Posted on 12/08/2016 5:52:06 AM PST by Kaslin
Ratify Article the First! That will fix several problems overnight! (And yes, I realize there will be others, but it will serve notice to DC that they’re irrelevant.)
Actually the nuclear weapons and naval reactors part of DOE is well over half the DOE budget. Another quarter goes to basic sciences stuff (construction and operation of large accelerators and the science done on those things). These were all things done by AEC and then ERDA before Carter created the DOE to get into the shale oil business (which quickly went bust as all federal efforts to quick-start industrial projects do). The energy side of the house is about 1/4th of the DOE budget. I would speculate that Hal Hamm told Trump no on Secretary of Energy once he realized after a quick scan of the budget sheets that he spends far more on actual and practical energy development at Continental than does DOE.
You can feel the money bubbling-up towards you through cracks in the sidewalks in D.C.
You KNOW the locals did not produce that wealth.
Stolen from the people in Flyover Country whom they deride.
That great French architect and socialist planner Le Corbusier designed an urban setting called Cité Radieuse. Crystal City bears and uncanny resemblance to Corbusier's plans. You can spend a life going from condo to basement to metro to metro to basement to federal office back do the underground for lunch, for dinner, for shopping, for dry-cleaning. You never need experience fresh air or sunshine ever again.
Yup....never see or hear about drive thru America - ever.
Not true. We have a particular derivative of bottom feeding pond scum in D.C. that gravitates towards and reduces to detritus all accumulations of funds less they accidentally find a useful purpose.
Lambrogini moved their headquarters To Washington DC a few years ago.
This report mentions DOD accounting systems as a potential source of savings.
I work in the space. A consultant for government entities, in the accounting arena.
Accounting has become expensive in government, ironically to protect against fraud and abuse by allowing auditors to drill down into transactions. Systems like SAP and Oracle, implemented by KPMG and Accenture are very expensive. This expertise is provided by expensive contractors. The Pentagon could save some by directly hiring the expertise but they do not. It’s like NASA, as they hire contractors to build space vehicles. They don’t attempt to do it in house either.
That said, it is well known in my circles (Oracle accounting systems) that Federal Government gigs are the best paying, and highly prized. The Pentagon and other agencies may do well to scale back rates and expense allowances, perhaps by 15%. Still significant savings, but probably not $125 billion.
Lots of embedded Rats, unfortunately. But, I'm figuring that fair number of them will get scattered by the Trump administration.
Interesting take on DOE.
I wonder how many government employees were on the payroll before and after Jimmah Cahtah...
That's an interesting question. I've lived on Capitol Hill for almost 40 years. Back in Marion Barry days, the Hill was an embattled middle class enclave, hanging on by its fingernails, though (contra rumor) with a lower crime rate than Old Town Alexandria, which was already trendy. The Hill has always attracted young professionals, including young federales, because of its proximity to downtown. It used to be a starter home neighborhood. It has now gotten expensive, so our young federales are no longer kids; they're in their early 30's, married with young children, and with two incomes.
The big change here occurred when young couples stopped fleeing to the suburbs when their kids hit school age. Here's the calculation: I have two young kids. Do I really want to spend three or four hours a day in my car, commuting, miss most of their events at school, and get home in time to tuck them into bed? Young parents started to say no to that, and they crossed Germantown and Haymarket off their lists. They filled up our neighborhood private schools, bought into the charters that started to emerge 10-12 years ago, and are now recolonizing neighborhood public schools, several of which have turned the corner.
The Hill was an early case, but gentrification is reclaiming many neighborhoods around the city that used to be considered no-go areas. I would be very interested in a detailed sociological study (as opposed to anecdotal reports) of who is buying what, and where. The real residential story in DC is not the huge homes in Great Falls, Potomac, or the Palisades; it's the tremendous growth in neighborhoods where homes are selling for $600,000-$1 million, purchased by two income professional families enabled by extremely low interest rates. The real test will come when 30 year fixed mortgages rebound to 6 percent or more.
Suburban sprawl in DC is now being limited by the brutal commutes from the farther suburbs. Closer-in neighborhoods will continue to benefit. Most of my friends have aged right along with me. (Funny how that works.) Some of them live in traditionally expensive areas west of Rock Creek, but they mostly bought 20 and 30 years ago at a fraction of today's price. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about the people in the gated communities off Chain Bridge Road, overlooking the Palisades; I wonder where young people are moving.
I think it is about to be limited by the amount of money that the rest of the country allows to go to the D.C. area. This is money that benefits Virginia's 8th, 10th and 11th congressional districts and Marylands 4th, 6th and 8th, out of 435, and not counting the non-voting Elenor Holmes Norton.
I have a guess that the Congress has not actually come to grips with how much potential pork for their home districts is skimmed off and wasted locally in those
How about repealing every amendment that includes the words, "Congress shall have power to..."
Congress had enough power to start with.
Still need the checks and balances... The Founding Fathers were not stupid...
Get rid of the 17th Amendment and overnight, the Uni-party ends.
We repealed Prohibition on alcohol due to the crime organizations that prospered around it... the 17th & 16th Amendments essentially created environments for similar crime organizations to show up... this time its the Political Power and tax money not alcohol...
Nonsense. Crystal City is a bunch of nondescript office buildings in Virginia.
I sure wish I could have noticed this. The big money is there but most folks who work in the Capitol don’t see it.
Move the capital of the United States to Omaha, Nebraska, and turn Washington, DC. into a museum town!
This has many advantages:
-PJ
Yes and effectively reducing the influence of the Uni-party and Fedzilla in DC
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