Government Spending is Slowly Destroying America
One of the primary reasons we conservatives oppose the expansion of government services is its propensity to incur excessive charges, reckless waste and every kind of fraud on a massive scale. You can be certain that anytime government is involved, it will be needlessly expensive – and the larger and more distant the government is from the taxpayers, the worse the problem will be.
But no matter. Democrats and the left-wing establishment will always proffer for endless expansion of government – especially at the federal level. Historically, Democrats have been the party of big … as in colossal … government power and spending. While Republicans have too often been fellow travelers, they do show a greater devotion to fiscal responsibility.
The problem goes back to President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal – which was proliferating federal government agencies and programs like free-range rabbits. Consequently, the United States has a federal government that is simply not sustainable – and we have annual budget deficits and a humongous National Debt to prove it. Unfortunately, the tendency to assume more power and greater cost is not limited to the federal government. States and municipalities play the same game.
The American taxpayer is increasingly burdened with unsupervised costs, waste and fraud. The proverbial $600 toilet seat is symbolic of the problem – and the problem is greater and more damaging than ever.
Government Efficiency.
The big government devotees often argue that government is more efficient because there is no need to produce a profit. BUT ( a very big but), government is shown time and time again to incur costs far exceeding the private sector. “Government efficiency” is an oxymoron.
If you need an example of the comparative efficiency between government and the private sector, look at NASA and SpaceX. NASA, once the pinnacle of American achievement, became a bloated bureaucracy plagued by delays and cost overruns. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s company developed reusable rockets at a fraction of the cost and with far greater reliability. It is Musk, not NASA, who has been sending astronauts into space – and even rescuing them.
Quite simply put, government cannot – by its very nature – operate as responsibly or efficiently as the private sector … period. That is not a theory. It is an established fact. And the evidence is not hidden in dusty archives and ledgers. It is in the headlines every week. The only reason governments can be so fiscally irresponsible is because they can force taxpayers to fill the coffers … or borrow from foreign nations.
Here are a few recent examples of government’s inability to serve as a steward of the public treasury.
Minnesota’s Mega‑Fraud
Consider the ongoing Minnesota scandal, which federal prosecutors have described as “industrial-scale fraud” in Medicaid and related social service programs. Investigators estimate that as much as half of the $18 billion billed by fourteen high‑risk Medicaid programs since 2018 may be fraudulent. That is not a rounding error.
That is not a few bad actors. That is a systemic failure of oversight, accountability and basic competence. The fraud was so easy, according to prosecutors, that criminals from other states traveled to Minnesota specifically to cash in on what they saw as “easy money. When a state becomes a destination for fraud tourism, something is profoundly broken.
And it is not just Medicaid. Minnesota has also been rocked by a massive food‑aid scandal in which more than ninety people have been charged with stealing hundreds of millions of dollars intended to feed children. Federal officials have warned that Minnesota’s financial management is so lacking that Uncle Sam may cut off the state’s federal Medicaid funding unless it cleans up its act.
Massachusetts SNAP scam
Then there is Massachusetts, where two Boston convenience store owners were charged with orchestrating a $7 million scheme to traffic Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Their tiny storefront – described by investigators as “effectively a closet with shelves and a register” – somehow processed up to half a million dollars in SNAP redemptions per month. It had gone on for years — undetected by the bureaucrats who are supposedly safeguarding taxpayer dollars. These are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of a government that has grown too large, too distant and too insulated from the consequences of its own incompetence.
According to official data, Medicare and Medicaid fraud costs taxpayers more than $146 billion annually. Fraudsters bill for services never provided, perform unnecessary tests, or simply invent patients out of thin air. The programs are so sprawling that even the government admits it cannot accurately measure the full extent of improper payments. Many claim that the actual figure is many times the $146 billion.
Workman’s Comp
Workman’s compensation programs are no better. The U.S. Postal Service’s Inspector General has documented case after case of employees claiming debilitating injuries while secretly working other jobs or engaging in physical activities that would make an Olympic gymnast blush. By way of example, man exaggerated his injuries so dramatically that he was ordered to repay more than $130,000 in fraudulent claims. A postal worker claimed she could barely walk yet was caught on video performing athletic feats that would make a personal trainer sweat. These cases are exceptional in that they are among the very few who get caught.
Social Security
Even Social Security – the sacred cow of American politics – is riddled with fraud. A former Social Security Administration employee in Texas pleaded guilty to stealing the identities of deceased men and using them to file fraudulent survivor benefit claims — siphoning off millions of dollars. In Minnesota (again), a woman impersonated her dead mother for twenty‑five years to collect more than $360,000 in benefits. These are not victimless crimes. They drain funds from programs that millions of Americans rely upon.
