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>What do you feel should be cut in government? Where do you feel that money is being misappropriated? I'm not for big government. So, I wouldn't go department

by jemka 14y ago

>What do you feel should be cut in government? Where do you feel that money is being misappropriated? I'm not for big government. So, I wouldn't go department by department and audit to find fraud, waste, and abuse. I used to get paid to do that for the defense department. It's a complete waste of time and ultimately a paper drill. But what I want is moot. What I don't understand is why many others sit idly by and argue who is going to contribute X%, when they should be more skeptical about where the money is going in the first place. Regardless of who's money it is. If the government was run more like a business (which there's no reason why it couldn't be) we wouldn't be having this discussion. But for starters, how about term limits and contractual accountability for the leaders? This say one thing do another without recourse is getting old.

rprasad 14y ago
By design, the U.S. government cannot be run like a business. The Founding Fathers consciously and deliberately chose to make the federal government as structurally inefficient as possible so that the actual exercise of federal powers (which are effectively unlimited under the Constitution except as provided for in the Bill of Rights) would be constrained. Businesses don't have to deal with the Bill of Rights; the government does. Every exercise of government power must conform to the Bill of Rights and Constitutional prescriptions and proscriptions. The current government could be run more like a business than it currently is, but there is no way under the Constitution that it could be run like a business.
- jemka 14y ago
  Thanks. I edited my post after re-reading it assuming someone would make the argument you just have. :)
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archgoon 14y ago
I like the contractual accountability idea. However, I'd like to point out that term limits is making government less like a business. Imagine you told a CEO 'Well, you're here for 4, maybe 8 years, but no longer." Zuckerberg's term would be over in 2014, Jobs wouldn't have been able to return (or would have stopped in 2005 if you just want to count his return in 1997). That's not to say that term limits are a bad idea (however, I'm unimpressed with their implementation in California), just that I don't think that people really feel comfortable with having a government, that can make it's own rules, run itself like a business.
- jemka 14y ago
  Great points. I like the idea of term limits if only to help prevent corruption. But perhaps that solution is best left up to the contractual accountability. However, I do feel that complacency and the "good ole boys club" plays a negative role in the leadership, which limiting terms might help to prevent. But not to stray too far away from my initial point, "like a business" merely means efficient. "Here's my money, please put it to good use" isn't something I think many people with the correct information feel is truly being honored. And why that isn't being discussed more is interesting to me.
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by jemka 14y ago

rprasad 14y ago

By design, the U.S. government cannot be run like a business. The Founding Fathers consciously and deliberately chose to make the federal government as structurally inefficient as possible so that the actual exercise of federal powers (which are effectively unlimited under the Constitution except as provided for in the Bill of Rights) would be constrained. Businesses don't have to deal with the Bill of Rights; the government does. Every exercise of government power must conform to the Bill of Rights and Constitutional prescriptions and proscriptions. The current government could be run more like a business than it currently is, but there is no way under the Constitution that it could be run like a business.

jemka 14y ago
Thanks. I edited my post after re-reading it assuming someone would make the argument you just have. :)

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archgoon 14y ago

I like the contractual accountability idea. However, I'd like to point out that term limits is making government less like a business. Imagine you told a CEO 'Well, you're here for 4, maybe 8 years, but no longer." Zuckerberg's term would be over in 2014, Jobs wouldn't have been able to return (or would have stopped in 2005 if you just want to count his return in 1997). That's not to say that term limits are a bad idea (however, I'm unimpressed with their implementation in California), just that I don't think that people really feel comfortable with having a government, that can make it's own rules, run itself like a business.

jemka 14y ago
Great points. I like the idea of term limits if only to help prevent corruption. But perhaps that solution is best left up to the contractual accountability. However, I do feel that complacency and the "good ole boys club" plays a negative role in the leadership, which limiting terms might help to prevent. But not to stray too far away from my initial point, "like a business" merely means efficient. "Here's my money, please put it to good use" isn't something I think many people with the correct information feel is truly being honored. And why that isn't being discussed more is interesting to me.

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