Sad state of our National Parks-II

naturist wrote:
Is anybody here sick and tired of living in a country so obsessed with cutting taxes (and thus so impoverished) as to be unable to afford our own infrastructure?

I get that we all want to reduce fraud and waste in government. I don't want my tax dollars used to make some thief rich either. But the truth of the matter is that merely cutting a department budget will never reduce fraud and waste. The people committing those are not total idiots. They are going to get theirs out of the reduced budget anyway. The only way to stop fraud and waste is to do the hard work of investigating and going after the culprits specifically. Merely cutting the budget only cuts money for those the department is supposed to be serving.

So few of our elected representatives these days care a rats behind about our parks and forests. So it's easy to just cut and cut and cut until there isn't enough money to actually fix that broken bridge/toilet/roadway or repaint that building or replace that vandalized sign. And it's not going to change until enough of us start electing representation that cares about such things.

Now when that does happen, it also means taxes will go up. But you know what, I don't mind forking over the money necessary to support our police and fire and armed forces and even forest rangers in their work. I don't mind paying for a new sign or fixing a bridge. I read those signs and drive those bridges. I want them there.

So next time your congress critter wanders in off the street for a town hall, get your fanny down there and ask him/her/it to put money into the public coffers, not just take it out and take it out and take it out. And then go vote!

I am not sick and tired of "cutting" taxes. The ONLY way to get departments to cleanup their act is to reduce their budget. Plus, my taxes seem to go UP all the time - usually the "tax cut" is in a "proposed" budget, and rarely, if ever, is an actual reduction from the year before. So they call an increase a tax cut. Welcome to NewSpeak.

EVERYONE I've ever talked to who works for the town, state, and federal government talks about the waste and mismanagement.

From what I've heard, the National Park Service is actually one of the better run federal departments, due to dedicated people who actually want to do a good job at a job that they actually want to do, and so many volunteers, especially at historical sites.

What is the solution? I don't think there is one solution. One big thing that I rarely have heard of is actually asking the people "on the ground" and at the gates what they would suggest for running the park or department. All the parks have different needs, and the people who know those needs are the ones that actually work there.

lol, I'm sooo glad this thread is non-political! lol!