The waste in this country could probably sustain most European nations for decades or longer, yet nobody seems to care. Nobody includes the President, the Senate, The Congress and probably you, and even a bit of me. Years ago this President had a commission that reported back to him on the enormous waste in this country and I for one have not seen anything positive done about this report.
This points to the difference between government and business and shows you why government shouldn't be in business. They should spend their time governing!
A prudent business would not rest while waste is prevalent in their company. They would find it and get rid of it or be forced to either raise their level of production and sales quickly or cut back their workforce to reduce their costs or go out of business.
The government on the other hand simply calls on their “investors” (that would be us) and tells us to hand over more money. Really! Don't get rid of the waste, too hard and takes too long. Call the citizens for money and forget the waste!
While doing some research for this paper I found that there are about 77,000 buildings that are owned by the government that are vacant and cost us over $1.5 billion to maintain each year. The only centralized database, the Federal Real Property Profile, is not considered reliable otherwise they might be able to find the buildings that could be sold. That is if they wanted to actually do that… Or is that too hard and would take too long?
In the stimulus bill there was $8 billion for a high speed railroad from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, which I dubbed "The Las Vegas Casino Recovery Act''". Nothing happened on that project, but supposedly it is now available for any high speed project.
Is it really the government’s job to seek out somewhere to spend the money? The plan made no sense from the start so where is it and why isn't being used to pay down the national debt.
Disability payments to our citizens are a travesty and a tragedy. We spend more money on disability payments to our countrymen and women than we spend on welfare and food stamps combined. In the past the number one cause for disability was heart attack and stroke, about 25% of those disabled. Today 1/3 of the disabled are suffering from a bad back. Everybody has a bad back because we weren't meant to walk on two feet. There are places in the country that decide your disability by your being a college graduate or a high school graduate or less. They believe that college graduates will get desk jobs and those who didn't attend will have to stand and do physical labor.
I have a bad back from football, rowing crew and several car accidents and I find it much easier to stand than sit even though I am a college graduate.
My question is easy: if you didn't have the government to rely on for money could you work at a job so you and your family can have shelter and food? I think we know the answer to that question. So I will ask one more question. Do my grandkids get a choice when they are older to either inherit this massive debt with everyone else & pay it back or can they just be disabled by this enormous burden and drop out?
I received the following from a friend of mine:
Today I read about the IRS and their $385 billion tax gap and the nerve to ask for more funding via tax raises! They were allocated $11.2 billion by Congress while at the same time they have held EXPENSIVE retreats, LAVISH parties, participated in some illegal practices and doled out $63 million for employee bonuses. They say they need these increases to efficiently carry out Obamacare. In 1998 Congress passed the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act to cut expenses and allow the IRS to conduct their transactions more efficiently with 80% electronic filing for both individual and business tax returns. This goal was supposedly achieved and should have substantially reduced the IRS submission processing costs. This is outrageous!
Congress, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate, are supposed to pass a budget every year to guide the government's spending. Some purists believe this esteemed group hasn't passed a "real" budget in 17 years while others say it is only 3 to 5 years ago. Does it matter? Every year we overspend as a nation to the tune of just about a trillion dollars. And what does it cost us for this fiscal magic?
With their salaries, their expenses, their health care and their pensions, plus retired legislators’ retirements, it is about $6 Billion a year. If we bargained with them and did it for $3 billion or maybe $300 million how much worse could it be?
WAKE UP AMERICA! We are paying little to no interest on the national debt and we still can't balance the budget. Why are you clipping coupons for food while your legislatures are dinning on steak and champagne at almost every meal? Why are you working to increase your mileage on your favorite airline while your friends in Washington are charging you for their flights? Had a vacation in the Caribbean or Europe lately? Even the spouses of the elected go with family to places, such as China, on our nickel.
I will close with a quote from my high school football coach who pulled me out of the game to tell me what I need to do to intercept the pass the next time: "For crying out loud, KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE BALL!”