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Show Guns versus butter Hy Jim Hansen U. S. Congressman, Utah First District What percentage of the federal budget is devoted to defense spending? What percentage of the federal budget is consumed by entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and federal retirement? Please try and answer these two questions before you read further. Unfortunately, most Americans think the U. S. spends more on defense than on entitlement programs. The truth, however, is that the U. S. spends much more on butter than on guns. In fiscal year 1983, for example, the U. S. will spend 26.7 percent of the federal budget on defense and 47 percent per-cent on entitlement programs. The remaining re-maining 26.3 percent of the federal budget consists of interest payments on the national debt ( 15.0 percent) and so-called discretionary spending for construction and maintenance of dams, waterways, highways, grants to state and local governments, etc. (11.3 percent.). Contrary to public perceptions, it is not the growth in defense, but the growth in entitlements that is the main culprit for record federal spending. For example, for less than one-third of federal spending in 1970, entitlements have risen to represent nearly one-half of the federal budget in 1983.- While entitlements consume an ever-higher percentage of the federal budget, defense has been shrinking as a percentage of that budget. Defense spending declined from 40.0 percent of the federal budget in 1970 to the present pre-sent 26.7 percent. In fact, during the 1950s, defense spending consumed an average 54.5 percent of the federal budget. Entitlements, sometimes called "payments to individuals," are technically defined as benefits for which people qualify automatically, by virtue of their age or income or occupation. oc-cupation. Social Security is by far the largest entitlement program. Other entitlements are medical programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, civil service and military pensions, unemployment insurance and price-support price-support payments for farmers, and subsidized housing and food stamps. Only about 17 percent of the money spent on entitlements is for programs that are "means tested," or aimed at the poor. The remaining 83 percent of entitlement checks are delivered to recipients without regard to their wealth. People not only qualify automatically automatical-ly for entitlements, but the federal government in essence automatically funds entitlement programs. Congress can set no limit on the money that will ultimately flow from the U. S. Treasury for entitlements because the government is legally obligated to provide pro-vide benefits to anyone who can prove he is eligible. The only way to reduce entitlements is to rewrite the laws governing those programs. This rewriting usually involves in-volves cutting benefits or dropping people from the programs. However, due to the extreme power of the various special interest groups which benefit from entitlement programs and the distorted media coverage of benefit reductions, politicians are quite reluctant to reduce entitlement benefits or drop recipients from the rolls. Thus, we see that unless Congress Likes bold and difficult affirmative action ac-tion to rewrite entitlement laws, nearly near-ly one-half of the entire federal budget is automatically spent each year. President Keagan has proposed reforms to stem this runaway growth of entitlements, but an entrenched Congress has blocked his attempts at reform. Contrary to popular belief, President Reagan has not even made a dent in the growth of the combined entitlement programs. What will happen then if entitlements en-titlements continue to grow much faster than inflation and the rest of the federal budget? Unless we can reduce the rapid growth of entitlements, they will destroy our economy and with it the goose that for so long has laid the golden egg. Americans have simply made too many promises to too many people. The question no politician wants to answer is: If all Americans are "entitled" "en-titled" to help, who will pay for it? Before we can insure economic stability and prosperity for our children, the average American must realize that he or she will have to demand de-mand less from government. We must face the entitlement problem today. |