(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), in recognition of Cost of Government Day, today expressed outrage at the federal, state, and local governments’ continued abuse of hundreds of billions of tax dollars in outdated, ineffective, duplicative, and wasteful programs and agencies.  Cost of Government Day is the date of the calendar year on which the average American worker has earned enough to pay off his or her share of tax and regulatory burdens imposed by all levels of government.  CAGW recommends that governments at all levels take aggressive action to cut taxes and reduce regulations to diminish American families’ tax burden.

“Cost of Government is four and a half days later this year than in 2002.  Such a trend is very disconcerting,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Taxpayers should be outraged by the government’s ongoing waste of their hard-earned money; it takes Americans 193 days just to pay off the cost of government.” 

Earlier this year, CAGW identified $22.5 billion in federal pork projects, an increase of 12 percent from last year’s total.  The money was spread out among 9,362 projects injected into the appropriations bills in fiscal year 2003, an increase of 12 percent.  The group also identified $1.3 trillion in savings over five years in its Prime Cuts report.

“Each year, as Americans struggle to earn more, the government invents new ways to increase its share,” Schatz said.  “The Cost of Government Day is today because appropriators have chosen to spend tax dollars on projects such as the study of sea turtles in Hawaii and the construction of the National Peanut Festival Agriculture Arena in Alabama. ”

Recognizing additional examples of waste, CAGW has called for Congress to reject the deal between the Air Force and Boeing to lease 100 767 re-fueling tankers to the tune of $21 billion.

“This deal was approved by the Pentagon despite testimony from both the General Accounting Office (GAO) and the Congressional Budget Office stressing the additional cost of leasing as opposed to directly purchasing tanker aircrafts or upgrading the 127 existing KC-135E tankers.  In the Boeing tanker lease contract, taxpayers will be forced to pay $17.8 billion more than it would cost to upgrade the current tankers,” Schatz said.

“It is this type of waste that creates the high cost of government,” Schatz concluded.  “Hopefully there will be less wasteful spending and more fiscal responsibility in the future, and next year this day will come much sooner.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.