daledo
28th September 2011, 08:46
In three simple words: polarization, corruption and complexity. These are what’s crippling America. Congress and the President are contributing to it, but that is our system of checks and balances; the very structure of our nation and the way it was designed to work. Our founding fathers organized it that way to make dramatic changes occur more slowly, and with opposing views having a role in the process. However, the growth of our government, the influence of our media, and the very nature of our society caused this good idea to deteriorate into polarized paralysis. The president can cause substantial change by his appointments and presidential actions. Congress can do little when divided and limited by presidential veto power.
The polarization in America is so pervasive, and instead of blaming it only on the politicians, the blame needs to be placed on the second and equally large cause: on the “news & opinion” media—the voracious, sensationalism-seeking, omnipresent media. That is what I am using to spread this message! Nowhere was this polarization on more striking display than during the contrived debate series, but especially the NBC/MSNBC GOP debate on Sept. 7. The questioners, Brian Williams of NBC and John F. Harris of Politico were so blatantly trying to elevate differences where few existed that finally Newt Gingrich challenged them and refused to play along. This “debate” could have been labeled the, “Let’s get the GOP candidates to attack each other and help President Obama’s reelection campaign.” I cite it only because it is just one of many such media attempts to “create news” and sensationalize minutia, to inflame opinions and play to a biased portion of America.
None of the major media is free of blame in its 24/7/365 compulsion to make “mountains out of molehills.” The NY Times, Washington Post, etc., and most of the electronic (TV) media is biased to the liberal left. To them, Obama, for all his failures is still “the chosen one.” After all, they pulled trick of biased reporting to get him elected—and they couldn’t be wrong—could they? Then there is Fox, which leans the to the right, supported by the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, Rush Limbaugh, and conservative talk-radio. Depending on where you get your news, your opinions will be biased.
It is normal to believe a lot of what you see and hear, so if you watch/listen to just “one side”, you will think that side is right. I’m guilty of it—and so are you—and so are most people. The polarization, filtered into the electorate, is crippling American government into a paralysis of gridlock. Jointly caused politicians seeking reelection, and exacerbated by media bias, polarization grows and spreads. This polarization is like a cancer eating at our country.
One Solution: Stop encouraging the divisiveness and find points in common. It’s always surprising to me how many I find when I try to do that. Communicate directly with people who seem to have opposing views. Learn why they believe that way, and help them understand the basis for your beliefs. Then build on the common ground—in the government and personally.
The second problem is corruption. It’s rampant in government, but worst of all in the gargantuan Federal government. Lobbyists are bribe-carriers, paying for favors from legislators in all kinds of currency—but mostly campaign contributions. Medicare & Medicaid, the runaway entitlements are loaded with corruption and waste. The perpetrators are typical of most criminals: crooked doctors and illicit service providers, scam artists who discovered how to bilk the system. Their cheating reaches into every corner of American life, often hidden under the auspices of “helping the poor and the aged.” What crap. Both need massive investigations and serious criminal convictions.
Anyone who thinks a $900 Billion defense budget is not loaded with waste and corruption has not been around government contracting. We could adequately protect our country with 25% less cost if the duplication, corruption and outright irresponsible waste were wrung out of defense spending. Just look at the wasted/stolen billions discovered accidentally in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the inflated staffs and spending in defense administration. Don’t cut the soldiers; cut the desk jockeys who often work to sustain their jobs and largesse. And the same goes for nearly every account on the budget, right down the line. America doesn’t have a revenue problem. America has a spending problem—a very special kind of spending problem—the biggest part of which is enormous amounts of government waste and corruption. Limit spending to 2007-2008 levels. The government still worked then. Solicit waste reporting and get the media to dwell on it instead of politicians every word.
Not long ago, the CBO found enormous duplication of programs, as many as 80 of them, all purporting to serve the same need, when in fact they were essentially “stealing” from American taxpayers, protecting their own turf. Cut the number of bureaucrats and save untold billions. Which leads me to the third cause of our trouble: complexity. No one will argue this one, if they just consider the thousands of pages of the Federal tax code, the thousands of pages or Obamacare or the Dodd-Frank Act. No one can possibly doubt this if they have ever investigated the organizational structure of the Federal government or read the thousands of pages of the Federal Register (the documentation of what goes on in Congress).
One solution: Merge the General Accounting Office (GAO) and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) into a single entity to form an “Internal Auditor’s Office” to seek out waste, corruption, and failures of control in every government department, with the goal of reducing redundancies, saving money and eliminating waste and corruption.
