What would you do to stop wasteful government spending in Washington?

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Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Reward federal agencies for coming in under budget and STOP punishing them for saving money. Right now, if a group in the federal government does not spend all the money allotted in the budget for that year, they lose the money and they are further punished by having their budget reduced by that amount the following year. This flawed practice only encourages them to spend any excess monies at the end of the fiscal year to avoid having that money taken away and not getting the same budget the following year. I have personally seen millions and millions of dollars spent every year on things that are not necessarily needed just to zero the account by the end of the year. Why not reward them by letting them carry that money over to the next year and not cut the budget the following year. If over a period of three years, the budget is still not being spent, then reduce the overage by only 50%. We need to encourage agencies to be good stewards of our tax dollars, and stop punishing them for not spending everything that was allotted them that year.

Answer 2

Impeach George W. Bush and indict and send Richard Bruce Cheney to Federal Prison.

Answer 3

Get rid of George Bush

Answer 4

Vote all Republics out of office.

Answer 5

Vote for you!

Answer 6

stop the war on drugs, and anti-drug funding for propaganda campaigns. do away with victimless crimes. and abolish the ATF and DEA.

Answer 7

Start listening to Rep. Jeff Flake.

Politicians should remember who they work for. Legislative transparency is vital in a democracy.

Answer 8

Ban lobbyists from D.C.

Come up with a better system to keep big business from buying a president (this goes for both parties)

Answer 9

Change the way all politicians are paid. They would be paid on the basis of what percent of the voters agree with their decision in policy/law making. If 60 % of the voters agree, then they would get 60 % of their "base pay". I think that might be a wonderful incentive for the politicians to follow what the voters want, like it should be. The corporations wouldn't like it, but I don't care. . .

Answer 10

I would return the production and distribution of money to the federal government. As it stands, the Federal Reserve System, a conglomerate of banks in twelve districts of the United States, orders money to be printed by the Government, and then loans it back to the government at interest.
This situation has been in place since 1913.
How about we just implement Executive Order 11110.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.…
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a37da8…
Thank you for a very good question.

Answer 11

I would start with the basics. I would start with health care after birth, education so one could earn a decent living to take care of his/ her family adequately in the work force without assistance from the government and etc. If we concentrate on the necessary needs of this country then the wasteful spending would be non existing. Let's just simply priorities when it comes to our spending. "Needs always before wont's."

Answer 12

The answer is too obvious. Stop the war in Iraq.

Answer 13

instead of the politicians getting the big pay raises every year. give it to the people who truely deserve the increase. the average working man/woman.

Answer 14

I would stop all of the nonsense in Washington like the two weeks waisted on a non binding resolution , it cost taxpayers millions for them to agree they are against the war , it took millions of our dollars to decide this , we already knew there position on this , I would stop all "special interest " projects from being included on a piece of legislation , I would make all politicians who want to push their little pet projects do it on their time not the tax payers..Next to resolve the budget deficit I would stop the use of paper money , it comes from the federal reserve , ((with a high interest rate)), because the value of the paper it is printed on is nothing..Switching to coins would eliminate millions upon millions of dollars spent on interest ,because the coins come from the US mint , the coin has a self sustaining value because it can be melted down ,and reused... thus eliminates the need for interest on the money used to pay debts to other nations..next thing would be to make a politicians pay for their own travels to and from their home states ,and vacations and pay for their own expenses such as gas & meals on the job , I have to buy my own gas , lunch and drinks when I go to work , while they have meals catered in everyday sometimes all three meals , I would rid them of the federal credit cars they are issued , if they have to buy something work related they can do like rest of America , buy it , turn in the reciept and get reimburesed if it is approved as work related . I would end FEMA , because they are a waiste of air , people who live in disaster proned areas should have adequate insurance to cover damages it is not the governments place to rebuild for you I have lost two homes in the past did I go crying to the government no I did not , there would be an exception for the ones who can not truly help themselves, and I would never have a national health care program because it includes everyone , do you know how many billions would be spent on Hollywood drug addicts and their twice per year visits to rehab , plus all other junkies,and loosers , I could go on there is so much more but neither side mentions them in theiir campain speeches because they all have their own personal agenda to push , instead of fixing what is wrong , they want to line their pockets , I do not care who says what , the only reason any politician tries to get you on their side is to get your vote other than that they care nothing about you ..we all are suckers to them ...........

Answer 15

Elect Ron Paul as president! He votes against any bills that violate the Constitution, such as pork barrel legislation. Whenever some awful piece of unconstitutional trash passed 430-something to 1, he's always the 1. Why not make him our president?

Paul 08!!!

