The biggest problem we face is the government is WAAAAY too big!

[Que]

There is no crisis. If Americans wouldn't be so obese, the vast majority of health problems would go away.

But since that makes too much sense, people won't listen.

100%.

That is the single biggest burden on all aspects of our Healthcare System. Everything from increased cost from ER visits to it blowing out our Medicaid and Medicare budgets.

The good news is it lowering the life expectancy of Americans. This will help with our social security debacle. the bad news is it is also affecting fertility rates which will of course hurt our social security debacle. Also the lower life expectancy emboldens idiots like Sean who want to insist that the UK has a superior Healthcare System.

We heavilly subsidize poverty and obesity which often go hand in hand. We also have entirely too much deliciously hazardous cheap pre-prepared poisonous food. all of which is directly attributable to big government and crony capitalism.

 

[Hypoxia]

You're still at large, traitor? Turn yourself in now.

Looks like Abortion finally comes to an end on Tuesday, Liberals finally concede they're killing people by the millions!

Incorrect, traitor. An embryo is not a person.

You want to own and enslave women. You'd like a few for breeding stock... if you *could* breed. Kim won't send you any of his personally vetted Lipstick Diplomacy cheerleaders, and your own Vietnamese dwarf pig ran off, so you're all alone there in your mom's basement. Sad. Turn yourself in now.

 

[Hypoxia]

ObTopic: USA is the most powerful, wealthy, and influential nation in human history. (MAGA implies USA is weak. That's luzer talk.) USA is Earth's third most populous nation, with a third of a BILLION people. USA is a vast complex organic machine that somehow clomps along.

I've little use for Tom Friedman but he did present a useful metaphor: A society or nation is like a computer, and its legal and governmental structure is its operating system (OS), like CP/M, Linux, iOS, Windoze, or Android. An OS supports numerous apps -- those are (metaphorically) us and our groupings, businesses, endeavors. A more efficient OS allows better access to resources. Slower OS's lag in competition.

Another metaphor: Society is a vast machine with many parts grinding against each other. The legislative system is the lubricant that keeps the machine from melting down or burning up. Like all lubricants, it gets filthy and needs changing regularly.

The world's biggest, most complex machine needs high-grade lubrication, and lots of it. Humanity's most complex social computer will NOT run with a small, obsolete OS.

Y'all want to shrink gov't? Downgrade. Shrink the machine. Break up USA into more manageable bits. California and Texas were independent republics. The Deep South can go its own way, as can the Rust Belt. Florida can conquer the Caribbean. SECEDE!

Until then, quit bitching about the size of gov't. That's useless. It ain't going away, not without major wars and mass murders. Move somewhere without a gov't and see what it's like. Alas, you'll find that power abhors a vacuum. Be nice to the warlords.

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

If the Federal government was serious about shrinking government and wasteful spending:

1) ABOLISH DEPARTMENTS

Department of Commerce

Today the Department of Commerce spends $9 billion a year subsidizing companies with political connections, gathering economic data, setting industry standards and doing a bunch of things companies ought to do for themselves.

Department of Labor

The Department inserts itself into almost every protracted argument between workers and management. Why should we let government referee every argument? Let workers, bosses, unions and their lawyers fight it out.

Then people can make contracts as individuals so they can get deals tailored to their individual needs. That’s fairer than letting government bureaucrats and labor union bosses pretend to speak for them.

The Labor Department also spends about $9 billion gathering information on workers. Top labor-union bosses make six-figure salaries. I’m sure their organizations could spend a little on statistics and workplace studies. Leave the poor, oppressed taxpayer out of it.

The Small Business Administration

I love small businesses and the entrepreneurs who create them.

That’s exactly why I don’t want them chosen or coddled by the state, just as big corporations shouldn’t be. Entrepreneurs should devote their energy to inventing things, not sucking up to bureaucrats who give loans to businesses they favor.

Businesses should sink or swim in accordance with the wishes of customers on the open market.

The Department of Education

Every time government pokes its nose into some activity, it pretends that activity could never have happened without government. Left-wing activists agree and pretend the sky will fall if anyone got rid of a department.

But we’ve only had a federal Department of Education since 1980, and it’s done nothing useful.

The department doesn’t teach kids or pay teachers. It comes up with studies, test requirements, and one-size-fits-all rules that limit what schools can do if they want federal money. That money gets taken from states and shipped to Washington, D.C., which then ships it back to states if they do something the department likes. On that long journey, plenty of the money disappears into the hands of bureaucrats.

Turn education back over to local governments, the way it was not so long ago. Let entrepreneurs and local governments compete to improve schools.

The Department of Energy

Politicians say that America needs “an energy policy.” But we have one -- the free market. If someone invents a better or cheaper form of energy, the rewards will be huge. Investors will eagerly fund it. We don’t need federal bureaucrats funneling your tax money to their vision of what’s best.