During his campaign, President Obama pledged to go over the budget line-by-line, account-by-account to find and remove waste. Nice idea (other presidents have also promised that too)—but that’s not his job!
Some departments, like The Department of Homeland Security, are so large and unmanageable that it fails to do its job effectively—not due to negligence, but due to unmanageable complexity. Why do we need so many Cabinet-level positions/departments? Each spawns a huge bureaucracy, and recent additions were formed to appease vocal, political special interest groups. Do Veterans Affairs need to be managed? Sure. Does it need to be a Cabinet level post reporting to the President? Hell, no. Do we need a Federal Education department, or can states meet their own needs more effectively? We started the country with only FOUR Cabinet positions: Secretaries of State, War, Treasury and an Attorney General. Now we have FIFTEEN. That is just crazy.
Do you even know what they are? Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security.
Does it seem like some of these could be combined/consolidated, with big reductions in headcount and cost? Hell, yes! But will they? Hell, no! Why? Because we have the “Fox guarding the hen-house.” Every elected official who talks about simplifying government would meet a deafening outcry from special interests, lobbyists, and most of all, bureaucrats whose jobs would disappear. But that is what needs to be done. Simplify Washington, DC and the Federal Government. Cut the Cabinet level positions—and the departments that they represent— in half. That would be a good start. Does anyone out there have the guts to take on that one? Or maybe, the business approach is better: simply cut all their funding by 30% and tell them to “figure it out.”
The best way to reshape any enterprise is to first define the STRUCTURE and then work out the PROCESSES. A new Federal government structure is necessary if we are to reduce waste and complexity both.
Solution: Cut the number of Cabinet level posts and departments about in half. Then combine, consolidate and eliminate redundancies to merge the other seven into the eight major Cabinet posts/departments. Mandate that budgets in all departments be cut to no more than 2007 totals, but that those in consolidated departments be reduced further.
While we blame Congress, let’s understand what and who really is causing our problems. We blame our elected officials, but they are only a part of the problem. The structure we force them to operate within has grown out of control. The media exaggerates everything to sensationalize it to gain readers and viewers. And we are guilty of polarization fueled by only accessing information that supports what we already think—not the whole picture by any means. I have started to get my news from sources I disagree with—and my perspective has broadened already. Try it!
If we place the blame in the right places and start looking for the right kind of solutions, we might actually solve some of the problems. At the very least we’d expect different behaviors from our elected officials and government bureaucrats. Absent those kinds of steps, we are just “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic”—and it will sink soon.
Source (http://news.yahoo.com/whats-crippling-american-government-235239039.html)
The polarization in America is so pervasive, and instead of blaming it only on the politicians, the blame needs to be placed on the second and equally large cause: on the “news & opinion” media—the voracious, sensationalism-seeking, omnipresent media. That is what I am using to spread this message! Nowhere was this polarization on more striking display than during the contrived debate series, but especially the NBC/MSNBC GOP debate on Sept. 7. The questioners, Brian Williams of NBC and John F. Harris of Politico were so blatantly trying to elevate differences where few existed that finally Newt Gingrich challenged them and refused to play along. This “debate” could have been labeled the, “Let’s get the GOP candidates to attack each other and help President Obama’s reelection campaign.” I cite it only because it is just one of many such media attempts to “create news” and sensationalize minutia, to inflame opinions and play to a biased portion of America.
None of the major media is free of blame in its 24/7/365 compulsion to make “mountains out of molehills.” The NY Times, Washington Post, etc., and most of the electronic (TV) media is biased to the liberal left. To them, Obama, for all his failures is still “the chosen one.” After all, they pulled trick of biased reporting to get him elected—and they couldn’t be wrong—could they? Then there is Fox, which leans the to the right, supported by the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, Rush Limbaugh, and conservative talk-radio. Depending on where you get your news, your opinions will be biased.
It is normal to believe a lot of what you see and hear, so if you watch/listen to just “one side”, you will think that side is right. I’m guilty of it—and so are you—and so are most people. The polarization, filtered into the electorate, is crippling American government into a paralysis of gridlock. Jointly caused politicians seeking reelection, and exacerbated by media bias, polarization grows and spreads. This polarization is like a cancer eating at our country.
One Solution: Stop encouraging the divisiveness and find points in common. It’s always surprising to me how many I find when I try to do that. Communicate directly with people who seem to have opposing views. Learn why they believe that way, and help them understand the basis for your beliefs. Then build on the common ground—in the government and personally.
