The Cost of Government Waste

The rich and powerful are always trying to screw the average citizen. That's what they say....right? Well, let’s not forget this includes the government. (Let’s not forget that Forbes said 11% of Congress is in the financial “elite”—they make roughly $890k a year.)

I learned that President Obama flew to a Jimmy Kimmel show taping as the First Lady flew to an Ellen show taping. They were going to fly together, but the President wanted to swing by a VA hospital in AZ and that didn't work for the First Lady so Air Force One took the President to the same location that the second Jumbo Jet flew the First Lady to. And then the respective planes flew them each back to their desired destinations. It costs taxpayers $200,000 an hour that those planes are in operation. So...who cares right? They are the President and First Lady...they should have their conveniences served, right? If they were paying directly for the flights, yes...but the taxpayers paid this convenience fee. Well, that’s what the news headline said. But I always like things in perspective...so I wondered, what is that tax burden really...for the average American. Wait...forget the average American...how about the minimum wage paying America.

So here's some math…(but don’t go getting ALL anal on me because we KNOW the tax code is unintelligible, but I’ve provided my assumptions.)
What could have been 10 hours of travel on Airforce One, became 19 hours of travel on Airforce One and a second Jumbo Jet. Well....so what? it's 9 extra hours right? So what did that 9 extra hours cost taxpayers? $1.8M. So what, right?

Well, if you take a minimum wage worker paid $7.25 an hour, they pay $.87 an hour roughly in Federal tax. If a minimum wage worker doesn't really get vacations...but probably can't get the shift they want, they are still working probably 51 weeks a year. So how long does it take a minimum wage worker to pay the tax that paid for the President and the First Lady to have flights that convenienced them?

It takes 1,014 years. But nobody lives that long right? That's crazy talk...and I can't put that in perspective. Well, we all know that minimum wage workers start early and can't leave early...they may never leave the workforce...but let's just say they work these days from age 15 to 70. That's 55 years. So what? Well it took 18 to 19 minimum wage worker’s entire lives of working and paying taxes to pay for today's convenience...to the delight of Jimmy Kimmel and Ellen's audiences.

But wait…that’s not in perspective either…because this just happened today, right? Well, today a minimum wage worker contributed about $6.96 in Federal taxes. So today, it took the work of 258,621 minimum wage workers to pay that convenience fee.

But we’re America…the richest nation in the world, right? We have minimum wage workers, but not near as many on other parts of the world. Our economy is built on the middle class, right? So surely, this convenience is spread out and not a big deal. Well, let’s check.
The average Middle Class Family earns about $70,000 a year in family income and pay about 15% in Federal tax. (Let’s take imperfectparent.com’s word for it.) So…basically, Middle Class families pay $10,500 a year in Federal income tax. Let’s go to the example of “just one day” again…because this happened today. Let’s assume these middle class families income is based on 260 days a year/salaried, less 10 days vacation and sick time to get to 250 workdays. Each Middle Class family contributed about $42 today in Federal taxes so it took the work of 42,587 families today to pay for this convenience.

Well let’s look at the wealthy—and I’m not talking about the top 1% that the Occupy people were at war with. The top 1% could give a crap when or where the President flies and they have tax breaks and other means to defray federal tax. Although they do pay a #LOAD in taxes. Be clear about that. But they are not our concern for the purposes of responsible decision on the part of our government officials.

Let’s look at “millionaires”—some lucky doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and other high income Americans. We’re going to take CBS news here as our source that “millionaires pay 26.5% in Federal income tax.” That’s $265,000 a year in Federal income tax or $1,060 today. So what, right? So it matters. It took the work of 1,698 Millionaires today to pay for the convenience of those two flights.

What happened to being responsible? In our company, all people spend our client’s money as if it were their own—because it is! When will government catch on to this?

Whether it’s the work of 18 people over a lifetime or 1,698 Millionaires today, the Obamas should have flown together. I don’t care what party you’re in…until our government officials get a grip on this—the way private business owners would—we’re screwed. Whatever your pay grade, an old boss of mine pointed out early to me that there is a difference between convenience and stupidity.
Today was stupid.

(Oh...and if you have a problem with the fact that I took the time to do this math, and think it's fringe thinking...that's the problem with our economy. NO ONE is taking the time to do this common sense, practical math. This is NOT rocket science. This is our responsibility to ask basic questions to drive responsible behavior.)

a reply to: Losonczy

How dare you quantify the cost of frivolous official travel?

I was watching a committee hearing last year and a GSA official said rather offhandedly that they had cut $2 billion in travel expenses in 2014 without even trying and had plans to start making some significant cuts.

a reply to: greencmp

I'm gonna catch HE double LL here but lets get this cleared up right from the start, "IT"S A JOKE".

If you know who had a pair between his legs he would make his wife fulfill her marital responsibilities, stay at home, mind the children and keep the home fires burning.

If you look at this way it doesn`t seem so bad.
The federal tax on a gallon of gas is 18.4 cents so for a little under 100,000 gallons sold, the tax paid for the extra 9 hours.
consider that in 2014 approximately 374.74 million gallons of gas were consumed each day in the U.S. the tax from that 100,000 gallons isn`t very much.

I really don't see the point. They're two separate people doing two separate things, they can fly separately if they want.

Do you make threads on when senators and congress members accept free flights across the country to 'sponsored' events? Why not? Because it's ok when lawmakers are best-buds with multi-millionaires but it's not ok when they actually represent their constituents?

The Federal Reserve has provided 27 trillion to prop up Wall Street and even foreign banks which US citizens will be paying back with interest these 2 muppets are the least of your concerns in the money wasted department three banks recieved more than the gross domestic product of Australia in bailouts in fact these 2 are the useful idiots to get angry at whilst the real robbery goes on under the table

a reply to: links234

You are correct, as long as they fly coach!

originally posted by: khnum
The Federal Reserve has provided 27 trillion to prop up Wall Street and even foreign banks which US citizens will be paying back with interest these 2 muppets are the least of your concerns in the money wasted department three banks recieved more than the gross domestic product of Australia in bailouts in fact these 2 are the useful idiots to get angry at whilst the real robbery goes on under the table

You are certainly not wrong about that, the bailouts and stimuli were a bipartisan # show of epic proportions.

It is the over 200 trillion in unfunded liabilities that we carry that is even more frightening.

Bankruptcy is the only solution that doesn't require the complete debasement of the currency.

I have heard the sperm count is down in the men of the West.

If the banks can keep pumping in money until the sperm count is zero, then the global population will be reduced by 20% or so at the end of the Millenial's normal life span.

Population reduction without wars or genocide. Or a flesh eating bacteria epidemic.

I think the PTB expect to slowly slide everything down to Agenda 21.

originally posted by: Semicollegiate


I think the PTB expect to slowly slide everything down to Agenda 21.

Well that's certainly a good thing - it is about time the economy and ecology were sustainable - otherwise there certainly is a shirt-storm coming!!

Good post, Losonczy.

To the sycophants who buy into the "drop in the bucket" argument, consider the OP was focused on one incident by two people. The federal government employs almost 3 million and the wastefulness is systemic. Beyond that, it is present in all levels of government, right down to the counties and municipalities.

How many drops does it take to fill "the bucket?" Perhaps the better question is, "How many drops are you going to allow them to take from your bucket?"