And you thought he was a
Christian? Joke’s on you!

The US Government is not composed of equally important parts. For example, if the Department of Education went away tomorrow, the States would still have their respective education departments that would carry out the functions of educating America’s youth. The US Department of Agriculture is important but if it went away, the impact of 50 million Americans on food stamps would be noteworthy and farmers wouldn’t be receiving subsidy checks not to grow certain crops, but food would still be produced and it would make it to market. I have nothing against USDA – but it needs to be about 50% smaller than it is. The Department of Education is unnecessary. 

Leader of the Free World

FEMA is useful in a very limited sense, but Billions pour into that rat hole every year and when a disaster strikes, they arrive about the time that the respective states have cleaned up the mess. I think you could could cut the budget in half and nobody would know it.

I spoke to Paul Nathanson over the weekend. He is a retired FBI Special Agent who works with the association of FBI agents which is not part of the Bureau, but deals with internal advocacy, offers scholarships and sends cards and flowers when they’re called for, etc. Nathanson believed that between the furloughs and the cuts, the FBI’s ability to do what it does has been impacted more than the 10% reduction. A lot of people who were of an age that could retire, did and took jobs in the civilian market. Because of the cuts, there are no FBI Academy classes underway. Because of the fuel budget, FBI automobile use has been severely cut back and in some divisions, agents car pool from interview to interview.
rodeo clown

“I was very surprised to learn how severe the required cut is and the potential impact on this organization. Frankly, as a taxpayer and as an American I was surprised, and it didn’t make any sense to me that the FBI director would be asked not just to cut 3,000 positions but, given what’s on our plate, to send folks home for a couple of weeks without pay.” -James Comey, FBI Director – Sept. 19, 2013

h/t daily time waster
The component of USGOV that tracked terrorists and drug cartel members with Man Portable Surface to Air Missile Systems (MANPADS) and assisted other countries in taking them into custody was disbanded and the mission was given over to the US Army’s Military Attaches in various US Embassies. That means that the mission was effectively scrubbed. More time for blogging?
The US Navy’s ability to deploy and maintain itself while deployed has been seriously degraded. The Navy still has claws, but they can’t reach quite as far for quite as long as it used to. Most procurement programs have been put on hold and there is very limited money to repair equipment. When you consider equipment failure rates at sea and in an operational setting and how that impacts the ability for the navy to function, it’s not a joke.
Social Welfare programs haven’t suffered significant degradations and the welfare checks still go out on time to buy votes for the Democratic Party. The multi-trillion dollar ObamaCare program is on track to be rolled out on Tuesday in the hopes of buying votes — though whether it will actually buy votes or cost votes, nobody’s quite sure anymore. If your employment hours were cut from 40 to 29, you may rethink your love for Barack.
If any of you have forgotten Obama’s credentials, they are listed (above-right) in his own words…

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8 COMMENTS

  1. Eliminating the Dept. of Education would not only save money, it would STRENGTHEN state and local schools. Sure it hurts initially, but just ask Wisconsin teachers, not unions, but actual teachers how local autonomy has helped (its a different matter, but the concept remains the same).

    The Department of Agriculture should have a coordinating, and safeguard function – I think a 50% reduction in its budget could almost be doubled (I'm doing the math right now…)

    The FBI. There is NO REASON a $700 million cut has to hit Agent's pay, gas for their cars, etc. (Agents have to carpool to interviews, while ADMINISTRATIVE agents still drive to and from work every day on the taxpayer's gas). The Bureau's 2009 budget was….$700 million less than it is today, with no additional Agents. It would be tough, programs have to go or lose funding (employees have already had no cost-of-living wage increases for two years), but it could be done. Within his first couple weeks, Comey appears to be more "FBI" than Mueller ever was. Or so I've heard.

  2. I spoke to other FBI friends about what you covered (above). They had the same sense of things that you have. It's more of a managed reduction and focusing on mission (or re-focusing) than it is the actual cut.

    I have friends who are close friends of Comey who speak well of him.

    I have friends who know Obama and have nothing good to say about either him, his management style or the close advisors he has surrounded himself with (actually a long list of advisors who stay as long as they can stand it and then move on).

  3. I heard an NBC reporter, in a harsh and damning voice, speak of the Republican s Shutting Down The Government. Guess it all depends on your point of view.

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