With all this talk about NPR firing Juan Williams and all the politicians wanting to cut NPR's funding it got me thinking about what things in the budget I would ax if I had a say (and if they actually made a budget). This is my top 10, discretionary spending items I would cut,...
1) NPR - There are thousands of radio stations why are we supporting stations with our tax dollars.
2) PBS - There are 15,000,000 channels out there and never anything on, PBS is no exception. More taxpayers wasted.
3) NEA- The National Endowment of the Arts. If you can't make it as an artist, get another job.
4) Department of Education - Let the states run their own education system not the federal government.
5) Department of Energy - Created in the 70's to help us save energy, didn't work. More dependent on foreign oil now than ever.
6)Amtrak - Never made any money just costs money, sell it already.
7) Post Office - Privatize this monstrosity so it can make money.
8)IRS - Implementation of the Fair Tax would eliminate the need for tax collectors.
9) Fannie Mae/Feddie Mac - I combined these two cause I don't think the government needs to be in the mortgage business.
10) Selective Service system - We haven't had a draft for 40 or so years, maybe we should think about trimming this one down a bit or even eliminating it all together. When we need more troops, I bet a law could be passed to re-create this government agency. For now it is just a waste.
This is not a complete list but it would be a good start. Another thing I noticed when I read the budget was that there are lots of "departments of statistics". There is one in about every government agency or department. Why don't we cut all those number crunchers into one department and actually throw away all the numbers that nobody actually gives a damn about. I know the list is far from complete, feel free to add to this list.
This topic was covered somewhat in today's Doonesbury strip. I don't known if you'll enjoy it as much as I did, though :)
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