YouCut: A step in the right direction

[DaveSimmons]

> On the chopping block today, National Science Foundation Grants!


Great, cut the research that create some of the few remaining areas of job growth in the US. Let China take over the economic world even faster.

That's some fine brainwork, Lou!

 

[fskimospy]

1) Reform all social welfare programs and fund more fraud investigation. If we doubled the amount we spent on investigating medicare fraud, and increased the severity of the penalties, we could save a bundle.

2) Raise retirement age by at least 3 years. Absolutely no reason why this should not be done. What's been happening is akin to us lowering the age over time since the enactment of the program... since lifespans have increased.

3) Cut foreign aid drastically, especially to Africa. That continent is literally a black hole for spending, with almost zero benefit being realized for the investment, other than more starvation, disease, and murder.

4) Reform defense spending. No need to simply cut it, there is more than enough money, but a lot is wasted on inefficiencies, bullshit overpriced contracts, civilians, and general bureaucratic garbage. This is the one area, if any, that the constitution explicitly lays out as the responsibility of the Federal Government. Social welfare programs deserve to go before defense spending gets touched... especially these days.

1, 2, and 4 I agree with you on. #3, no point. Total US aid to Africa was about $7 billion last year. If you think $70 billion a year doesn't matter, how is $7 billion going to mean anything?

 

[Brainonska511]

2) Raise retirement age by at least 3 years. Absolutely no reason why this should not be done. What's been happening is akin to us lowering the age over time since the enactment of the program... since lifespans have increased.

What about a retirement age based on what kind of job you performed? If you work in heavy manual labor, I could see keeping the retirement age the same. If you work in some white collar job, I don't have a problem having a higher retirement age.

4) Reform defense spending. No need to simply cut it, there is more than enough money, but a lot is wasted on inefficiencies, bullshit overpriced contracts, civilians, and general bureaucratic garbage. This is the one area, if any, that the constitution explicitly lays out as the responsibility of the Federal Government. Social welfare programs deserve to go before defense spending gets touched... especially these days.

Do we need more government auditors or just better program guidelines? The book, Skunk Works, brought up some interesting points about that. Allow the building of cheaper prototypes to work out bugs in designs, then build in blocks if you want to incorporate future upgrades (ie: Block A will be first generation, Block B will have some upgrades, etc....), instead of constantly changing what is required and redoing everything.

 

[Brainonska511]

LOL - You can't make this shit up.

http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/Review.htm

That's right folks! Those deficit hawks the Republicans are going to show you how it's done!

On the chopping block today, National Science Foundation Grants!

All we have to do it cut about 400,000 of these bad boys and America will be solvent once again!

What a joke! Let laypeople decide what's wasteful spending instead of asking experts in the fields of study.

And then telling them what keywords to look for? As if the keywords are even important in the studies being funded. It could easily be cases where grants are just given wacky names to fulfill various Congressional initiatives, but are funding perfectly valid research.

As for "wasted", government auditors visit labs all the time to see how government money is being spent.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."

 

[PeshakJang]

1, 2, and 4 I agree with you on. #3, no point. Total US aid to Africa was about $7 billion last year. If you think $70 billion a year doesn't matter, how is $7 billion going to mean anything?

I do think $7 billion AND $70 billion both matter... that is my whole argument in the matter... that those who argue for tax increases while simultaneously labeling spending of the same amount as insignificant are completely illogical.

The fact that it is being literally flushed down a toilet at best, and making things in some places worse, at worst, should be reason enough to eliminate it. It is feel-good spending that helps almost nobody and simply makes us feel like we are good people.

If you want to make the same spending argument as you do with the earmarks, then take that $7 billion and use it to benefit US citizens. As it is, spending that money in Africa has the same effect as giving it to a billionaire who take it out to sea and uses it to catch gold-plated marlin. If doing the latter is bad social policy because it hurts the lower/middle class, then doing the former must be the same.

 

[PeshakJang]

What about a retirement age based on what kind of job you performed? If you work in heavy manual labor, I could see keeping the retirement age the same. If you work in some white collar job, I don't have a problem having a higher retirement age.

I could agree to that... either a means test on the back end, or job-field specific modifiers... but in either case it needs to be much less liberal than it is now.

Do we need more government auditors or just better program guidelines? The book, Skunk Works, brought up some interesting points about that. Allow the building of cheaper prototypes to work out bugs in designs, then build in blocks if you want to incorporate future upgrades (ie: Block A will be first generation, Block B will have some upgrades, etc....), instead of constantly changing what is required and redoing everything.

Both I would say. Government contracts are often so convoluted and ridiculous when it comes to defense... Often times things are put in place or bought or purchased simply because a contract calls for it, because somebody somewhere thousands of miles away with no idea what he is doing says so.

For example, the Army ACU uniform that came out several years ago just recently achieved full distribution... despite the fact that the majority of combat troops think there are far, far better alternatives. Literally, EVERYTHING is now made in ACU, and now the Army says they are looking at better options, like MultiCam, to replace it. If/when that happens, nothing will be compatible, and once ACU is phased out, it will have been a colossal waste of money.

Another example... when I left Afghanistan they were starting to put RPG cages on all of our trucks, despite our objections, because there was a contract requiring that all trucks in the country be equipped with them by a certain date. They increased the width and weight of the vehicles, decreased accessibility to compartments, increased the time to enter/exit, and made them extremely difficult to maneuver. End result, trucks with the cages, which were already hard-pressed to move to some areas we operated in, became useless. We had never once been attacked with an RPG, and once all the cages were installed on the trucks, it would have been quite literally impossible to go places that we used to. Another tremendous waste of money and a detriment to operational capacity, simply because of a contract.