Government Spending with Fexingo: Budget, Deficits, and Public Finance Explained

The U.S. government is projected to spend over one trillion dollars on interest payments on the national debt in fiscal year 2026, making it the fastest-growing major category of federal spending. This episode breaks down how Treasury bonds, notes, and bills work, why the average interest rate on the debt has doubled in recent years, and how refinancing older low-rate debt at higher rates will push interest costs even higher. Lucas and Luna explain who holds the debt—including foreign governments and the Federal Reserve—and what net interest means after Fed rebates. They discuss the structural problem of debt growing faster than the economy, the vicious cycle of borrowing to pay interest, and why reducing the deficit is the only sustainable solution. A concrete look at the mechanics and consequences of government borrowing for every taxpayer.

#GovernmentSpending #NationalDebt #InterestPayments #FederalBudget #TreasuryBonds #DebtManagement #FiscalPolicy #TaxDollars #PublicFinance #Economics #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #FederalReserve #BondMarket #InterestRates #DebtCeiling #BudgetDeficit #TaxpayerCost

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The federal government operates over 600,000 vehicles - from sedans to heavy trucks - costing taxpayers roughly $7 billion annually. This episode examines how poor fleet management, underutilized vehicles, and a lack of competition in maintenance contracts drive up costs. We look at specific examples like the GSA's 200,000-strong fleet where nearly a third of sedans sit idle each day, and how private sector fleet operators achieve 20-30% lower per-mile costs. Lucas and Luna break down the structural incentives that keep this waste alive and why reform has been so difficult.

#GovernmentSpending #FederalVehicleFleet #TaxpayerWaste #GSA #FleetManagement #PublicFinance #BudgetDeficit #Inefficiency #GovernmentReform #VehicleMaintenance #Automotive #Logistics #Economics #Business #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #PodcastEpisode #Episode136

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In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down the economics of public financing for professional sports stadiums. Using the Las Vegas Raiders' Allegiant Stadium as a case study — which cost $1.9 billion with $750 million in taxpayer money — they explore why cities and states have spent an estimated $30 billion on stadium subsidies over the past three decades. They examine the broken promises of economic development, the threat of relocation, and what that money could have bought instead.

#GovernmentSpending #Economics #PublicFinance #SportsStadiums #StadiumSubsidies #TaxpayerMoney #AllegiantStadium #LasVegasRaiders #BuffaloBills #EconomicDevelopment #CorporateWelfare #StateLocalGov #Infrastructure #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #BudgetAndDeficit #PolicyDebate #CostBenefitAnalysis

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The U.S. federal government spends $1.1 billion annually on printing, yet a GAO audit finds that 40% of printed documents are never read. This episode digs into why agencies still rely on paper, the legal mandates that lock in waste, and how a shift to digital could save hundreds of millions. We also explore the broken procurement incentives that keep the presses running on unopened reports.

#GovernmentSpending #Fexingo #FederalPrinting #GAO #GPO #PaperWaste #BudgetDeficit #PublicFinance #Economics #Inefficiency #DigitalTransformation #Procurement #FederalRegister #TaxDollars #BusinessPodcast #Waste #Audit #Savings

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In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down the $20 billion in annual federal subsidies for oil, gas, and coal companies. From the percentage depletion allowance — a deduction dating back to 1913 — to intangible drilling costs that let companies expense up to 70% of drilling costs immediately, they trace how these tax breaks persist through lobbying and survive bipartisan reform efforts. They also touch on the master limited partnership tax break for pipelines and compare the explicit subsidies to the implicit ones the IMF estimates at $700 billion annually. The conversation explores why these subsidies are so politically durable and what real reform would require. If you've ever wondered why your tax dollars help fund oil drilling or why efforts to close loopholes keep failing, this episode offers a clear, grounded explanation.

#FossilFuelSubsidies #TaxBreaks #GovernmentSpending #OilAndGas #PercentageDepletion #IntangibleDrillingCosts #MasterLimitedPartnership #IMF #Budget #TaxCode #Lobbying #EnergyPolicy #Economics #PublicFinance #ClimatePolicy #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #GovernmentSubsidies

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Episode 132 of Government Spending with Fexingo digs into a $10.2 billion annual overpayment in US federal payroll — mistakes in timekeeping, benefits, and tax withholding that add up to roughly $78 per taxpayer. Lucas and Luna walk through the root causes: outdated COBOL-based systems across 26 agencies, a 2024 GAO report showing error rates above 5 percent, and the perverse incentives that keep agencies from fixing it. They contrast the federal mess with two private-sector payroll vendors — ADP and Workday — that typically run error rates under 0.5 percent. The episode also touches on the 2025 Payroll Integrity Act stalled in committee and why Congress has little appetite for the upfront IT investment. A practical look at how bureaucratic inertia, not malice, quietly extracts billions from the federal budget every year.