Answer 16

Sell Southern California.

Answer 17

Maybe the real question isn't about government spending; one person's waste will always be someone else's necessity.

The other side of the coin is income: reinstate the 'death tax'.


As for reducing waste -
1. Set a limit on set-asides; by member each session, by a cumulative amount for all of congress each session, ...

2. Improve the oversight of contracting and make the 'competition' between contractors and federal employees fair and real.

3. Explore some ways to reduce conflict between appointees and career civil service employees.

4. Minimize the opportunities for 'gaming' the org. charts for departments, branches, divisions, offices, ... and moving FTE 'slots' without telling the managers involved. These little things chew up a LOT of staff time. To the extent that these maneuvers artificially keep the number of employees down, and reduce salary expenses by effectively denying promotions, some people might find the personnel practices (my only experience is in HUD) useful.

5. I know many economists say that - historically - balancing the budget actually hurts the economy, but I there has to be some way to pay less interest!

6. I know this sounds trite and naive, but money spent on activities like Drs. Without Borders, Oxfam, and Peace Force (Peace Brigades, Intern'l Solidarity Movement, Christian Peace Teams, ...) is MUCH more cost effective than weapons research and manufacture.

7. More mass transit, no new Interstates; just maintain what we've got.

8. Eliminate immense data-mining, and harassment of expressly non-violent political activists. Cointelpro was a collossal waste of money.

9. Stop the sham of the war on drugs. Put ALL of that money into treatment and prevention. (And get real about marijuana; legalize it and tax it!)

10. Reorganize or eliminate the BIA; the lawsuit over mismanaged trust funds is going to be a huge loss.

11. Continue to press for even more campaign finance reform.

Answer 18

stop the flow of drugs coming into our country illegally and stop illegal invasion.

Answer 19

First I would make all the Representatives and Senators subject to the same conditions for as the people who are subject to things like taxation, medical insurance and retirement. (no special systems)
I would make the position unpaid, allow the individuals to accept any $ from lobbyists, but publish the information.
Every one who held office would have to have served the public good before running for office. Peace Corps, military, something.
Ban a person from both sponsoring and voting on a financial bill that targeted their home state.
A good hard look at the procurement methods and means is necessary
lengthen the terms of office but make them single terms, but allow a person to be re-elected.

Answer 20

First thing I'd do would be to severely penalize university trustees who walk off their jobs. This is as bad as walking away from any other duties and responsibilities or stepping out of elected office before the term's end, simply because you don't like the decisions that were made in your absence. Please crack down on people who do things like this. Getting them out of office would save the taxpayers plenty.

Answer 21

The US is spending too much money just to repay what we already owe. China is buying most of our debt, and while that has its advantages, it also means that the country that could replace us in a couple of decades as the world power is the country that we are just handing money to. We need to stop this. But how?

War is too expensive - diplomacy should always take precedence over it. Iraq, most of us would agree, we should not have gone into. We need to withdraw quickly.

Also, I propose that we stop giving aid to third-world countries. That money could be used towards paying off our national debt.

Here's a big one - have people pay Social Security up to the amount of money they make. As it is now, any income over $90,000 you do not have to pay Social Security on. Why is this? Have it be even across the board. That would be a huge help.

The only thing I think we need to spend more money on is the environment. I would like to have a place for my children to live in a few decades.

To sum up - have a national budget surplus and pay off the Chinese. Raise Social Security on the wealthy, stop giving away money, and stop proclaiming wars.

Answer 22

the only way would be to move the white house from washington dc and the waste would happen somewhere else

Answer 23

1. Stop funding for ALL illegal immigrants. Too many are abusing our medical system, while too many U.S. Citizens have little or no care at all.

2. Any politician who is elected to an office, (Senate, Congress, Governor, President, etc, ALL OFFICES) should NOT get paid after leaving office. Too many serve 2 years, 4 years, 6, 8, 10 and even more. Yet when they leave office, it is as if they have a nice "retirement" package. That is a burden on all of us taxpayers.

3. All of the above should also pay into Social Security, All of the above should get the same medical care as those of us who earn minimum ages.

To realize what kind of people America has, all politicians should live as one of us!!!

Answer 24

1) Quit giving tax breaks to businesses that outsource jobs.
2) Close loopholes in the tax laws that allow big businesses (or anybody else, for that matter) to get away with paying a relatively small amount of taxes.
3) Keep members of Congress from voting on issues that simply increase their own wealth or that of their major contributors by making them put their assets into a blind trust while they are in office
4) Limit the amount an individual or corporation can contribute in a given campaign year, no matter WHO they give it to - be it a committee or an individual.
5) Find a way to get money into the hands of PEOPLE - not businesses who purport to help people. Historically, when the people of this country have been prosperous, then business follows; when the help that Congress can give is focused on the businesses, the average person seldom sees any benefit.