And yet, every time conservatives call for reform, the left accuses them of cruelty, heartlessness or wanting to “throw grandma off a cliff.” The truth is that conservatives want these programs to function properly, efficiently and honestly. What we oppose is the blind expansion of government without proper supervision and accountability.
Our Founders Would Be Appalled
America’s Founders understood the dangers of centralized power. That is why the Tenth Amendment explicitly limits the federal government to the powers enumerated in the Constitution. Everything else is reserved to the states or the people. But Washington has spent the last century ignoring that part of the Constitution, expanding its reach into every corner of American life. The result is a federal bureaucracy so bloated that no one can control it, much less oversee it.
The lesson is clear. The larger government becomes, the more waste, fraud and abuse it produces. Bureaucracies do not shrink themselves. They do not police themselves. They do not innovate. They expand, consume and demand more resources. And the taxpayer is left holding the bill.
The Founders did not intend government to run every aspect of American life. They designed a limited republic, with power dispersed and checked. They believed – correctly – that the private sector, civil society and local communities were better suited to solve most problems. They feared the very leviathan that Washington has become.
If America is to remain prosperous and free, it must return to those principles. It must rein in federal power, restore state authority and demand accountability from every government agency. It must recognize that every dollar wasted on fraud is a dollar stolen from hardworking citizens.
The Trump administration is undertaking the most serious effort to reduce waste, inefficiency, fraud and needless spending of any administration since the early 1900s, when fiscal responsibility was embedded in the political culture.
The evidence is overwhelming. Fraud is undeniable. The waste is catastrophic. And the solution is the same one the Founders gave us more than two centuries ago — limited government, local control and a healthy skepticism of centralized power.
As long as we hear officeholders proposing more money for anything, we are still moving in the wrong direction.
So, there ‘tis.
Larry, what is slowly destroying America is not government spending, but Republican fixation on lowering taxes for the rich. Yes, there are instances of abuse in government programs, but your comment the private industry can “always do it cheaper” is a complete lie (am i surprised-resounding no!). There are fraudulent employees in private industry, but the bigger waste in private industry tends to be corporate profit and extreme wages for upper echelon employees. Medical care is the biggest example of waste in the private sector-insurance costs there make our healthcare far more expensive (with worse overall outcomes) than any other first world country. So, instead of spending, I raise the issue of collection-ie taxes. Though nobody likes taxes, they are essential to pay for programs the government can (and should) administer. Because the republicans attempt to perennially keep government starved by cutting taxes (mainly for the rich, which history has proven has zero economic benefit), this prevents programs from having sufficient funding to monitor for fraud, and has caused the increasing wealth inequality that we have seen over the last 45 years, which is truly our nations biggest problem (other than having an idiotic president who seems determined to end alliances that we have had for decades…)
Mike f as in faggot I got a tax break and I’m not rich. Trump did right but idiots like you and Dunger believe that the money in the bank for the citizens actually belongs to the government.
Uh Sethisdungface—- the government is of the people, by the people. Citizens dude. Just like you.
You didn’t get a tax break, you got used. How much? When? He gave you pennies on the pound if anything at all. Have you extracted all those tariff taxes you plunked down.
Larry and I agree that we have too much debt and our recurring deficits, at best, slow the increase. The last time we put money in the bank to pay down the debt was around 2001, Bill Clinton, a Democrat. I am proud to be a Clintonian Democrat yet admit, my time of having sway in the Democratic Party is over. I can kibitz, but the day of the 70’s moderate is waning now. On the other hand, Donald Trump, a Republican holds the record for the highest deficit ever in America. Larry loves those policies. You can pretend to rationalize the Republican GOAT deficit against covid but since Joe Biden, a Democrat brought it down the next year, also during covid, sure seems facts show Horist as being old, out of touch, and most important, steadfastly against updating his 1970’s mythology. Reagan is out man, there’s a new sheriff in town, King Cheeto of Debt.
Likewise, Larry lives the dream of being a conservative when his party is MAGA; which he seems to pretend is not his party as he remanences over things that were never true, just mythologized in the 70’s and certainly not true now. Reagan was the first to change the debt trend to the dark side after 35 years of both parties bringing down WWII debt. Bush I had to raise taxes to cover Reagan’s ass and lost the election for doing the right thing. Did you see the Bush II spending and debt? How about the Clintonian glory years. Even demented Joe did better than businessman Don on the numbers for deficit and debt.. Once again the trained economist Horist runs a story about numbers with very few numbers and a lot of old-style Republican lore and myths.
Like his opening: “One of the primary reasons we conservatives oppose the expansion of government services is its propensity to incur excessive charges, reckless waste and every kind of fraud on a massive scale. You can be certain that anytime government is involved, it will be needlessly expensive – and the larger and more distant the government is from the taxpayers, the worse the problem will be.” First, he cannot prove that “anytime government is involved, it will be needlessly expensive.” Can he prove every government involvement is needlessly expensive.” Every single blessed one? Again, as I have done in the past many times, I point out the Obama energy investment program that included Solyndra. The program made a profit proving Horist BUSTED.
