OK, I got into Twitter because some of my Samsphere friends gave me a shove. Did it for a while, but after a month or so, realized that while it works for a lot of folks, I still prefer blogging. FaceBook was a similar thing – at first. Now, I find that (perhaps), I spend more time than planned on keeping discussions going. So, just like my Email Doodlings, there will be some reporting back here as well. Note: minor reformatting and editing will be done to "bloggify" an FB comment thread.
Well, I think that Jim Bender (former candidate to be the Republican nominee for US Senator here in NH who I got the opportunity to talk to a lot) is becoming a bit of a Sarah Palin. NO, he’s not going "girlie man"; rather, he throws something out on FB and a number of people break out into discussion mode. On this thread, he simply put up a video Idiots guide to public sector that produces no wealth (11Nov10) (Note: has been yanked from YouTube since Jim posted it).
Well, a few comments were made, and then The Challenge was made by one of the more liberal folks on that thread:
There’s certainly no doubt that republicans and democrats alike (or conservatives and liberals alike, if you prefer) have built an enormous, expensive and unwieldy government over the past 50 or more years; or that, as a county, we’ve been …living beyond our means (or at least beyond what we’ve been willing to pay for) for at least the past 30 years. It’s time to pay up, America.
Now the question is what to cut and I look forward to that debate. Waste, fraud and abuse is the popular refrain but, even if we eliminate that (which would amaze me), the effect will be negligible.
What substantial, popular programs will we eliminate?See More
And no one answered immediately; thus, The Goad was issued:
It seems the surest way to stifle a conversation about overgrown government is to try & bring it around to specifics.
C’mon, folks. No ideas?
Well, I’m never one to resist a challenge. In fact, none of us on the Conservative side should EVAH back down or wimp out. This is a Long War of what America should be – so fight I shall!
OK, I’m game! Ground rules – It enhances:
Individual freedoms from the current structure
Decentralizes control back to more local control
Enhances accountability
Why shouldn’t Education be more localized than from DC? Has it (the Dept of Education) fulfilled its original mandate and given us better education outcomes for our students since its creation? Nope, Delete.
The EPA – has it fulfilled its original mandate? Pretty much. However,…
…is it overstepping that original mandate with its regulation of CO2? Should it have the responsibility to effectively control our entire economy? Isn’t that the domain of our elected Legislators instead of unaccountable bureaucrats? Nope, Delete that.
DoE (Dept of Energy) – has it fulfilled it’s original mandate of energy independence and cheaper energy? Nope – delete.
Those were the simple ones under the simple question – what was this department created to do, and in the subsequent 20, 30, 40 years since, has it actually worked at what it was originally supposed to do? Sadly, no. And politicians have not made the difficult decisions (the right decisions) to pull the plug.
Then I switched gears: is it Constitutional:
Add to this – return back to Constitutionality of their enumerated powers. If it is a function of the Feds but not a specifically enumerated function, delete, and return to States. In each case, less $$ spent, more localized control, and the ability for citizens to hold their politicians (AND the bureaucrats behind them) accountable.See More
And then I switched gears again (and before Charlie Arlinghaus penned his article) and went to my favorite question:
And its companion question: "What should the priorities of government actually be?" IMHO, it has grown to massive and into too many areas of our lives to be effective and be good at any of them.
Along those same lines, go over each Dept and list all of the programs they carry out. Determine overlaps with programs from other Depts.
Now, list the priorities for each Dept, then slot the programs against the priorities. drop the lowest 10%.
Always ask: WHY does this have to happen at the Federal level instead of at the State level (remembering that technology can fill comms gaps easily nowadays).
And I switched up again, adding another level to the matrix for evaluation:
Here’s another ad hoc rule of thumb – if a local populace won’t fund a project that it could fund (if the priority was such) but gleefully takes other taxpayers monies to do so, take that as being a problem. Don’t fund them from the Fed level.
Yup, I have lots of opinions on lots of stuff (psst – sometimes, they might even work!)
And then I felt vindicated; the "liberal" said:
Wow! That’s more like it.
My final words were concerning that it is too hard to cut (as having to raise taxes):
That seems rather dismissive of eliminating spending, just to resign yourself to paying higher taxes. C’mon, you can do better than to just give up! Buck up, man – where’s that good old college try in doing the hard work?
