Dear Editor:
Hooray for the Freedom Caucus and Sen. Rand Paul, for the defeat of Obamacare Lite. They were willing to stand up for the American taxpayer. We don't need another (any?) bloated, one size fits all, federal welfare programs funded with borrowed money. The major reason for federal welfare programs is so that politicians don't have to justify the funding for them.
American adults should hang their heads in shame at the amount of "free" government services we consume at the expense of future generations.
Health care for the indigent, including Medicaid services, should be returned to the state and local government. Get the federal government totally out of the picture. Such programs should be funded at the state and local level, there is no magic money tree in DC. Missouri voters should start lobbying for more state funded health care for the indigent, health insurance premium assistance for high risk individuals, and higher state taxes to fund the programs. I expect those who have so fervently cried for Medicaid expansion to lead the charge for the programs and higher taxes.
We don't need the Pac-Man federal government gobbling up more of our incomes. Estimates for FY2017 indicate that the federal government will collect more taxes than at any time in our history. The problem is that it will also spend more than at any time in our history.
Even with the improved economy and the reductions in spending on wars in the Middle East, federal spending is projected to be 12 percent higher in FY2017 than it was in FY2013. This is even with the dreaded, "the sky is falling," sequestration "cuts" of 2013.
FY2017 receipts are projected to be 23 percent higher than they were in FY2013, and a record high. The projected annual deficit for FY2017 will be the 11th largest since the end of WWII.
Federal spending should be reduced to no more than 18.5 percent of GDP, as it was in nine of the years between FY1960 and FY1974, while we were waging a war in Vietnam; and during the five years from FY1988 through FY2002, four of those years the government had a budget surplus.
If FY2017 federal spending was cut to 18.5 percent of GDP we would have a $77 billion surplus instead of a $438 billion deficit.
All of the above figures have been adjusted for inflation.