The Rogues' Gallery Of Government

Social Security is deep in the red, the post office is losing billions, and Fannie Mae's back for another handout. These and other examples speak volumes about government fecklessness and negligence. Social Security checks mailed in 2010 will total $41 billion more than the program will collect in payroll-tax revenues, trustees reported last Thursday. The program will also run a deficit next year, before briefly returning to surpluses for a few years. Then the red ink will be back — for good — starting in 2015, a year earlier than previously projected. Some analysts believe that while deficits begin this year, 2015 is key because that's when Social Security will need permanent injections of cash from general revenues. The billions the program will require, says David C. John of the Heritage Foundation, "will make it harder to find money for other government programs or require large and growing tax increases." While digesting that grim news, don't forget Thursday's report that the U.S. Postal Service lost $3.5 billion for the quarter that ended June 30. Over the same quarter last year, the post office lost only $2.4 billion. Three-fourths of the way through its current fiscal year, losses at the Postal Service have totaled $5.4 billion. The post office's future is as dim, if not dimmer, than its past...more