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This is precisely where the fissures of an online forum are exhibited in full fashion. I could produce 3,000 GAO reports and neither you, nor I, could prove one way or the other whether there are partisan measures incorporated therein. Why? Because to explicitly state so would obviously violate the full-faith intent of the "watchdog" to begin with. The devil is in the details. And those details are culled from Agencies whose political appointees have a vested interest in the outcome. Thus, the data provided for the GAO is at a minimum sifted through, and at a maximum outright denied access to. This does not mean that some people and some Agencies are not castigated by those "watchdogs" from time to time. Sometimes the results are so egregious that someone somewhere will have to take the fall. (See Birnbaum of the MMS). Yes, the charter of the "watchdogs" are non-partisan. But the outcome and the product generally is not. Which begs the question: Can we really rely on "non-partisan" "watchdog" reports? For the most part, not if we expect complete objectivity.
CBO is a watchdog. Do you honestly feel that the product that they produced regarding healthcare was non-partisan? Of course it wasn't. It was a purely Democratic bill. So "non-partisan" outcomes from a GAO report are just one big shell game intended to make you and I feel good about oversight.
What a bunch of gobbledygook doublespeak. You said GAO was partisan. Back it up.
What a bunch of gobbledygook doublespeak. You said GAO was partisan. Back it up.
I have backed it up. If you can't grasp the details that's not my problem. Get yourself involved in government and then maybe one day you'll understand.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, the GAO is a unionized office. Golly Gee Wally, I wonder whose ideology best suits them? Non-partisan my ass. It's all one big facade. And the people fall for it.
This is precisely where the fissures of an online forum are exhibited in full fashion. I could produce 3,000 GAO reports and neither you, nor I, could prove one way or the other whether there are partisan measures incorporated therein. Why? Because to explicitly state so would obviously violate the full-faith intent of the "watchdog" to begin with. The devil is in the details. And those details are culled from Agencies whose political appointees have a vested interest in the outcome. Thus, the data provided for the GAO is at a minimum sifted through, and at a maximum outright denied access to. This does not mean that some people and some Agencies are not castigated by those "watchdogs" from time to time. Sometimes the results are so egregious that someone somewhere will have to take the fall. (See Birnbaum of the MMS). The charter of the "watchdogs" are non-partisan. The outcome and the product generally is not. Which begs the question: Can we really rely on "non-partisan" "watchdog" reports? For the most part, not if we expect complete objectivety.
I understand what you're saying. Again, the people at the GAO arent idiots, they're not naive, they can measure and compare, and they know the DC and Pentagon bureaucracies inside and out and what slant each group inside each agency might like to project and why. The Comptroller serves something like 10 years at a stretch for this very reason.
Thank you for at least compromising far enough to admit "[f]or the most part, not if we expect complete objectivity." GAO reports are as objective as it can possibly get. These people are hired and paid for that purpose. And if you think the GAO isnt scrutinized itself from every direction for the tiniest hint of partisanship, you're being naive.
I have backed it up. If you can't grasp the details that's not my problem. Get yourself involved in government and then maybe one day you'll understand.
I can grasp the detail easily. You have an opinion unsupported by fact.
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