Politicians Doing Work

From the Huffington Post:

For many lawmakers, particularly in today's austerity-obsessed political environment, the only way to save a dollar is to not spend that dollar. But if politicians really want to reduce government spending, there are more than a few areas where funding today can save millions of taxpayer dollars tomorrow. Besides being sensible policy initiatives, the following investments can also cost us less overall than doing nothing.

I completely agree. For instance, Governor Cuomo has tried getting funding for educational opportunities for prison inmates. While I think that money is better used education non-prisoners, I also agree that educating prisoners will save money in the long run. The issue is when you close prisons though, you put people out of work. It's sad that Northern NY relies on prisons in order for people to make money.

Let's see some of these examples at work:

1) Reducing greenhouse gases: Important on that it not just lowers healthcare costs and the need for people to have inhalers and other respiratory needs. The future of our planet is at stake.
2) Housing homeless people and getting them back on their feet: Actually, that one is a little more complex-some of these people unfortunately need to be in group homes or assisted living facilities for those with psychiatric conditions.
3) Sex ed programs: Unwanted/unexpected pregnancy is expensive, whether it be prenatal/maternal care, day care, nutrition programs, etc. For every buck spent $2.65 is returned? Not bad.
4) Home delivered meal programs. This, along with some assistance from a next door neighbor and a visiting nurse (and his own intact cognition) allowed my grandfather to stay out of a nursing home until his dying days. And why don't we tackle the big issues with spending instead of cutting programs like public broadcasting, public transit, Amtrak, you name it. The problem is that we have a military budget blown out of proportion and a tax burden on the middle and working classes
5) Early Childhood education: an absolutely no-brainer. Studies have shown that children perform better with pre-school programs. On the other hand, we're creating a nation of strung out twenty-somethings.
6) Drug treatment programs: Easy, rehabilitate drug users, they stay out of jail.
7) Prison education and treatment: See the beginning of the article.
8) Needle exchange: This one is an iffy. For medical use, we should be funding this.
9) The IRS. Well that's a concern. The IRS isn't funded right? That's scary to say the least, if the facts are correct."One report suggested that each dollar invested in the IRS can reduce the federal budget deficit by as much as $200." WOW! For $100k, we reduce the deficit by $2 million.