[quote=SD Realtor]I am not thrilled with the front the republicans are putting up and I have no faith in them…. I agree that the sacred cows will have to be slaughtered to get things under control.
SK I agree with you about putting america to work but I fail to see who wave the magic wand to make that happen. Put america to work doing what? Adding federal jobs? I am perplexed to see how the private sector will do that but I hope it does happen.
Right now I would be happy to see some simple progress on low hanging fruit.
Do we have to foot the legal bills for Fannie and Freddie executives who are under investigation? (175M tab)
Other tidbits found on the internet…
112M paid out by the irs in undeserved tax refunds to prisoners who filed fraudulent returns.
NASC paid a Stanford prof 250k to study how Americans use the internet to find love…Really? Will someone pay me 250k to say porn and match.com?
The VA paid out 175M each year to maintain buildings it does not use.
Vegas received 5.2M in federal grant to build the Neon Boneyard Par and Museum including 1.8M in 2010.
Anyways there are a ton of sites that have these lists. Whether they are true or not, I am not sure but even if half of them are true it is still a hell of alot of money.
I think regardless of whether you are liberal or conservative, it seems like there is some trimming that can be done.[/quote]
Just to clarify, my comment about putting America to work was not a policy recommendation. That ship has sailed. (The stimulus was too small to have the desired effect, and another one won’t happen, so it’s a moot point.) It was more general, if unemployement falls to pre-recession numbers, the deficit will go down.
The private sector will do it, but it will take time. The next 12 months new hiring will add 3 million new jobs, and if things progress as I suspect they will, another 5 million the following year. (keep in mind that somewhere around 1 million new jobs barely covers the net of new workers entering the workforce and older workers retiring.) I don’t know what we’re going to do with the roughly 5 million workers who used to build homes. It’s unlikely more than 1/2 that many will be needed any time in the next decade.
As to the low hanging fruit, I agree entirely. I suspect they’re only a tiny dent, except within the military budget. But they should be addressed nonetheless.
Like you, I have no way of knowing if those you listed are for real. My neighbor, a cell biologist with a lab at scripps, once had one of his projects at his previous lab identified as another rediculous government contract. The claim was something like millions of dollars being spent comparing chunky and creamy peanut butter. Apparently it did have something to do with some compound found in peanuts, but nothing to do with peanut butter. I have little doubt there is government waste. But I’d hesitate to argue about any particular program just because i read about it on the internets.