And “the most distant from taxpayer, the worse the problem;” I dare anyone to explain what that even means? Like welfare in Alaska is a worse problem than DC? It’s just whack, delusional thought he must have heard at a rally.
Republicans expand government services incurring excessive charges, reckless waste and fraud all the time. Recently, while lowering income taxes, especially for the rich, Republicans have attempted to secretly tax us big bucks to hide their waste, using a fraud tax known as tariffs, better known as taxation without representation. According to Republicans, we are paying between $1,000 to $2,600 in tariff tax per American. For 340M people, that’s a big aggregate number. And it’s a regressive tax affecting the poor and middle classes much more than the rich. After all, each human can only eat so much steak; and today the middle class just skips it due to inflationary prices under the tax and waste spending Republican party.
I mean, think about it: we used to have lower cost brown people labor force doing all sorts of stuff, without crime or welfare fraud, for less growing our GDP and now we pay how much extra tax (without representation) to remove each adder to the GDP for a total loss? Course he does profit by getting us hating each other so we drop focus on his abject failures, wars, and retributions. How’s that Republican health care, wait, gotta gety Comey. See all that infrastructure, airports, tunnels, and bridges, wait, gotta get James. How about inflation; that’s just got to be a Good shot at suckcess….. Not much getting done except the brown people being gone. He does more for VZ oil than for us, on UA soil.
Time we stop. Hey, what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down.
This year, 2025, Trump tripled the ICE budget adding $75B for a total of $170B. With a total force around 20,000; it’s larger than many standing armies. Under Trump, in 2025, ICE looked to add 10,000 agents. Can you imagine the “quality” of the manpower in a 10,000-person surge for a 30,000 person organization? Can you imagine the waste in a budget that grew by 50% overnight with the charge of get er done, damn the Good men, hire some thugpedos. Every time you turn on the TV and see an ICE assault, think cash register. All those helicopters, military transport. How about the brand new detention system, I mean like 100,000 beds. Mostly for a misdemeanor of jumping the border, no further criminality as you spend your hard earned bucks to catch landscapers, taco makers, manicurists, and other evil terrorist sickos, not.
Horist brings up the point, pretty basic from the study of organizational theory: “Bureaucracies do not shrink themselves. They do not police themselves. They do not innovate. They expand, consume and demand more resources. And the taxpayer is left holding the bill.” This is not only true for government, but any group of human organized to do something. It’s a tendency, a probability, not a given. A simple picture might be when the Cancer Society cures cancer, they will not go away; they will attempt to morph to another problem like acne to solve, or maybe sell t-shirts….
Now go back to the ICE budget and rapid expansion no doubt replete with fraud, incompetence and all the other issues Horist concludes they have. Now think about my Cancer Society example and ask yourself: how will ICE remake itself to continue to survive, and better yet, thrive AFTER the brown people are gone? You may feel OK, but I see a Trump X being drawn on my white ass. I guess on this one, Larry is spot on the issue and off on the timing. It isn’t a Democrat problem now, but it will be…. There’s battle lines being drawn, nobody’s right if everyone is wrong.
Trump’s deficit for year one, 1.78T, down from Biden’s 2024 three-year high of 1.83T; a giant .05T decrease. But wait, there’s more. Congress responsible for taxation. Trump’s tariffs are taxation without representation and represent significant revenues dropping the deficit. IOW – you are being taxed to cover his spending on all sorts of things. You paid .25T in tariff taxes making Trump’s 1.78T deficit really is 2.03T beating Biden’s worse year out of his last three. If we count Biden’s covid year, he hit 2.77T. Trump hit 3.13T in his covid year, the all time record spending since 2000. You tell me: fraud, waste? Check out the MN fraud; started on Trump’s watch, arrests and convictions happened on Biden’s watch. Yes, Somali Americans involved, a lot of them, most born in US, BUT, the head of this snake was a white woman, born n bred in America, MN to be exact. It’s all on the record.
Remember, in 2025, Trumusk lowered the employees by 300K, but I daresay if you look, you will find as many fled as were right-sized. Mush is estimate to have nailed between 10K and 120K, mostly probational workers. When you look at his waste and fraud accomplishments, you will mostly find smoke and mirrors. Biden spent $6.95T in 2024. Trump spent $7.01T in 2025.
It appears that Larry’s King is worse than my old man Biden, on the numbers. It also appears that when you put Larry’s theory to the test of real numbers, it’s wrong. It’s 1970’s clap trap mythology he pretends is fact but cannot support it with numbers. He does have some nice anecdotes on waste. Anyone see that ashtray?