User:Woozle/positions/2013/government

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In General

"Small Government"

  • While there is certainly a lot of bloat an inefficiency in most governments, you can't just get rid of that by reducing government revenues.
  • While government can be oppressive, cutting government revenues will not get rid of that either. It will just reduce the quality of service, leading to more oppressiveness (because oppression is cheaper to provide than fairness).
  • /prostitution metaphor: government is a pimp, and we are the hookers

See also: libertarianism, healthcare

United States

Off the top of my head, here's how I would classify a few federal programs:

unnecessary; kill them

  • foreign wars
  • overseas military bases
  • fossil fuel subsidies
  • TSA
  • DHS
  • domestic spying, especially warrantless

of dubious value; re-examine carefully

  • farm subsidies (especially for large operations)
  • CIA needs to be cleaned out and downsized
  • FBI: useful core, but lots of corruption
  • NSA

necessary, but implementation may be suboptimal

  • Medicaid / Medicare / Social Security
  • scientific research
  • NASA / space exploration
  • environmental regulatory agencies (EPA & others)
  • safety regulatory agencies
  • FCC (needs to be de-coupled from industry influence)
  • USPS (would currently be profitable if not for new retirement funding requirements)
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