“We have massive government waste in redundancy”
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We certainly do, and its massive. Congress could cut the waste and duplication but it won’t. One reason is the larger the government gets the more opportunities there are for corruption and graft that enriches politicians.
Neither party wants smaller government so we’re screwed. They detest the idea of federalism.
Many factors and to some degree that sure is true, as crazy as it may sound to some. Politicians use government, may that be the intel apparatus, law enforcement, regulations, subsidies, the tax code, government programs to buy votes, appease their campaign donors, and in some cases personally enrich themselves, like Joe Biden, Harry Reid...
Most of the redundancy and growth in government is a patchwork of “good ideas” proposed by politicians wanting to “show action” anytime something goes wrong, i.e. “we’re from the government and we’re here to help.”
DEA: war on drugs, Richard Nixon.
EPA: save the planet, Jimmy Carter
TSA/DHS: war on terror, George Bush
ATF: prohibition, Volstead Act.
Sad thing is, just like the war on drugs has been an abject failure by any empirical and objective measure (since 1969), so has the TSA which has caught ZERO (0) terrorists to date, prohibition and the ATF which of course remained even after this lunacy of a law was abolished...
And both parties are responsible! Only the themes change. For liberals it’s always more government for some social justice cause or the environment, while for conservatives it’s always national security and public safety.
The point is, MOST of government you can literally shut down, get rid of, and people would never know the difference.
If that sounds ridiculous, ask yourself how your life was impacted when the federal government shut down during covid and in some cases as many as 75% of their staff stayed home for as long as 6 months?
How did the airlines and airports operate before a TSA? I will tell you how, faster, cheaper, more convenient and without warrentless searches of my person and affects.
When Trump cut the EPA by near 1/3, forcing them to eliminate over 100 various regulations, what happened? -NOOOOTHING- Except for a liberal MSM was up in arms, it didn’t matter one damn bit: https://www.propublica.org/article/as-trump-slashes-epa-worry-over-the-fate-of-an-agency-doing-similar-work