Today via Twitter Senator Claire Mccaskill points to a bill she’s sponsoring which will
Claire McCaskill @clairecmc
Approved by Rex![….] @showme:”Good plan by McCaskill wants to ax office she says offers reports you can get elsewhere [….]” 1:59 PM – 18 Mar 2015
The article in the St, Louis Post-Dispatch:
McCaskill wants to ax office she says offers reports you can get elsewhere
By Chuck RaaschWASHINGTON • Sen. Claire McCaskill is introducing legislation this week to end a federal office she says exemplifies government waste and duplication.
The National Technical Information Service is supposed to help sell and make available government-funded scientific, technical, engineering and business information. But the Missouri Democrat said much of that is readily available in the public domain. She has informally dubbed her bill, “Let Me Google That For You.”
[….]
McCaskill cited a 2013 Government Accountability Office report saying that roughly three-fourths of the reports put out by the NTIS were available from other public sources.
[….]
Uh, what about the one-fourth that isn’t available from other sources? Just asking.
What happens to access to the information if Google pulls the plug? What then?
A million dollars here and a million dollars there and pretty soon it equals the total amount of political contributions made by a guy who’s political opinions we apparently all must care about.
Meanwhile:
House Republicans Propose Budget With Deep Cuts
By JONATHAN WEISMAN MARCH 17, 2015[….]
….Without relying on tax increases, budget writers were forced into contortions to bring the budget into balance while placating defense hawks clamoring for increased military spending. They added nearly $40 billion in “emergency” war funding to the defense budget for next year, raising military spending without technically breaking strict caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act….
[….]
The logic (attributed) of Willie Sutton applies here.