Ten Shut Down Government Functions That Should Stay Shut Down

Over the pasty two days we have been reviewing a lot of the insanity, lunacy, stupidity, and pompousness of the political class relative to the unneeded and embarrassing “government shutdown.” It is unneeded since the Federal government has been putting annual budgets together for over two hundred years, an act that seems beyond the intelligence and ability of the current set of Washington politicians to accomplish.

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

Only In Washington: A Shutdown That Is Not Really A Shutdown But Just Bitter, Immature Politics (As Usual)

The headlines scream that the Federal government has been shut down by radical Tea Party politicians, bringing hardship and terror to all of America. Politicians strut and issue pompous, and in many cases, disgusting quotes, to make cheap political points while Americans suffer. THE END OF THE WORLD IS NEAR!!!

Or is it? When is a government shutdown not really a shutdown? I would contend that we are looking at more of a mole hill than a mountain since:

#1 85% of all government activities are actually being funded during this “government shutdown”.

#2 Approximately 1,350,000 “essential” federal employees will continue to work during this “government shutdown”.

#3 Overall, 63 percent of the federal workforce will continue to work during this “government shutdown”.

#4 The U.S. Postal Service will continue to deliver our mail.

#5 U.S. military personnel will remain on duty and will continue to get paid.

#6 Social Security recipients will continue to get their benefits.

#7 Medicare recipients will continue to get their benefits.

#8 Medicaid recipients will continue to get their benefits.

#9 Food stamp recipients will continue to get their benefits.

#10 Those on unemployment will continue to get their benefits.

#11 Federal retirees will continue to get their pensions.

#12 The federal school lunch program has enough money to go through at least the end of this month.

#13 Public schools all over the country will continue to stay open.

#14 Almost all federal law enforcement officials will continue working.

#15 The Federal Reserve will remain “completely functional“.

#16 The Supreme Court will continue to operate normally and federal courts have enough money to keep going for at least two weeks.

#17 TSA employees will continue to molest travelers at our airports.

#18 Air traffic controllers will continue to monitor traffic at our airports.

#19 Hopelessly outmanned border patrol agents will continue to try to stem the tide of illegal immigration.

#20 Visas and passports will continue to be issued by the State Department.

#21 The Veterans Administration will continue to offer substandard medical services, and it will be able to continue processing benefit payments at least for now.

#22 The Obama administration apparently has plenty of money to spend on closing open-air memorials that are usually open to the public 24 hours a day.

#23 The Department of Defense announced the awarding of 94 new contracts worth a combined total of more than 5 billion dollars on September 30th – the day right before the “government shutdown”.

#24 The “government shutdown” has not prevented the new two billion dollar NSA spy center from opening up.

#25 Federal prisons will continue to operate normally.

#26 Amtrak trains will continue to run.

#27 The Patent and Trademark Office will be open.

#28 The Consumer Product Safety Commission will continue to issue product recalls if the products “create an immediate threat to the safety of human life“.

#29 The National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center will continue to track weather patterns.

#30 If the federal government needs to respond to a natural disaster, this “shutdown” will not affect that.

#31 NASA will continue to support the Mars Rover and the two American astronauts up on the International Space Station.

#32 All city employees of the D.C. government have been deemed “essential” and will continue to go to work.

#33 Even though the Obamacare exchanges are not working properly, people will still be able to access them.

#34 The IRS will continue to collect taxes, but it will be suspending punitive audits of conservative organizations.

#35 Barack Obama will continue to get paid for the full duration of this “shutdown”.

#36 The U.S. Congress will continue to get paid for the full duration of this “shutdown”.

#37 And everyone else is on paid leave. They’ll get their back pay when we open back up for business. In fact, according to a Washington Post article from October 6, 2013, the Pentagon has already announced that it would order almost all of its 350,000 furloughed employees due to the “shut down
 back to work this week.

