Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The Economic Incompetence Of The Political Class
This article makes a compelling point about the greed and irresponsibility of unchecked government spending. From cities to states to federal government, politicians are borrowing money and leveraging debt at unhealthy levels, which can be seen with the current debt crisis in Europe. With nations spending more than 100 percent of their GDP, it seems it is time for more scrutiny and accountability for the way politicians spend money.
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3 comments:
The blame though is not entirely to be placed on politicians. Many of them are acting in accordance with demands placed on them by their constituency. The public calls for a decrease in public spending, but demands government services and makes it politically unfeasible to decrease spending of any nature.
I agree with both comments... politicians do need to meet the demands of their constituents which does require spending money but we do need to be more responsible about the amount that we are spending. I think that one place specifically that can be improved is supervising the follow through with their projects. One extreme example would be the Big Dig in Boston where they ended up under-budgeting, overspending, and by the time it finished traffic wasn't any lighter than before... plus some woman died from a falling rafter right after it opened. These are the kinds of things government doesn't need to fund.
I agree with you. With careful consideration and planning budgets can be cut while still maintaining essential government services and constituent needs. Many politicians add frivolous projects that do not need to be funded by the government to important budgets and bills. If these "Pork Barrel" spendings were cut then perhaps the budget could be cut without upsetting the constituencies of the politicians doing the cutting.
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