No Justification

Here is a snippet of a news article released on 7/10/2009--------

After misspelling the president's name as "Barak Obama" yesterday on an official document sent to reporters, the General Services Administration messed up another message when announcing it had awarded an $18 million contract to redesign the website keeping track of spent stimulus dollars.

"Recvoery.gov Version 2.0 $18 Million Contract Awarded," the release's subject line read. ("Recovery" was spelled correctly in the body of the email.)
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I read this article 10 times and couldn't figure out what spelling error they were talking about because I was knocked uncoscious by another figure....$18 million.

I'll bet anyone $18 million dollars that a privately owned company would not have settled for this figure. I will also wager that the organization doing this website is a friend of a friend, somebody who knows somebody. I am still looking for the details of the contract, but I can GUARANTEE beyond all guarantees that something like this could have been done for under a million dollars....easily. They probably paid someone to create the website 6 months ago, and now they feel the need for a redesign. I wonder how they'll feel in a year?

The problem is that government entities don't care how much something costs, as long as they have funds designated to do it. This happens at every level of government, from the city you live in all the way up to Washington. If you don't think there is waste in government, you are dillusional.

I am flabergasted at this number.

Every taxpayer funded activity contains waste. There is no incentive for organizations funded by tax dollars to look for competitive prices. As long as the money is there, they use it. If they don't use it, they risk having their budget cut in the future. There is no incentive to look for competitive prices!

It is a travesty that our dollars are being wasted like this. It should upset everyone. Of course this has been going on for hundreds of years in this country, and it is plain to see that as government continues and expands its waste, we will ever more be hindered from true growth and progress in every area of life.

Don't deceive yourself into thinking that government spending has prompted knowledge and discoveries that could not have been made elsewhere. Just think of how much more advanced we might be today if the government had let the free market determine where to invest and spend.

Think of how much further we might be towards truly sustainable energy if the government cut out it's waste. Think of where space flight and exploration might be if government cut out its waste and asked the free market to lend a hand? Think of where medicine might be today if the free market was not hampered by government waste.

This $18 million is NOTHING in the whole scheme of things, that is why they get away with it. But every contract I have ever seen is at minimum 25% higher than it could be. This one could have been reduced to under $1 million easily. Imagine the potential if this level of waste was taken out of the equation.

We need to get it out of our thick heads that government spending is helpful in any way. I can ask until I am red in the face, but no one can show me a social government program that has accomplished its task without creating more problems in the future.

We need to get back to freedom.