Friday, February 22, 2008

The government you pay for

In this piece earlier this week I talked about the US Department of Agriculture and how they suck, and that one of the reasons that I hunt and kill animals myself is because they suck. Now it seems that the USDA doesn't have enough inspectors to ensure that our food is safe, or to ensure that sick and diseased cows aren't pushed into machines with bulldozers.

In two days they will be asking for more money, guaranteed.

I just don't see where they have credibility, but maybe I'm wrong. Wikipedia says that as of June last year, the USDA had employed 105,778 employees. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) are the inspectors who are saying they are short staffed. They have a budget of $800 million and employ 7,000 people, 5,000 of which are out inspecting.

Do they really not have enough inspectors? Are there too many farms?

"The agency has 7,800 inspectors covering 6,200 federally inspected establishments, 900 of which slaughter livestock."

The USDA says that there are just too many vacancies within the department. Seems like CYA time to me. "It's not our fault!" "I know that this is what you pay us to do but we need more! MORE!" So who governs the government? Is this what socialized healthcare is going to look like? You can bet your ass on that.

If you need me I'll be at the reloading bench.

No comments: