Bankrupt UK finds 8 billion pounds for foreign aid

[onmyknees]

Well Inferno....I can't speak to the UK's woes, but don't look now, the US is gaining on you fast. And even after reading this distressing article, lots of folks ( and many who post on here) will still look at you with a straight face and tell you we need to tax more and that big government is needed. It's so counter intuitive that you just don't know how to respond. As Rev. Wright and others have so famously said..."The Chickens have come home to Roost".



By DAMIAN PALETTA


WSJ's Damian Paletta discusses a GAO report that uncovers billions of dollars in wasteful spending by the U.S. government due to duplicate work done by dozens of agencies.


The U.S. government has 15 different agencies overseeing food-safety laws, more than 20 separate programs to help the homeless and 80 programs for economic development.
These are a few of the findings in a massive study of overlapping and duplicative programs that cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year, according to the Government Accountability Office.
A report from the nonpartisan GAO, to be released Tuesday, compiles a list of redundant and potentially ineffective federal programs, and it could serve as a template for lawmakers in both parties as they move to cut federal spending and consolidate programs to reduce the deficit. Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), who pushed for the report, estimated it identifies between $100 billion and $200 billion in duplicative spending. The GAO didn't put a specific figure on the spending overlap.
GAO Report

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See the report, 'Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue.'


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The GAO examined numerous federal agencies, including the departments of defense, agriculture and housing and urban development, and pointed to instances where different arms of the government should be coordinating or consolidating efforts to save taxpayers' money.
The agency found 82 federal programs to improve teacher quality; 80 to help disadvantaged people with transportation; 47 for job training and employment; and 56 to help people understand finances, according to a draft of the report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Instances of ineffective and unfocused federal programs can lead to a mishmash of occasionally arbitrary policies and rules, the report said. It recommends merging or consolidating a number of programs to both save money and make the government more efficient.
"Reducing or eliminating duplication, overlap, or fragmentation could potentially save billions of tax dollars annually and help agencies provide more efficient and effective services," the report said.
There have been multiple efforts to cull the number of federal programs in recent years, but they often run into opposition from lawmakers in both parties who rush to defend individual spending provisions. In fact, GAO's recommendations are often ignored or postponed by federal agencies and lawmakers, particularly when they could require difficult political votes.
The report says policy makers should consider creating a single food-safety agency because of a number of redundancies. The Food and Drug Administration makes sure that chicken eggs are "safe, wholesome, and properly labeled" while a division of the Department of Agriculture "is responsible for the safety of eggs processed into egg products."



Spokespeople for the Department of Agriculture and FDA pointed to the Obama administration's creation of the Food Safety Working Group, which works to better coordinate the government's regulators.
The report says there are 18 federal programs that spent a combined $62.5 billion in 2008 on food and nutrition assistance, but little is known about the effectiveness of 11 of these programs because they haven't been well studied.
The report took particular aim at government funding for surface transportation, including the building of roads and other projects, which the administration has made a major part of its push to update the country's infrastructure.
The report said five divisions within the Department of Transportation account for 100 different programs that fund things like highways, rail projects and safety programs.



One program that funnels transportation funds to the states "functions as a cash-transfer general-purpose grant program, rather than as a tool for pursuing a cohesive national transportation policy," the report said. Similarly, it chided the government over encouraging federal agencies to purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles while having policies that agencies reduce electricity consumption. It said government agencies have purchased numerous vehicles that run on alternative fuels only to find many gas stations don't sell alternative fuels. This has led government agencies to turn around and request waivers so they didn't have to use alternative fuels.
A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation said the president's budget for fiscal year 2012 "proposes to cut waste, inefficiency and bureaucracy by consolidating over 55 separate highway programs into five core programs, and by merging six transit programs into two programs."



