It is embarrassing since if these people cannot even put together a budget, do we really expect them to have the capacity to solve the war on drugs problem, fix our failing public schools, get our national debt under control, etc.? If this is the best we can do for leadership in Washington, than this is truly an embarrassment for the entire country.
The first look at the Federal government shutdown resulted in the development and proposal of the CABA - The Congressional Adult Behavior Act. This proposal has seven components that tries to put rules and restrictions in place so that Washington politicians start acting liking adults rather than childish, bratty, name calling little kids.
The second look at the shutdown went through the many government agencies and functions that were NOT shutdown, with independent estimates indicating that although the Federal government was supposedly shutdown because it had no budget, about 85% to 90% of the Federal government was still functioning.
We raised the following issue: since most Americans were unaffected by the 10% to 15% of the government that was deemed nonessential and was actually shut down, maybe it was time to stop doing those functions altogether and save the taxpayers the expense of paying for some government functions that did not affect them. Doing so would put about $4,000 back into the pockets of EVERY American family EVERY year.
Those two discussions can be accessed at:
http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/10/caba-congressional-adult-behavior-act.html
http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/10/only-in-washington-shutdown-that-is-not.html
Today we will look at a sample of ten Federal functions that are not operating and you decide whether or not you can live without them. They were found on the Freedom Works website and I have included some of the sarcastic barbs that Freedom Works attached to some of the unneeded functions.
While reviewing these functions, keep in mind that Nancy Pelosi has recently asserted that there is no unnecessary spending being done by the Federal government, that not a single dollar can be pared from the Federal government’s bloated spending. We think that many, if not all, of these following ten government functions dispel that theory, a theory that we absolutely kill every month when we do our monthly political class insanity posts. The first insanity post from this month can be accessed at:
http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/09/october-2013-part-1-political-class.html
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The Ten Nonessential Government Functions That Maybe We Can ALWAYS Do Without, Courtesy Of Freedom Works
1. The Bureau of Land Management has halted donkey adoptions.
Because, as it turns out, most of that is accomplished online and the website for the Bureau of Land Management is currently down. Though they did put up a website to tell users of their website that they can't access the website. So there.
2. The USDA "Meat and Poultry Hotline" is no longer available to take calls about the safety of that mystery meat that's been sitting in the back of your fridge for a decade.
Now, if you don't know if you might get food poisoning from green chicken, the government is unavailable to help you. And if you have questions about the name of a specific type of bacteria that landed you in the bathroom for 36 hours, you'll just have to use a (privately-funded) resource like WebMD.
3. No one is currently advising the government on matters pertaining to the "fine arts."
And just when it seems that someone might have gotten a photograph of Banksy tagging up an NYC alleyway. Shame.
4. The Broadcasting Board of Governors has been forced to shutter a number of its offices.
Of course, the Broadcasting Board of Governors mostly uses its websites and offices to talk about what people who are not Broadcasting Board of Governors do, but that's beside the point, right?
5. The Post Office is running, but the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee has been temporarily suspended.
That said, you can still vote on which commemorative stamps you'd like the USPS to issue online, so at least the government has learned about citizen empowerment and free opinions.
6. We will be unlikely to hear from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugurations.
Not that there are any planned until 2016. But in case we need an emergency inauguration (which, frankly, we hope doesn't happen) we're out of luck.
7. The US Board of Geographic Names, which is apparently charged with naming US geographic items, doesn't even have its website running.
America, if you can avoid discovering new geographic items that would require names for at least the foreseeable future, they'd appreciate it.
8. The Clinton Presidential Center has closed some of its permanent exhibits.
We'd call this the "Washington Monument Strategy" but something tells me no one is going to be too hurt at being turned away from seeing a collection of Hillary Clinton's White House-era pantsuits.
9. The University of Hawaii has halted its research into rat lungworm disease.
Unfortunately, it's probably hard to convince private donors that it's necessary to figure out why a type of vermin is falling prey to another type of vermin, so it's the government's responsibility. Except not right now.
10. A full third of the speakers for the Illinois River Coordinating Council were forced to delay their trip to scenic Peoria, Illinois.
I believe that the river coordinators could not coordinate a conference call. Also, who cares if they have to miss a trip to Peoria? There's nothing in Peoria.
Now, of course, there are some things that the government does that are very valuable, but when you would never have noticed a few key very important elements of the government (according to the government) are missing, it sort of makes you think about whether we really need it all, especially when it comes out of our pockets.
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Again, these ten items and the associated sarcasm comes from Freedom Works. But their sarcasm rings true. Do we really need to fund a standing committee on geographic names, can’t we find a creative sort already employed by the Interior Department to come up with new names when needed? Do we really need a stamp advisory committee, can’t we find someone already employed in the Post Office to do that job as part of their regular job?
You get the idea, we fund these functions that seem to last forever and get bigger and more expensive over time for reasons that were not important to begin with. As we have proposed many times, the Federal government needs a good spring cleaning where we go through every nook and cranny of all government entities, and throw out those old toys, clothes, and bad birthday gifts that have been taking up space (and taxpayer wealth) for years for no good reason. Households do it, why shouldn’t Washington do it?
And what better time to do it? These functions, and probably hundreds more like them are already shut down and no one cares or notices that they are no functioning. What better time to keep them dormant until we see a reason and a true need to do what they supposedly do. And if such a need does arise, maybe there is a cheaper and less expensive way to do it.
Ashleigh Brilliant once said: “I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.” Same with me. Either pay me the big bucks to serve on the Stamp Advisory Committee or get rid of it since it serves no purpose in my life or the lives of just about every other American.
As an aside, at our website for our book, www.loathemygovernment.com, you can vote on a variety of government functions and expenses from past years to decide whether or not they would have been important in your life. To date, the vast majority of voters have said these government expenditures were not important enough to have taxpayers pay for them, with the majority of expenses receiving 100% thumbs down on whether they were a worthwhile government expense.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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