OK, so we’ve had the Tea Parties, we’ve attended the Town Hall meetings; now what?
Funny you should ask because I have an answer for you. Have you ever heard of www.congress.org? No? Well, Congress.org is a service of Capitol Advantage and Knowlegis, LLC; private, non-partisan companies that specialize in facilitating civic participation. Congress.org allows users to identify and contact elected leaders in Congress, the White House, and state legislatures. You can also have your representative’s votes sent to you weekly via e-mail. Best of all registration is free!
If you spend one hour a week reviewing upcoming legislation and contact your Congressman/woman and Senators with your personal thoughts; then you can see the impact you, as an individual, can have. Congress.org will identify your elected leaders from the zip code you enter and will pre-prepare sections of you emails for you. For a small fee, they will even have your message “hand delivered” for you.
All of this takes about one hour each week. (1) Check pending legislation; (2) Tell your elected officials what you think; and (3) get an email back telling you how they voted. There are other options available on Congress.org that will let you publish a “soapbox” issue where you can ask others to help support you.
By now you must be thinking either (1) “Does he own this site – what’s the catch?” or (2) “How much is he making by referring us to this site?” Well, the answer is that I found out about Congress.org by accident (so I don’t own it) and I get nothing for telling you about it – except knowing that more people will be able to keep track of what our elected officials are up to and be held accountable.
So, get off your duff for one hour per week and don’t let your elected officials get away with not representing you! Tell your relatives and friends to check up on their elected officials too. If we all keep track of them, then we know what they are up to. If they don’t do what we want, find someone else to run against them that will! Just over one year to the 2010 elections!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
100 to One
As of March 2009, there is one Federal employee to every 150 persons in the United States. There is also roughly one State employee to every 300 persons in the United States. For Municipality employees (county, city, village, etc.) there is roughly one Municipality employee for every 750 persons in the United States. This makes a total of roughly three million government employees or one government employee for every 100 persons in the United States. Don’t you think that is a bit excessive?
If you assume that the average salary for these persons is $40,000 per year, we are talking about $4,000 per year spent on every person in the United States. So, the question is – What do you get for the $4,000? (By the way, that assumes that everyone pays taxes – the real number per taxpayer is more like $12,000). The other thing to consider is that this amount only represents salaries (and I am probably low-balling the number).
Why in the world do we need this many government employees?
The annual calculation for the cost of government is said to be without increase if the amount is the same as last year plus a cost of living adjustment (inflation). Therefore, if inflation is five percent, the new annual budget would be considered the same as the previous year with a five percent increase in cost. The government operates against a budget (often overinflated). Towards the end of the fiscal year, each Agency reviews what it has spent. If they have under spent, they immediately figure out ways to spend the excess so that they can go back next year and ask for more. This practice has been going on for a very long time.
What we really need is to start running the government more like a business and have it reviewed by non-government entities. Each Agency should re-justify itself every year and there should be an analysis of the value each service represents to the taxpayer. If the service doesn’t provide a cost savings to the taxpayer, it should not be done.
The unemployment rate for non-government workers is somewhere between nine and twenty percent depending on where you live so with revenue (in the form of taxes) decreasing, why are there no layoffs for government workers? The fact of the matter is that there has actually been an INCREASE in the number of government workers over the first half of 2009, and they are expecting to increase that number even more. We need to get control of this monster called government before it completely eats us alive!
If you assume that the average salary for these persons is $40,000 per year, we are talking about $4,000 per year spent on every person in the United States. So, the question is – What do you get for the $4,000? (By the way, that assumes that everyone pays taxes – the real number per taxpayer is more like $12,000). The other thing to consider is that this amount only represents salaries (and I am probably low-balling the number).
Why in the world do we need this many government employees?
The annual calculation for the cost of government is said to be without increase if the amount is the same as last year plus a cost of living adjustment (inflation). Therefore, if inflation is five percent, the new annual budget would be considered the same as the previous year with a five percent increase in cost. The government operates against a budget (often overinflated). Towards the end of the fiscal year, each Agency reviews what it has spent. If they have under spent, they immediately figure out ways to spend the excess so that they can go back next year and ask for more. This practice has been going on for a very long time.
What we really need is to start running the government more like a business and have it reviewed by non-government entities. Each Agency should re-justify itself every year and there should be an analysis of the value each service represents to the taxpayer. If the service doesn’t provide a cost savings to the taxpayer, it should not be done.
The unemployment rate for non-government workers is somewhere between nine and twenty percent depending on where you live so with revenue (in the form of taxes) decreasing, why are there no layoffs for government workers? The fact of the matter is that there has actually been an INCREASE in the number of government workers over the first half of 2009, and they are expecting to increase that number even more. We need to get control of this monster called government before it completely eats us alive!
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