How Government Works
Received via Email, author unknown
Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in
the middle of a desert. Congress said, “Someone may steal from it at night.” So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.Then Congress said, “How does the watchman do his job without instruction?” So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.
Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?” So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One to do the studies and one to write the reports.
Then Congress said, “How are these people going to get paid?” So They created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer, then hired two people.
Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people? So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.
Then Congress said, “We have had this command in operation for one Year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cutback.” So they laid off the night watchman.
NOW slowly, let it sink in.
Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter.
Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY…..during
the Carter Administration?Anybody?
Anything?
No?
Didnt think so!
Bottom line. We’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency….the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember!
Ready??
It was very simple…and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.
The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.
Hey, pretty efficient, huh???
AND NOW IT’S 2010 — 33 YEARS LATER — AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS “NECESSARY” DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR.
IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE!
(THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?”)
33 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.
Ah, yes — good old Federal bureaucracy.
NOW WE HAVE TURNED OVER THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT?
Hello!!
Anybody Home?
NOVEMBER, NOVEMBER, NOVEMBER!
Take out the trash!!!
Tags: Obama, Government Inefficiency, Department of Energy, Waste, Democrats
If you share or post to your site, please include the following line:
Hat Tip: America, You Asked For It!
Free: Subscribe by email
“I Want Your Money”–Coming this Fall!
Here’s the trailer for the movie that promises to educate voters of the fallacy inherent in the economic policies of Obama and his far left handlers. By contrasting Obama’s philosophy with President Ronald Reagan’s, often using their own words, it should become obvious to anyone with a measurable IQ which president sought to trust the American people with real freedom. Catch it this fall, but here’s a taste…
Tags: I Want Your Money, Obama, Spending, Freedom, Spread the Wealth, Socialism
If you share or post to your site, please include the following line:
Hat Tip: America, You Asked For It!
Free: Subscribe by email
Recovery loses speed as consumers turn cautious
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP on Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON – The recovery lost momentum in the spring as growth slowed to a 2.4 percent pace, its most sluggish showing in nearly a year and too weak to drive down unemployment.
Consumers spent less, companies slowed their restocking of shelves and the nation’s trade deficit dragged more on the economy in the April-to-June quarter. In a separate report, the Commerce Department said the recession was deeper than previously estimated.
Together, the reports raise doubts about whether employers will hire enough and consumers will spend enough to invigorate the economy. As unemployment remains near double digits, Congress could feel pressure to pass more stimulus measures to speed the recovery. So far, Republicans and some Democrats have blocked additional spending because of their concerns about the size of the deficit.
Investors reacted to the report with disappointment. Stock futures fell in the hour before the markets opened. However, losses moderated in morning trading after the University of Michigan/Reuters consumer sentiment index for July rose slightly more than expected.
The Commerce Department report released Friday did offer some encouraging news. Businesses invested the most in 13 years on equipment and software during the second quarter. For the first time in two years, builders boosted spending on commercial projects. And home builders spent the most in 27 years, although many expect that to fade now that government homebuying tax credits have expired.
The report also showed that the economy grew at a 3.7 percent pace in the first three months of this year. That was much better than the 2.7 percent pace estimated just a month ago.
Still, the recovery has been losing power for two straight quarters. That raises concerns about whether it will fizzle out. Or worse, tip back into a “double-dip” recession.
Tags: Economy, Recovery, ARRA, Bailouts, Obama, Stimulus, Markets, Recession, Double-Dip
If you share or post to your site, please include the following line:
Hat Tip: America, You Asked For It!
Free: Subscribe by email
Obama Ignores Oil Spill & US Border Invasion While “Fiddling Around” & Pushing Climate Change Bill
Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News: It used to be many people but now it is “most people” who are wondering where the President Obama’s head and heart is these days. It doesn’t appear to the majority of Americans that he values “down to earth” good old America – our country. Yesterday, we note another example of Obama’s lack of focus on what really matters:
ABC News‘ Matthew Jaffe reported: In the wake of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama today summoned a bipartisan group of over 20 senators to the White House to push for energy and climate change legislation.
But one thing the President did not want to talk about at the meeting was the BP disaster, a Republican source told ABC News. And that, the source said, led to a pointed exchange with GOP senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee.
“The priority should be fixing the oil spill,” Alexander told the President, according to the source. “That’s what any meeting about energy should be about.”
But when Alexander tried to interject the BP leak into the meeting, the source said, the President told the senator, “That’s just your talking point.” Retorted Alexander, “No, it’s my opinion.” . . . [Full Story]
Arrogance abounds in the White House. American is suffering while President Obama “Fiddles Around” in the White House, on the golf course, or jetting around the globe trying to impress global dignitaries, and constantly campaigning. Wonder when he will ever visit the US Border with Mexico! We are under armed attack. People are being murdered and raped by invaders on American soil. I never thought I would find my self saying anything good about disgraced former president Jimmy Carter. But here goes: At least Carter showed some good old Southern grace while screwing over America.
