You might remember that old commercial selling cheap wine. I forget the name of the wine, but a man and a woman are dining. She asks, "Is this (Insert name of cheap wine)?" The man replies, "Of course. How do you think I got so rich?"
The point is you gain wealth by not just making the money, but by spending it wisely. It's common sense. And when you apply common sense to most any problem, you will find an easy and obvious answer. Unfortunately, in any government, common sense is replaced by mindless bureaucracy.
You can make all the money in the world, but if you piss it away, you are just spinning your wheels and not keeping what you earn. We hear a lot of talk about stimulous payments, bailouts, yad yada yada. It's the stuff they hope will cure what ails us. I don't hear anybody talking about waste.
The truth is, until we stop our wasteful ways(at the bottom and at the top) nothing is going to change. You've heard the stories. The government buying 3 inch bolts that cost $20 a piece. Taking fancy limo rides at the taxpayers expense etc. You can bet your beat-up dollar that there are several Washington big-wigs wiping their ass with $40 squares of toilet paper on capitol hill.
Cut out the waste and you have more money in your pocket. Simple enough. But Americans don't get it these days. It's not just Washington either. One big reason that the country is in the mess it is, is because Americans have been wasteful in the same way. Living beyond their means. Keeping up with the Jones' is easy when you have credit. But eventually the creditors are going to come calling.
In Washington, we need some kind of oversight committee, (Oh no, not another one. I hear ya. But this one can do some good.) one whose sole job is to probe,examine, weed out and correct wasteful spending. Don't kid yourself. It really has gotten so bad that we need some hounds let loose on the problem.
As long as they keep finding waste and saving us money, they have a job. The money that they end up saving the country could go to all sorts of worthwhile projects and help shrink the debt.
If we don't curb the outrageous waste that goes on, none of the rest means anything.
Food for thought.
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Comments
1 Comment so far
I agree with this idea… I've had it for a long time myself, but I want to take it one step further. It's not just the wasteful spending, but the people doing it. If the (for lack of a better term) oversight team finds wasteful spending in excess, the spender should be penalized. Harshly. This would be one step toward achieving governmental accountability. I urge others to note that you built in a fail-safe for this group. "As long as they keep finding waste and saving us money" – that is very important. The goal of this group should be to eventually eliminate their own jobs.