I Wish More People Did This
I once tried to return money from my budget to my finance department. After about a month of pushing, I had to give up, and then I got yelled at for not spending the budget I was allocated. After that, I finally punted and just started taking zero budget for any given cycle, then begging for the extras that people couldn’t figure out how to spend. It took more effort, but ended up saving the company money.
Paul’s office returned half a million dollars about this time last year, adding up to a grand total of over a million dollars in savings in just his two years in the Senate. Again, taking the time to bother with even just the itty bitty chunk of the federal budget allotted to you may be a small thing, but it’s a good one. What if all Congresspeople, administrators, officials, agencies, bureaus, and departments were this frugal, instead of operating under the current use-it-or-lose-it mentality? It can be done, and that could very quickly amount to billions of dollars in government savings. It isn’t entitlement reform, but it ain’t nothin,’ either.
Responsibility is everyone’s gig. It would be nice if more people remembered that.
Back when I was in labor force, it never occurred to me to return money allocated to whatever I was doing. I don’t think my co-workers would like it very much. I was mostly in the private sector, and the attitude there was that if somebody gives you money, spend it. Much of my job experience was in SF in the 90s, and at the time the start ups were awash with money, which kind of affected everyone’s attitude.
It certainly affected the length of time that the start-ups were running.
Live fast, die pretty.
There were so many jobs around at the time, especially for the young people with semblance of education. I could call my temp agency in afternoon, and have an assignment next morning. I had a feeling that it wasn’t the norm, but it took a decade to understand what was happening.
I think sarcastic Russians were in high demand. Even the most optimistic boss needs a cynic.
Ha-ha! Thank you.