Am I the only one that was shocked to find out that we have around a thousand independent advisory committees on the payroll? As someone who is a citizen of the US and who is not a Republican or a Trump supporter, I think we do need to scale back funding in a large number of areas of the government given the huge amount of national debt we have taken on. Having around a thousand advisory committees seems ridiculous. Maybe the Jason committee should have been spared, maybe not, but I can't claim to be upset that we are trying to cut back.
That's one advisory committee per 327,000 people in one of the most (technologically) advanced nations on the planet. You could more plausibly argue that we need more advisory committees, but really, the number is not the issue.
None of this is about saving money. If it were we would be addressing the biggest sources of waste first. These committees are often the only means by which people with competency in the relevant area get put in the room when decisions are made. Cutting back on them is like skipping birth control to save money.
If you're "not a Republican or a Trump supporter", you maybe should be glad that independent advisory boards exist. Someone has to say "your plans conflict with reality" (when that's accurate), and it seems unlikely to be the people Trump surrounds himself with...
I would be very happy indeed if that ever became a thing. In my opinion, we should have just enough of a military to be able to protect ourselves and stop policing the rest of the world, or whatever it is we think we're doing.
