by Mandatory Marcus

Created on: August 26, 2009

I'm going to have to stop reading the news and throw my TV out the window...or learn some deep breathing relaxation techniques; because the way the government is spending my money and looking for more of it I'm likely to stroke out.

Not only do I get to sit back and watch our government continue to seek out ever more inefficient ways to waste money in the name of stimulating the economy...I also get to watch the programs and services we're already paying for waste as much as humanly possible. The laundry list of waste is already long and inglorious; but the list continues to grow with no end in sight.

Let's start with the Cash for Clunkers program that has managed to unnecessarily burn through billions of dollars to accomplish little more than subsidizing auto purchases for people who would probably have been buying new cars in the next six months anyway. A complete waste. And now they are paying the dealers involved via IOU's instead of cash.

The dealers have to pay the rebate out of pocket and then wait for reimbursement from the government; only car dealers are getting IOU's in lieu of the cash. I don't recall the program being called IOU's for clunkers...or "subsidize everyone's auto purchase and you might get reimbursed someday for clunkers".

No Way....! You mean the government isn't paying money it owes to people working through its very own government sponsored program?!? What do you suppose would happen if I sent in an IOU in lieu of my taxes this year?

And how about that post office? You know the post office...that place you go when you need to burn 45 minutes on a 5 minute task. Well they lost a couple billion dollars in the third quarter...to add to the billions already lost in the previous quarters. How is it that I pay $0.44 to send a letter 40 miles down the road and that contributes to a multi-billion dollar loss...but can head on down to my local grocery store and buy a kiwifruit from New Zealand for about the same price and nobody loses money? Seems to me if private companies have cracked that code our post office should have been able to figure it out a long time ago. Except of course they are a government sponsored monopoly that is insulated from any form of competition...so we get billion dollar losses and over priced postage rates.

And while we're at it...can somebody explain the logic behind paying taxes on tax refunds? You get a refund because you paid too much tax to begin with...how does that logic work?

Oh wait...it doesn't. In fact no logic can explain the travesty that is government being anything more than a referee in a market system. When the government becomes a player in a market system everybody loses...except of course the folks who are in the government.

And that is why I'm highly skeptical of a government sponsored health care option. That and the countless dollars that I see being flushed away on every other program the government has its hands in.

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