“the amount of waste is more than justified by the good it delivers” – of course, you mean good like this:

tinyurl.com/ygtzo4n

and this:

tinyurl.com/yzw33ec

The modern-day US federal govt., as well as most state govts., amount to nothing more than thinly disguised crime syndicates run by those whose fundamental skillset is successfully getting elected, i.e., those who are the best at deceiving voters. Political campaigns are largely an exercise directed to proving which candidate is the better liar. May the “best” candidate win.

CompassRose – “Economic predators are worshipped as gods and reviled as demons, but rarely reined in with the proper thick leather of intelligent policy” – in case you hadn’t looked into the matter, those who make policy these days are themselves economic predators, who are completely in bed with higher level economic predators. No “thick leather of intelligent policy” can therefore exist unless the present paradigm of so-called “left” versus so-called “right” is shattered, because politicians on the “left” and the “right” consistently exhibit the same types of behavioral patterns when it comes to screwing ordinary citizens.

“This is the hard, grown-up nut of the matter: things take time, and cost money, and require work” – true, but this is also the hard, grown-up nut of the matter: politicians play honest hard working people for suckers, because politicians don’t give a rat’s ass about actually solving problems (let alone preventing easily forseeable problems in the first place), and they know the voters are easily manipulated. In a scamocracy such as the system existing in the US today, politicians will always spend others’ honestly earned money with reckless abandon, ratcheting up such spending regardless of circumstances in order to solidify their political positions and line their own pockets. Your taxes will be going up – tremendously – and it will have very little to do with taxation becoming more truly “progressive.” The middle class will be relegated to the upper ranks of the lower class as a result of what the politicians will claim is “progressive fairness,” yet the elites and their public serpent tools will already have figured out how to continue their plunder of the system regardless.

Like the song says, “California, rest in peace.”

They should pass a pension claw-back law, and tax the pension income about some “middle class” amount at a high rate. Tax 50% of everything over $60k, for example. Maybe add a tax to even lower incomes.

Yes, it sucks, but it sucks more to have a pension paying you $20k a year, and that’s what a lot of retirees have! A claw back tax helps keep the system solvent.

Also, the way to curb waste is to force politicians, CEOs, board members of corporations with revenues of over a couple million dollars, and people with incomes over $200,000 to open their books. Document and publish all transactions of stocks and bonds. Put it on a website and discuss. Peer into how your rich neighbors spend their money.