Waste of Taxpayer Dollars

I RECEIVED A RESPONSE!!
They give away free gifts such as flashlights and watches if you call
them up or mail away using the postcard. So they give you a gift for
free, but hold the good stuff for those who really want it.

Sounds good to me!

I love it...


http://www.nypost.com/seven/04252009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/100_da
ys__100_mistakes_166177.htm?page=0

It sounds like it is a waste, but not at a scale that deserves your
being appalled. A person could concentrate on being appalled at the
billions in wasteful defense contract, or at the millions in Federal
pork barrel spending at the state level, and it seems to me, that
would be something to really react against. As far as percentage,
these cloth book covers are less than a drop in the bucket. I
recently have written to Congressmen (mine are all men) about the PO
going to 5 days a week service (I'm for it, it would save a bunch of
money) and about the too-close connection of high ranking senators
with some huge investment banks. That last one was pretty useless,
but how will they know we're fed up with these long-time senators'
corrupt connections, unless we write them? We know these people are
increasing their personal net worth at the expense of tax money going
to better uses.

1. $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion
picture film.

2. $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security
headquarters.

3. $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security
headquarters.

4. $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and
prevent STD's.

5. $75 million for "smoking cessation activities."

6. $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.

7. $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction.

8. $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.

9. $75 million to construct a "security training" facility for State
Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing
facilities of other agencies.

10. 200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy
vehicles for use on military installations


These two are my favorite:

2 million to maine to retrieve lost lobster traps because they "may"
have a negative impact on the environment.

$550,000 to Pawtucket RI (which is over 30 million in the red) to
build a skate park.

Which adds the expense of putting a crazy big insurance policy on it
to cover the city, which is not covered by stimulus.

Its disgusting.

My son enlisted in the Army and he is going to ship out July 1st
after he graduates high school.

In the meantime, every other weekend they are doing something with not
only new recruits, but also ones who haven't decided. A couple weeks
ago it was a cage fight, they bought out the whole bench for the
recruits. He's been on paintballing excursions numerous times at
private and public facilities. This weekend is a 3 day rodeo trip.

In all cases, they feed him, provide his housing if neccessary and
provide his travel.

Oh and there's the backpack, t-shirts, and other Army accessories that
he has received.

All on the military/taxpayer dime.


Once my son becomes active and is paying taxes, he will be
contributing back to the new recruits that we need.

Thats how I look at it.

because the postcard and flyer and man-hours required to read each
card, then send out the free gift if wanted.... that all still costs
money, possibly even more.

I'd say if you don't like the book cover, donate it to a fund raiser.
I know my church does fund raisers for school supplies for the needy.
I'm sure they won't turn their nose up at a free book-cover.

or use it as a book cover. my nephew has one he uses, even though he's
not thinking of joining.


but as you've seen from the other replies... everyone has their own
take on what they consider "waste" of taxpayer money.

and personally to me, this seems like a small item to worry about when
there's bigger issues out there in the world of taxes

You want to talk about wasted tax payer dollars???

My town has the highest taxes around, yet the roads have been hacked
up since I've lived here (13+ years). My car is on it's third
suspension in less than six years because of the poor condition of the
roads.
And the electric company employees just got 500s with heated leather
seats and nav. screens.
Those bastards!!!


So glad I am moving to a different town/state.

He seems to be completely correct.

Isn't the whole situation absolutely disgusting?

Postage?? Why would the Government charge themselves postage? That
makes no sense. They are the ones charging, not the ones paying.

Even if they were to send you a postcard to send back to them, they
would still have to have the bookcovers made and waiting for you in a
warehouse. This would save no manufacturing costs.

Actually it would increase overhead costs greatly. They would have to
have people processing the orders once those cards made their way
back, people working the warehouse with all those things stored.
People processing and shipping those orders. It's far more cost
effective just to send them out to everyone in the beginning.

If you really despise having this thing, I would take it to a local
school supply drive. Most areas have them during the summer months.
In my area it is called "stuff the bus" and they park a school bus in
one of our local malls and then people can just drop off new school
supplies at the "bus stop". Its pretty cool actually. All the stuff
is donated to local shelters and needy families for when the school
year begins.

Why dont you take that bookcover and buy a book about tanks or
something, and take it to a local childrens hospital. Terminally ill
children not only love having visitors, but you are giving them a
gift.

You dont have to throw it in a landfill, try doing something with it
to benefit children that may never have a chance to join the
military.


Good Day

This is a drop in the bucket. I work on military base projects every
day and the duplication of efforts, over and over and over, is
obscene. We go through anywhere from three rounds of design to seven
rounds. Many times, we don't even have any improvements/changes to
make. We just print more stuff (again), make more copies (again),
ship it all (again), it all gets compiled (again). Or we change it
from two phone outlets and two data outlets for each work station to
two phone outlets and one data outlet for AFRC and one data outlet for
the USAR.

Or there will be changes to change the colors of things.

And that's just the 20 or so active projects at any given time that I
work on.

I've given up being frustrated with it. It's like my own tax dollars
are paying for my own job. I guess the work pays my mortgage.

I want a cameo cloth book cover. Did they send these to all high
school students? Maybe I can snag one from the teenagers I work with ;
)

Numerous Typos. Sorry. The first part doesn't even flow right....