[languagewars]

I left out that I meant 2 orders of magnitude in government. Comparing federal spending to what would be waste in a town or county is an example of giving into propaganda steered stupidity as an acceptable norm.

I don't disagree that this is a terrific value. I disagree with it coming up for discussion like this in absolute terms when nothing the federal government does that is blatantly absurd could ever discussed in absolute terms without seemingly like an unworldly statistic at any local level besides, maybe, in NYC.

There are 34,000 $32 million dollar units in federal discretionary spending. I'm willing to bet that if someone randomly samples another one it will be worse than this one.

That 32 million may be enough for a town to redo it its main library if it received it through complex graft using a rider (and then some kind of magic to get it to the town level) is a bizarre distraction from anything meaningful at the federal level.

[blowski]

I refer you to Tip O'Neill's observation that "All politics is local".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_politics_is_local

I believe the Government should spend the money, but I also believe that you can't wave away any concerns about it by claiming it's not worth worrying about.

[languagewars]

Well, I like the "see also" in that entry.. Do you think they will buy a school or a prison with their graft? Will the 99 other senators who want $32m each be so good as your own?

If you want to reduce federal spending and federal tax so that the local system can tax then that's great. If you question the federal government spending $1 out of $34000 on a reasonable global service, then please tell me why my wife would be reasonable in questioning my $1 a year new year's burger, but my converting from a standard $40 a month ATDT service to a $3400 a year program to turn our kids into psychopathic murderers who are sometimes willing to protect us is an unquestionable rational expense.