On teacher quality, the report identified 82 programs that often have similar descriptions and goals and are spread across 10 federal agencies, including the Department of Education, the Department of Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Nine of these programs are linked to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Fifty-three of the programs are relatively small, receiving $50 million or less, "and many have their own separate administrative processes."
The GAO highlighted 80 different economic development programs at the Department of Commerce, HUD, Department of Agriculture and Small Business Administration, that spent a combined $6.5 billion last year and often overlapped. For example, the four agencies combined to have 52 different programs that fund "entrepreneurial efforts," 35 programs for infrastructure, and 26 programs for telecommunications. It said 60% of the programs fund only one or two activities, making them "the most likely to overlap because many of them can only fund the same limited types of activities."
The report took aim at several military programs, which could prove thorny because many lawmakers from both parties are wary to cut defense spending. It said there were 130,000 military and government medical professionals, 59 Defense Department hospitals and hundreds of clinics that could benefit from consolidating administrative, management and clinical functions.


For example, it said the government "may have developed duplicate" programs to counter improvised explosive devices, with the Marine Corps and the Army paying to develop similar "mine rollers." The Marine mine roller costs $85,000, and the Army mine roller costs $77,000 to $225,000. "Officials disagree about which system is most effective, and [the Pentagon] has not conducted comparative testing and evaluation of the two systems," the report said. The Pentagon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The GAO study was required by a provision inserted by Sen. Coburn into a law that raised the federal borrowing limit last year. This report is the first produced in response to the provision.

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[Infern0]

Interesting article.

I agree, some people are so stupid it shocks you into silence.

[russtafa]

The theory of" politically correct" originated from the university system of England and has done so much harm to the western world.Look what happened to Hippie as an example lol

[Ben]

Rand Paul believes, rightly or wrongly, that we should cut all foreign aid. Including aid to Israel. (He's also talked about cutting the bloated military budget. And his father Ron Paul has rightly said we should stop subsidizing the oil industry. I mean, a so-called free market means no state intervention, no corporate welfare. Hence: ending corporate welfare. And an addendum: Ron Paul has talked about ending the income tax. Hmmm... not sure about that one. Seems a bit too radical for me.)

[Ben]

Ron Paul's interview begins at the 2:20 mark:

[Ben]

'Each US citizen pays $5,000 per year for US defense spending'
Fri Mar 4, 2011




American citizens are paying large amounts of money each year for U.S. defense spending, which can be used for domestic spending, Steve Breyman, assistant professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute said.

"Each and every citizen in the United States - man, woman and child - pays some $5,000 or so per year for U.S. defense spending much of which is associated now with the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan", he told Press TV's U.S. Desk.

If the federal government had not spent some $1 trillion on the wars, that money would have been available for "domestic spending including the balance in the budget," Breyman said. "You can have healthy public finances or you can have war but you can't have both," he added.

FACTS & FIGURES


In Iraq and Afghanistan, some 200,000 people are employed by subcontractors. Raw Story

By the end of 2008, the U.S. had spent approximately $900 billion in direct costs on Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Some experts estimate indirect costs such as interest on the additional debt will exceed the direct costs. Red Ice Creation

However, prominent economics professor Joseph E. Stiglitz says the true cost of the Iraq war is beyond $3 trillion. Washington Post

According to the Congressional Budget Office, defense spending grew 9% annually on average from fiscal year 2000-2009.

In Iraq, reconstruction efforts have been plagued by poor management, mishandling of reconstruction funds, inadequate coordination with Iraqis and widespread attacks on construction sites and contractors as documented by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR). NYT

A 2005 report stated that nearly $9 billion of reconstruction fund was lost by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). CNN

[Faldur]

"Each US citizen pays $5,000 per yer for US defense spending" How is that possible when 49% of all citizens pay $0 in federal income tax? Maybe a better statement would be the top 5% of wage earners are paying to protect 90% of all US citizens. Thank you top wage earners, seems to me if your not helping to pay for services you should keep your opinion on whats being spent to yourself.



Defense spending is 20% of the US Expenses, 58% of expenditures are entitlement programs. Lets be sure we accurately depict where our money is being flushed.

[trish]

Oh we're posting charts now!