Posted by Tina
Cutting the size of government back is a popular concept for many on the right so you can imagine my JOY when, a few moments ago, I heard Rush say that Trump may propose a big cut in the State Department budget. So naturally I went looking for evidence. Lo and behold there is a story in the Wall Street Journal, “Trump Proposes Cutting State Department Budget by 37%.”
Trump has talked before about his intention for all department heads to clean out the excesses, cut out the bloat, and operate on a much more lean and mean budget. I have a feeling his budget will contain many such surprises as the businessman president takes his red pencil to the big government bureaucracy.
Trump has said he will not cut entitlements to pay for his budget increases and been criticized and ridiculed. Looks like Trump will “pay for” his effort to reclaim military preparedness by asking our government bureaucracy to operate responsibly as they serve the people (More work; fewer parties and less travel)!
Your thoughts?
You do realize that this does NOT come under the heading: Creating Jobs.
The opposite, actually … but don’t let it bother you. We all know how much you resent the prosperity of people who do complex analytical work that you cannot do.
Plus, this whole thing is pure vendetta. Apparently, at several points during the campaign, dang near every ranking member of the State Department put his or her signature to some one of many vociferous letters of protest to the GOP over the notion of an infantile imbecile as presidential candidate.
The Donald holds a grudge, and if the planet goes to hell in a handbasket … he don’t care … thereby proving himself to be an infantile imbecile.
Instead of pouting or feeling bllue you turn nasty when you lose.
What you’re really worried about is the planet doing much better…Obama already sent the planet to hell in a hand basket, which is exactly why Trump won.
Name calling and labeling is the best you can do? Wow Libs…you’re so much smarter.
Tina Decades of bad Politicians have set this up. Your hate for Obama seems to be taking over your sensibility. The an is out. I am not a big fan of his but Trump is a disaster!
The House of cards is getting ready to fall and I hope it takes out all of the bad politicians Dem and Rep
Sorry to throw cold water on your party but I’m not a one issue girl and this is right up my ally.
It comes under the heading cutting unnecessary, wasteful, bloated, entitled bureaucracy…one of my bugaboos! It will force government employees to be more responsible with OUR money. Any job losses will be more than compensated for in the private sector as our economy grows.
“…resent the prosperity of people who do complex analytical work that you cannot do.”
Oh please. Any of that work that is necessary will not be lost. What will be lost is expensive Las Vegas “conferences” featuring wine and strawberries in the hot tub and secretaries hired solely for their extra curricular activity.
Lame, Tina. Either you’re for full employment … or you’re not. If you’re not, say so.
Or … if you’re for nobody should make more money than you, say so. That makes you quite the socialist.
And if that’s it … what is all this rich boy admiration? You really make no sense. Do you know that? Know that.
Well Libs, unlike you, I know there are many paths to employment, especially when we have a robust economy instead of the piddling less than 2% slog we’ve endured for eight years. Therefore I can say I am for full employment…and it’s not up to the government to provide it!
I’ve said many times I think people should make as much as they want to make. It is up to them, you know.
I make no sense to YOU! That’s because you have remained a cripple, unable to think in terms that don;t fit into that neat little sacred no-it-all box.
Set yourself free girl…fly little hatchling…learn something new!
But you are ignoring the fact that Trump does not propose to cut government spending at all. An additional $50 B to the defense industry is NOT a cut.
So stuff that … I don’t want to hear it again. What he is doing, is moving the money around. I, myself, would rather pay the salaries of daycare teachers and healthcare workers, scientists and diplomats, than, oh, say, some procurement and supply sergeant who spends the greater portion of every day surfing the net.
But, to each his own.
Bloated? Yep
Let us start with auditing the Fed and the Pentagon Tina.
Ya want to find Trillions in waste? or not
Taxes are just a way to validate the fake money they create and divert to the corporations and banks. They will never be cut for We the People significantly.
Reducing revenue and then cutting the safety net is not the answer. Bush did it? Where are the jobs? he left losing 750K jobs a month.
Look at the State of Kansas! They are Broke! They implemented the perfect Tea Paty Koch system. It FAILED!
You speak in circles repeating Breibart and other RW think Tanks.
Both Democrats and Republicans need to be deprogrammed.
Libby, I don’t count gov. as creating jobs. They exist off our taxes. Taking is not creating, however I fully fund my part of the tax bill with a smile. I don’t smile when I am forced to pay for waste, fraud and abuse. I don’t like big government moving in on my freedom either, the bigger the government, the less our freedom.
Spoken like a man cashing … not one … but two, government checks. You people are … deeply … weird.
Listen up Ms. Socialist Nirvana. A budget is a proposed set of conditions going forward. Obama’s budget decimated the military and increased government spending and programs…he made government bureaucracy bigger while laying down on the job in terms of national defense capability, his ONLY constitutional instruction.
Trump’s budget will be different. It will contain increases in spending to fix military preparedness. It will also demand tighter budgets within the bloated bureaucracy. Some departments may be eliminated or melded into other departments to save money. An improved economy will take a lot of people off food stamps. We’ll have to wait and see won’t we?
But the reality is that cuts in spending have never meant actual cuts but instead cuts in the increases. We’ll see too how successful Trumps team is in downsizing te bureaucracy from that standpoint.
