You know what an equation is? It’s a “mathematical statement.” Math is a language, like French or Spanish, that lets you express things that are hard to say other ways. Think “C’est la vie, ma Cherie, pour toujours l’amour,” which can be expressed in non-French but doesn’t sound as good.

              The equation is about two things that equal each other. It looks like this:

A = B

              –Example: 2 + 2 = 4.  The 2 + 2 is the A, the 4 is the B.

–In English: “something equals something, or is something.” The key is the =.

We talk a lot of about “government waste and fraud.” This project or that one is “waste:” we spent money and didn’t get the promised result. We call it “fraud” if someone stole the money.

We also talk a lot about high taxation, or our money being taken by the government. This focuses on one side of the equation, the A. But what about the B? Look at the equation:

Your money in = Spent on what?

              You can call the “Spent on what?” waste and fraud. But here’s the deal: that “Waste and Fraud” money didn’t get taken outside and burned. Someone got it! Someone was paid every penny of that Waste and Fraud. Every boondoggle, every over-budget project, every bloated program, every murky consulting fee, is money that got paid to somebody. The question is who?

Your money in = Who got the money?

              Take the California High Speed Rail project: bullet train from LA to San Francisco (planned back when anybody would want to go to either one.) The LA Times headline says it all.

Despite some progress, high-speed rail is $100 billion short and many years from reality – Los Angeles Times

              They’ve already spent $15.7 Billion.

              Now you’ll say: “that’s almost $16 B of our money wasted” and you’d be right.

              BUT: look at the B Side of the equation. Somebody got that $15.7 Billion bucks.  Who?

Who got the money? And did any of it get rebated into the pockets of the politicians who voted for and supported the project? Answer those questions and bingo!

              A political machine runs on money. You help the machine, you get paid. It can be with a job, some cash, a nice government contract, or a grant to your non-profit-NGO. You can be paid legal, illegal, or grey. But where does the machine get the money? Like anything else, it’s better when you can use OPM, or Other People’s Money. In this case, ours: yours and mine. The machine runs on taxes, taken from us, and diverted to the machine. Sure, they’ll always say it’s “for the children,” but truth is that it’s going to feed the hungry soldiers of their machine.

              So when you see President Trump’s folks exposing waste in government, and you hear anguished howls and see protesters carrying signs, understand you’re looking at the B Side of the equation. These are the folks who’ve been getting OPM, and their taxpayer-funded dinner pails are being cut off. Or the useful idiots who show up to everything.

              Their fury and tears are real. But just remember, it’s your money and it wasn’t supposed to go to them. When they said “its for the children” you believed them. Cut the barnacles off and there can be more money for the kids, or the roads, or social security, and maybe a tax cut for you and me. Cut the A side? Now there’s a thought!

Less of our money = Money going where it’s supposed to

              If that’s New Math, I’m all for it.