Some of the things that come out in these stories are ridiculous but there is a different root cause of the problem.
The real issue is the government allocating funding that does not have an actual set destination. The agency budgets are like a gas that will expand to fill whatever is allocated to them. Their metric for success is that they spend the money that they were told to spend. In fact, they are punished by not spending it down every year.
There is an entire industry surrounding "Grant Writers" whose sole purpose is to know all the right boxes to check and the people who approve them have little discretion and they have to approve until the budget is spent regardless of the actual content of the grants. When they throw in all the buzzwords that fit the agenda of the party in power, they get the fast track.
If the administration wants to prioritize climate change, every application will have a climate change spin written into it. You get bonus points for doubling down on every agenda issue that can be ticked off. That's how you get an artistic show of drag queens for climate change and polar bears. I am only surprised that they didn't throw in some spin supporting Ukraine, Palestine, and Israel. The cognitive dissonance is immaterial. All that matters is that they can check off the agenda points.
Where did the other 3.8 trillion go?????
Some of the things that come out in these stories are ridiculous but there is a different root cause of the problem.
The real issue is the government allocating funding that does not have an actual set destination. The agency budgets are like a gas that will expand to fill whatever is allocated to them. Their metric for success is that they spend the money that they were told to spend. In fact, they are punished by not spending it down every year.
There is an entire industry surrounding "Grant Writers" whose sole purpose is to know all the right boxes to check and the people who approve them have little discretion and they have to approve until the budget is spent regardless of the actual content of the grants. When they throw in all the buzzwords that fit the agenda of the party in power, they get the fast track.
If the administration wants to prioritize climate change, every application will have a climate change spin written into it. You get bonus points for doubling down on every agenda issue that can be ticked off. That's how you get an artistic show of drag queens for climate change and polar bears. I am only surprised that they didn't throw in some spin supporting Ukraine, Palestine, and Israel. The cognitive dissonance is immaterial. All that matters is that they can check off the agenda points.