Finally

Our state has been without a budget for over 3 months. It is somewhat of a relief that we finally have one but it is still troubling to find out some of the details.

“Americans this year had to toil until August 12 to pay for federal, state, and local governments, according to the annual Cost of Government Day (COGD) report by the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation and Center for Fiscal Accountability (CFA).

In 2009, government will consume a whopping 61.34 percent of national income.

Last year’s COGD date, July 16, was the fifth-latest in 32 years. This year, the day on which the average American worker has earned enough in cumulative gross income to pay off his or her share of government spending, including the often-forgotten cost of regulation, falls 26 days later than last year and 23 days later than the previous record-late date, July 20, 1982.

The largest component of the total cost of government, according to the report, is federal spending, which consumes 30.36 percent of national income this year and forces us to work through the first 111 days of the year just to pay for this component of COGD.