But, once the objections are over and the money is to be spent, most Americans have no clue about where it goes and who wins in the end. I thought this was a good article in the Ames (Iowa) Tribune. It will at least get a person thinking about how the federal dollars are spent and possibly encourage some to take it to the next level and see that it is spent where it is suppose to and for good reasons.
December 11, 2014
By Jake Grovum
Stateline.org
WASHINGTON — Benefits for Americans, (click here) chiefly Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, dominate the federal spending that gets transferred to states through grants, contracts and other programs.
But among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, there are stark differences in how the billions spent on these and other initiatives are distributed, according to new data compiled by the Pew Charitable Trusts (which also funds Stateline).
A Stateline analysis of the data shows that some states that receive a relatively small share of federal spending in a given category rely on it heavily.
Vermont, for example, is just 45th among the states and the District of Columbia in grant spending received, at $1.88 billion. But that sum represents a fourth of the federal spending it receives overall. Kansas, meanwhile, gets roughly the same dollar amount in grants as Vermont. But that sum is just 8 percent of the state’s federal spending, because of the state’s heavy reliance on retirement benefits, which comprise more than 40 percent of its share of federal spending....
When examining spending and before I raise a fuss I realize the number of people in a state, the size of the state, it's needs as opposed to it's state or local income to it's treasury.
ie:
(CNN) -- The 2013 fertilizer plant blast (click here) that killed 15 people and wounded another 226 in West, Texas, "should never have occurred," the chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board said Tuesday.
Though the board's report says that at least 14 people were killed, the death toll was updated to 15 people in the days after the blast....
Did West Texas have enough of a local treasury to help everyone effected by this disaster? What were the people employed by the company and still alive going to do for an income in the immediate future?
Or.
Does the State of Texas need to pick up the slack and find funds to assist these people?
And if the Texas decides they don't do such things for towns and cities and it is just too bad about the come to the factory explosion, will the federal government take up the disaster and provide funding to improve lives and/or find a better industry for the city of West Texas? The federal dollar usually comes from the US House Representative and/or US Senator (s).
