D.C. Fire Sale! Government Should Cut Spending and Start Selling

At various events in which my fellow Tea Party members and I myself have set up a booth, I put up a sign which states: Cut Spending and Start Selling. It also provides a small list of what could be sold: the Postal Service, FDIC, TVA, AMTRAK, and the Smithsonian. It then states “just to name a few.”

And of course, these are just a few government entities that could be sold to the private sector. In the midst of a government shutdown (not to mention massive debt), selling off entities wouldn’t be a bad idea.

I have mentioned such solutions in a December 31, 2012 article here on Clash Daily. I even discussed privatizing the Postal Service in a May 20, 2013 article. But besides the Postal Service and the other four government entities previously mentioned, there are more agencies, commissions, boards, etc. that can be sold.

First of all, there are some foreign aid and development agencies, consisting of the African Development Foundation, Inter-American Foundation (Latin America), and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (various countries). There is also the United States Agency for International Development (which is the main foreign aid agency), the United States Trade and Development Agency (various countries), and the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation seems to fall in this category, as does the Peace Corps. So you have a total of eight foreign aid agencies, all of which could be sold or eliminated.

Next, there are several education-related agencies that could be sold off. They consist of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education, Commission on Fine Arts, Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, Institute of Museum and Library Services, J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation, Morris K. Udall Foundation (a.k.a. Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy), National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Science Foundation.

The remaining government entities that could be sold are as follows: Broadcasting Board of Governors (a.k.a. International Broadcasting Bureau), Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation, Legal Services Corporation, NASA, Northwest Power and Conservation Council, Stennis Center for Public Service, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Meanwhile, the Social Security Administration can be privatized.

There should be stipulations regarding the sale of some of these entities. First, they should be sold to American-owned and operated enterprises within the private sector (in addition, the buyer must not be a front for a foreign enterprise). Second, this stipulation would apply to any subsequent sale of the entity. Thus, you wouldn’t have to worry about the mail being controlled by the Saudis, or the Chinese providing insurance to banks. Third, Congress needs to approve any sale.

So there you have it. Thirty-one agencies, boards, commissions, etc. removed from the federal government via privatization or elimination (the latter applies if there is no buyer within a certain period of time). Needless to say, billions of dollars saved. And of course, the government must also rein in wasteful spending, hence the slogan.