Use It or Lose It

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom." ~ Benjamin Franklin

I joined the United States Army in 1965, intending to be a career Army aviator. Once I was promoted into a command position, I was first exposed to the concept of “use it or lose it” in regard to government budgeting. I left active duty in 1972 and subsequently went to work for a county sheriff’s office. There too, the mantra was use it or lose it regarding annual budgeting. 

In 1987, I went back to work for the federal government, and the one thing that has never been more consistent in government is that at the end of the fiscal year, was to use up unspent annual funding so increased funding could be justified for the following fiscal year. Sadly, I easily accepted that mindset, and throughout my career, I was a willing participant in that practice without ever thinking it through.

With age, experience, and looking at the big picture comes wisdom. Next to pure corruption, which we now know is rampant in the federal government, much of the waste in government leads right back to the use it or lose it philosophy in regard to annual budgeting. Good, honest, and well-intentioned government employees get sucked into the use it or lose it game. However, inevitably the use it or lose it philosophy results in the bloating of every government agency. And if any government in the world has demonstrated that reality, it is the United States federal government.

It needs to be understood that no wrongdoing is occurring by most government employees; they are simply going along to get along. It also needs to be understood that nearly all government agencies from school boards to the United States Congress wastes taxpayer money because of the long history of always wanting a bigger budget, need it or not.

As the world is today, there is no incentive for government employees to curb spending. Under current conditions, the bigger their organization gets, the more supervisory positions are needed, and promotions mean bigger pay checks. However, if there was a reward system in place for employees turning back unused budgeted funds, the mindset of the system could very well change overnight.

Prior to, and certainly since the turn of the century, federal spending has been a runaway train. The reality is that more than 31 trillion dollars of the 36.9 trillion in national debt, that’s 84%, has accumulated in this century. How much of that waste can be attributed to the waste I have addressed? I don’t know. I do know that every, otherwise, unused dollars are wasted at the end of every fiscal year, and it can and should be stopped.

In the private sector, in most cases, a company is growing or dying. However, a private company’s future is always controlled by the bottom line because income determines whether a company grows or fails. Of course, this principle doesn’t apply to the government because the powers-to-be think they can always get more taxes. That is until it is recognized that the 36.9 trillion-dollar debt (at the time of this writing) smack one in the face.

After a 55 year career as a professional pilot in the military, in law enforcement, in the private sector, and in federal civil service, I am now retired.

In many of these positions I repeatedly took an oath to defend the United States Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.