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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.