Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site wu1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!cmcl2!rocky2!cubsvax!wu1!rf From: rf@wu1.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: The actual functions of the U.S. government Message-ID: <253@wu1.UUCP> Date: Sun, 26-Feb-84 16:38:23 EST Article-I.D.: wu1.253 Posted: Sun Feb 26 16:38:23 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 29-Feb-84 08:20:35 EST Organization: Western Union Telegraph, Mahwah, NJ Lines: 20 Recently, I spent an hour studying the *1982 Statistical Abstract of the United States*. I was reading the sections on the federal budget hoping to find facts to buttress an argument. As a result of this research I concluded that: The federal government of the United States of America is the world's largest insurance company, offering mainly three kinds of insurance: income insurance for the elderly ("social security"), war insurance (the military budget), and medical insurance for the elderly ("Medicare"). By war insurance, I refer to the national policy of investing in armies. These three items comprise roughly two thirds of the federal budget. Do we really want to be governed by an insurance company? Incidentally, Nasa and the various federal welfare programs are under 5% of the budget; possibly less (I didn't compute the exact figure). Randolph Fritz