Why Government Doesn't Work: on Budget & Economy


Get rid of $5 trillion debt by selling federal assets

We have to get rid of the federal debt-the $5 trillion worth of credit card bills the politicians have charged to us. A good deal of the debt has been used to buy or build things. They may not seem valuable because of the way they’re used now. But they might become much more valuable if sold to people who knew how to use them productively.
For example, the federal government owns 29% of all the land in the US, a total of 1 million square miles. As of 1991 it owned 441,000 buildings.
If we shrink the government to what the Constitution permits, it won’t need most of those assets. In fact, over 90% of them could be sold-returned to the American people to be used productively.
    If the federal government’s unneeded assets can be sold for $12 trillion, we can achieve the following:
  1. [Pay all recipients] of Social Security a private annuity
  2. Balance the budget
  3. Pay off the entire federal debt
  4. Repeal all federal income taxes
  5. Drop taxes at all levels from 49% to 28%.
Source: Why Government Doesn’t Work, by H. Browne, p.174-8 Jul 2, 1995

Great Depression was caused by federal monetary policies

In the late 1920s, the Federal Reserve System put new money into circulation in the US as part of a misguided scheme to bail the British government out of its fiscal problems. When the monetary increase threatened to bring on price inflation, the Federal Reserve stomped on the brakes and pulled money out of circulation--bringing on the crash of 1929 and starting a recession.
The Federal Reserve persisted in its policy, allowing the nation’s money supply to shrink by 30% between 1929 and 1933. Meanwhile, President Hoover increased government spending, raised income taxes, and pressured large companies to keep prices and wages high, producing a glut of unsold products and mass unemployment.
Previous recessions lasted only a year or so, because the government always stood aside and let the economy recover its balance. But this time, government actively intruded--and transformed the recession into a prolonged depression.
Source: Why Government Doesn’t Work, by Harry Browne, p. 42-3 Jul 2, 1995

Politicians don’t want to reduce government

We have to understand that politicians don’t want to reduce government.And it isn’t because they think the spending cuts would hurt too many people. It’s because they know it would hurt them.
Unlike families and corporations, politicians don’t feel the burden of debt-only the elation of spending. So they have no incentive to restrain themselves. They can spend your money without limit to reward their friends.
No matter what they say, neither the Democrats nor Republicans want to give up the power that allows them to bestow favors and exemptions on friends.
Our salvation won’t come from politicians. We need people who will go to Washington not to reform government programs or to reduce them, but to get rid of them. We need leaders who don’t want to run the country, but who want to restore our right to run our own lives. We need legislators who don’t want to be politicians, but simply want to enjoy for themselves the freedom America once knew.
Source: Why Government Doesn’t Work, by Harry Browne, p.172 Jul 2, 1995

Reduce budget from $1.5 trillion to $385 billion

If we shrink our government from its current yearly budget of $1.5 trillion down to just its constitutional functions, we could get by with a budget of only $100 billion a year plus the interest that has to be paid on the national debt (about $285 billion in 1995).
Does $100 billion seem to little? Consider this: In 1950, the total budget of the federal government, excluding interest, was only $241 billion (inflation-adjusted). In 1950 there were no Departments of Education, Energy, Housing, or Health & Human Services, no EPA, no War on Drugs, no National Endowment for the Arts, and no Equal Opportunity Commission. There were very few of the thousands of federal programs that today regulate our lives and monitor our every activity-and cost so much.
Source: Why Government Doesn’t Work, by Harry Browne, p.173 Jul 2, 1995

  • The above quotations are from Why Government Doesn't Work: How Reducing Government Will Bring Us Safer Cities Better Schools, by Harry Browne.
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Page last updated: Feb 26, 2019