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Posts: 2089
Location: Texas
Joined: October 19, 2017
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You stated: "All that money the government spends to help feed and house people, to provide for the aged, to provide for defense, to defeat Tojo and Hitler, to do medical research...... Total waste of money without any thought what so ever."
In the context of 'irresponsible spending' as stated by pictureguy, you are cherry picking by only presenting the "positives" (what I imagine you would call responsible spending) while not acknowledging the negatives of government spending, the 'irresponsible spending'.
Just a few examples of government 'irresponsible spending':
From The Nation article "The Pentagon's Irresponsible Spending Is Now Dangerous":
"Pentagon waste is a long-standing issue in desperate need of meaningful action. Last November, the Department of Defense once again failed to pass even a basic audit, as it had several times before. In fact, independent auditors weren't even able to assess the Pentagon's full financial picture because they couldn't gather all the necessary information to complete an evaluation. In some ways, that should have been devastating, the equivalent of a child receiving an incomplete on an end-of-year report card. No less alarming, the Pentagon couldn't even account for about 61% of its $3.5 trillion in assets. Yet the last Congress still approved $858 billion in defense programs for fiscal year 2023, a full $45 billion more than even the Biden administration requested. Spending levels aside, poor financial management has a serious negative impact on both service members and taxpayers. Last month, for example, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed that the Pentagon can't account for at least $220 billion worth of its property, including such basics as ammunition, missiles, torpedoes, and their component parts. For its part, Congress (and so the average taxpayer) doesn't have the faintest idea how much it's spent on weapons or their components distributed to contractors for maintenance and upgrades. Worse, the GAO reports that the $220 billion in unaccounted-for equipment and parts is "likely significantly understated." "
From the CNBC article "The federal government wastes at least $247 billion in taxpayer money each year. Here's how":
( https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/18/heres-how-the-federal-government-wastes-tax-money.html )
"The U.S. government wastes billions of taxpayer dollars every year. Improper payments, which refer to payments that are made incorrectly by the government, cost the U.S. $247 billion in 2022, according to the Government Accountability Office. The U.S. government has lost almost $2.4 trillion in simple payment errors over the last two decades, by GAO estimates."
We are all capable of making logical fallacies. Recognizing them makes us better thinkers, does it not?
"All thoughts are prey to some beast" - Bill Callahan
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