Report: Americans will work more than six months to pay government cost in 2012

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – “Cost of Government Day is the date of the calendar year on which the average American worker has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of the spending and regulatory burden imposed by government at the federal, state and local levels,” the report reads.

Entitled “Cost of Government Day,” illustrates that Americans will work 88 days to pay for federal spending, 40 days for state and local spending and 69 days for total regulatory costs.

“While there is a slight improvement in the number of days worked to pay for federal spending this year, the growth of government remains the largest threat to American prosperity today.

“Taking spending from 20.8 percent of GDP in 2008 to 25.2 percent in 2009, the Obama Administration has overseen one of the largest expansions of the state in history.
In 2010, Congress passed and the President signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). This massive overhaul of the country’s health care system exploits the unfunded liabilities of the current entitlements while exacerbating the crisis of exploding health care costs.

“Ultimately, the health care bill could cost upwards of $2.3 trillion, paid for partially with hundreds of billions of new taxes on Americans.

At the time of this writing, the United States Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of the President’s health care law. If PPACA is completely overturned, it would relieve Americans of its twenty new or higher taxes and unbridle the country with its trillions in expected new spending. However, the country’s fiscal future will still be greatly imperiled by trillions in coming tax hikes beginning at the end of the year, unsustainable entitlement programs and unrestrained discretionary spending.

“From a different perspective, the cost of government makes up 54.0 percent of annual gross domestic product (GDP),” reads the report. “What’s more, the largest tax hike in the nation’s history is scheduled to take place at the end of 2012 unless Congress acts to protect taxpayers. If this tax increase is allowed to hit, COGD [Cost of Government Day] could permanently be pushed back into August and beyond.”

To read the full report, profusely illustrated with graphics, log on to: http://www.costofgovernment.org/files/files/COGD2012_hi%20res.pdf

2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.