Does the government put as much thought into spending our taxes as it does in collecting them?

Answer 1

They obviously put a lot of thought into ways of spending money - how else could they spend so much? ;-{

Answer 2

Yes... well actually more. The IRS has collected about 2 Trillion Dollars as of (2005)in taxes and believes that they are owed an additional 300 Billion. However the government has a budget of 2.9 Trillion. You can do the math and realize that there is no thought about collecting taxes when it comes to spend, spend, spend. That budget number doesn't include the super top secret military spending and other items that will be wastefully added. So that is like you making $100,000 but deciding to spend $130,000 every year and then having yoru significant other spend some other secret sum. It clearly doesn't take much thought to realize in not many years you'll be bankrupt. Unfortunately the government is a long, long, long, long, long way from even balancing the budget forget dealing with the debt. The country is run by people who don't understand economics or math. In summary no the government doesn't spend anywhere near the amount of time on collecting our money as it does on spending it.

Answer 3

No, but only because different arms of the government handle the two tasks.

The IRS collects taxes, based upon the laws enacted by Congress. Once the IRS gets their "marching orders" from Congress it's largely out of Congress' hands until additional legislation hits the floor for debate.

Congress then decides how the money will be spent, based in large part upon the budgetary request from the Executive Branch, i.e The President, plus the requests from Congress' constituents, i.e. you and I.

It's not as if one or even a few people made the call on the income and outgo sides of the ledger. There are many hundreds, even thousands, of different hands and minds involved on each side. When dealing with bureaucracies that large, they tend to take on a life of their own.

Answer 4

No. They don't put any serious thought into it at all. They be good at EVERYTHING now can they?

Answer 5

no chance the greedy buggers

Answer 6

I think they probably do....which is somehow even more disturbing!