Reduce Government Spending

      We continue to explore straightforward ways the federal government can reduce its spending and borrowing, which are directly causing inflation and a possible recession.  In fact, it would be hard to find a more critically-important topic for us and particularly our children and grandchildren to address!  Part II today focuses upon reducing the scope of the work done by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, otherwise known as FEMA. Instead of providing materials and services itself during and after emergency situations, FEMA’s scope should be reduced simply to contracting with private for-profit and non-profit organizations to provide those materials and services.  Why?  Because, just like most other bureaucratic organizations, FEMA has no incentive to spend our money efficiently.  For example, remember during Hurricane Katrina when FEMA spent millions of dollars on bottled water and expensive trailers for housing, and then just left them on an airfield?  And that is only one example.  In fiscal year 2021, FEMA’s budget was about $28 billion, and it had a payroll of more than 20,000 employees.  If its scope of authority were reduced simply to contracting with private organizations that total budget would not only shrink by about half and the number of employees reduced to about 1,000, we would all get better results in emergency situations.  Why?  Because private organizations simply do the job more efficiently and for less money.  In addition, why should the taxpayers employ 20,000 workers mostly to sit around and wait for emergency situations to occur?  Just use and pay for those workers when they are actually needed!

      What would this new approach look like?  It has been shown time and again that the Red Cross is much more effective and far less costly than FEMA.  Just in this recent Hurricane Ian in the Southeast, the Red Cross was quickly and efficiently on-station to provide food, clothing and tents for displaced people.  So simply contract with groups like the Red Cross. What other groups are there?  Just in that area alone here are some capable private organizations that provided materials and services: Cajun Navy, Volunteer Florida, Mercury One, Team Rubicon, Florida Disaster Fund , Convoy of Hope, Disaster Relief at Work, Florida Baptist Disaster Relief, MidWest Food Bank, His Helping Hands, Rescue Cats Rock, Project Hope, Save the Children, and Gleaning For The World.  So these various organizations could compete with each other for contracts, and the results would be wonderful for the displaced, the taxpayers and everyone else – except for the government bureaucrats.

Thought for the week, with appreciation to “The Word Jumble” in the Orange County Register: “What do you see when the Senate is in a filibuster?  Inaction in action.”