April 17, 2003 - CBS Marketwatch: Peace Corps puts unfocused college graduates on the dole to sing "Kumbaya"
Peace Corps Online:
Peace Corps News:
Headlines:
Peace Corps Headlines - 2003:
April 2003 Peace Corps Headlines:
April 17, 2003 - CBS Marketwatch: Peace Corps puts unfocused college graduates on the dole to sing "Kumbaya"
Peace Corps puts unfocused college graduates on the dole to sing "Kumbaya"
Read and comment on this Commentary by Dr. John Albertine from the CBS Marketwatch who says that the Peace Corps was launched with great media fanfare in 1961 as a tool to fight Communism and a way to get the Third World to love America. Forty-two years later, Soviet Communism is dead and most of the Third World hates America. But the Peace Corps is still spending our tax dollars putting unfocused college graduates on the dole so they can sit around a campfire in a jungle singing "Kumbaya." Read the story at:
Off with their budgets*
* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.
Off with their budgets
Commentary: Wasteful spending hurts the economy
By Dr. John Albertine, Albertine Letter
Last Update: 9:23 AM ET April 17, 2003
NOT!
Despite what Bill Clinton said six years ago, exponential growth in federal spending and red ink are back with a vengeance.
Why? Another rise in the jobless claims report Thursday is part of the answer. The poor performance of the American economy is partly responsible for the rising level of federal deficits.
Washington policy makers would have us believe that the economic slowdown, the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq are the only culprits.
NOT!
The problem is fundamental and it won't go away when the current economic slowdown goes away.
No new federal programs were enacted in Washington this week. Why not? The Congress is gone on its annual Easter/Passover recess. When it comes back next week, the legislative process will rev up again to devise new programs to solve real or imagined social ills. You can bet when those problems are long gone, the federal programs will still be wasting our tax dollars.
You say, "Albertine, give me some examples." There are hundreds. Three will illustrate the point.
The Peace Corps. This was the brainchild of Hubert Humphrey. The former vice president introduced the idea in the Wisconsin Democratic primary in the winter of 1960. Soon-to-be-elected John F. Kennedy picked up the idea during the summer. Kennedy proposed the Peace Corps and Congress created it in the spring of 1961. The Corps was launched with great media fanfare as a tool to fight Communism and a way to get the Third World to love America.
Forty-two years later, Soviet Communism is dead and most of the Third World hates America. But the Peace Corps is still spending our tax dollars. I guess there must be some merit in putting unfocused college graduates on the dole so they can sit around a campfire in a jungle singing "Kumbaya."
Veterans Administration health care. The VA hospital system was created after World War II, when there were huge numbers of veterans and a shortage of private hospitals and beds. Today, there is a surplus of private facilities, and many fewer vets needing care. By all accounts, VA hospital care is inferior to the private sector's.
And the agency's facilities have empty beds - lots of them. Nevertheless, $30 billion goes to the VA every year. Despite the obvious fact that the money would be more effectively used paying for care in private hospitals, many of which need additional funds.
Job Corps. This was President Johnson's brainstorm, bundled into his Great Society program in 1965. The annual cost per student is about the same as that of sending an undergraduate to Harvard. The only employer who seems to want to hire Jobs Corp graduates is ... the Job Corps. The only thing missing here is a TV infomercial because it seems to me the Jobs Corps is a perfect example of a pyramid scheme.
My challenge to you, dear reader, is to provide me with your favorite example of silly and wasteful government spending: federal, state or local.
Despite hundreds of obvious examples of federal programs that should be eliminated or downsized, Congress is institutionally incapable of reforming the bureaucracy.
Indeed, Medicare and Medicaid, designed to provide free long-term health care for the richest component of the population, greedy geezers, are also growing out of control. Elderly Americans are hiring attorneys to help them hide or shift assets so that Uncle Sam and Aunt Hillary will pay for their nursing home care.
Bottom line: Growing federal spending and deficits mean higher interest rates are guaranteed.
Click on a link below for more stories on PCOL
4/15/03
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Humor; Criticism; Speaking Out
PCOL4226
58
.
|
By tyler mcallister on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 4:44 pm: Edit Post |
dr john albertine, go fuck you ingnorant self and while your at it eat a dick. you dont deserve an explaination of why you should do this.