Letter to the editor: We must end our government excesses

In January, many of us look at our bills after Christmas and ask, “How am I going to pay for everything I bought?” I have not heard this asked of our elected officials. Everyone seems to want to ignore this elephant in the room and push it onto the next generation.

This is an American issue. It doesn’t matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican. We must talk about it this issue and act to resolve our government’s spending problem.

For the fiscal year that ended in September 2022, total receipts were $4.896 trillion and total expenditures were $6.271 trillion; the deficit was $30.924 trillion, and the debt interest was $0.724 trillion. The recently passed $1.7 trillion budget for 2023 only included discretionary spending and not the larger portion of our outlays that are for non-discretionary spending.

Comparing total expenditures to historic values:

• 2002, $2.012 trillion

• 2007, $2.731 trillion

• 2012, $3.538 trillion

• 2017, $3.980 trillion

• 2022, $6.272 trillion

Where does our government money come from and where does it go?

2022 receipts were $4.896 trillion from:

• Individual income taxes, $2.632 trillion

• Social Security and retirement, $1.484 trillion

• Corporate income tax, $0.425 trillion

• Miscellaneous, $0.135 trillion

• Others, $0.221 trillion

• Deficit, $1.375 trillion

Expenses were $6.272 trillion:

• Social Security $1.219 trillion

• Health $0.914 trillion

• Income security $0.865 trillion

• National defense $0.767 trillion

• Medicare $0.755 trillion

• Others $1.751 trillion

I hope this information sparks conversations and actions to save the next generations from our current excesses.

Chris Baldy

Murrysville