Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Is it time to rein in the federal government?

To answer it shortly: yes it is.  Apparently a large majority of Americans agree with me as well.  The problem is, that majority feels that we should still spend money on the things that they like, while cutting back on the things they don't like.  The thing of it is, though, that one person doesn't necessarily feel the same way about the same programs as the next person does.  The end result is a large mass of people who want to cut the government's budget, but can't decide on what to get rid of.  And then we wind up with a bunch of politicians who promise to get spending under control, who vow to reduce the deficit (which is a moronic proposition in itself - they're not pledging to stop spending more than we're bringing in, they're just planning on not spending as much money that we don't have - we'll still be going deeper into the hole, just not as fast), and eliminate government waste, but still wind up spending more than ever.  Well, it's time to do something about this, because we're just following the Europeans down the path of fiscal irresponsibility.  It's not a quick and easy fix; there is a lot of hard thinking to do and a lot of difficult choices have to be made.  However, the Heritage Foundation (a conservative think tank) currently has a poll up asking what you think we could cut "without harm to our vital interests."  (visit askheritage.org for the full scoop)  The last choice, which would supposedly save $70M, is to require federal employees to fly coach on domestic flights.  I would think this to be a no-brainer, but I guess since the government is spending other people's money, they have no problem hitting up the upgrades.  Wouldn't it be funny, though, if this was an area where spending problems were addressed, and ALL federal employees had to fly coach (including the president???)?

12 comments:

  1. yes, make the president fly coach, maybe saving billions on special BS will immediately start to help.

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  2. great idea that would definitely save some money

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  3. agree, we need to take care of our financial responsibilities

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  4. you seem like a very educated person, good blog man ! following.

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  5. I'd really like to see some sort of movement to address these spending issues. This is getting out of hand.

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  6. I like the sentiment, but I don't think the problem with America is our deficit spending. I'm a longtime deficit hawk who turned away from the Republican Party when Dick Cheney said "Deficits don't matter." I think the issue with America right now is that all major lending institutions and businesses have money. Lots of it. The Wall Street Journal has even documented this. That means supply is not the issue, so we need to increase demand. The only way to do that is to spend. Now we have no money. Why? Because in times of plenty we refused to pay for what we had. I don't think anyone would say the Bush Administration was a time of massive extravagance, but we refused to pay the two wars we had, as well as end the stimulative tax decreases we got to stop the recession of 2000-2001. I was going to put a story about Bill Clinton in here, but realistically the problem isn't that everyone wants to cut this, that, or the other from government. The problem is that no one wants to pay for all the things they do get.

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  7. I saw something on the news about the preparation it takes for the president to travel out of the country. Frequently, the plans are canceled last minute and over a million dollars in materials, labor and fuel are wasted for nothing. it adds up.

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  8. Completely agree with this article, nicely done.

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  9. Makes sense but the president flying coach? that's my only exception

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  10. nice article you wrote there, i totally agree!

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