Theft at the Public Till
Why does the government spend $3 billion a year to buy cars, when much of their use could be met from a rental fleet? The yearly depreciation alone has passed the $1 billion mark annually. Why do we maintain a private airforce to fly public officials around instead of taking commercial flights. The cost of the aircraft has been estimated at $2 billion. The depreciation runs at least $200 million a year The annual upkeep costs another $800 mil- lion. There's also the added cost of civilian airports and military bases that accommodate the planes. And if that's not enough, government agencies lease still another 5000 private planes each year at a cost of $100 million. Why do we have a helium operation $1.2 billion in debt, with most of the world's helium supply, which can't be used up until the year 2101? Or a Forest Service which runs a yearly deficit of almost $2 billion helping the private timber industry with subsidized wood and roads? Or why does the government spend almost $2 billion for new furnishings each year while leaving at least that many dollars worth in warehouses unused and rejected because they were, as Cadillac so proudly phrased it, previously owned by one agency or another? Each of these items is more than the entire budget of the state of North Dakota. Why when the budget is enacted are there many spending items not authorized by the proper committee in Congress and which never have been the subject of hearings? Most of these get added during a conference committee even though neither the House nor Senate bill had contained it. Some bear no relationship to the agency that was supposed to pay for it and many are of purely local interest with no national or regional merit. Why does our government use cost-plus contracts which, as anyone building a house knows are just foolish and tempting to the contractor? Why do we pay any part of a company's or even a university's "overhead?" Can't these folks drink, party, and dance on their own dollar? Why do former Congressmen retain for the rest of their lives the privi- lege of walking onto the House floor at all times, even in the middle of votes that could mean money for their clients. The former members of the Senate have the same privilege in both Houses of Congress. Why is there no line-item veto, a powerful tool that would give the
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