Five Gov't Programs That Are Successful

[cclaxton]

1) Protecting the Nation against Financial Bankruptcy: Gov't financial policies that prevent Financial Depressions and stimulate the economy. Where do people look when the economy is tanking or there is widespread fraud?....THe Feds.
2) Public Health Programs: The CDC and NIH have literally saved the lives of the nation through innoculation programs, health research, establishing health care provider protocols to protect health care workers in hospitals, and nutrition. Also, standards for doctors and nurses and medical technologies.
3) Social Security: Support for the Elderly, for families that lose their primary caregivers, and for the disabled have been wildly successful programs. While it needs to be adjusted along the way, it is one of the most successful Federal programs ever.
4) The Interstate Highway System: Funding and establishing standards and improving highway technologies have made our highways hugely successful.
5) Consumer Protection: The FDA has done an outstanding job of testing pharmaceuticals, and establishing standards for food handling and distribution and testing. Requirements for seat belts and air bags and other safety enhancements have saved millions of lives.

There are many more, but these are the ones I would say are the top 5. And, that doesn't even include the successful military programs.
Are there problems with the above programs?...Sure, but the problems are minor compared to the major achievements and the big picture. Whenever you have a big enterprise, there are going to be problems...every company in American has them, too.

It's important to separate the POLITICAL differences we have over these programs from whether the gov't is successful at operating them. Very often partisans like to claim a particular program is horrible and exaggerate their problems because they have a political difference over whether the program should exist. If you don't agree with a particular program, that is perfectly fine, but don't trash the gov't program just because you disagree with it philosophically.

Cody

[JV_]

Social Security is successful? It's about to go bankrupt. SSDI is probably one of the most abused federal programs in history.

I don't even know why I'm replying, I already know you and I disagree on just about everything related to politics.

If you don't agree with a particular program, that is perfectly fine, but don't trash the gov't program just because you disagree with it philosophically.

Just like the IDPA thread, please stop telling me what I can and can't do. If I disagree with it on philosophy, I am free to "trash it" because I may feel it's a waste of my money.

Let's make this a "kitchen sink for all liberal causes" thread. We need:

Universal Healthcare For All
A Living Wage

[NETim]

1) Protecting the Nation against Financial Bankruptcy: Gov't financial policies that prevent Financial Depressions and stimulate the economy. Where do people look when the economy is tanking or there is widespread fraud?....THe Feds.
2) Public Health Programs: The CDC and NIH have literally saved the lives of the nation through innoculation programs, health research, establishing health care provider protocols to protect health care workers in hospitals, and nutrition. Also, standards for doctors and nurses and medical technologies.
3) Social Security: Support for the Elderly, for families that lose their primary caregivers, and for the disabled have been wildly successful programs. While it needs to be adjusted along the way, it is one of the most successful Federal programs ever.
4) The Interstate Highway System: Funding and establishing standards and improving highway technologies have made our highways hugely successful.
5) Consumer Protection: The FDA has done an outstanding job of testing pharmaceuticals, and establishing standards for food handling and distribution and testing. Requirements for seat belts and air bags and other safety enhancements have saved millions of lives.

There are many more, but these are the ones I would say are the top 5. And, that doesn't even include the successful military programs.
Are there problems with the above programs?...Sure, but the problems are minor compared to the major achievements and the big picture. Whenever you have a big enterprise, there are going to be problems...every company in American has them, too.

It's important to separate the POLITICAL differences we have over these programs from whether the gov't is successful at operating them. Very often partisans like to claim a particular program is horrible and exaggerate their problems because they have a political difference over whether the program should exist. If you don't agree with a particular program, that is perfectly fine, but don't trash the gov't program just because you disagree with it philosophically.

Cody

The problem is, when a private concern is operated inefficiently, they go belly up (unless of course they're in tight with the current Admin and they get bailed out with taxpayer funds), while public entities simply get more and more taxpayer dollars. Inefficiency be damned as long as the program in question buys votes and entrenches political power. There is little incentive to operate sensibly or efficiently.

Federal banking policies have taken the risks of investments away from the banks and other financial institutions and placed the burden on US taxpayers. The banks are free to operate, for the most part, with greatly reduced risk but still make money with sometimes unsound investment policies. (And let's not forget all the bad mortgage loans they made at the point of the Fed's guns to unqualified folks, which was a factor in the 2008 meltdown.)

Not to say they, the Feds, haven't had their successes. But supposedly their power is restricted by the Constitution (which obviously was forgotten long ago) and now it seems they have their fingers into everything.

I don't think it's a good idea and I am not comfortable with it, legally or philosophically.