As I’ve said many ties the biggest items adding to our debt are the twin security entitlements MC and SS. Until we do something about that we are doomed to be facing debt. Obama’s Fed held interest rates artificially low to keep that from becoming a major problem in terms of interest on the debt. He was happy to keep the middle class unemployed to save his ass on that one. Trump has suggested negotiating on the debt to avoid catastrophe. I have more faith in his ability to do that than any other I’ve seen.
This nation still faces many problems. Most of them initiated because of bad policies that your party loves and too often ideological Republicans were powerless to object since everyone thinks a free lunch is just dandy.
One day the piper will have to be paid. You can blame it on one guy but that will only indicate how partisan and ignorant you are.
The Military is not decimated Tina……….
You repeating trump? LOLOLOLOL
let us start there… let us look at US Military Spending compared to others…
Audit the Pentagon! How many Trillions are missing now?
Wake Up
I am not going to keep paying taxes to supply the Military Industrial Complex more wall street Profits why they run around the world Bullying for Pipelines.
These wars are one big lie for profit and we pay, they get rich.
How about we cut the cost of Trumps lavish lifestyle. He has already cost us more in just over a month than 1 year of Obama.
How about we stop this outrageous war spending, proposed nuclear arms race and bloated military spending. Or maybe the trillions on a useless vanity wall when everybody knows tunnels are the problem?
My thoughts we take the gov back from the banks, MIC, and corporations and go over the budget and make smart cuts.
Audit the Fed and the Pentagon where Trillions just disappear.
Trump has cost you exactly what any president would in security…but he’s not taking his salary AND we are actually getting something of value in return for our investment. Let’s see how he does in a years time before we go off the wall with wild criticisms.
How about we return our military to readiness in this dangerous world. Democrats always decimate the military; Obama did exactly the same and blew up the ME while doing it…stoopid, really stoopid.
Trump isn’t interested in making war. He’s interested in our security and cleaning up the mess created by the last administration, including the dangerous deal made with Iran.
There are plenty of areas that need cleaning up. Trump is the first president that has show any resolve at all to expose the corruption and cut the waste. I would think you would at least have a bit of mild curiosity to see what he might accomplish.
Every bureau and department should be subject to regular audit. Trump is not happy with the Fed. He met with John Allison, a libertarian, that would like to eliminate the Fed and return to the gold standard. I don’t know that Trump will go that far but I do know he wants to seriously rein them in.
I think the Customs & Border people need their training budget expanded, not cut. Not the brightest bulbs in the room, apparently.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/02/27/canadian_doctor_from_afghanistan_detained_for_hours_at_u_s_border.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/26/us/french-historian-detained-immigration-henry-rousso.html?_r=0
I mean, this is embarrassing. It’s … so … totalitarian, like in Russia. Funny coincidence.
If only you would turn that nasty tongue on your own once in awhile…there’s plenty that should anger and embarrass you there.
Trump probably remembers, as many of us do, the State Dept. under Hillary “misplaced $6 billion.” I’m sure some of it turned up later, but the IG made it very clear there was massive sloppy accounting going on. That would be unacceptable to any business man.
Cutting the State Dept. would also be a huge message to other depts. that think their budget is safe.
With so much waste and corruption Trump going after each and every dept. will be noticed by every taxpayer who is sick and tired of seeing their hard earned money going for expensive wine, goblets and china for embassies all over the world.
State Department Misplaced $6B Under Hillary Clinton:
“IG report reveals incomplete, lost contract files worth $6B
The State Department misplaced and lost some $6 billion due to the improper filing of contracts during the past six years, mainly during the tenure of former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, according to a newly released Inspector General report.
The $6 billion in unaccounted funds poses a “significant financial risk and demonstrates a lack of internal control over the Department’s contract actions,” according to the report.
The report centered on State Department contracts worth “more than $6 billion in which contract files were incomplete or could not be located at all,” according to the alert.
“The failure to maintain contract files adequately creates significant financial risk and demonstrates a lack of internal control over the Department’s contract actions,” the alert states.
The situation “creates conditions conducive to fraud, as corrupt individuals may attempt to conceal evidence of illicit behavior by omitting key documents from the contract file,” the report concluded.
The State Department’s inability to properly file its paperwork is causing most of the losses, according to the report.
The IG “found repeated examples of poor contract file administration” over the years, the report said.
Contracts related to the U.S. war in Iraq, for instance, could not be produced in 33 out of 115 instances, according to the report.
“A recent OIG audit of the closeout process for contracts supporting the U.S. Mission in Iraq revealed that contracting officials were unable to provide 33 of 115 contract files requested in accordance with the audit sampling plan,” the report states.
The value of the 33 “missing files” totaled $2.1 billion, according to the report.
Additionally, 48 of the 82 contract files that were produced “did not contain all of the documentation required by” internal regulations, according to the report.
The 48 “incomplete files” were worth another $2.1 billion, according to the report.
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/state-department-misplaced-6b-under-hillary-clinton/
Some of that $6 billion could have been used to fix our failing infrastructure or even not added to our out of control dept.
Peggy I imagine that report had a lot to do with Trumps announcement to cut the State Department budget.
Text of Trump speech tonight is here. Home run in my estimation.
Libby: “I mean, this is embarrassing.”
“Resist: Since Trump’s Win, Dems Have Flipped Zero Seats in Four Blue State Special Elections” – Guy Benson
“Embarrassing” for YOU…if you had an ounce of humility in you.