It's their money; give it to us

If you want to know if you truly believe in less government in general and much less federal government in particular, follow the money.

In recent days there has been quite a negative reaction, as gauged by Speak Out comments on this page, to the National Park Service grant to Cape Girardeau that includes a $40,000 study of "wayfinding" signage.

How hard is it, some naysayers ask, to find your way around a city that has just one street that goes all the way from the Mississippi River to its western outskirts, crossing the town's only interstate along the way?

City, chamber of commerce, CVB and Old Town Cape officials are a mite defensive about the brouhaha. One argument in defense of the wayfinding grant: It's money that was going to be spent anyway, so we might as well get our cut.

OK. It's true that the federal government throws money at just about any conceivable proposal. This is generally called pork. A few pork rinds, a slab of bacon or a whole sugar-cured ham can be consumed sans guilt as long as we understand that the pig either goes on our dinner table ... or someone else's. And since we got it, we're obviously smarter than all those other folks dining on beans and cornbread.

Native son and lieutenant governor Peter Kinder -- recently promoting the importance of a full head count in this year's census -- observed that there's a $400 billion pot of cash appropriated by Congress that goes to states based on their population. More Missourians, more moola.

To which could be added: more moola, more control, more bureaucracy, more paperwork. And even more frivolous waste.

Not that all government spending is wasted. Enormous good comes from many government programs. Without that spending, the Great Recession that we hope is drawing its last breaths would likely be the Mother of All Great Depressions.

When it comes to how we really feel about Big Government, it comes down to whether we're sending or receiving. Tax dollars, that is.

The most recent statistics I've been able to find show Missouri is doing pretty well in that regard.

I remember when Kit Bond first became a U.S. senator and jumped on making sure Missouri was a tax benefit state rather than a tax donor state. In short, Missouri has for years consistently received more in federal spending than Missourians paid in federal taxes. In 1981, the return was $1.06 for every dollar of federal taxes. By 2005, the latest year I can find, the return had climbed to $1.32, 17th highest in the nation.

Here's a breakdown of 2005 federal spending in Missouri and surrounding states:

State Return Rank

on fed $

KY $1.51 9

AR $1.41 14

OK $1.36 15

MO $1.32 17

TN $1.27 19

KS $1.12 22

IA $1.10 24

NE $1.10 25

IL $0.75 45

There you go. The good news is that I'm not paying for the wayfinding project. Neither are you. The fine folks in Illinois are.

Isn't this a great country?

jsullivan@semissourian.com<I>