Posted on 10/07/2023 3:34:45 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
This week, Republicans and Democrats got together to avert a government shutdown.
Too bad.
There’s so much that ought to be shut down.
Useless Cabinet departments, for example, like Housing and Urban Development, Labor, and Agriculture. Agriculture employs almost 100,000 people. Why? Independent farmers grow our food. They don’t need a giant department.
Let’s get rid of the Department of Education, too. Why does it even exist? Education is a local responsibility and none of the federal government’s business. Yet its spending is up 300% over the past 10 years.
The department didn’t even exist before 1979. Has education improved since then? No. Government’s grand plans, like No Child Left Behind and Common Core, helped no one but bureaucrats.
Trying to justify itself, the department funded studies of everyone’s favorite government program, Head Start. The “experts” were surprised to learn that the much-praised program has no effect. By third grade, there was no difference between kids that attend and those who don’t.
Education is best left to local governments and parents.
We don’t need a Commerce Department. After all, commerce just happens. Get rid of the bureaucrats and sell the buildings.
Get rid of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
I know, Medicare is popular. “Free” stuff always is. But government’s current health promises are unsustainable. As we live longer and want the newest and best medicines, Medicare is on track to go broke.
I’m on Medicare. I get everything my doctor suggests. I never even ask about price. That’s insane.
Medicare and Social Security take money from the young and give it to those of us who had decades to invest and save. That’s just unfair.
Let people shop for free-market plans. Let the market work.
Once people pay their own bills, competition will drive prices down. Health care would be less confusing and bureaucratic.
Abolish the Food and Drug Administration. It’s a big reason drugs are so expensive. It was created years ago when people were hurt by quack medicines. But today we have the internet, and sites such as Drugs.com let us decide for ourselves if we want to risk taking a drug.
Get rid of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the destructive War on Drugs. The DEA spends $3 billion a year and does little but raise the price of drugs, switching users from drugs such as heroin to deadlier things, such as fentanyl.
Did we learn nothing from alcohol Prohibition? Banning liquor created Al Capone and organized crime.
Today, there are no beer gangs or vodka cartels—only because alcohol is legal.
The drug warriors’ rules don’t protect us from drugs. They mostly enrich murderous drug cartels.
Get rid of subsidies for NPR and PBS.
Kill the Export-Import Bank and the Small Business Administration. Businesses should operate on their own. They shouldn’t get handouts and dubious advice from government bureaucrats.
Privatize air-traffic control. Canada and dozens of other countries already did, and their systems are safer and work better. That would save $2 billion, and your flight would be more likely to arrive on time.
Likewise, privatize Amtrak. Save $7 billion.
Privatize the post office. Today, there are lots of better alternatives.
Of course, I’m dreaming. Government programs don’t get shut down. They just grow.
Washington claims every one of its activities is crucially important. But that’s nonsense.
If the Nov. 17 continuing resolution deadline isn’t met and the government shuts down, will you even notice?
Few outside the media and the Washington bureaucracy noticed the last shutdown.
Social Security, Medicare, the Postal Service, air-traffic control, the passport agency, and irresponsible lending to college students will continue during a “government shutdown.”
Democrats, sleazily, say they’d close national parks. That’s a government product that people definitely like. But they are outdoors! It’s stupid to close the gates. (President Donald Trump didn’t close them when government shut down during his term.)
They’ll close parks because Democrats—and many Republicans—want to convince us that everything good comes from government.
It doesn’t.
Go ahead. Shut most of it down.
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Yep.
Shut it down is not good enough. Burn it down and salt the ground. Move the whole thing to Paducah, Ky. or Rapid City, ND.
Or SD.
Farmers have all kinds of problems to deal with and need help through droughts, floods, etc...
Shutting things down solves nothing.
I do believe the Endangered species act should be abolished and reversed in some cases. We don't need wolves and bears prowling around. They're scavangers and killers.
Fedzilla NEVER shuts down.
Deep State deems the parts it wants to keep running essential and only shutters the bits it can use to bring the pain to the taxpaying public.
