Author Topic: The government just does not get it....  (Read 3180 times)

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Offline 5412

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The government just does not get it....
« on: May 24, 2009, 07:34:04 PM »
Hi All,

I read now where the CA governor wants to eliminate welfare.  Not that I am against that but the mere headline gags me.  Let me explain.

In private industry there is a profit motive.  When times are good and profitable, most companies grow, expand, hire new people etc.  On the reverse side, when times get bad, companies have to downsize.  That can come in several ways, most notably folks take pay cuts, or people get laid off, or a combination of both. 

Just once in my life I would love to see some government agency get it.  I honestly do not recall seeing any agency cut costs by reducing salaries or laying off people like they do in private industry.  Arnold will take it out of the welfare budget......like government workers are the epitome of productivity???  Take the money away from the citizens but don't ever cut salaries of benefits from government workers....

The case for term limits, particularly in congres grows stronger by the day.  In Florida they were doing our budget and we had a shortfall of several hundred million dollars....woe is me, what to do screamed the papers.  Well when I saw the total budget for the state, the shortfall was less than 1% for crying out loud.  Now most any competent manager in the private sector would just tell each department head to cut their costs by 1% to balance the budget.  If they cannot do that, to let the manager know and he will replace them with someone who can figure it out.  Instead there is this major hassle and do-gooder crying in the paper about potential cuts.  Then the government decides to "punish" the taxpayers by taking sports programs out of the schools, things like that.  Not once do the government workers have to sacrifice.

If Arnold was smart he would do the same thing in CA.  If revenues were projected to be short by 5-10%, each department has to cut their cost by that amount without reducing the service to the public.  First thing you would see is them cutting what they pay out to others, but not to themselves.  Arnold would just have to put a freeze on hiring and tell each department to cut their staff by 5% by the next year.

BO actually gave all federal workers a raise, now just how dumb is that??  A budget cut to a government employee is something different that what most of us had to deal with in our careers.  In the government there are automatic increases each year in the budget for inflation, so to them a cut is a reduction in the amount of the increase.....it never is an actual cut.  A few years ago I think Gingrich did a study and if the federal budget just froze at the current levels, no automatic increases, within something like five years there would have been a surplus.  Reagan was right, no matter how much money congress takes in, they will spend more.  Pathetic!

There used to be a guy who was a corporate raider who was nicknamed "Chainsaw AL", who could go into companies and cut their costs and get rid of the waste and cut them down to size.  Painful but he played the bad guy despite hundreds of death threats etc.  What our government needs, be it local, state or federal is some folks like that to go in and do the same thing.  I hesistate to think how many hundreds of billions of tax dollars are being wasted that could be saved if folks put their mind to it.

Bottom line is I am sick and tired of having my taxes going up, benefits being cut from the private sector, while the damn government continues to grow and bloat with no sacrifice on their part to speak of.  I think the public is really getting fed up and the tax revolt is coming.

regards,
5412

Offline thundley4

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #1 on: May 24, 2009, 07:38:26 PM »
For a refreshing change of pace, meet Governor Tim Pawlenty.
A Governor And His Veto Pen.




Offline rich_t

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2009, 08:44:39 PM »
I fear it will get worse...  much much worse, before it begins to get better.

Not enough folks are truely pissed off yet.  But I do see that day coming.
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Offline 5412

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2009, 09:15:14 PM »
For a refreshing change of pace, meet Governor Tim Pawlenty.
A Governor And His Veto Pen.





Hi,

What a refreshing change of pace.  Now I make a prediction.  The left is not stupid.  They realize this guy could in fact be a true conservative leader.  Look for everything you can to discredit him, innuedos of a personal nature, they will do everything they can to destroy him just like they did George Allen in VA.  Their propoganda machine will be in full force and I hope he is up to it, and the conservative media is ready to fight back.

It would not surprise me in the least if BO does not already have the CIA lookiing into his affairs just like Clinton did with his political enemies.  God, I wish him well, I am sure pulling for him.

regrards,
5412

Offline DumbAss Tanker

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #4 on: May 25, 2009, 01:18:21 AM »
Just once in my life I would love to see some government agency get it.  I honestly do not recall seeing any agency cut costs by reducing salaries or laying off people like they do in private industry.  Arnold will take it out of the welfare budget......like government workers are the epitome of productivity???  Take the money away from the citizens but don't ever cut salaries of benefits from government workers....

Try working in DOD when a Democrat gets elected or a war ends.  It's a somewhat softer landing than most private sector cuts in a lot of ways (and yet not so much in other ways), but then again it is also a worldwide organization with placement and transfer opportunities that go with its size and scope, so there are a whole lot more places for people to go.
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Offline The Village Idiot

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #5 on: May 25, 2009, 05:14:02 AM »
I remember a time when the Pentagon announced a reduction, nearly in half, of some planes they were buying to "save money" and the new price ... about the same as before, with half the planes.

Offline The Village Idiot

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #6 on: May 25, 2009, 05:17:03 AM »
hey cut out about 20% of the paper pushers, desk jockeys, chair warmers, close libraries on Tuesdays and Fridays, stop mowing the parks weekly and go to twice monthly... eliminate all grants for art, eliminate state payouts to NPR and PBS and stuff. I am sure they can find things to cut if they really wanted to.

