Here’s a window onto the upside-down way government spending works. The Department of Homeland Security has sent a letter to states begging them to spend federally provided money on implementing REAL ID, the national ID law.Check out the memo here (.pdf), and keep in mind how quickly any branch office of a well-run business would be shuttered for engaging in this kind of accounting tomfoolery. DHS isn't asking states to "use it or lose it," which is defensible; it is imploring states to dig deep into their collective imaginations and come up with ways to spend this money.
"DHS is regularly asked by members of Congress, as well as the Office of Management and Budget, if these funds are needed by the states, and whether these funds should be reallocated to other efforts," writes Juliette Kayyam of [the DHS] Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. "As both the states and the Federal government face increasingly tough budgeting decisions, it is more important than ever that these available funds be utilized."
That’s right: Tough budget times make it imperative to spend more money.
As Harper's closing points out: "It's flabbergasting."
It is way too much to ask for the simple common sense approach of zero-based budgeting, where every expense has to be justified for each new budget, as opposed to just taking the last budgeted amount and deciding how much to raise it. Such an approach would probably result in a (true) federal budget at least 1/3 less than the current one. That would eliminate too many politicians' ability to provide the favors that make them all millionaires while in office though.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Janet Napolitano (Sec. of DHS) is another example of the mentally challenged making their way into positions of power. Put her, Pelosi, Johnson (the "Guam might tip over" Rep. from GA), Cynthia McKinney (the mentally challenged former Rep. that Johnson defeated!) and Biden together and they MIGHT, added all together, have the IQ of the owner/manager of almost any small business in America. The inmates are truly running the asylum.
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