The FDA doesn’t close contaminated food processing plants. The EPA refuses to crack down on polluters. The Justice Department has become the enforcement branch of the Republican Party. The military can’t take care of it’s wounded troops. The CIA can’t tell its ass from a WMD. NASA can’t keep its ships flying.
What’s left that the gov can still do?
Tax.
They can’t even do that well. My sister got a bill for $16,000 from the IRS 3 months ago, because they had credited her payment to someone else’s bill. She had made a lump sum payment of about 12K more than a year ago as the exectutor of my aunt’s estate, and the extra 4K was interest and penalties that accrued on the “unpaid” debt.
It’s still not entirely settled, as the IRS has yet to acknowledge their error, even though she has the cashed check from her bank, endorsed by an IRS stamp.
Dilly-dallying.
I can give them a letter and 40 cents and they can deliver it anywhere in the country in less than a week – usually within 2 days.
That one I’ll buy, though I’m not quite sure the Postal Service is technically part of the government any more.
Hmmm? Sure it can. Iraq wasn’t an intelligence failure by any stretch of the imagination, unless we’re talking about the intelligence of the elected civilian leaders. The CIA got Iraq and Iran right from the get-go.
Well, the new Star Wars stamps look pretty cool.
The purpose of governments is to manage the most horribly aggressive people, by jailing them and fighting wars against them and making them politicians so they have to fight against each other and against precedents and red tape.
That said, the US federal government is doing pretty well. For example we must have a success rate of around 99.99% in not shooting a nuke missile at somebody, which is a very good thing.
Lighthouse maintenance (Coast Guard) and dredging/clearing shipping channels of debris (Army Corps of Engineers) seem to be going pretty well.
Now someone’s just going to come along and say that it simply makes it possible safely to get away from the Gubmint[sup]TM[/sup]. 
No. The CIA was the key agency involved in the production of the pre-war National Intelligence Estimate that claimed Iraq was producing everything from chemical weapons to long-range missiles, all of which turned out to be untrue.
Iran? We’ll see.
Helf the jail population is there because of the crazy “drug war” – but OTOH I suppose you can’t blame the jailers for what the legislators define as crimes.
OK, I’ll give you that, our Federal prison system seems functional.
However, we are dead last among nuclear powers as far as not using them. We have used them in war, and no one else has. Then again, that was 60 years ago.
Still, no credit here. The OP is about what the Federal governmnet DOES, not about what it DOESN’T do.
The Coast Guard has spent the last few years building a fleet of new ships so unsafe that they are not allowed to go to sea.
The Army Corps of Engineers has been ginning up phony cost/benefit analyses and environmental impact statements for years to push its pet projects. They have also failed spectacularly so far at rebuilding the levee system around New Orleans.
No points.
This isn’t entirely true and some explanation is warranted.
At the heart of this matter is the ‘Deepwater’ fleet modernization program. I suspect that you are referring to the patrol boats that were recently pulled from service. Here’s the story.
The Island Class patrol boats (110s, as they are 110 feet long) were built in the mid 1980s. These boats, based on a proven British design of coastal patrol craft, were originally designed for about 15 years of service. They were a ‘temporary fix’ during the height of the drug war until a better boat could be developed. 49 Island Class boats were built.
These boats were rode hard and put up wet, to put it mildly. Poor maintenance due to a constant pace of heavy operations took a huge toll on these boats. Fast forward to the 21st century and the CG is in the midst of the Deepwater program. One component of Deepwater was to take the 110s out of service, one by one, lengthen the hull by 13 feet, upgrade the accommodations, electronics, etc, and then place them back in service - good as new! Eight boats were converted in this fashion and are now 123’ long. However, the boats were in no condition to undergo such major renovations and problems were encountered from day one. For starters, the hulls were all degraded well beyond initial estimates. Another problem was the lengthening of hull and added weight of the upgrade affected the structural integrity of the boat in ways that were not accurately predicted. As soon as the new 123s hit the water, cracks developed, shafts became mis-aligned and each boat had new and unique problems which made them unsafe to operate in moderate to heavy seas. The threat of a major catastrophe became very real. So earlier this year, the Commandant had to pull the eight boats from service. Last week the final decision was made - the eight 123s could not be repaired and would be retired from service.
So, of 49 Island Class patrol boats, eight were converted and subsequently scrapped. The remaining 41 are still in service, well beyond their initial life span. They will not be upgraded as originally planned. Their crews are holding them together as best they can. (and doing a hell of a job with what they have!) Six of those boats are in Iraq and we’ll likely never see those boats again.
The other major Deepwater problem is the brand new National Security Cutter, Bertholf. The Bertholf had design flaws that AHEM escaped the notice of CongressCOUGHCOUGH for various reasons and, as it is right now, will not be able to meet the projected 30 year life span without significant upgrade at some point during the life of the cutter. Subsequent hulls of this class will have those problems addressed during construction, however I believe the Bertholf is still seaworthy and will be commissioned on time.
The Deepwater Program is the largest acquisition/modernization program in Coast Guard history. It is also, quite possibly, the largest black eye. That point notwithstanding, I think the Coast Guard does one hell of a job serving the public and should be considered a program that the government ‘does reasonably well’ on a consistent basis.
The SocSec Admin is administered with a very small percentage of its money wasted
The road system is kinda handy.
The EPA and FDA are being eviscerated by the Government now. They were once very good.Their work has been slowly wrapped into the actual enterprises that they used to police. WE are asking for trouble and will get it. The pets are merely the latest.
I’ve read that the government administers Medicare very efficiently and that this is the reason why the insurance industry is against socialized medicine, because they know people would end up preferring government care to their policies. I can’t give a cite for it, though.
I think you’re confusing cause and effect. The administration believes that government can do nothing right, so they put incompetent people in charge (e.g., Michael Brown at FEMA) and when things go badly, they can say, “Look at how badly the government governs. These things can be done better by the private sector.” Never mind that other administrations managed to put competent people in charge and actually govern effectively and efficiently.
No, I’m trying to figure out which Federal agencies HAVEN’T been rendered impotent/ineffective by the current administration. Whether they could do their jobs before, or might be able to do them again in the future, is not especially relevant.
I’ll take a step back from that – if an agency was broken down BEFORE the 2000 elections, it’s unfair to blame Bush for the breakdown. NASA might be in that category, I’m not sure.
It’s quite good at reminding us why government is evil.