Maastricht Treaty revisions needed?

[kandrathe]

Those departments do not just spend that money sitting on their hands. I would say they make sure each department on the state level is doing what they're supposed to do. They probably inspect them to make sure they keep to safety and other minimum standards, for instance.

Some are oversight, but most of the money is for federal programs, such as "Soil Bank", where they pay farmers to not use their land. The original program was repealed in 1965, but re-emerged as the Conservation Reserve Program. 70% of the USDA budget is devoted to a nebulous octopus called the "Nutrition Assistance Program". The bulk of that spending is where our federal government provides breakfast and lunch to school children, and again, mostly without very good oversight on separating those who need assistance, from those who do not.

On the face of it, it sounds mean to question whether school children should get good nutritious lunches. But, if this is an issue of poverty, then we need to means test the delivery of the aid. Then, we can focus on reducing the cost of the aid, by reducing the number of people who are poor. Which is less brutal; Treating the symptoms of poverty, or vastly reducing poverty all together? When I was young, we went home to eat lunch. Then when I was in high school, they had a school lunch program, but it was too expensive so I brought my lunch to school.