LITTLE ROCK — We should celebrate the triumphs of civilization, since even in these most modern of times the news is often full of the most uncivilized inhumanity.
Halloween gives us one such opportunity. After all, it was only a few scant centuries ago that here in an American colony witches were being tried, convicted and hung.
Nowadays sorceresses are primarily caricatured in trick or treat costumes for kids (and their party-going adult counterparts). That is, when they’re not filling screens as part of the Harry Potter movies or enthralling audiences on Broadway and national theater tours in Wicked.
Wicca even achieved constitutional recognition and protection as a religion in 1985.
Vampires have become chic, thanks to Stephenie Meyer and the movie adaptations of her novels.
“The Monster Mash,” Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s novelty hit song, reached number one on the Hot 100 List when released in 1962, and has sold some 4 million copies.
Even as the specter of recession haunts our economy, one chart whose arrow keeps rising like Linus’ Great Pumpkin is Halloween spending, expected to reach record highs this October.
The National Retail Federation has conducted annual surveys regarding Halloween commerce for a decade, and this year seven out of 10 respondents said they plan to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve-a 64 percent increase from last year.
The total tally on the national frenzy for fright fun: nearly $7 billion. The average American will drop $72 on spooky spending, which is an alltime high.
Just about every category is up: people wearing costumes and spending on kids’ and adults’ costumes as well as people throwing parties, attending parties, handing out candy and dressing up pets.
Against the backdrop of all this festive fall mischief comes a truly hairraising revelation. Graphic visualization artist Jess Bachman published his “Death and Taxes 2012” poster on October 19. It boils down the largestfederal budget ever into a 24-by-36-inch poster, and creates a visual record of discretionary spending.
The genius of Bachman’s infographics is the way he uses circles-proportionately scaled to their funding levels-to represent programs.
The resulting diagram resembles a series of solar systems crowded onto a space-black poster background, with smaller program spheres orbiting departments and divisions like moons and planets.
Almost every federal program that receives more than $200 million annually is represented, and beside each spheroid representation are the percentage changes since last year and since a decade ago.
The lion’s share of discretionary spending goes to national security ($754 billion), which is featured on the left side of the graph (Bachman’s nod to nonpartisanship, perhaps). Other departments-education, transportation, labor, EPA, HUD, HHS, etc.-and their programs are located on the right.
The chart doesn’t include nondiscretionary spending such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which are funded through separate, respective taxes.
At the bottom right is a small chart outlining the entire budget’s outlays and revenues. Every receipt category is up, except Federal Reserve deposits. In fact, receipts overall are up 21 percent since last year and 34 percent since 2002. But that decennial increase is dwarfed by federal outlays, which are up 84 percent. Every expenditure category is down, except Social Security and, tellingly, national debt interest.
It’s always struck me as odd that while every vital line item, including social programs and national defense, can wind up on the chopping block,it appears to be impossible to even freeze (let alone cut) interest expense. The federal government will spend 17 percent more on interest payments in 2012 than it did this year, and 53 percent more than in 2002.
If soldiers, the elderly, the ill, the poor and widows and orphans are all having to do with less this year, it seems out of kilter that some negotiation can’t occur with banks to at least defer payments as well. But maybe that’s just me.
Nearly one out of three budget dollars is borrowed and piled on a national debt that is 94 percent higher than it was 10 years ago. Frightened yet?
Glancing over the poster, it’s revealing to see where the money goes, and which programs grew by leaps and bounds.
In the Department of Education, the Excellent Instructional Teams achieved an excellent 259 percent increase in its program budget, while Supporting Student Success successfully increased its funding support by353 percent.
Some military programs also garnered spikes in funding: Median Tactical Vehicles were up 331 percent; Join Tactical Radio System was up 270 percent. The largest increase on the chart? A measly $761 million program under DoD Procurement for Advanced EHF satellites whose funding soared by 1,899 percent.
At the bottom of the chart are some nongovernmental circles for reference. The one denoting Bill Gates’ net worth is slightly smaller than the National Guard’s budget disk, and a little larger than the entire State Department’s sphere.
All told, it’s an eye-opening view of the tentacled complexity of an overgrown federal government, and should be affixed to every tax return so payers can see where their money goes.
See it for yourself at deathandtaxesposter.com. It’ll give you the perfect scare for the season.
Editorial, Pages 15 on 10/28/2011