pop quiz time!

Hey everyone, I was having this discussion with some people and thought maybe you all can provide some answers.

Besides the interstate highway system and to lesser extent the scientific basic research (ie darpa, fermilab nasa etc) name one US federal government venture or department or plan or anything that it touches. Which has not turned to complete "fecal explicative" or turned out to be fiscally unsustainable and bloated?

Please give me something no one could think of anything that held up to very basic scrutiny.

reply to post by Desolate Cancer


you cant it doesnt exist

the only thing sucessful government does or by extension any program is screw us over.

the government and anything it touchs fails they never learn they go more more more

there isnt one nothing nada zilch zero.

the cia black budget

*wink

dunno why is it called black, since it revolves more around white powder


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reply to post by neo96


The Tennessee Valley Authority, IMO is a success story.

The Tennessee Valley Authority website.

I wish that there was a similar model available today.

Taking your money.

Robbing the most armed population without them doing anything about it. That is a job well done.

The first thing I thought of as the National Park system. Of course, they're wanting to plant oil wells in them, now.

reply to post by Desolate Cancer


There isn't one. I guess you could argue the military, but there is a lot of fraud, waste and abuse there as well. i should know because i witnessed it for 13 years.

NOAA is pretty awesome. Of course, they need it for the military. GPS system is pretty awesome, too. Of course, they need it for the military.

Army Corps of Engineers, as far as maintaining bouyage and all other navigational aids, are really good. As a boat captain, this is stuff that is useful to me. As far as their handling of the levees in New Orleans, not so good.

These are all things that help boat captains. A lot. Most people, these things have no impact on whatsoever.

reply to post by CaptChaos


Most government programs are useful in some way. Many are also not, as the OP requested, financially sustainable.

Think of it this way: When a government program is successful in both being helpful and useful to the population while remaining within budget constraints, you'll never hear about it because they're doing their job. On the other hand, when a government program fails to meet one of the above criteria you will hear nothing else but failure.

There are, literally, thousands of government programs at the federal level alone.

How often do you hear about the failures of the Office of Rural Development?
...the Economic Research Service?
...National Technical Information Service?
...American Forces Information Service?
...Office of Vocational and Adult Education?
...Office of Emergency Communications?
...Bureau of Justice Statistics?

You never hear about these people because they do their jobs and they probably do them well. Because they're small agencies they'll be trimmed down to bare bones operations in the name of 'fiscal restraint', while ignoring or allowing much larger programs to continue on, unimpeded.

Sorry i hate pop quizes Lol, but i was just thinking the CIA

Looks like I'm going to fail this one.

Originally posted by links234
reply to post by CaptChaos

 

Most government programs are useful in some way. Many are also not, as the OP requested, financially sustainable.

Think of it this way: When a government program is successful in both being helpful and useful to the population while remaining within budget constraints, you'll never hear about it because they're doing their job. On the other hand, when a government program fails to meet one of the above criteria you will hear nothing else but failure.

There are, literally, thousands of government programs at the federal level alone.

How often do you hear about the failures of the Office of Rural Development?
...the Economic Research Service?
...National Technical Information Service?
...American Forces Information Service?
...Office of Vocational and Adult Education?
...Office of Emergency Communications?
...Bureau of Justice Statistics?

You never hear about these people because they do their jobs and they probably do them well. Because they're small agencies they'll be trimmed down to bare bones operations in the name of 'fiscal restraint', while ignoring or allowing much larger programs to continue on, unimpeded.

Thank you, I was waiting for someone to bring this up. You sir/madam are 100% right. There are literally dozens of different small programs that provide valuable information and services to the greater population.

These are great programs. However the key is that they are small, and well managed, and most importantly constantly under the gun for maintaining their budget. Now name one large department or agency that is the same. You will not be able to. The point is that small government is wonderful, large govt is corrupt and wasteful and impractical.

reply to post by Desolate Cancer


Interesting point but really small departments in a large government don't really count as small government.

They are just small parts of the government which is measured as the sum of its parts.