79-14-B6

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The Golden Fleece

Transcript Wisconsin's Senator William Proxmire has faithfully for five years called attention to examples of government extravagance and foolish spending. The Senator makes public his award of the "Golden Fleece" to individuals, departments, agencies or branches of government guilty of unnecessary, unwise or careless expenditures of taxpayers' money. There have been 55 such awards in these five years. If you are curious about why his award bears the title, "Golden Fleece," just look at it this way; we the taxpaying citizens are the wooly creatures being shorn every time someone in government gets extravagant. Senator Proxmire really hit home with his most recent award. He presented it to those who you might say govern the government - his colleagues in the U.S. Congress. Said the Senator, "I am giving my fleece of the month to Congress for the eruption in its staff and spending over the past decade. In that period the staff of the House and Senate has grown by about 70% and the cost of that staff by 270 percent." The growth is remarkable when you look at the figure. The House staff has increased from 7,300 10 years ago to 11,600 today. The Senate did better by doubling its staff - from 3,400 to 6,800 (that figures out to 68 staff members per Senator). Total staff cost this year is $550,000,000, up from $150,000,000 10 years ago. A pay raise has been proposed which will increase this even more. In reality however, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The real cost to us is the increased spending generated by congressional staff. There is no way to estimate what that total may be but there is no denying that staff makes a sizeable contribution. The next time you read somewhere that the coming $552 billion budget is in response to demands by the people for more government services take that with a large grain of salt. Far more legislation is generated by government agencies than by popular demand. It works like this: those entrusted with operating a government program (very often with the best of intentions), decide they can do even more for the people if only they can get more money, more personnel and, of course, a little more power. They put their proposal into legislative form and then look around for a representative or senator to introduce the bill. Enter the congressional staffers. They have to justify their existence so they are on the lookout for things they can present to the boss as worthwhile things to do. The department promoters contact staffers they are acquainted with. The staffers take the proposal to their boss as a politically attractive bill he can author. And presto, up goes the budget. Government grows larger and the first thing you know the congressional staff has grown 70 percent in 10 years. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 79-14-B6 Production Date 10/02/1979 Book/Page RPtV-482 Audio Youtube? No
		Added Notes Golden Fleece Award 1975 Golden Fleece award winner, Anthropometry of Airline Stewardesses