INTERVIEW | Why Govt. Doesn't Have Right to 'Take Whatever It Wants of Your Labors,' Federal Budget Expert Explains

The Daily Signal

News, Daily News, Government, Politics

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🗓️ 24 July 2023

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

It's the duty of Congress to use American tax dollars responsibly, Richard Stern says. American taxpayers deserve to know where their money's going because “the government doesn't have the moral right to walk up and take whatever it wants of your labors because a bureaucrat thinks they know better than you how to use the resources you produced,” says Stern, director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at The Heritage Foundation. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.) There are 12 appropriations bills that move through Congress each year, and according to Stern, it's the job of lawmakers to ensure that each bill uses Americans' hard-earned taxpayer dollars well, but also the job of the American people to hold their elected officials accountable to do just that. "I think we've ended up in a society where people have kind of quietly thought, 'Maybe the government is better at spending that than I am.' And I think that's been the genesis of the problem," he says. Stern joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain what appropriations are and the approval process for them, and why politicians need to be more transparent and responsible when spending taxpayer money. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's an okay structure. The real problem is that nobody follows the structure whatsoever, right?
0:04.7	It's a little bit like, you know, we're talking about border security and the the old line on this is
0:09.5	Biden Obama before him just didn't enforce immigration law
0:18.2	This is the Daily Civil Podcast for Monday, July 24th. I'm Virginia Allen and that was Heritage Foundations Richard Stern
0:26.5	Congress has the power of the purse, but sometimes it appears that they act a little bit more like a teen who's stolen their mom's credit card
0:34.4	than elected officials using taxpayer money responsibly.
0:38.5	According to Richard, the congressional budget process known as appropriations is not serving American taxpayers in the way it should.
0:46.8	And the guilt Richard says is on both sides of the political aisle.
0:52.2	Richard joins me on the show today to break down what exactly appropriations are and how House leadership is
0:58.9	failing to keep the process
1:00.9	transparent to the American people. Stay tuned for our conversation, but before we get to that
1:06.3	I want to tell you all about another great podcast right here out of the Heritage Foundation.
1:11.9	You know what happens to all of us? You're out at dinner. Somebody is talking about the news.
1:17.3	They know that you're a conservative and they look at you and say, well, what do you think?
1:22.5	Energy, the border, China, Ukraine, school choice, big tech, these topics, they're not simple and heavy media bias does not help make things easier.
1:33.7	Fortunately, the Heritage Foundation has developed a podcast to help through the creative use of stories and the knowledge of our passionate experts.
1:43.6	Heritage explains breaks down the most important and complex policy issues of the day.
1:49.5	So whether you're standing up for American values at work at school or just at dinner, you'll have the Heritage Foundation behind you.
1:57.5	Check out Heritage Explains wherever you listen to podcasts.
2:01.1	We are joined today by Richard Stern.
2:09.6	Richard is the director of the Rover M Hermann Center for the Federal Budget here at the Heritage Foundation.
2:15.5	Richard, thanks for being with us.
	...

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