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Comment by cscurmudgeon | Hacker News Reader

> The actual thing that the debt ceiling does is stop the Treasury from issuing debt to pay for things Congress has already decided to pay for.

Maybe we should revisit those decisions. Even individuals revisit decisions, it is insane that we don't revisit certain decisions.

Even if we agree to pay for things, is the government at peak efficiency? There is so much wastage at every level in the govt. Rather than blame Republicans, maybe ask why Democrats are against a more efficient govt (that can still be large and fund their pet programs).

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/18/heres-how-the-federal-govern...

> The U.S. has lost almost $2.4 trillion in simple payment errors over the last two decades.

This is just at the federal level.

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> Maybe we should revisit those decisions. Even individuals revisit decisions, it is insane that we don't revisit certain decisions.

Isn't that what the annual budget process is about? Why do we need a separate process to allow for the borrowing to make the payments for the things that were individually authorized (often with renewals every so often) and then collectively authorized in the budget?

If you don't think the programs are efficient enough as it is, the collosal waste of a government shutdown should be a definite no. Those waste money in that there's extra work to prepare for closing and to reopen, that prevents people from doing the actual work they should be doing, as well as the fact that all of the government workers unable to work because of the shutdown end up getting paid anyway.

> Isn't that what the annual budget process is about? Why do we need a separate process to allow for the borrowing to make the payments for the things that were individually authorized (often with renewals every so often) and then collectively authorized in the budget?

Well, you answered your own question. There is a separate process because the budget process has been broken in a spectacular way.

> If you don't think the programs are efficient enough as it is, the collosal waste of a government shutdown should be a definite no. Those waste money in that there's extra work to prepare for closing and to reopen, that prevents people from doing the actual work they should be doing, as well as the fact that all of the government workers unable to work because of the shutdown end up getting paid anyway.

Can you quantify that?

> Maybe we should revisit those decisions. Even individuals revisit decisions, it is insane that we don't revisit certain decisions.

Maybe you could revisit those decisions by passing laws that directly change them, instead of threatening to keep the decision in place and just not allocate the funds you promised for it?

Why not both?

Was wasting trillions of dollars also part of the original promise? No. So the original contract has already been broken.

Btw, not all spending is "promised" spending. Around 30-40% is discretionary spending. Spending that was not promised and is optional. This is on top of the massive levels of waste.

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

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