May 13, 2011 2:05PM # FTC Advert: Cut Our Budget! By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) --- SHARE An insert that ran in the *Washington Times* this week didn’t say directly that the Federal Trade Commission’s budget should be cut. But a few short steps get you there. The FTC-produced insert—a 16-page, color brochure appearing in a number of papers—is titled: “[Living Life Online](http://nierocks.areavoices.com/2011/05/13/living-life-online/).” It’s aimed at teaching children how to use the Internet, with articles titled: “Sharing Well With Others” and “Minding Your Manners.” An ad on the back points kids to an FTC Web site about advertising called [Admon​go​.gov](http://www.admongo.gov/), and little smart-phone insets contain factoids like: > DID YOU KNOW? Teens text 50 messages a day on average, five times more than the typical adult (who sends or receives 10 text messages a day). Well, I have some factoids to share, too: > DID YOU KNOW? The U.S. Constitution provides for a federal government of limited, enumerated powers (and teaching kids about the Internet is not one of them). Here’s another: > DID YOU KNOW? The federal government has had massive deficit spending in recent years, of $459 billion in FY2008, $1.4 trillion in FY2009, $1.3 trillion in FY2010, and $1.5 trillion in FY2011 (which is a huge [damper on economic recovery](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12752)). It’s time to make serious budget cuts, and a government agency that seeks to replace parenting with government propagandizing to children is a great opportunity to do that. Cato’s [Downsizing Government](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/) project has been making its way through the major agencies, but don’t overlook the little ones. [President Obama’s budget](http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/33_1.pdf) called for the FTC to spend $321 million in fiscal 2012. Zeroing that out would save a bunch, not only in direct expenses but in the dead-weight loss to the economy and consumer welfare symbolized by the FTC’s awful “[Man Restraining Trade](http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/hq_building.shtm)” statues. ##### Related Tags [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy), [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).