Politics Bad signs for the Republican Party

Because our Constitution spells out quite clearly that our Government is only meant to be a Small Business that provides Limited Services to US.

 

I respect your opinion and if you are a successful business guy that can manage & empower people, meet objectives through solid improvement goals, based on objective measurable goals, results oriented and profitable, well organized and can deli-cate/deli-dump, can manage and act proactively in area's that are out of control, have good energy and back bone to compete in a competitive arena that's ruthless, support our troops & vets, and believe in the constitution, then I'd vote you in a nano second over a schooled politician that only wants to be beholden to lobbyist and serve government for the purpose of growing government and tax more, and car out a nice life time career selling bullshit to those in need by convincing them that socialism is your ticket and way out. And who could care less about the constitution and really what government service is all about.
The Greek way of learning is to, learn, learn , learn and get around to doing nothing.
The Hebrew way is to, learn learn learn by doing at the same time.

 

Does the Ship of State count?

 

My company in Seattle hired an ex high ranking military officer. We lost a big bid and he got fired shortly thereafter. Ex government people are often hired by big business to give the company the inside scoop on who and how to deal with.

 

All the OR/WA Sate agencies/Purchasing Agents I dealt with over the years always told me if they don't spend their budgetary allotment for their fiscal year, they won't get it an increase for the next year. I used to give them a bad time about mis-managing tax payers dollars. In fact most agencies had large surpluses of equipment purchased still in crates and warehoused from years back.
Not sure you ever had to meet a government spec on a bid, lord have mercy. Some State or Fed engineer (lol) was trying to justify their existence by writing specs that no one could meet!
Yep, If I got a purchase order from them for several pieces of equipment, I always felt guilty as Al Capone knowing that its very possible they were stock piling their surplus.
Lanny, you got to agree that large government can get out of control? When they are not accountable or audited for efficiency and performance like the private sector, it's a free ticket for them at tax payers expense.

 

One reason Im a libertarian is Im a believer on being fiscally responsible.

 

This.

The skills needed to run a business are not the same as the skills needed to run a government. And the goals of a business, to maximize profit, are very different than what a government is supposed to do.

For example, just look at California. Schwarzenegger drove it into a ditch. It took Jerry Brown, a career politician who understood how to pull the reins of government, to fix the state.

This is also why term limits is a horrible idea. You need institutional memory and skills sets.

 

So you think Jerry Brown “fixed” California? Interesting.

 

Au contraire mon chien:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powe...4946c4-6764-11e8-bea7-c8eb28bc52b1_story.html

 

I've dealt with plenty of government purchases and yes, they are expensive. However, most people don't realize what's involved with meeting the specs or why they even have such strict specs.
1. Strict Specifications - You have to have these because you don't want components or assemblies failing at critical times in critical situations. My dealings were mostly with the military but also with NASA and required over and above reliability;

2. Specs must be maintained. Again, almost all my specs involved some sort of drawing. Drawings get updated periodically for numerous reasons including increased reliability, increased producibility and improved performance. These updates are done by a qualified engineer and approved at a change board. These actions are not cheap nor is maintaining the drawing so that it isn't sabotaged by changing it without approval by a change board. By the way, we had to be on the look out for such drawing and/or parts sabotage on the Peacekeeper (aka MX) missile, principlally by the Russians. Yes, I had a security clearance. The clearance also adds to the cost of having an engineer do everything.

So, the next time you see a pilot use an on board toilet, you should know that the seat won't suddenly break and incapacitate the pilot or some other necessary crewman.

I might also point out that fasteners are strictly specified so that they don't fail during some critical mission. Yes, nuts, bolts, screws and washers need to be specified for obvious reasons.

I point this out for the benefit of the uniformed reader and not you.

 

I do software development and some hardware stuff (though that's a whole different branch of engineering) and we deal with the military a ton, this is spot on. Most of our old Tektronic employee's know the drill, but when we get newer people around that have to learn the military specs and all that oh man it's a whole new world for them. The costs are high because the demand on the work is crazy, we're dealing more and more in the space industry and the costs are like 50%+ more than the military too. We had a customer who was literally making us print out certs for every single part we put on their product, and if it didn't have a SN, we had to create serial numbers and a system to track literally everything. It sucked.