Posted on 11/07/2010 6:35:22 AM PST by Jerrybob
How may THOUSAND people are employed by the Dept of Energy? What do they do all day? I'd like to know. Rather than watching our cities cut firefighters, police and trash collectors who really DO SOMETHING for a living that BENEFITS people, let's defund some bureaucrats in Washington who do -- who knows what?!?!?!?
If enough agencies -- oh, like the IRS or the hated Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had their budgets slashed -- there might just be enough money to FUND local firefighters, police and trash collectors.
Having trouble thinking of which government agency you'd like to see have its budget slashed? This might help: Pick your favorite and contact -- better yet, make an appointment and go SEE your Representative face to face before he or she heads back to Washington and tell them how you would like them to represent you.
http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/All_Agencies/index.shtml
Conservatives won on Nov 2. Now let's get busy cleaning up Washington -- no, cleaning OUT Washington. Nancy Pelosi said she was going to drain the swamp. Didn't happen. We can make it happen.
if i recall, earmarks is what allow bad law to get pass. Obamacare didn’t pass the first round because earmark was not in it. When it was included, Obamacare was passed. The lawmakers were bought
“”http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/disclosures/annual-records/2010”"
Let’s start here - $38,000,000 for 2010 WH salaries. Look at all the important titles. Let’s ask what they do!!!!
If it didn't happen then - in an arguably smarter and more conservative America - it's not going to happen now.
I can boil Livingston’s article down to two sentences. Hi I’m Bob Livingston former congressman turned lobbyist and I make my living off of earmarks so if they’re killed I will be out of a job. Please don’t do this because it would be mean.
And “I, too, cheated on my wife so I’ll resign and hope Clinton will follow my lead. But I know he won’t.”
If the Republicans want to give a massive boost to the economy they would get the biggest bang per buck by defunding the EPA.
Not at all. An earmark is just Congress designating a certain portion of a budget to a specific item. For example the Department of Education has a budget of ~$47B. From that amount Congress may designate $2MM for constructing a school in Topeka or an after school program in Sacramento. This allows Congressmen to give goodies to their home districts which is why it has a bad reputation. In fact, though, it gives more visibility to where our money is actually being spent rather than just giving a pile of money to bureaucrats who then spend it with little visibility.
Defund EPA, NEA, Health Care, all the czars would be a good start.
Bypassing Congress is where we first saw Obama tyrants at work. Now do we want to collapse huge entities like the Dept. of Education, which must happen, with only 1/2 of one branch of three branches of government, just because we can?
How about across the board cuts, and roll back (defund) damages so far. For instance, czars go now, like yesterday. The committees that empower them need to go too. Now that’s a decent start. Shrinking government will be successful only after we win in 2012, and a long slog it will be after that, realistically.
Precisely, earmarks don't cost a lot relative to the entire Federal budget. The real problem is that they empower log roll.
Precisely, earmarks don't cost a lot relative to the entire Federal budget. The real problem is that they empower log roll.
Defund all anti-freedom, anti-truth, anti-individual, anti-life collectives. We can start with international UNaccountable bureaucrats/totalitarians and/or their agencies/countries.
ACORN/GM/AIG/Fannie/etc., etc.
Whether external/internal...it’s 2010...time to stand up on your own.
The next time Amtrak and the USPS come crawling for fed money, sell them to the highest bidder and let private enterprise take over.
The problem with defunding "across the board" is that you may actually defund something that is worth the funds that it gets.
Yeah, the earmarks are peanuts. It’s the fact that they get the votes to pass the REALLY expensive pork like the Budget that makes them poison.
Doofus Dubya couldn't be bothered.
We are either one nation united through one official language. Or we're not.
Giving citizenship tests in a language other than English? That's an abomination.
Bilingualism is lovely; I do fine myself; but as an American, English is my language of choice.
Talk about having to clean up somebody else's messes...
The essential stuff can be reinstated.
I would defund the courts first, though. They have gotten too used to legislating.
The essential stuff can be reinstated.
I would defund the courts first, though. They have gotten too used to legislating.
Bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.