The Longest Thread.......

Rick, I hope you have paid a visit to your Sawbones and you are on the rebound. Youth is wasted on the young and getting old sucks!

Now what are you on about Gubment waste? It's not like the Gubment is handing out Food Stamps and cell phones to the unemployed masses in an economy that hasn't improved for 5+ years... Oh wait... I forgot, "we" voted for this.

archer wrote: Bummer on being laid up with crap rick.... Hope you are on the mend and it wasnt anything too serious.

Government waste? I believe that is defined as anything "my" party didnt vote for.

Thanks archer, was a close call but all looking ok now.

As for the waste subject, I've been struggling with some bills and eliminating unnecessary stuff from my own budget which got me thinking about all the government waste that never gets addressed until someone gets caught or some agency goes overboard. I just thought it would be interesting to see how long the list is of people, projects, studies, programs, etc. that we could really do without. This isn't a right or left thing, it's a "how can we save this country from ruin" thing. I don't think the average taxpayer understands how many of their hard earned dollars are wasted and why there is no accountability at all in our government.

Maybe someone here thinks there is accountability in government... I'd love to have someone explain that to me.

What's to explain.....the government is people, pretty much just like us.......what is waste to one, is a necessity, or at the least an overwhelming need,to another. Every senator and congress critter, be it at the federal, state, or local level has friends, contributors, and constituents that they want to make happy....not because their happiness matters to them, but because when their friends, constituents and contributors are happy they have a greater chance of getting re-elected. So while an elected official may want to cut spending, and cut waste, and trim the budget.......they surely do not want to cut anything that might effect their personal sphere of influence.

I don't know how we can combat that....unlike a family, where we are dealing with a closed system.....we bring money in, we spend money out....and we have to balance the ledger in order to keep on, keepin' on....the government, any government, is an open system where there are really no consequences personally for those involved in the decision making.....they won't lose the roof over their heads, or go hungry.....it's all money on paper to them and there is no downside to their using money for their needs while cutting money for someone else's.

Accountability? I have yet to see any when it comes to what the government spends money on......they skimp in one area....then spend extravagantly in another....all based on some unexplained formula for what they think is worthwhile and what they don't. I know we differ in our priorities on what government should be doing.....but seriously do you think they care very much how the money they allocate to various agencies gets spent? I don't.....if they are Democrats, they work for the biggest budgets for social services......if they are Republicans they work for the biggest defense budgets (yeah, that is simplistic.....it's just an example)....and once they get the money they want allocated, they move on to their next pet project.....so who is minding the store? No one as best I can tell.

My only experience with government was working for the Georgia State Government......I spent a couple years developing a transportation data base for them, the mentality there, and I suspect with many government agencies, is spend whatever is allocated to you, even if you don't need it, because if you don't your budget will be cut the following year and you might need it then. Even better.......an over-run of your budget might convince the legislatures to allocate a bigger piece of the pie the following year. How do you change that? It's human nature to want more for your team.

archer wrote: It's human nature to want more for your team.

I agree with much of what you said, but this especially.

The problem is that one team is the government and one is the private sector. The private sector feeds the government and the government always wants more. The government supposedly works for us yet is not accountable to us and a government worker is harder to fire than submerged tree. This also sums it up for me...
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTOfXTw69dtbtxLR93Pzbih6oV5v22fBXB2sbFLIv69ohQgYTt38g
When the people at the top have no clue what's going on below them, the government has gotten too large. We need the private sector to grow and the government to shrink... not go away, just become accountable for inefficiencies, duplication, nonsense programs, and pure waste. And if that's just not possible, we are in serious trouble.

Making the government smaller will not make it more efficient.....it will just make it smaller, and still inefficient. I don't trust the private sector any more than you don't trust the government....in fact I think we have more possibility of control over our government than we will ever have over the private sector. I just don't believe in the idea that given the freedom, a corporation will do the right thing. Historically, they have not. I want to see us take the government back.....as an instrument of the people, and for the people.....it could be run much like a business....it could be more efficient. There are many areas where the private sector can work with the government, but it cannot, nor should it ever, replace the government. Some things should not be profit motivated.

I want to take this further, but the windows are open, the pollen is flying, and my eyes are blurry.

archer wrote: Making the government smaller will not make it more efficient.....it will just make it smaller, and still inefficient. I don't trust the private sector any more than you don't trust the government....in fact I think we have more possibility of control over our government than we will ever have over the private sector. I just don't believe in the idea that given the freedom, a corporation will do the right thing. Historically, they have not. I want to see us take the government back.....as an instrument of the people, and for the people.....it could be run much like a business....it could be more efficient. There are many areas where the private sector can work with the government, but it cannot, nor should it ever, replace the government. Some things should not be profit motivated.

I want to take this further, but the windows are open, the pollen is flying, and my eyes are blurry.

So... we take the government back. What next? The government takes the corporations back?

Walter L Newton wrote:

archer wrote: Making the government smaller will not make it more efficient.....it will just make it smaller, and still inefficient. I don't trust the private sector any more than you don't trust the government....in fact I think we have more possibility of control over our government than we will ever have over the private sector. I just don't believe in the idea that given the freedom, a corporation will do the right thing. Historically, they have not. I want to see us take the government back.....as an instrument of the people, and for the people.....it could be run much like a business....it could be more efficient. There are many areas where the private sector can work with the government, but it cannot, nor should it ever, replace the government. Some things should not be profit motivated.

I want to take this further, but the windows are open, the pollen is flying, and my eyes are blurry.

So... we take the government back. What next? The government takes the corporations back?

No..... I did not state that nor do I believe that.

Sorry rick that my posts caused this thread to go off topic. The subject of government waste is an important one, it effects all of us.

archer wrote: Sorry rick that my posts caused this thread to go off topic. The subject of government waste is an important one, it effects all of us.

Well I just finished making a long post defending the topic of this thread to you and you posted this before I got mine submitted Makes me think you are spying on me

Anyway, I appreciate what you said. I think this is a good way for us to discuss the merits of what our government spends our money on. Some may point out specific military spending while others will point out programs that don't work. Regardless what you think is a waste of money, there's enough material to keep this thread going for a long long time. I also like it because it's a way to discuss the substance of our government and not just "Look what your guy did neener neener neener!".

If I have a faucet dripping in my house, I make it a point to fix it, even if it's small waste. I believe the government has millions of dripping faucets and broken pipes, but the fix just becomes "lets make bigger drains".