The more budgets are cut and taxes inceased, the weaker an economy becomes. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity = poverty and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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O.K., I admit it. I haven’t counted the reasons. But, here is yet one more reason (out of thousands) why the Tea/Republican push for smaller government and lower deficits is foolish and damaging to America.
Washington Post
Federal funds help crime labs struggling with DNA evidence backlogs
By Melissa Maynard, Published: March 18Twelve years ago, Congress passed a bill aimed at bolstering the capacity of state and local crime labs. It was known as the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act. The ensuing effort now bears the more modest title of DNA Backlog Reduction Program. But even with the new name, it is an ambitious venture.
Since 2006, Congress has poured $785 million into helping fix the logjam in DNA evidence collection at the state and local levels through this and other programs.
There’s no question that a serious problem exists. Recent advances in science and technology have made DNA a more useful tool for convicting the guilty and exonerating the innocent, but major backlogs persist, despite broad acknowledgment that delays in processing DNA evidence are keeping criminals on the streets.
Federal help is making a difference. Between 2004 and 2010, the Backlog Reduction Program, run by the National Institute of Justice, has funded completion of 172,761 cases and significantly increased state and local DNA laboratory capacity. (Kermit Channel, director of the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory) credits federal funding with dramatically reducing the Arkansas backlog — which peaked at 18,000 cases in 2005 — to 4,200 now.
“Without those funding sources, we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are today,” Channel said. Federal grants have allowed the state to invest in more sophisticated equipment that sorts through evidence faster, as well as nine additional staff members to process the evidence.
Still, while the crime lab is now able to stay up to date with homicides and sexual assaults, property crimes remain a major driver of the state’s backlog. Processing evidence of property crimes is critical, Channel said, not just for solving those offenses but also for investigating others that may have been committed by the same person.
When states expand requirements to include more offenders and arrestees, they often fail to consider the impact on their existing crime lab capacity. There’s not a lobbyist for the rape victims who aren’t getting their samples processed.
A recent report by the Congressional Research Service noted that 83 percent of state and local crime labs say they would see an increase in DNA casework backlogs if federal funding were to disappear.
Funding from the National Institute of Justice has helped state and local labs bolster their capacity so they can sustain higher workloads on their own. Investments in technology and robotics and workflow improvements have enabled some states to process higher volumes of DNA more quickly in ways that aren’t federally dependent.
The bottom line is: When times are tough, people criticize the federal government, and in essence wish to “punish” the government by making it smaller. Big government not only helps solve the myriad problems that bedevil us, but by adding dollars to the economy, big government stimulates all areas of the economy.
On balance, would you like more money or less money spent on crime labs and on police protection?
Cutting the federal deficit to grow the economy, is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com
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