Since the founding of the Department of Energy, what’s happened to domestic energy production?
Since the founding of the Department of Education, what’s happened to student test scores?
Since the founding of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, what’s happened to America’s cities and public housing?
Since the introduction of CAFÉ standards, what’s happened to domestic auto production?
Since the founding of the Department of Veterans Affairs, what's happened to our Veterans' services, especially medical and healthcare services?
Since the founding of the Department of Labor, what’s happened to American manufacturing jobs?
Medicare is broke. Social Security nears bankruptcy. Medicaid bleeds like an ulcer.
Since the founding of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), what happened to home mortgage credit markets?
Since the birth of the Johnson administration's “Great Society,” what’s happened to generational poverty?
Since the imposition of the “progressive income tax,” what’s happened to the wealth gap?
Since the founding of Health and Human Services, have Americans gotten healthier? Do we exercise more? What about Mrs. Obama's pet peeve, childhood obesity?
Have you stood in line at the US Post Office, recently?
How profitable is Amtrak?
Extra Point: Let the record show that Mr. Reagan was right: "Government is not the solution to our problem; Government is the problem."
2 comments :
Government Intervention = Epic Fail!
I agree with all of the above. However, I will add a caveat regarding Amtrak. Amtrak was formed because there is still a need for passenger rail. The private railroads like Union Pacific, Santa Fe, Burlington Northern, etc, all had profitable routes until the Federal Government decided to expand and subsidize the interstate highway system.
With that one event, passenger rail as a profitable system was body-slammed. Although we now have an incredible freedom of movement in theory, in practice we are faced with rising amounts of traffic on the roads, increasing costs of gasoline as supply and demand works, and an era of increasing obesity where people drive rather than walk a couple blocks.
If folks really want to see better transportation systems, then we ought to reduce the amount of highway subsidies and transfer them onto regional bus and train lines. As the roads weaken, more folks will take the train to work.
FWIW, Amtrak is still profitable in the North East, and showing signs of increased revenue and ridership thee past few years.
I have no problem with putting money into Amtrak. I'd LOVE to see the private sector take it over and run it, but until then, it's the best choice available.
All the other agencies can go away, though. You'll have no argument from me on those accounts. :)
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