New Report: Government Waste

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/ ... tained-fox" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Newsflash: All of you ALREADY look like jackasses............before this came out.

[dbackjon]

How so? Many of us have been calling for cutting waste all along. And no suprise that the biggest department highlighted for waste was the Defense Department.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Education is the biggest waste of tax payers dollars.

We at least get something from the Department of Defense.


It doenst matter anyway, first of all they wont do anything about it and 2nd if for some reason they did look into this, they will still keep all the money and spend it on something else.

[Chizzang]

Education is the biggest waste of tax payers dollars.

We at least get something from the Department of Defense.


It doenst matter anyway, first of all they wont do anything about it and 2nd if for some reason they did look into this, they will still keep all the money and spend it on something else.

Indeed,
Nothing (not one thing) will be done to sincerely correct waste and honestly reduce runaway spending...

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Yep, they already got the money they are not going to give it back.

[93henfan]

If you ever want to really see where the waste is in the Department of Defense, just go visit a Marine Corps Base to get your baseline. Then go visit an Air Force Base.

You'll find out who's doing the most with the least pretty quickly.

[TheDancinMonarch]

This is just the argument we should not be having. An endless discussion with "facts" and anecdotes about which department of government is more wasteful than the other. Well the fact is that government by its' very nature is wasteful particularly at the federal level. And the reason is that there is little or no accountability and much of the "waste" is simply pay-off to friends of the politicians, left and right.

[kalm]

This is just the argument we should not be having. An endless discussion with "facts" and anecdotes about which department of government is more wasteful than the other. Well the fact is that government by its' very nature is wasteful particularly at the federal level. And the reason is that there is little or no accountability and much of the "waste" is simply pay-off to friends of the politicians, left and right.

This.

AKA Crony Capitalism. It's what occassionally draws me toward the cult of libertariansim. Then I watch Stossel and run like hell in the other direction.

[TwinTownBisonFan]

This is just the argument we should not be having. An endless discussion with "facts" and anecdotes about which department of government is more wasteful than the other. Well the fact is that government by its' very nature is wasteful particularly at the federal level. And the reason is that there is little or no accountability and much of the "waste" is simply pay-off to friends of the politicians, left and right.

This.

AKA Crony Capitalism. It's what occassionally draws me toward the cult of libertariansim. Then I watch Stossel and run like hell in the other direction.

well, that and it's not nearly as accurate as the perception of it.

yes there is waste, fraud and abuse without our government - it's inevitable in ANY institution of size... that isn't to say that it should just be accepted or tolerated - just that in any large institution these factors emerge - we're surprisingly good at finding it, contrary to popular belief.

however - the great myth that all 535 members of Congress are setting up agencies of the government to employ friends and relatives and cronies is at least 30 years out of date (corresponding with passage of CSRA, and in reality hasn't really occurred on that scale since the Pendleton Act of 1883, and especially since the Hatch Act of 1940.

There is actually a TON of oversight and accountability in government spending - OMB, CBO, House and Senate Oversight and Government Reform Committees and third party watchdog groups to name but a few.

The problem primarily, isn't waste, fraud and abuse - so much as it is spending that is not in line with priorities of the criticizer. Many people declare programs or funding they don't use, benefit from or like as "wasteful", implying that somehow it has no benefit, and should therefore be axed.

[BDKJMU]

-47 job-training programs, 44 of which overlap
-80 programs for the "transportation disadvantaged."
-82 programs spread across 10 separate agencies endeavor to improve teacher quality -- something hundreds of local school districts are already focused on. Many of them have "duplicate sub-goals," GAO said. Nine of them address teacher quality in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
-56 programs across 20 agencies dealing with financial literacy
-2,100+ data centers -- up from 432 a little more than a decade ago -- across 24 federal agencies. GAO estimated the government could save up to $200 billion over the next decade by consolidating them.
-20 programs across seven agencies dealing with homelessness. The report found $2.9 billion spent on the programs in 2009
-15 agencies administering 30 food-related laws. "Some of the oversight doesn't make any sense," the report stated bluntly.
-80 economic development programs

Most disturbing:
"In some cases, the programs in question struggled to account for what they did. Take, for instance, domestic food assistance initiatives. According to GAO, 18 such programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services -- with GAO estimating $62.5 billion spent on them.
But "little is known about the effectiveness" of 11 of those programs, the report states.
Similarly, of the 47 job-training programs run out of the federal government, only five could provide an "impact study" since 2004 looking at "outcomes." About half of them provided no performance review at all since 2004."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03 ... -programs/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

An ax should be taken to every single one of these duplicate programs...

