Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today deplored yet another example of the bureaucratic incompetence of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is reported to be preparing to liquidate nearly $24 million of ice leftover from the initial 224 million pounds it had purchased in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  The agency had anticipated keeping the ice in reserve to address shortages during the 2006 hurricane season.  The 2006 hurricane season wasn’t by the agency in So far it has cost the agency $12 million to warehouse the ice observed Cost of Government Day by expressing outrage at the federal, state, and local governments’ continued abuse of hundreds of billions of tax dollars.  Cost of Government Day is the date 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, according to the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation. 

“Americans can now begin to provide for themselves and their families,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “It should not take half the national income to fulfill government’s duty to protect life, liberty, and property.  Outdated, ineffective, duplicative, and wasteful programs and agencies have clogged the system and extended the reach of government into our lives and wallets.”

Cost of Government Day for 2007 is July 11.  Americans now work more than half of the year – 192 days – to pay their share of the cost of government with 84.5 of those days due to federal spending alone.  This year, the average American will need to work an additional 6 days out of the year to pay off his or her cost of government compared to 2000. 

“Taxpayers should be outraged by the government’s refusal to be responsible guardians of their hard-earned money,” Schatz continued.  “Governments at all levels must move to aggressively cut taxes and waste and reduce regulations to alleviate the burden on American workers.” 

Earlier this year, CAGW identified 2,658 pork-barrel projects in its 2007 Congressional Pig Book.  The cost of these projects was $13.2 billion.  The group also identified $2 trillion in potential savings over five years in its Prime Cuts 2007 report.

“Politicians are constantly finding new, outlandish projects on which to waste other people’s money,” Schatz continued.  “In exchange for surrendering more than half of their working lives to the government, taxpayers get $1,650,000 to improve the shelf life of vegetables and $1,000,000 for a telescope searching for extra-terrestrial intelligence. 

“The Cost of Government Day is a reminder of how far beyond its original mandate the government has grown,” Schatz concluded.  “The best way to reduce the size and cost of government is to eliminate the waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement at all levels.”

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