Reply With Quote
lngrrrr: did you read the article i posted?
LnGrrrR, if you're worried about American civil liberties and not the terrorist's civil liberties, maybe your concern is misplaced.
Google is ‘Obama’s Halliburton’
Bill Lets Obama Turn Off the Internet
Not only has Obama continued Bush-era intelligence programs, he's embarked on a few of his own...more domestically-minded initiatives.
Where are the Traitors from the New York Times when you really need them?
lngrrrr: did you read the article i posted?
If they need ideas about where else to look, they can consult Martin Gross, author of a series of books about the “government racket” (that’s one of his les actually). It may interest the Post to learn that there are 70 different programs in 13 different federal agencies addressing the problem of teen drug abuse. There are 160 different job-training programs, 50 homeless-assistance programs, 27 programs to avert teen pregnancy, and 90 programs on early-childhood development. According to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, “at least 12 federal departments and agencies were responsible for hundreds of community development programs that assist distressed urban communities and their residents. Historically, there is but little coordination among the agencies, posing an unnecessary burden on communities seeking assistance.” That is to say nothing of the taxpayers.
In National Suicide, Gross recounts, “In one recent year, the federal government could not account for $24.5 billion it spent. Buried in the Treasury Department’s ‘Unreconciled Transactions Affecting the Change in Net Position,’ is the fact that the enormous sum is unreconciled -- that is, it is missing.”
The GAO also found that “the IRS could not verify $3 billion of its expenses” as the agency “had not kept its own books and records with the same degree of accuracy it expects from taxpayers.”
Medicare fraud alone accounts for an estimated $60 billion annually according to the Wall Street Journal.
I"m just as pissed at what Obama is doing. If you noticed in another thread, I said if I'd have known Obama would be so atrocious towards civil liberties, I would have voted Ron Paul.
A Philadelphia cardiologist, convicted of defrauding the program to the tune of half a million dollars, explained to a Senate committee, “The problem is that no one is watching. The system is extremely easy to evade. The forms I sent in were absolutely outrageous.”
Sorry, I don't follow you around.
Obama has been a disaster on many fronts. Many have come to regret that vote.
SNC, that post is bs, because it uses kid-school logic. "Sure, the military has some bad apples, but look over at THESE bad apples!"
As well, due to the SECRECY of the program, there's clearly going to be MUCH less transparency on what kind of budget it has, and what projects that budget is going to.
Pointing out that other programs waste money says nothing to the efficacy of expanding THIS program. Even if we eliminated the waste in those OTHER programs, would that mean that we were kosher with the increasing size of our nat. int. agencies? From the snippet you posted, the author doesn't say, because he's not really addressing the issue but raising strawmen.
Finally, I'm pretty sure that programs that assist poor urban centers don't have quite the power that our national intelligence community has, right? The potential for abuse is much greater.
LNG, the actual post was about how the liberal media refuses to look into the waste of govt programs all around. You read my agreement at waste in any govt agency/program. So are you just as appalled at the lack of transparency and waste from our govt in general. Are you going to call for the reduction of all these other wasteful programs, and yes including the IRS?
To be honest, I haven't done the research on every other gov't program. Is there fraud and waste in these programs? Probably. The question is whether a) we could reduce it easily and b) whether reducing that would take away certain functions that we shouldn't.
I'm all for reducing waste and synchonizing the operations of similar agencies. I also know how motherfunking hard that truly is, and what a pain in the ass, which is why nobody usually attempts it. (For instance, Pearl Harbor and Hickam AFB are combining into a Joint Base, and it is a huge pain, trying to determine responsibility, functions, etc.)
I believe I have read some info on the IRS, and from what I've read, they could probably do with some decreased payroll. As well, if we could get rid of even 10% of our specific tax cuts/incentives/etc it'd probably make it much easier to file. Easier said than done, of course.
For conservatism circa now, this is to be cheered.
Or, at the least, ignored it seems. The fact that a part of our government is growing at a rapid pace, a part that has the ability to spy on Americans, is meeted with an enthusiastic shrug as long as they're fightin' dem terrrurrrists.
"What America lacks is a figure with the serene self-confidence to tell us that the twin idols of national security and corporate power are outworn dogmas that have nothing more to offer us. Thus disenthralled, the people themselves will unravel the Deep State with surprising speed."
oh yeah? when? how? first step?
the people?powerless against the corporatocracy and its $Bs per year to fund candidates, buy politicians, disenfranchise "the people"
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
