Wednesday is Cost of Government Day. The average American now works 224 days out of the year to pay for his or her share of the government’s tax and regulatory burden. Massive new federal spending programs have pushed the Cost of Government Day back 26 days later than last year.
Before 2009, the latest COGD since 1977 occurred on July 20, 1982. Last year, Americans finished paying for their shares of government spending and regulatory deadweight on July 16.
“Cost of Government Day serves as a grim reminder that much of [taxpayers’] struggle is a direct result of a government that has grown too big and eats up too much of their hard-earned money,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. ATR’s Center for Fiscal Accountability released a report Tuesday detailing its findings and calculations.
This year Americans will work 153 days to pay for federal taxes and regulations, and 72 days to pay for taxes and regulations at the state and local levels.
ATR included in its report for the first time detailed case studies of various spending initiatives and tax regimes that have pushed back COGD, or could push it back if they are ratified.
The Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to ATR, forced Americans to work an additional 18 days to pay off their shares of the cost of government. The federal stimulus package added 10 days.
ATR also warned that if the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill is ratified by the Senate and signed by the president, COGD would be pushed back another three days.
The controversial value-added-tax, floated by White House budget spokesman Kenneth Baer as a means to finance entitlement outlays and the president’s health care proposals, would push COGD back nine days if implemented to pay for ObamaCare, and 13 days if employed to cover the costs of Medicare and Social Security shortfalls.
The ATR report also ranks states in terms of the numbers of days their residents must work to pay for their various tax and regulatory schemes. For the second year in a row, Alaska tops the list. Residents there work only 192 days to pay for the government. Connecticut residents work 250 days out of the year, the most of any state, to pay their shares.
The 10 least burdensome states are, in this order, Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Dakota, North Dakota, West Virginia, Alabama, New Mexico, Kentucky, and Montana. The 10 most burdensome, in order, are Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, California, Maryland, Washington, Virginia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island.
