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Friday, March 17, 2017

The Snakes and Gators Are Upset

The reaction to the budget outline proposed by President Trump is interesting to watch.  The Trump proposal is to reorient federal spending towards public safety and to do so by cutting programs that have not worked while reducing waste and fraud in the rest.  In Washington DC terms, it is an "earthquake".  Imagine the idea of getting rid of programs that do not work!  Oh, the horror!  What will happen to the bureaucrats who work in those useless programs?  How can America move ahead without those bureaucrats continuing in their jobs?

When Donald Trump ran for office, he promised to drain the swamp.  Today, all of the swamp critters are having a panic attack.  The snakes and alligators across DC don't know what to do. 

Look at some of what the President wants to do.  First, he wants to increase defense spending.  His proposed increase would restore about 20% of the cuts in defense made during the Obama years.  The increase is not really all that much.  After years of neglect, the military needs the extra funds just to start to bring our readiness level back towards where it needs to be.  All you need to understand is that the Air Force is still flying planes that are now 50 years old, and you can see why modernization is needed.  If that is not enough, however, consider that in many squadrons of newer planes, half or more are not flight ready because of a lack of spare parts.  Then there are the frequent deployments for our troops who ought to have more down time in between action.  We need more soldiers and more and newer equipment.  Sure, some of the funds that Obama spent on social engineering in the military could be cut back, but that will not produce enough to keep us safe. 

Then there's the increase called for in the Homeland Security budget.  Under President Trump, Homeland is actually going to enforce the law, not just ignore it like under Obama.  That cost money.  It will also make us all a lot safer.

The big losers in spending are the State Department and the EPA, but nearly every department is cut somewhat.  The EPA has run amok in the last few years.  For example, consider the big effort put into the Clean Power Plant initiative and regulations  developed at great expense by the EPA.  This rule was pushed by hordes of bureaucrats in the EPA as a way to fight climate change.  Basically, the rule ends the ability of utilities to use coal as a power source and sets many other restrictions on the other possible fuels for power generation.  It would cost many tens of billions of dollars each year in higher utility bills across America.  And what would it do in the fight against climate change?  Let's remember what the last administrator of the EPA under Obama told Congress:  this initiative would have no measureable effect on climate change, but it is necessary to show America's commitment to the fight.  That's right, these bureaucrats who the left consider essential actually concluded that it was a good idea to stunt economic growth, to raise utility bills for all American substantially and to do so even though there would be no positive impact in the fight against climate change.  Is there anyone with even half a brain who thinks we need to keep these bozos on the job?  I doubt it.

At State, the biggest loser is likely to be foreign aid.  How much have we borrowed to give out overseas to countries that take the money and then denounce the USA?  In the last two decades, we actually gave something like five billion dollars to the North Koreans.  That's right, the NORTH KOREANS!!!  Must that continue?  Why?

And how about all the waste and fraud in government activities.  I've written before about the more than 100 different job training programs that the federal government runs.  There is no reason to spend hundreds of millions or billions of dollars for 100 plus headquarters, administrators, deputy administrators and staff when the programs could be amalgamated and run at a tiny fraction of the cost.  And how many people across the country are receiving food stamps even though they are not entitled to benefits?  It's not even worth listing all the ways that America could save money.  It's just nice that we finally have a president who wants to pay attention to how well and at what cost the government carries out its obligations.  We just finished eight years under a president who thought that the only thing of importance was what was said by the government.  Now we have a president who understands that what is actually important is what the government does.

It will be great watching the swamp denizens in DC melt down as their precious swamp is drained.

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