4 ms·

Our administrative capacity is in decline by design. The American people were long ago sold on the idea that the government was just too big and their lives wo

Our administrative capacity is in decline by design. The American people were long ago sold on the idea that the government was just too big and their lives would be better if less of their tax dollars went to fund all this unnecessary government. For more than 50 years the Republican party has been actively trying to shrink the government. Some of their plans, such as starving government programs for money have been so effective that their Democrat counterparts had to also downsize departments in order to keep them alive. Some examples of this starvation are the burdens placed on the USPS to fully fund future pensions, and the continual under-funding of the IRS.

MadSudaca 4y ago
Maybe if it wasn’t for the republican party things would be even worse. In my view a smaller state should be easier to administer.
throw8383833jj 4y ago
And yet, govt spending as percentage of GDP is the biggest it's ever been! AT a whopping 44% total: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spending-to-gdp https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spendi... Just federal alone is 30%! just google: "govt spend as percentage of GDP" I think the american public has been sold on the idea that govt should be bigger and bigger and more bloated than ever. Most people either approve or just don't care.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
  The vast majority of that spending is in one of three categories: Social Security, Medicare, and the Military. Yet that isn't what is being cut in the name of "Government too big!". In fact, those categories only seem to be growing in cost with no apparent measures by the GOP to curb them.
  - rootusrootus 4y ago
    > Social Security, Medicare, and the Military. Three areas of government that have broad bipartisan support. The right wants smaller government, in theory, but they also want to "keep the government out of my Medicare!" So the spending isn't ever going to down, only up.
    - corrral 4y ago
      Republican dislike of social programs (I mean their voters, not the politicians) is largely a marketing thing, not based on what the programs actually do. You poll people on whether they support Social Program X, you get a very different result from if you describe a hypothetical program that just happens to do exactly what Social Program X does, and ask them if they would support that. For extra comedic value you can also ask if they'd like to replace Program They Hate with this new program that's identical. A similar hating-the-label-not-the-thing effect is how you get nonsensical shit like people apparently thinking Medicare isn't "socialized medicine". If they like it, it must not be [Bad Thing].
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  I often think about this when people claim more funding is the solution to problems. There is a hard cap on taxation and if you were to tax every cent of GDP you would only double the budget.
- asciimov 4y ago
  If we were getting good value for our dollar I would agree that we are spending too much. Even though we spend the most out of any country on things like medical care and our military, we aren't getting a good return on investment. Large corporate interests have greased enough government wheels to keep the big payouts rolling their way. If you want to decrease spending, fine lets start by lowering the costs of medical care and medicines, and start looking at getting better value out of our military spending.
jerf 4y ago
It isn't Republicans starving the government for money, because as others have pointed out, government spending has done nothing but go up in every measure, absolute and relative, within your entire lifetime unless you're old enough to have been around for the end of World War 2. The main problem is the mandatory spending. It's exciting to write your bill declaring some funding "mandatory", but then there's nothing to be done about it.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  > The main problem is the mandatory spending. Which, to a close approximation, everyone actually supports. We don't reduce government spending because we don't want to.

MadSudaca 4y ago

Maybe if it wasn’t for the republican party things would be even worse. In my view a smaller state should be easier to administer.

throw8383833jj 4y ago

And yet, govt spending as percentage of GDP is the biggest it's ever been! AT a whopping 44% total: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spending-to-gdp https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spendi... Just federal alone is 30%! just google: "govt spend as percentage of GDP" I think the american public has been sold on the idea that govt should be bigger and bigger and more bloated than ever. Most people either approve or just don't care.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
The vast majority of that spending is in one of three categories: Social Security, Medicare, and the Military. Yet that isn't what is being cut in the name of "Government too big!". In fact, those categories only seem to be growing in cost with no apparent measures by the GOP to curb them.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  > Social Security, Medicare, and the Military. Three areas of government that have broad bipartisan support. The right wants smaller government, in theory, but they also want to "keep the government out of my Medicare!" So the spending isn't ever going to down, only up.
  - corrral 4y ago
    Republican dislike of social programs (I mean their voters, not the politicians) is largely a marketing thing, not based on what the programs actually do. You poll people on whether they support Social Program X, you get a very different result from if you describe a hypothetical program that just happens to do exactly what Social Program X does, and ask them if they would support that. For extra comedic value you can also ask if they'd like to replace Program They Hate with this new program that's identical. A similar hating-the-label-not-the-thing effect is how you get nonsensical shit like people apparently thinking Medicare isn't "socialized medicine". If they like it, it must not be [Bad Thing].
s1artibartfast 4y ago
I often think about this when people claim more funding is the solution to problems. There is a hard cap on taxation and if you were to tax every cent of GDP you would only double the budget.
asciimov 4y ago
If we were getting good value for our dollar I would agree that we are spending too much. Even though we spend the most out of any country on things like medical care and our military, we aren't getting a good return on investment. Large corporate interests have greased enough government wheels to keep the big payouts rolling their way. If you want to decrease spending, fine lets start by lowering the costs of medical care and medicines, and start looking at getting better value out of our military spending.

jerf 4y ago

It isn't Republicans starving the government for money, because as others have pointed out, government spending has done nothing but go up in every measure, absolute and relative, within your entire lifetime unless you're old enough to have been around for the end of World War 2. The main problem is the mandatory spending. It's exciting to write your bill declaring some funding "mandatory", but then there's nothing to be done about it.

rootusrootus 4y ago
> The main problem is the mandatory spending. Which, to a close approximation, everyone actually supports. We don't reduce government spending because we don't want to.