(Freedom.news) We don’t want to think about it, but tax season will be upon us once again before we know it, as W-4’s and 1099’s should begin arriving in our mailboxes towards the end of next month. So it appropriate to let Americans know just how much of their property in the form of taxes will have to be confiscated in order to fund that massively expensive and insatiable leviathan we call the federal government.
As reported by the Washington Times, the new spending deal being offered up by Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Wednesday is more than 2,000 pages long and spends several kings’ ransoms:
The new spending deal reached early Wednesday morning spans more than 2,000 pages, spends $1.149 trillion — and lawmakers will have only a few days to digest it all before they’re asked to vote on the legislation, which lays out Congress’s priorities for the rest of fiscal year 2016.
It works out to nearly $572 million per page, with lawmakers splashing money throughout the government, boosting both popular and unpopular programs alike, thanks to a spending hike agreed to in October’s budget deal.
That’s a lot of overtime for American workers.
Granted, a final spending deal has yet to pass Congress, but here are some of the winners and losers contained in the 2,000-plus pages thus far:
— The IRS, for which Republicans have tried to cut funding for years, gets a budget increase next year of $290 million – though the extra money is supposed to be spent on taxpayer services (which are awful) and fraud detection. That’s still $1.7 billion less than what President Obama sought for this most-reviled of federal agencies, so this is a win for taxpayers (and freedom).
— Funding for Obama to follow through on his plans to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees this fiscal year remained in the budget, a cave on the part of the GOP majority. He also gets some new powers to require some on the Visa Waiver Program to face extra scrutiny from federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies if they’ve traveled recently to places like Iraq and Syria.
— “Republicans maintained a ban on federal funding of gun control research, turning back an effort by Democratic leaders to force studies in the wake of this year’s mass killings,” the Times reported.
— Also, GOP leaders cut the U.S. contribution to the U.N. Population Fund by $2.5 million, or 7 percent, in a small victory for pro-life advocates who say the money ends up funding international programs that also advocate for abortions.
— In addition, per the Times: “In a slap at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the bill also prohibits the State Department from spending money to maintain private email accounts. Mrs. Clinton exclusively used an email server kept at her home in New York during her time in office, thwarting open-records requests and spawning the scandal that’s ensnared her presidential campaign this year.”
— Also included in the bill are provisions to lift the ban on exporting crude oil.
“This package reflects conservative priorities in both funding and policy — including support for critical areas such as our national defense, halting many harmful regulations, and trimming wasteful spending. But it also represents a compromise that members on both sides of the aisle can and should get behind,” said Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
Both parties are working to gather the votes they can to pass – or defeat – the measure. But either way, at more than $1.1 trillion, this bill also represents the most money spent per year by any government in the world. And it spends, again, more than the government will take in, despite the heavy tax burden.
Meanwhile, the federal debt continues to spiral out of control, at more than $18.7 trillion at the time this story was posted online.
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