Another Day—Another Dollar: A Day in the Life of the World’s Big Spender

For years we’ve heard the warnings of conservatives urging us to join in the fight to roll back government spending. It is almost a brokenrecord litany, heard so often that it has lost its impact.

The old saying about being too close to the forest to see the trees may be wrong. Most of us are too far away from the trees to see the forest—or, at any rate, to distinguish anything but a blob in the distance. For a clearer focus, how about a look at the economic diary of the federal bureaucracy for a single day—not a day chosen for anything unusual—just an ordinary, runof-the-mill day: say, April 29, 1981. There is a publication that supplies this information every day—the Commerce Business Daily, published by the U.S. Department of Commerce. It usually consists of 32 pages of small print, divided into three sections: Procurements of Services and Supplies, Research and Development Sources Sought, and Contract Awards (it is explained that the government publishes information only on contract awards exceeding $25,000 in value for civil agencies and $100,000 for military agencies). It is Uncle Sam’s classified-ads newspaper, and it makes for some fascinating reading if you’re curious about where your tax dollars are going.

JM

About the Author

James W. McClain Jr.

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For years we’ve heard the warnings of conservatives urging us to join in the fight to roll back government spending. It is almost a brokenrecord litany, heard so often that it has lost its impact.

The old saying about being too close to the forest to see the trees may be wrong. Most of us are too far away from the trees to see the forest—or, at any rate, to distinguish anything but a blob in the distance. For a clearer focus, how about a look at the economic diary of the federal bureaucracy for a single day—not a day chosen for anything unusual—just an ordinary, runof-the-mill day: say, April 29, 1981. There is a publication that supplies this information every day—the Commerce Business Daily, published by the U.S. Department of Commerce. It usually consists of 32 pages of small print, divided into three sections: Procurements of Services and Supplies, Research and Development Sources Sought, and Contract Awards (it is explained that the government publishes information only on contract awards exceeding $25,000 in value for civil agencies and $100,000 for military agencies). It is Uncle Sam’s classified-ads newspaper, and it makes for some fascinating reading if you’re curious about where your tax dollars are going.