Seems like this is much ado about nothing if more than three dozen heavy duty functions of the U.S. government are continuing to operate in a business as usual mode. As always, the perception of reality in Washington is totally different than the perception of reality outside of the Beltway. Very few Americans are being affected by the shut down and could care less. Just about every politician and member of the main stream media is besides themselves with rage about the shut down. Another glaring disconnect.

But there are some other interesting observations and conclusions that can be drawn as a result of this trivial and juvenile political class behavior:

Observation Number 1 - Should all politicians in Washington be arrested for breaking the law?

Consider this interesting and provocative  question: if the government is actually functioning without a budget, is the entire Federal government bureaucracy operating in an illegal mode at this point in time? If so, shouldn’t everyone responsible for operating the government, from Barack Obama to the last member of Congress, be put under arrest for breaking the law?

You cannot claim the government has been shut down because, by law, it needs a formal budget to operate when, in fact, government checks are being sent out and cashed, mail is being delivered, weather is being tracked, air travelers are being groped, etc. According to a Forbes analysis that was reported on the Against Crony Capitalism website, only about 13% of the Federal government has been shut down. 

So it is not beyond the realm of believability that the political class is acting in a felonious, illegal matter to have so much of the government still functioning without a legally required formal budget. It is also not beyond the realm of believability to say that at least 13% of the Federal budget could be cut without affecting the welfare and lives of the vast majority of Americans. 

Observation Number 2 - Is there at least 13% of the Federal government that can be immediately stripped out  without any consequences for ordinary Americans? 

We are more than a week into this so-called shutdown and virtually no one is missing the 13% of government that is not operating. Doing some rough math on this year’s $3.8 TRILLION budget, we find that trimming 13% out of the budget would reduce Federal government spending by almost half a TRILLION dollars. If these savings were evenly distributed back to every American household, each household in America would be getting about a $4,300 check from the trimmed down Federal government every year. 

Think about what a great boost to the economy that would be if every family had an extra $4,300 in their pocket EVERY YEAR. They could vacation more, buy more stuff for their homes, engage in more leisure activities, maybe send their kids to better schools, start their own business, etc. Since most people are not missing the 13% reduction in Federal spending, wouldn’t this be a much better option for the country than spending money that no one misses by the political class and Federal government?

And the financials of the Federal government would be much better off. In this past fiscal year, the Federal government deficit was about $600 billion. This almost $500 billion in annual savings would wipe out more than 80% of last year’s spending deficit, creating a brighter financial future for the Federal government and all Americans from a debt load perspective.

Observation Number 3 - Some small adjustments to this cost savings/spending reduction model would have to be made to fix some of the soulless, selfish actions of the political class.

For instance, in an act of pure childish petulance, the White House tried to bar World War II veterans from visiting their memorial in Washington even though it is an open air memorial that requires no Federal employees to be available to operate the memorial. The White House under Barck Obama also did the same petty shenanigans with the Vietnam War Memorial, forcing veterans to leave before paying their respects to their fallen comrades despite this memorial also being an open air, public display.

These, and many other acts of vindictiveness from this administration, are meant to infict the most harm and inconvenience on ordinary Americans during the shutdown to solely make make political points. But we should expect nothing better from these people. 

After the sequester, they did the same thing, closing down White House public tours, cutting aid to Native American schools, furloughing air traffic controllers, etc., all meant to sacrifice Americans' needs for their sick political games.

Thus, we would have to make some slight admjustments, and only slight adjustments, to the 13% cut, maybe settling for only a 12% cut in order to allow veterans to still visit their memorials and fallen comrades, allow national parks to stay open, etc. This would prevent politicians like President Obama from playing his political games while still trimming a hefty, and nonessential, part of the government's spending out of the Federal government.

Yes, this has really not been a shutdown, this was a slight inconvenience, made worse by petty poltiicians. But "petty politicians" is probalby redundant. Today in America it seems like these are the only kind of politicians we have.

To help change that situation, please visit our term limits website at:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

Because really, after seeing how these politicians treat our veterans, how much worse could it get if we had a totally different set of politicians in Washington?

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