So, . . they send me this form letter to sign and send on to the powers that be, but (foolishly) the provide me an opportunity to edit their position points. Where they advocate for greater oversight (the 3rd bullet) is where I started editing (the 4th is entirely my own). Here is the result: September 11, 2013 Dear President Obama: Dear Representative Tiberi: Dear Senator Brown: Dear Senator Portman: Why was wasteful spending on lavish conferences for IRS employees approved? In large part, it was because of “spend it or lose it.” With “spend it or lose it,” federal agencies try to use up their budget by the end of the fiscal year to justify an even bigger allocation the following year. In a recent hearing about IRS conference spending, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., noted, “The IRS is just one example of what’s going on in every agency in the country in the federal government when they’ve got money at the end of a fiscal year and they don’t want to lose it, so you use it." That’s why I, as a concerned citizen urge you to institute the following policy changes to eliminate “spend it or lose it:” * Roll it over: Allow agencies to roll over uncommitted funds to the next fiscal year without losing those funds in order to eliminate the incentive to spend irresponsibly. * Make it transparent: Develop government-wide standards for online reporting to improve quality and allow taxpayers and watchdogs to track agency budgets. * Create an incentive to eliminate bureaucratic positions by offering golden parachutes to people in government that find viable means to eliminate their own jobs from the federal payroll. Offer bonuses to those that find ways to eliminate entire divisions, departments, commissions, and bureaus. *Stop the baseline budgeting and start actually cutting (or at least freezing) budgets and detach them from the cost of living index. Bureaus, commissions, departments, divisions, offices, and Czars are not entitled to such consideration, and should be relegated to advisory roles to the executive and legislative branches of our constitutional republic structure. Remove from them all ability to enact and enforce regulations. Do not create more watchdog and oversight bureaucracies. Rather, diminish the machinery that enables the shirking of our elected officials, and force them to actually do their jobs. The legislators need to write laws, rather than assign subordinates to write and enforce regulations that legislators will later need to create MORE bureaucracies to oversee (to deal with the inherent corruption they engender) and the executive needs to execute said enacted laws after signing off on them. We are a snake devouring our own tail, and we must gag upon it before it chokes us - to quote Pogo: We have met the enemy, and he is us! I urge you to take action and create accountability, transparency and decreased bureaucracy in government spending to put a stop to the abusive practice of “spend it or lose it.” Sincerely, Mr. Doug Baker
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 04:54:14 +0000
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