Thanks for the link and info (the link doesn't work with the parens around it....) but I did get it and actually bookmarked it...if for nothing else to compare what they thought in 2005 vs the actual of today.
Of course, you are right about the Federal budget. The "Government" doesn't seem to care a whole lot about where the actual figure might come from....I for some reason, was thinking about a normal family budget where we have costs, and actually put down figures on a budget that mean something.
For instance, when we budget for prescription costs for example....we include the cost of insurance premium for them, and we look at what the various items are, check to see for each one what the local druggist charges with and without insurance, and then we check places like Costco, WalMart, Walgrens to see what they charge. Sometimes it isn't worth it to drive all over town to save a few dollars, so we factor in the complete cost of getting the item over the year. THEN we plug the best numbers into our budget.
You are right. The Government doesn't do that.
Looks like they do this: They plug in a number. Add the redundant factor, and the cost of the entire contract, including labor union hassles, and sometimes, even with these numbers, I've wondered if they didn't multiply the entire group of numbers by 8 times, just so there was a "slop over" figure included.
Wishing I could say that last and joke about it. But it looks to me like there is no joke....except to the American people. |