Answer 25

yo yo yo check it if i wants to stop spendin wasteful in washington i would like move to NY and spend wasteful over there yo

peace out 1 luv

Answer 26

Just slow down on the lawmaking. There are just too many new laws coming out. Can't the whole country just slow down on the law making necessities? Please? There are new laws for this and guess what here are some more new laws and guess what tomorrow I spend all my time thinking and creating more and more and more laws. I think we should slow down a tidbit. And if we get into trouble we should ask ourselves ," what would Jesus do? or even "what would Thomas Jefferson do? or What would Abraham Lincoln do? or what would thomas Edison do? etc. you know what Im getting at? thanks for you service much appreciated and God bless you

Answer 27

Cut the pay of all government officials in Congress and the White House to minimum wages, like the common laborers of America. Make all who have ever held a government seat and those currently in office pay back all earnings to the Social Security Program, and pay monthly into it. Bring it to the people of America for voting. Since Congress is there as representatives OF the people and FOR the people of this great nation. Limit the serving time to four years and not for life. Once they leave office they don't get paid as if they were still there. Make them accountable for the millions of money that has disappeared and nobody knows where it is at. Eliminate the hand outs to illegal immigrates. Stop pledging millions of dollars for other countries, instead put those millions back into America and her way of life (i.e. health care, housing, etc., etc.) The list is really too long to put here. Those serving in our military for 20 years only gets 1/2 their base pay, not the full amount; they are the ones that work for the American way and defend this nation. But, we that have served in the forces that defend this nation are cheated on our retirement pay; while those in the "official seats" get 100% pay upon either leaving office by retirement or only serving the minimum requirement to continue to receive the full pay. Bottomline, have the officials of the government earn their wages by the people of America. If they perform poorly, fire them; if they perform according to the Constitution that was set in place by our founding fathers, give them a 50 cent raise. If there was a maximum time period of serving, for example 4-8 years for Congress, like it is for the President, cap the wages to 50,000$ a year not 250,000$; 75,000$ a year, instead of 400,000$ for the President. Upon leaving office give them a severance pay of 5,000$ per year that they served and take taxes out of that severance pay, with NO grandfather clause for any of them ever serving or currently holding a government seat. This would also include the President and Vice President, Secretary of State, and all others in the cabinet. Cutback on their health/dental care benefits upon leaving office, like the government does for the Veteran and Retired Veteran.

Answer 28

I would make Congessional positions unpaid. This way the only people who would run for Congress would be those who are truly dedicated to the process.
I think it's ridiculous that Congress can vote for pay increases for themselves. You would never see that in a business, so why in the government?

Answer 29

Force all bills to go through a committe of the people. They can be chosen as jurors or elected as we do members of the House and Senate. Random choosing would probably be best, that way they aren't campaigning and thus having other people's money in their pocket. These people would vote yea or nay on whether a bill or policy or massive spending issue was gratiutous or not, and if they voted nay, it goes back to the house/senate for further review. I think this is a good way to try to weed out the questionable projects that are tagged on to legitimate ones.

Answer 30

California needs to secede from the Union. For every 1 dollar we send to Washington we only get 70 cents in services back. The great state of California is being shortchanged!

Also, get the hell out of IRAQ, that is the single biggest waste of taxpayer dollars in history . 700 billion dollars and counting, down the drain. Bush should be impeached for wasting the taxpayers money then thrown in prison for war crimes!

Get rid of earmarks and pork giveaways, lobbyists are more influential to politicians than the people.

Lower taxes, choke the beast that is government. The government is wasteful and inefficient. The tax code needs to be overhauled to a flat tax. It is a travesty that all Americans cannot understand the tax code.

Answer 31

Eliminate the government's involvement in 90% of the things they provide, monitor, regulate and support. Stick to the government role as provided by the Constitution. End government involvement in health care except for the active duty and retired military, including veterans. Stop WIC, Head Start, food stamps and other handouts. Force people to be responsible for themselves. Eliminate career politicians and lobbyists. Make all government departments ACCOUNTABLE and insure that these
workers have to work at least as hard as the average wage earner unless you make the massive government "benefits" available to all. Who would not like 6 weeks of vacation and health care for $30 per week while being expected to do little other than show up. I have yet to meet a government worker who could succeed in the same job as a civilian. End the ability for illegal aliens to suck money out of the economy while contributing nothing. Send them home and let their own country feed, educate and take care of them.