Sheesh, people.
How many children does the Department of Education educate?
I mostly agree.
Enabling all this, though, must be carefully planned. Some FedGov stuff can stop ‘cold turkey’, but others will need to proceed in stages to insure that required services are handed off to private enterprise in a prudent manner.
In the Dept of Ag, for instance, meat inspection services likely will need to go on, but with the industry funding it’s own ‘independent’ inspection process. That will take some time.
Dept of Education? Nope, cut it off. The quicker the better.
Post Office? Might require transition so that private parties are adequately up-scaled to handle the volume.
In any event, the best future for this nation is with a FedGov that is back within the confines of the enumerated powers in the US Constitution.
Medicare and Social Security take money from the young and give it to those of us that had decades to invest and save. That’s not fair
————————————————————————————————
I have been paying Social Security taxes for 41 years. 25 of those years, I was self employed. That means I paid 14% SS taxes.
I turned 65 last August, and plan on retiring at the end of this year.
My wife and I have saved and made choices in our lives to be able for me to retire. She stopped working at 55. I want some of that money they took from me all those years.
How much would I have if I could have saved an additional 14% the years I worked for my self.
I also paid half of my employees SS during that time.
The last 11 years, I have worked for a company. Less money, but no headaches or stress.
They are never going to eliminate any Federal Departments with cabinet level represenation, but wouldn’t it be a great start if they could could cut just 10% of some of these Departments? Just to start somewhere. This is why the Republicans suck. Thry do nothing and just go along with the continual growth of government.
I vote for a very long shutdown.
RINOs have a chorus going how how this is such a horrible thing, and will destroy the Republican party.
Again, the GOPe snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
NOT embracing it will destroy the Republican party.
The Republican Party needs destroying.
Eliminate federal taxes, problems solved.
They skipped a few useless departments that do nothing but frame people and cover up Biden’s crimes - FBI, DOJ, for example. Or the department responsible for numerous coups around the world, including here in 2020 - CIA.
EPA - goes without saying. They stopped doing anything useful before Clinton was elected - anything actions after that are invented boogie men. Global warming is BS, for example. And electric cars - C’mon. They’re Ok if you want one, but I don’t. And I don’t think the taxpayer should be subsidizing them. Or much of anything else either.
CDC - friends with the WHO, who wants to depopulate the earth. Need I say more?
Homeland Security - another of many redundant departments that serve solely to spy on and harass US citizens.
Border patrol? Perhaps if they actually protected the border and used deadly force to enforce it, I’d be more inclined to fund them. Otherwise, what good are they?
*I mostly agree-Enabling all this, though, must be carefully planned.*
Very good. Be draconian in January under the new congress. They’ll have 18 months to ‘explain’ and use voters short memories. Turn the leftists against each other by giving a one time rebate for every department cancelled-the bigger the better. Announce these workers will be unemployed in one year. Offer them 2 years pay if they quit tomorrow.
*wouldn’t it be a great start if they could could cut just 10% of some of these Departments? Just to start somewhere.*
No. The budgets will just go back up with the next congress. You’ve got to starve the beast. Remember when a 36 year-old David Stockman was a rock-star budget cutter? Nothing changed. Cap The Knife changed his colors at Defense. Russia was out there.
The 10% cut figure-It could be done without anyone noticing the difference. That’s where I’d start. Give the rebate to those who have no 401K plan or health care savings plan. Seed money-no cash.
The EPA is what is killing ICE and freedom.
If the federal government were shutdown tomorrow , would anybody care? Except for the military, it’s all a black hole. Everything goes in and nothing comes out.
Uh no sorry. If you’re going keep the DOE and “help” farmers you’ll have to keep the endangered species act. Glad you’re not in charge.
STOP FUNDING ONE PENNY TO THE UN & REMOVE ALL UN PERSONNEL FROM THE USA.
Renovate the entire complex into housing for USA veterans. Cafeteria on ground floor. Medical facilities on 2nd floor.
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