Posted on 12/20/2011 4:36:08 PM PST by decimon
Keep going, doc. I think you’re on to something:
U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) today released a new oversight report, “Wastebook 2011″ that highlights over $6.5 billion in examples of some of the most egregious ways your taxpayer dollars were wasted. This report details 100 of the countless unnecessary, duplicative and low-priority projects spread throughout the federal government.“Video games, robot dragons, Christmas trees, and magic museums. This is not a Christmas wish list, these are just some of the ways the federal government spent your tax dollars. Over the past 12 months, politicians argued, debated and lamented about how to reign in the federal government’s out of control spending. All the while, Washington was on a shopping binge, spending money we do not have on things we do not absolutely need. Instead of cutting wasteful spending, nearly $2.5 billion was added each day in 2011 to our national debt, which now exceeds $15 trillion,” Dr. Coburn said.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Ping me when this is put on CNN.
Top of the list should be “CONGRESSIONAL PAY”
Top of the list should be “CONGRESSIONAL PAY”
Conurn deserved a lot of respect. Then he voted for TARP.
1. Congress
2. President
Everything else follows those two.
Ping for later.
Truthfully, this is just peanuts. How about this as the alternative?
If Ron Paul gets enough conservative support to come in at #2 behind the winner, anybody but Romney, it could be enough to force him to ask Paul to be the Vice President. And Paul could bring with him a solid block of conservatives, if as VP, the president agreed that Paul was in charge of cutting HUGE amounts of federal government and spending.
For example, say Paul decides to start by eliminating the entire Department of Education. The president has to agree to appoint someone who would be approved by the senate, but whose sole job will be to dismantle the education department, under the direct guidance of Paul.
And it would be Paul’s responsibility to insure that neither the (likely Republican controlled) House or Senate RINOs are able to thwart the cutting.
The entire department goes, along with its federal employees, and if there is anything in the agency that is vital, it is also Paul’s responsibility to insure that it is shifted to a still viable agency.
FOUR YEARS of slash and burn, that unless congress revolted would take place.
This isn’t just “slowing the rate of growth” of the federal government, but actual, tangible reductions in hundreds of billions of dollars in spending, on things the federal government was *never* supposed to do in the first place.
While I’m not a Ron Paul supporter I am honest about the fact that congress would render him mostly ineffective on the foreign policy front.
However, a GOP congress would be far more open to his spending cutting and we might actually get a fair bit of it done.
Congressional pensions better be on that list.
If it were actually true that only 4 debt collection companies in the country violated the FTC regulations, there really is no need for anyone to regulate the industry. Certainly there is no point in spending millions of dollars for each case the FTC takes on. In reality, the FTC spends a lot of money and does little to nothing to actually help consumers, tens of thousands of whom are reporting violations of the law.
The amounts shown are meaningless because they are just cyphers.
Surely, somewhere in the bowels of the IRS, there are breakdowns of income taxes paid by cities, counties, etc. Maybe even citizens names alphabetically by last initial within those environs.
Don’t tell the public that “$764,825 to study how college students use mobile devices for social networking.” Tell them “All the residents whose last name begins with “X” in the state of XXX had their taxes spent on a “study how college students use mobile devices for social networking”. THAT would personalize the squandered money and perhaps finally rouse the citizens to yell “Hey! Wait a minute!”
When only dollar amounts are used, people think either “Well, it’s ONLY pennies per citizen” or “That the OTHER guy’s money, not mine.” Take away the anonymity and see what happens.
Neal Boortz said something years ago that I use to personalize figures like this. He said that the average household pays about $10,000 in federal taxes. So, whenever any congressperson proposes something like spending $764,825 to study how college students use mobile devices for social networking, he should have to find 76 families and stand up in front of them and tell them why he beleives he should take their money by threat of force, money they could use for retirement or a vacation or braces for the kid, or to replace that car that's falling apart, or pay off the second mortgage, and instead give that money to some horny twenty-year olds to find out how other horny twenty-year olds use Facebook to get laid.
Then, for a bonus, he could refer them to the specific enumerated power in the Constitution authorizing such project.
Will read this later. Just don’t have the stomach for it now. Hate to read about our fine government wasting tax payer money. Thanks for posting.
My congressman talks about asking for less from the federal government and localizing more of our taxes. Basically he says that bringing more of our taxation under local and state control will give us far more control over how our tax dollars are spent and how much we give.
He says our district takes in more federal money than we send but our freedom is the price we pay and that price is too high.
All the more interesting because MY FILM COMPANY ALREADY MADE AND RELEASED "Rockin' the Wall" (www.rockinthewallstudios.com) last September financed ENTIRELY by private funds. I hope every Freeper will go to the site, look at our trailers, and possibly pick up a copy of "Rockin' the Wall" as a Christmas gift. It's a great movie---I'm sure better than the gubment-finance one---and is a prime example of why we don't need gubment money to do great art!
Don’t be too sure. The Republican party hides a substantial number of liberals, even though they would never call themselves that, because of the stigma. In practice, however, they actively pursue many of the same goals as the Democrats, and are generally willing to abide, or even defend, the corruptions the Democrats have inflicted on our country.
They are likewise a diverse group. For example, some of the border fence’s worst enemies were Republicans, who used their position to sabotage anything that would reduce the flow of illegals, while squandering money on frivolous and ineffective ideas like the nonsensical “virtual fence”.
Others truly are wholly owned properties of corporations, who want dubious legislation in their favor.
In W. Bush’s first term, the Republicans utterly dominated congress, but they kept the Democrat status quo to a ‘t’, the only differences being that they wanted to direct a lot more pork to their home districts, even stupid pork like the Alaskan ‘bridge to nowhere’. They also let out the worst elements of their character in moral ways.
W. Bush needs some blame in this, because his interests were in foreign policy, so he adopted a presidential philosophy of the late 19th century, that congress should run the country, while the president fussed about foreign affairs. But the Republican congress just went on an orgy of self-gratification, and were duly punished for it by the voters.
Romney is a great example of a very liberal Republican. He agrees with Obama on most things, and Obama has even adopted some of Romney’s more liberal ideas. Unfortunately, he is the candidate the Republican leadership wants, precisely because he is a far left liberal.
If push comes to shove, Republican liberals will support a wildly leftist Democrat before they will support a conservative Republican. It is that bad.
This is why a Ron Paul Vice Presidency could be just what the doctor ordered. As long as his purpose was to dismantle vast amounts of this mengasso federal machine.
The VP has lots of time to spend arm twisting recalcitrant senators and congressmen. And if they try to block the cuts, and they will, Paul will have a powerful bloc of conservatives to beat up on the RINO, and guarantee an end to his time in Washington.
Looks good. I think ‘noire’ is a corruption of ‘noir.’
You must be smoking crack. No way, no how will even 10% of America vote for Ron Paul. He’s an idiot, anti-semite, truther, Iran mullah-loving looney that make obama look good.
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