OT: Ever wonder...

If you"ve ever wondered why we"re in so much debt, read this. Our government has ALWAYS been a joke....well, at least for a very long time...
Wasteful spending

Like most things in the media, you need to take that with a grain of salt. Some contractors use 2080 hrs, some use 2088, some may use 2087. The government doesn't pay the contractors' salaries anyway, the contractor does. The contractor then bills the government at a rate that covers the employee's salary, his benefits, overhead costs, etc. The government is aware of all of this at the time of contract award, and the details are spelled out in the terms and conditions of the contract. Since both parties are aware of what's in the contract, it's pretty hard to call fraud like this article is implying.

Unfortunately, gov't like big corps has grown so big its out of control. Rush made a good point today that gov't and big corps are the same in that they both "have" to spend what they got this year so they can get it next year. If you've ever worked for a large company you've heard this every year at the end of the year. You wouldn't run your household like this and small companies don't do this either. I work for a fortune 500 company which the largest of its kind in the world and they operate just like the article you have linked. For instance, I work nights and my monday is sunday night. On holidays like memorial and labor day the payroll department (which is entirely computerized for ease) cannot figure out how to pay me for monday holidays since the actual holiday starts at 7 am monday. I'm sure its only a few keystrokes but, virtually impossible. My department spends literally 100's of thousands on repair and maintenance when purchasing new would only be in the 10's of thous. They spent over 100,000$ on repairs of a 15 yd dump truck in a two year period and it still probably only worth $20,000. Why? Because new is not in the budget, but repairs and maintenance is. And on and on. So you see it is so ingrained in the mentality of business and gov't leaders that it can't be stopped.

Tom, that was Glenn, not Rush. Rush can"t think that deeply.

Tom, I have a friend who relates the same stories about one of the local plants that he worked at.

He said they could deduct 100% of repair costs on equipment that they already owned, but they had to depreciate out the cost of brand new equipment over a several year period.

Paul