When government does that, we get nice-sounding but expensive boondoggles, such as the Solyndra solar company and giant windmills that don’t budge on windless days. Your taxes go to the politically connected, like Al Gore and his friends.

The department’s nuclear supervision responsibilities belong in the Department of Defense.

2: AUDIT THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

The DoD has never received a full audit. There have been stories of trillions being wasted/mismanaged. A while back, The Pentagon had buried an internal study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste in its business operations. Let me state that again:

$125 billion in administrative waste

3: FIX OR PRIVATIZE THE POST OFFICE

The Post Office has run deficits for years. Last year, it was around 7 BILLION in the red. That could easily be fixed. Only 5% of the mail delivered is correspondence. The remaining 95% is junk mail like flyers, catalogs, etc. Raise the prices for shipping junk mail to fill that deficit. The other option is to privatize the Post Office. Currently, there are laws on the book preventing companies like FedEx and UPS from delivering first class mail. Remove those laws to increase competition.

 

[Lapdog420]

The government is not to big if you mean the public sector and not the public sector. Thank God it was there to bail out the private sector in 2008. We came out of that GOP mess and had low inflation, low interest rates, the strong dollar and shrinking unemployment for 26 months in a row. The USA won! we came out strong and on top! Our treasury bonds were paying near zero%. The world was basically saying here use our money and just give it back someday. Because your government is more sound then any other government and safer then any private sector investments with the way Bush and the GOP left us this shit hole. Stop with the nonsense and start looking at the facts. Our private to public sector balance is right.

 

[Hypoxia]

If the Federal government was serious about shrinking government and wasteful spending:

1) ABOLISH DEPARTMENTS

Department of Commerce

Today the Department of Commerce spends $9 billion a year subsidizing companies with political connections, gathering economic data, setting industry standards and doing a bunch of things companies ought to do for themselves.

You trust Google and Amazon with your data more? You trust that mega-corporations will be honest and open? Do you know what the National Bureau of Standards does?

Department of Labor

The Department inserts itself into almost every protracted argument between workers and management. Why should we let government referee every argument? Let workers, bosses, unions and their lawyers fight it out.

Govt's and corporations are intent on destroying unions, now mostly greatly weakened. BTW before unions, 'vacation' was your time between employment, and 'pensions' were what you saved in a coffee can because banks went broke before FICA. When unions are destroyed, who represents workers?

The Small Business Administration

...Businesses should sink or swim in accordance with the wishes of customers on the open market.

Thus will US business's shorts be eaten by foreign firms that ARE supported by their gov't, and by domestic and international cartels. That playing field is pretty damn lumpy.

The Department of Education

...Turn education back over to local governments, the way it was not so long ago. Let entrepreneurs and local governments compete to improve schools.

Local govt's too often ignore marginal communities. Look up the history of the DoE. But yes, mandatory testing is absurd. Blame Dubya for forcing that on the nation.

The Department of Energy

Politicians say that America needs “an energy policy.” But we have one -- the free market.

Tell the cartels. Adam Smith in WEALTH OF NATIONS said the markets and business NEED tight regulation, lest they corrupt gov't and society. Again, nations with energy polities will eat our shorts for lacking guidance -- and not Tromp's move to boost unwanted, obsolete technologies.

2: AUDIT THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

The DoD has never received a full audit. There have been stories of trillions being wasted/mismanaged. A while back, The Pentagon had buried an internal study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste in its business operations. Let me state that again:

$125 billion in administrative waste

I agree here. Provide the Pentagon more funding after they've found all the cash they lost, and not before. And stop building weapons systems that don't work, and training commanders how not to win wars.

3: FIX OR PRIVATIZE THE POST OFFICE

The Post Office has run deficits for years. Last year, it was around 7 BILLION in the red. That could easily be fixed. Only 5% of the mail delivered is correspondence. The remaining 95% is junk mail like flyers, catalogs, etc. Raise the prices for shipping junk mail to fill that deficit. The other option is to privatize the Post Office. Currently, there are laws on the book preventing companies like FedEx and UPS from delivering first class mail. Remove those laws to increase competition.

The Post Office is Constitutional (Article I, Section 8, Clause 7). Need an amendment to change that. The continuing postal deficit was imposed by Congress and can be eliminated by one rule change. USPS does a measurably better job of delivering packages at lower rates than private carriers, which aren't really interested in serving small, remote communities. Not profitable. Sad.

Again, USA is a vastly complicated society needing a robust operating system to avoid crashing. We can't go back from Linux to CP/M. Blowing half the world's national security budget is more than we can afford -- cut the shit out of that. Or dismember the nation into smaller entities.