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." -- Gerald Ford,
Presidential address to a joint session of Congress (12 August 1974)

[Guinnessman]

Here is a book that will open some eyes: http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Crash...the+real+crash

For those of you with your heads in the sand, this book is a good start.

[RoyGBiv]

I LOL'd when I read the first one.!! I'm still LOL-ing.

Yeah.... Let me go set fire to this house next door, so that I can run in, throw a grenade to put it out, kill half the occupants and take credit for saving some of the structure.

LOL!

[JAD]

Equality for life
Honor thy Crèche and thy Kibbutz, that thou mayest be longlived upon the housing unit that thy State will give thee.
"Gee -" said Hazel. "I could tell that one was a doozy."
Amen. And all that cal.

[orionz06]

If you don't agree with a particular program, that is perfectly fine, but don't trash the gov't program just because you disagree with it philosophically.

I will trash the government because it deserves my trashing, just like IDPA, the TSA, the ATF, and police who shoot pets. Not sure why it is so damned hard for that to sink on for you...

[BaiHu]

1) Protecting the Nation against Financial Bankruptcy: Gov't financial policies that prevent Financial Depressions and stimulate the economy....
2) Public Health Programs: The CDC and NIH have literally saved the lives of the nation through innoculation programs, health research, establishing health care provider protocols to protect health care workers in hospitals, and nutrition. Also, standards for doctors and nurses and medical technologies.
3) Social Security: Support for the Elderly, for families that lose their primary caregivers, and for the disabled have been wildly successful programs. While it needs to be adjusted along the way, it is one of the most successful Federal programs ever.
4) The Interstate Highway System: Funding and establishing standards and improving highway technologies have made our highways hugely successful.
5) Consumer Protection: The FDA has done an outstanding job of testing pharmaceuticals, and establishing standards for food handling and distribution and testing. Requirements for seat belts and air bags and other safety enhancements have saved millions of lives.....

I'll play, but mainly because this enraged me a bit.

1) Without the policies of a government gone wild (GGW), the banks would never have taken the risks, the realtors would have never have taken the risks and we never would've had the liar loans that were then creatively covered/insured by Wall St, sold back to main street as BS triple A paper, accumulated by mom, pop and one of the largest pension holders, CALPERS. Yah, nice work watching porn while the financial world burned SEC. Once all the infection hit the majority of the nation and then spread to the rest of the world, yes, the government "saved" us by taxing us to death as well as 7 future generations in order to stop the monster they created. Meanwhile, stripping away the only intelligent thing people should do at this time, which is "save" money, because the interest rate is set to zero, because if it was any higher the government wouldn't be able to serve it's self-created debt bubble even though it's stealing it from 8 generations of workers.

2) Mayo Clinic.

3) What JV said.

4) Meh! The roadway system started out privately by wealthy business owners IIRC and then the government took it over. Rightly so, maybe, but I haven't seen any toll come down in NJ that was intended to be up "just to pay off" the roads and bridges that the tax payers already paid for. The government is the only "vendor" I know of where people defend their right to charge citizens two or more times for something you could've a) provided for yourself, "locally and privately" or b) didn't need/want in the first place.

5) Consumer protection? More like a racket that skims off the top and indirectly creates a "if it didn't work for that, then can we use it for this" pay to play system; under the guise of saving the world from evil big Pharma. Testing is what scientists do, but when it costs half a billion of graft to run it through the FDA, what do you think is going to happen? Canadian generics anyone? You reduce ingenuity by small players and create "massaged" data by major players who can afford to play.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[TCinVA]

Sure, but the problems are minor

I wouldn't call public programs that have promised trillions of dollars more in benefits than there is revenue to fund them to be a "minor" problem.

You seem to confuse thinking something to be true with something actually being true. Merely stating that X has been "wildly successful" does not make it so. Take the Great Society public welfare programs...their stated intention when passed was to remove people from dependence on a government check. Not according to me, according to the people who wrote and passed the legislation. The goal was to remove people from dependence. They have done precisely the opposite.

That does not make them "wildly successful", it makes them an abject failure. The VA program was held to be pretty awesome to! Right up until the point where we found out they were killing people by denying them care.

What you did was just list 5 articles of your personal faith that are not falsifiable. You posted a catechism, not an argument. You're approaching social problems of massive import the same way people approached Oral Roberts looking for a cure for cancer. If you just believe hard enough and give 'em enough money...

[Dropkick]

I will trash the government because it deserves my trashing, just like IDPA, the TSA, the ATF, and police who shoot pets. Not sure why it is so damned hard for that to sink on for you...

You forgot Taurus and Kimber Pepper Gat.