Offline 5412

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #7 on: May 25, 2009, 07:14:32 AM »
hey cut out about 20% of the paper pushers, desk jockeys, chair warmers, close libraries on Tuesdays and Fridays, stop mowing the parks weekly and go to twice monthly... eliminate all grants for art, eliminate state payouts to NPR and PBS and stuff. I am sure they can find things to cut if they really wanted to.

Good Morning,

When nitwit Carter set up the Department of Energy the purpose was to find a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil.  How about eliminating the entire department????

regards,
5412

Offline The Village Idiot

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #8 on: May 25, 2009, 07:35:01 AM »
Good Morning,

When nitwit Carter set up the Department of Energy the purpose was to find a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil.  How about eliminating the entire department????

regards,
5412

lol

I saw an article on FR about Toronto trying to find a way to ban paper coffee cups, they spent a half million dollars holding meetings over many months and still no solution.

Offline JohnnyReb

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #9 on: May 25, 2009, 08:34:38 AM »
lol

I saw an article on FR about Toronto trying to find a way to ban paper coffee cups, they spent a half million dollars holding meetings over many months and still no solution.

Sounds to me like everyone is going to have to carry their own coffe cup around with them. .....that ought to piss off the Canadian communist.

You ask, "Why is that"? Because every socialist loving, free loading Canadian will rush and buy a giant beer mug to get a "cup" of coffee in, ergo capitalism.
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism’, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948

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Offline NHSparky

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #10 on: May 25, 2009, 08:37:27 AM »
Basically, why are so many people investing their money having their money confiscated by government to "solve our problems" when government caused most of them in the first place?
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Offline Baruch Menachem

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #11 on: May 25, 2009, 11:06:49 AM »
Good Morning,

When nitwit Carter set up the Department of Energy the purpose was to find a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil.  How about eliminating the entire department????

regards,
5412

Works for me.

Take the Education Department along with it.
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Offline 5412

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #12 on: May 25, 2009, 12:41:06 PM »
Works for me.

Take the Education Department along with it.

Hi,

In 1994, I forget which department Gingrich wanted to eliminate but the cry was so loud he could not pull it off.  It is about time that they try it again.

regards,
5412

Offline thundley4

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #13 on: May 25, 2009, 12:48:28 PM »
Hi,

In 1994, I forget which department Gingrich wanted to eliminate but the cry was so loud he could not pull it off.  It is about time that they try it again.

regards,
5412

That had to be a joke right?  We know the Dims will not cut/eliminate any government program, except for defense.

Offline Chris

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #14 on: May 25, 2009, 01:58:51 PM »
Was it the Dept of Education?  I remember that used to be a major part of the Republican platform, but it seems to have disappeared in the last decade and a half.
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Offline The Village Idiot

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #15 on: May 25, 2009, 02:01:19 PM »
Was it the Dept of Education?  I remember that used to be a major part of the Republican platform, but it seems to have disappeared in the last decade and a half.

He thought that proper market-based healthcare systems would cause MediCare to "wither on the vine".

Offline 5412

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #16 on: May 25, 2009, 06:46:34 PM »
That had to be a joke right?  We know the Dims will not cut/eliminate any government program, except for defense.

Hi,

For some reason I think it was the Commerce department.  The republicans controlled congress but Clinton was president.  The libs and media whined and screamed and like usual, the republicans backed down.

regards,
5412

Offline rich_t

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #17 on: May 25, 2009, 06:59:44 PM »
Other than the department of defense, I can't think off a single other "department" that congress has the constitutional authority to create.

Maybe I am just having a brain fart?  I am a bit tired this evening.
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Offline DumbAss Tanker

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #18 on: May 26, 2009, 09:47:15 AM »
Other than the department of defense, I can't think off a single other "department" that congress has the constitutional authority to create.

Maybe I am just having a brain fart?  I am a bit tired this evening.

The departments of Justice, State, Commerce, and Treasury are also clearly within their powers to implement and set up, in some form or by some name but not to say necessarily in their current form at all.  Of course DOD as we know it only came into existence after WW2, up until that point the separate services were each cabinet-level departments (The Air Force only becoming a separate service from the Arny in 1947).
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Offline dutch508

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #19 on: May 26, 2009, 10:04:10 AM »
The departments of Justice, State, Commerce, and Treasury are also clearly within their powers to implement and set up, in some form or by some name but not to say necessarily in their current form at all.  Of course DOD as we know it only came into existence after WW2, up until that point the separate services were each cabinet-level departments (The Air Force only becoming a separate service from the Arny in 1947).


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Offline DumbAss Tanker

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Re: The government just does not get it....
« Reply #20 on: May 26, 2009, 12:55:16 PM »

Quiet a bit changed after the disaster on Iran in 1979.

That's certainly true, DOD gained what is in effect a fourth military department.  Exactly where HSA fits in is a little vague to me since it involves Justice, Defense, and Commerce powers all rolled into one large and untidy ball. 
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