Tags: President Obama, Obama, arrogance, America, oil spill, climate change agenda, White House, US border, oil spill f you share or post to your site, please include the following line: Hat Tip: America, You Asked For It! Free: Subscribe by email
Is President Obama At War With America?
by Austin Hill at Townhall.com
If a frontal assault on the foundational principals and values of American life can qualify as being “at war” – then yes, Barack Obama is in combat with our country. And while the belligerence of both his administration and his party’s congressional leadership have seemingly created a sense of alarm across the U.S., their apparent disregard for their own self-inflicted political damage is all the more staggering.
Taking aim at America’s foundations has impacted us both here at home, and abroad. European allies France and England have both made note of our President’s “short shrift” treatment over the past fourteen months, while earlier this month French President Nicolas Sarkozy chastised Obama for his protectionist, anti-free trade policies ( “this is not the right way to behave” Sarkozy told our President). And just last week Vice President Biden took U.S.-Israel relations to a new low point by criticizing the nation on their own soil.
But domestically, Obama’s greatest offense to American life is fundamentally economic in its nature. And at its root, his assault on our sensibilities is best described in terms that he himself has used to criticize others.
…More
Psalm 2010
A fellow patriot posted this on one of the Facebook pages we administer and we received permission to pass it along. Enjoy!
Psalm 2010
Obama is the shepherd I did not want.
He leadeth me beside the still factories.
He restoreth my faith in the Republican party.
He guideth me in the path of unemployment for his party’s sake.Yea, though I walk through the valley of the bread line,
I shall fear no hunger, for his bailouts are with me.
He has anointed my income with taxes,
My expenses runneth over.Surely, poverty and hard living will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will live in a mortgaged home forever.I am glad I am American,
I am glad that I am free.
But I wish I was a dog …..
And Obama was a tree.
How’s that Hopey-Changey thing working for YOU Mr. President?
Wake up Mr. President!
It’s not that the American people don’t know what you want. We don’t WANT what you want!
From Rasmussen
Saving for Retirement? Hand it over!
by Paul Hsieh at Pajamas Media
Uncle Sam wants your retirement money.
The Obama administration has just solicited public comment on their proposal to take money from Americans’ private 401(k) retirement accounts and convert it into government-backed annuities. In other words, they want to take your money now to purchase U.S. Treasury bonds, then pay you a monthly sum later after you’ve retired.
Although this proposal is being initially portrayed as a voluntary choice, Americans already have the ability to purchase Treasury bonds with their retirement money. Moreover, the Obama administration is considering making these annuities the default option. And as analyst Karl Denninger noted, “‘choices’ have a funny way of turning into mandates.” Nor is his concern unjustified.
In 2008, Professor Teresa Ghilarducci of the New School of Social Research testified before Congress proposing a similar scheme to convert private 401(k) accounts into government-run “guaranteed retirement accounts” that would pay a 3% return. And in 2008, the Argentinian government attempted to nationalize private retirement funds to help cover its runaway deficit.
As the U.S. Social Security system moves ever closer to bankruptcy, the billions of dollars Americans have saved in their private retirement accounts will become an increasingly tempting target for our politicians.
A government raid on private retirement funds wouldn’t necessarily take the form of outright confiscation. It could take the form of mandatory conversion into government accounts, where the government would determine how much money retirees could receive. Or it could take the form of, for example, a 40% surtax on disbursements from 401(k) balances over $1 million — on the grounds that it would only harm wealthy “millionaires.”
But regardless of the precise method employed, the basic principle would be the same: Your money would no longer be your money. Instead, the government would claim the right to redistribute your wealth to pay for others’ retirement on the grounds that they needed it more. In essence, the government would be implementing the Marxist principle: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
…More
Ungovernable? Nonsense.
by Charles Krauthammer at Townhall.com
WASHINGTON — In the latter days of the Carter presidency, it became fashionable to say that the office had become unmanageable and was simply too big for one man. Some suggested a single, six-year presidential term. The president’s own White House counsel suggested abolishing the separation of powers and going to a more parliamentary system of unitary executive control. America had become ungovernable.
Then came Ronald Reagan, and all that chatter disappeared.
The tyranny of entitlements? Reagan collaborated with Tip O’Neill, the legendary Democratic House speaker, to establish the Alan Greenspan commission that kept Social Security solvent for a quarter-century.
A corrupted system of taxation? Reagan worked with liberal Democrat Bill Bradley to craft a legislative miracle: tax reform that eliminated dozens of loopholes and slashed rates across the board — and fueled two decades of economic growth.
Later, a highly skilled Democratic president, Bill Clinton, successfully tackled another supposedly intractable problem: the culture of intergenerational dependency. He collaborated with another House speaker, Newt Gingrich, to produce the single most successful social reform of our time, the abolition of welfare as an entitlement.
It turned out that the country’s problems were not problems of structure but of leadership. Reagan and Clinton had it. Carter didn’t. Under a president with extensive executive experience, good political skills and an ideological compass in tune with the public, the country was indeed governable.
…More
Subscribe
Never Forget!
Graphic courtesy of Cap'n Bob
ARRA
Blogs 4 Borders
Register to Vote!
Join the NRA!
912 Project
Friends of Israel
College Republican National Committee
America, You Asked For It! 