#GovernmentPayroll #FederalWaste #COBOL #GAO #PayrollIntegrityAct #ADP #Workday #OPM #TreasuryDepartment #ITModernization #TaxWithholding #Timekeeping #Overpayment #BudgetReform #Economics #PublicFinance #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast

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In this episode of Government Spending with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into a little-known culprit behind bloated public costs: flawed government pricing models. Using the Federal Reserve's 2024 study on federal procurement, they reveal how outdated 'cost-plus' contracts inflate prices by 20 to 30 percent compared to fixed-price alternatives. Lucas explains the perverse incentives that reward contractors for inefficiency, while Luna highlights real-world examples like the $1,000 toilet seat and the Pentagon's F-35 program. They discuss why competitive bidding isn't always enough and how the government's own data shows that simple pricing reforms could save taxpayers over $50 billion annually. The episode also touches on why private-sector pricing innovation hasn't crossed over to the public sphere and what citizens can do to push for change.

#GovernmentPricing #CostPlusContracts #FederalProcurement #TaxpayerWaste #F35Program #PentagonSpending #PricingModels #FixedPrice #IncentiveMisalignment #PublicFinance #BudgetCuts #EconomicEfficiency #GovernmentWaste #ProcurementReform #FederalReserve #Business #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast

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Episode 130 of Government Spending with Fexingo uncovers a hidden drain on public budgets: long-term office leases signed by city and state governments. Lucas and Luna examine a specific case—the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's 30-year lease at 1500 Market Street in Philadelphia, signed in 1994—to show how these deals lock in above-market rates for decades. They explain why governments don't hedge rent costs, how lease-versus-own analysis is rigged toward renting, and what one auditor found when she compared the state's lease portfolio to private sector benchmarks. The episode offers a concrete look at a little-known cost that compounds into hundreds of millions per city.

#GovernmentLeases #PublicFinance #BudgetWaste #Philadelphia #Pennsylvania #LeaseAccounting #GASB #MunicipalBudget #RealEstate #EconomicEfficiency #FiscalPolicy #Audit #PublicSector #Economics #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #GovernmentSpending #TaxpayerCosts

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Episode 129 of Government Spending with Fexingo: Budget, Deficits, and Public Finance Explained. Lucas and Luna dig into the economics of government incentive zones, using a specific case: the 2023 expansion of Opportunity Zones in the US. They break down how the program was designed to spur investment in low-income areas, but instead delivered outsized windfalls to real estate developers and investors. Lucas walks through the numbers: $75 billion in deferred capital gains taxes, with two-thirds flowing to projects that would have happened anyway. Luna questions the lack of clawback provisions and the difficulty of measuring true additionality. They bring in a parallel from the UK's Enterprise Zones in the 1980s, where similar incentives led to inflated land values without sustained job creation. The episode closes on a question: can place-based tax incentives ever be structured to actually benefit the intended communities? For listeners who value ad-free public finance content, support is available at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo.

#OpportunityZones #TaxIncentives #GovernmentSpending #EconomicDevelopment #RealEstate #CapitalGains #PublicFinance #Economics #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #GovernmentWaste #IncentiveZones #EnterpriseZones #UK #Additionality #WindfallProfits #LowIncome #Investment

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Episode 128 of Government Spending with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna examine why government IT projects routinely run 800 to 1,000 percent over budget, using the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' electronic health records modernization as a case study. The original 2018 contract with Cerner (now Oracle Health) was valued at $10 billion over 10 years; by 2024, the VA had spent $18 billion and still hadn't deployed the system to a fifth of its facilities. Lucas breaks down three structural drivers: procurement rules that lock in a single vendor before requirements are final, the 'budget-as-ceiling' paradox that incentivizes cost-plus padding, and the absence of competitive pressure once a contractor is selected. Luna raises the Obamacare Healthcare.gov launch in 2013 as a comparison point — that project cost $2 billion and was famously nonfunctional for months. The hosts discuss how private-sector agile development rarely translates to government contracting, where requirements are frozen in law and oversight is retrospective. They close on whether the government should adopt 'spending caps' tied to milestones, as the UK's Government Digital Service attempted. No hot takes — just the numbers and the incentives that produce them.

#GovernmentIT #SoftwareCosts #VeteransAffairs #OracleHealth #Cerner #HealthcareGov #Procurement #CostOverruns #AgileGovernment #DigitalServices #BudgetDeficits #PublicFinance #EconomicsPodcast #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #GovernmentSpending #ITSpending #MilestoneFunding

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