I used my first column for The Fiscal Times to take on all those who insist that the only way to deal with the federal deficit is by cutting spending.  Contrary to those who repeat the "it's a spending problem" mantra, spending definitely is not the only issue and spending cuts are not the only possible response.

Take a look.

In my Roll Call column this week, I take another shot at the Gallup poll on waste from about 10 days ago and on Steve Moore's characterization of that poll.  Thanks.  for listening.  I feel much better now.

Waste Not, Want Not — but First Define Waste and Want

Sept. 29, 2009

Gallup released a poll two weeks ago that unwittingly but perfectly explains the ever-intractable politics of the federal budget. The poll, which was released Sept. 15, found that the average American believes that 50 cents of every tax dollar collected by the federal government is wasted.

Steve Moore wrote a column published by the Wall Street Journal yesterday that tried very hard to use the results of a recent Gallup poll to convince everyone a massive taxpayer revolt is close at hand.  There are two problems: He's misreading the poll and he's doesn't understand its implications.

Bruce fowarded to me a remarkable poll from Gallup.  He suggested that I, rather than he, was the right person to comment.  I am happy to oblige one of my bloggers-in-crime.

The poll shows that, on average, Americans today believe that 50 cents of every federal tax dollar is wasted. Gallup makes a big deal of the fact that this is an increase from 46 cents per dollar in 2001.

There's one problem: the poll never defines "waste."

Is it:

Don't even bother.  From today's local paper:

Piermont -- Fifteen years after starting their dairy farm above the Connecticut River, Lisa Knapton and Hal Covert milk 104 cows every day with the help of one hired hand. Life at Moonstruck Farm has not been easy, but along the way, Knapton and Covert have had some help: The couple received about $360,000 in federal farm subsidies from 1995 through 2006.

Much of it helped offset low milk prices and fund construction of the Piermont farm's environmentally friendly manure pit, boosts for Knapton and Covert as they faced the challenges of Northern New England's dwindling dairy industry. But a substantial portion was money the couple never asked for -- and that Knapton says they didn't deserve.

It's hard not to be impressed with a song, like "Rock and Roll is Here to Stay," which Danny and the Juniors made popular half a century ago,  that is still being sung.

It's also hard not to be impressed by how popular earmarks are in the local area where the money will be spent and how angry voters in those areas are when the money they were hoping would be appropriated isn't provided.

Maybe he doesn't get the memos from the White House.

At the same time the Bush administration is pushing what it says are strong fiscal conservative credentials and insisting that Congress not raise spending above the levels in his fiscal 2008 budget, Defense Secretary Robert Gates yesterday called for more spending to be provided to the State Department and other federal agencies for what the Voice of American called "diplomacy, foreign aid, information and...'soft power.'"

The evidence continues to mount: Blackwater, that is, the reliance on contractors to do what should be done by the military, is the direct result of the Pentagon’s, or White House’s disastrous federal budget policies.

The fires in southern Calfiornia have become the latest in what is now a long line and steady series of Katrinas and Walter Reeds, that is, a federal program that was deliberately underfunded and its effectiveness seriously...and disastrously...undermined.

For someone who was once the chief economist at OMB under Dave Stockman, Larry Kudlow should know better.

His post from earlier this week on nationalreviewonline talks about federal spending perpetuates the myth that it can be cut without consequences. The whole post is here, but the two relevant paragraphs are: