First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?

In light of the current controversies about reducing government spending, i think it's important to realize just how big government spending has gotten. The budget last year was 3.5 trillion dollars. Unfortunately that number is so large as to have lost all meaning, so in a small effort to make it slightly more understandable, we'll divide it by the population of the US, 300 million people. And we find that the amount spent per person is more than $11,500. And this is just federal taxes. That doesn't pay for schools, or police officers, or for the most part roads. $11,500 for every man woman and child in the country. If we cut out the retired and children the number would probably roughly double to $25,000 from every working age adult in the country, and once local taxes are added in that amount probably increases to $35,000. And democrats are worried about cutting 100 billion, which would amount to $650 dollars of that 25,000 thousand that it spends per person. They absolutely refuse with claims of the horrible effects of the deep cuts. Now just for fun, take a guess at how much the federal government spent in 1965. We'll set it to inflation adjusted dollars so that you can get a good guess at how much it was, and see how it compares today. So is it about the same, is it less, if so how much less. Ready? Got your guess? It was 822 billion. Less than a quarter of what the government spends now. Now the Health and Human Services department spends over 900 billion a year. More than it took to run the entire government 45 years ago. And yet a cut of 100 billion less than 3% of the budget is being called draconian. 45 years ago the government and society in general was able to function in the middle of the cold war on spending that was less than quarter of what it is now. And yet even a minor cut we are told would cripple the governments ability to serve it's people.