With the US national debt over $19.8 trillion and the presidential election over, one would think that there would be some talk about lowering government spending. Since nobody else wants to discuss this, I will make a few recommendations for getting government spending under control.
First, reform the agencies whose mission is to make our lives miserable. It is amazing that we have such agencies. We should realize that the desire of some bureaucrats to acquire power is much greater than to be altruistic. We end up with agencies that relish pushing us around. The best example of this is the Internal Revenue Service. The solution is to devise a simple income tax. How simple can it be? We fill out no forms to send in Social Security tax. We can have an income tax that is equally simple. Other agencies that need an attitude adjustment are FDA, EPA, and ATFE. These agencies have run people out of business and even killed people in their zest for power. Cutting them down to size and saving money at the same time would be quite enjoyable.
Next, get rid of the agencies whose mission is so unimportant that we do not care if they succeed or fail. We have never even heard of most of these agencies because their work is so worthless. An agency of which we heard is the National Endowment for the Arts. They give money to people who make so-called art that would otherwise generate too little income to sustain the artists. These artists should find jobs that will produce enough accomplishments that they will get a decent income. The government should not encourage them to do something where their productivity is so meager.
Then, obey the law. According to the US Constitution, the executive branch of the government should defend our country, have a system that protects intellectual property, such as patents, and take a census once every ten years. The executive branch is not supposed to do anything beyond that. This means that the following cabinet level departments should not exist:
Department Recent Annual Budgets
Agriculture $154 billion
Commerce $9 billion
Education $70 billion
Energy $31 billion
Health and Human Services $1093 billion
Housing and Urban Development $33 billion
Interior $21 billion
Labor $13 billion
Transportation $77 billion
The total budget for these illegal departments is $1,501 billion. This is about twice the typical deficit. Perhaps some parts of a few of these departments are constitutional, but if half of this expense were gone, the budget would be balanced.
Finally, increase efficiency. This is what the bureaucrats recommend first. They then say that the way to be more efficient is to give them more power. With this power, the bureaucrats micromanage the government and make it less efficient. Perhaps we should ask the bureaucrats to make the government less efficient, then it would become more efficient. The point is that government efficiency is not easy to obtain, but the aforementioned objectives are easy and lucrative.
In summary, we should get rid of the government entities that should not exist in the first place. It will save us so much money that surpluses will become the norm.
Tags: government
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