A lot of us have had to change our plans for spending as a result of the current recession. There are a lot of ways we tighten the belt... putting off a big trip, or maybe delaying by a year or two trading up to a new car.
Government, too, is having to change its plans. But remember, in the public sector the incentives and behaviors are exactly opposite that of the real world:
That's right... the recession is disrupting plans for the government to STOP SPENDING money.
With Florida and parts of Texas particularly hard hit by the recession, their congressional delegations are maneuvering to stave off thousands of additional layoffs there by delaying shuttle retirements. Concerns about adding to local unemployment rolls recently prompted Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida to put language into a budget bill providing an extra $2.5 billion that could keep the shuttles flying through 2011.
In other words, $2.5 billion of your tax dollars are going to be spent so lawmakers can keep government jobs in their home states.
The current argument today is that this is money well spent during a recession, when the Keynesian says the government must pick up slack in the economy. But always forgotten is that this $2.5 billion was taken out of other districts, and out of the private sector. And that the private sector without a doubt would have more efficiently--as well as more justly--distributed these funds.
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