From the UL a couple of days ago (reformatted, emphasis):
<snip>
As for his personal efforts, Guinta discussed his newly introduced Operation TAXPAYER (To Ax Persistent Abuse of Your Earned Revenue) initiative, which includes legislation designed to reduce federal offices, initiatives and programs.
…Guinta said the initiative would change House rules to require any bill that comes to the floor to be reviewed by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, which would review the bill to make sure it is not redundant of an existing federal program, initiative or office. “The bill would have a score on it that says, ‘This bill duplicates X amount of resources or dollars,’” Guinta said following the event. For example, many existing jobs programs serve the same purpose, he said.
“Across nine different agencies, we have 18 different programs that are for job retraining, and we’re spending billions,” Guinta said. “There is a lack of oversight, and I don’t think those dollars are getting to the intended individuals. So I want to try to streamline that process, and I want to educate members (of Congress) in knowing that if you’re going to vote for something, you should know that there’s something that already exists that’s already providing that need.”
Guinta said the federal government is currently spending $250 billion annually on redundant programs. “Our deficit is $550 billion,” he said. “If half of our deficit is just duplication of services, theoretically, if we get rid of all of those duplicative programs, we could cut the deficit in half.”
A couple of observations:
- He’s pointing out that one of the underlying mantras of Progressive governance is that bureaucrats are of the Smart People. If they (and the Progressive legislators that enable them) were, why didn’t they point out the duplicative efforts at the get go? Because Unions! Because Grow Government!
- Politicians are always saying “Elect me! I will reduce Waste and Fraud!”. Let’s see if the GOPers will actually follow through on this.
- Speaking of the Smart People – really, this duplicative stupidity had to rise to the level of $250 Billion before something was done?
- How many oxen are going to get gored about this, and then how many patrons of the special interest groups (re: Democrat Employment Agencies) will rise up with the age old “
Solving a problem by Government that it created all by itself; one should ask yourself how much of the effort that goes into Government is now oriented to fixing problems that Government caused in the first place?
F’instance, here in NH, we hear wailing about the public worker pension plan being in big trouble – has been for years. Now we hear that the budget of HHS is serious deep sneakers – and in no small way by the expansion of Obamacare’s Medicaid start up costs and signups exceeding projections.
Just think of how many fewer crisis we’d have if Government just got smaller and did just a few things excellently instead of being Mommy and Daddy to everyone and for everthing using other peoples’ money.