[93henfan]

Most disturbing:
"In some cases, the programs in question struggled to account for what they did. Take, for instance, domestic food assistance initiatives. According to GAO, 18 such programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services -- with GAO estimating $62.5 billion spent on them.
But "little is known about the effectiveness" of 11 of those programs, the report states.

True story: I traveled to Amherst, MA for the UD @ UMass game last year. My dad and I stopped at a grocery store in (guessing) Springfield to pick up tailgate supplies. As we're walking up, a lady comes up to us frantically and asks if we wanted to buy $50 of food stamps for $20.

That's how effective domestic food assistance initiatives are. May as well hand out meth and Mad Dog.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Most disturbing:
"In some cases, the programs in question struggled to account for what they did. Take, for instance, domestic food assistance initiatives. According to GAO, 18 such programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services -- with GAO estimating $62.5 billion spent on them.
But "little is known about the effectiveness" of 11 of those programs, the report states.

True story: I traveled to Amherst, MA for the UD @ UMass game last year. My dad and I stopped at a grocery store in (guessing) Springfield to pick up tailgate supplies. As we're walking up, a lady comes up to us frantically and asks if we wanted to buy $50 of food stamps for $20.

That's how effective domestic food assistance initiatives are. May as well hand out meth and Mad Dog.

That cant happen, you made that up. These people need help, not stories made up about them.

[Ibanez]

Most disturbing:
"In some cases, the programs in question struggled to account for what they did. Take, for instance, domestic food assistance initiatives. According to GAO, 18 such programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services -- with GAO estimating $62.5 billion spent on them.
But "little is known about the effectiveness" of 11 of those programs, the report states.

True story: I traveled to Amherst, MA for the UD @ UMass game last year. My dad and I stopped at a grocery store in (guessing) Springfield to pick up tailgate supplies. As we're walking up, a lady comes up to us frantically and asks if we wanted to buy $50 of food stamps for $20.

That's how effective domestic food assistance initiatives are. May as well hand out meth and Mad Dog.

Tsk tsk tsk. I was behind a woman at Publix that was using food stamps. She had a nice hair cut, big diamond ring and took her food right into an Infiniti G35.

[dbackjon]

True story: I traveled to Amherst, MA for the UD @ UMass game last year. My dad and I stopped at a grocery store in (guessing) Springfield to pick up tailgate supplies. As we're walking up, a lady comes up to us frantically and asks if we wanted to buy $50 of food stamps for $20.

That's how effective domestic food assistance initiatives are. May as well hand out meth and Mad Dog.

Tsk tsk tsk. I was behind a woman at Publix that was using food stamps. She had a nice hair cut, big diamond ring and took her food right into an Infiniti G35.

Should we require asset disposition for welfare recipiants? Maybe she used to have a great job, is struggling, but has not parted with a few items purchased when she had a job.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Tsk tsk tsk. I was behind a woman at Publix that was using food stamps. She had a nice hair cut, big diamond ring and took her food right into an Infiniti G35.

Should we require asset disposition for welfare recipiants? Maybe she used to have a great job, is struggling, but has not parted with a few items purchased when she had a job.

Yes, yes we should.

She should sell her car before getting public assistance and stealing money from me that she doenst need.

Hey maybe you fu*kers should start a government program to help people transition to common sense? You could piss more of our money away and really feel good about yourselves then.

We all know thats what its all about anyway, feeling good, telling others that work hard what to do and redistribution of wealth.