Tax Day meeting, called for a Flat Tax. But first, he said Congress and the president must:

1) Eliminate taxation on Capital Gains;
2) Eliminate the Death (Estate) Tax;
3) Eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, originally supposedly aimed at ensuring that the wealthy pay their “fair share,” but now, quite predictably picking the pockets of ordinary middle class Americans;
4)Create tax free retirement accounts
5) Full business expensing for business.

Donald Devine of the American Conservative Union added the following: 1) Make the Bush tax cuts permanent, and — it almost goes without saying — 2) Control spending.

NewsMax.com raised the possibility of doing away with the corporate tax because many have said for years that this alleged “tax on the rich guys” is nothing but a tax on consumers since the corporations just pass along its cost to their customers.

Ed Hutchins of the American Objectivist Center — a legacy of the novelist Ayn Rand - said he had no problem with adding that to the list of actions that must be taken on behalf of taxpayers.

What about the extra tax load on the backs of Americans because of the recently-enacted multi-billion (some say multi-trillion in the long run) Prescription Drug program?

James Martin of 60-Plus said his group believes that legislation contains the seeds of ultimate savings to the taxpayer.

Editor's note: