Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Upstate NY
Posts: 10150

http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/lo...2771313,00.html

quote:

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The Department of Energy program to compensate sick nuclear weapons plant workers has cost $74 million of taxpayers' funds - and only one worker has been paid.

That one person in Washington state has received $15,000.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35656

That is not very impressive.

What is weird is that, although government programs can fuck up this badly, they don't have to (and don't always). Assuming that the government isn't going to give up these departments, they would certainly have to change how things work in them. How old is this department, to get this bad?

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Upstate NY
Posts: 10150

Only 25 years: http://www.25yearsofenergy.gov/

Messes like this and pork programs are pretty disgusting. Line item veto is the solution (aside from hiring competent administrators, etc.)

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35656

Yeah, something has to be done about pork, too. I guess that, because of the way that the systems work, federal agencies become an ideal vehicle for legislative pork.

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Registered: Dec 2002
Location:
Posts: 3063

pork's tasty. it's the other white meat.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9454

Line item veto is a solution to one problem but unfortunately can also be used to exacerbate others. If a president were to line item (truly legislative, not pork) elements of a bill that were inserted as part of the cooperative compromise that got the main bill passed, that wouldn't be very productive. I don't really know what the solution is, other than to only have non-partisan presidents with the intelligence and integrity to use the line item appropriately. And with the nature of politics and constituencies, we know that isn't going to happen.

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