The second problem is corruption. It’s rampant in government, but worst of all in the gargantuan Federal government. Lobbyists are bribe-carriers, paying for favors from legislators in all kinds of currency—but mostly campaign contributions. Medicare & Medicaid, the runaway entitlements are loaded with corruption and waste. The perpetrators are typical of most criminals: crooked doctors and illicit service providers, scam artists who discovered how to bilk the system. Their cheating reaches into every corner of American life, often hidden under the auspices of “helping the poor and the aged.” What crap. Both need massive investigations and serious criminal convictions.
Anyone who thinks a $900 Billion defense budget is not loaded with waste and corruption has not been around government contracting. We could adequately protect our country with 25% less cost if the duplication, corruption and outright irresponsible waste were wrung out of defense spending. Just look at the wasted/stolen billions discovered accidentally in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the inflated staffs and spending in defense administration. Don’t cut the soldiers; cut the desk jockeys who often work to sustain their jobs and largesse. And the same goes for nearly every account on the budget, right down the line. America doesn’t have a revenue problem. America has a spending problem—a very special kind of spending problem—the biggest part of which is enormous amounts of government waste and corruption. Limit spending to 2007-2008 levels. The government still worked then. Solicit waste reporting and get the media to dwell on it instead of politicians every word.
Not long ago, the CBO found enormous duplication of programs, as many as 80 of them, all purporting to serve the same need, when in fact they were essentially “stealing” from American taxpayers, protecting their own turf. Cut the number of bureaucrats and save untold billions. Which leads me to the third cause of our trouble: complexity. No one will argue this one, if they just consider the thousands of pages of the Federal tax code, the thousands of pages or Obamacare or the Dodd-Frank Act. No one can possibly doubt this if they have ever investigated the organizational structure of the Federal government or read the thousands of pages of the Federal Register (the documentation of what goes on in Congress).
One solution: Merge the General Accounting Office (GAO) and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) into a single entity to form an “Internal Auditor’s Office” to seek out waste, corruption, and failures of control in every government department, with the goal of reducing redundancies, saving money and eliminating waste and corruption.
During his campaign, President Obama pledged to go over the budget line-by-line, account-by-account to find and remove waste. Nice idea (other presidents have also promised that too)—but that’s not his job!
Some departments, like The Department of Homeland Security, are so large and unmanageable that it fails to do its job effectively—not due to negligence, but due to unmanageable complexity. Why do we need so many Cabinet-level positions/departments? Each spawns a huge bureaucracy, and recent additions were formed to appease vocal, political special interest groups. Do Veterans Affairs need to be managed? Sure. Does it need to be a Cabinet level post reporting to the President? Hell, no. Do we need a Federal Education department, or can states meet their own needs more effectively? We started the country with only FOUR Cabinet positions: Secretaries of State, War, Treasury and an Attorney General. Now we have FIFTEEN. That is just crazy.
Do you even know what they are? Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security.
Does it seem like some of these could be combined/consolidated, with big reductions in headcount and cost? Hell, yes! But will they? Hell, no! Why? Because we have the “Fox guarding the hen-house.” Every elected official who talks about simplifying government would meet a deafening outcry from special interests, lobbyists, and most of all, bureaucrats whose jobs would disappear. But that is what needs to be done. Simplify Washington, DC and the Federal Government. Cut the Cabinet level positions—and the departments that they represent— in half. That would be a good start. Does anyone out there have the guts to take on that one? Or maybe, the business approach is better: simply cut all their funding by 30% and tell them to “figure it out.”
The best way to reshape any enterprise is to first define the STRUCTURE and then work out the PROCESSES. A new Federal government structure is necessary if we are to reduce waste and complexity both.
Solution: Cut the number of Cabinet level posts and departments about in half. Then combine, consolidate and eliminate redundancies to merge the other seven into the eight major Cabinet posts/departments. Mandate that budgets in all departments be cut to no more than 2007 totals, but that those in consolidated departments be reduced further.
While we blame Congress, let’s understand what and who really is causing our problems. We blame our elected officials, but they are only a part of the problem. The structure we force them to operate within has grown out of control. The media exaggerates everything to sensationalize it to gain readers and viewers. And we are guilty of polarization fueled by only accessing information that supports what we already think—not the whole picture by any means. I have started to get my news from sources I disagree with—and my perspective has broadened already. Try it!
If we place the blame in the right places and start looking for the right kind of solutions, we might actually solve some of the problems. At the very least we’d expect different behaviors from our elected officials and government bureaucrats. Absent those kinds of steps, we are just “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic”—and it will sink soon.
Source (http://news.yahoo.com/whats-crippling-american-government-235239039.html)