With the looming funding reductions to federal agencies, we will begin to see reductions in services and availability. None of these reduction are necessary. They will happen only because federal employees have no incentive to reduce costs, and instead want to create as much discontent as possible so people will urge congress to reinstate/increase funding to their agencies.

Just watch and see.

It happens at all levels of government/public service.

(Remember when the state of Minnesota quit selling hunting and fishing licenses a while back? Seriously, you can’t afford to collect money).

It’s laughable that the president and federal agencies claim they can’t absorb a 2 percent cut.

Budget cuts are normal in the private sector. Private sector employees know that if they work harder, and work smarter, they are likely to stay employed and earn salary increases in the future. The opposite is true in government.

Fortunately, in the U.S. today, there are many counties that are providing employees an incentive to reduce costs without reducing services. These programs often offer a 10 percent of cost savings payment to employees or groups of employees who suggest changes that result in cost savings to the county, without reducing services provided. These programs are extremely successful and are saving billions in taxes across the nation today. In the private sector, programs like this have long been the norm, and successful companies, in many cases, would not have survived without this “culture change”.

Why not try a program like many counties are doing? We’d all be “amazed” at how efficient federal agencies could be if they had incentives to change.

With a $16 trillion deficit that will ruin our entire economy within 10 years max., and a president campaigning across the country, continuously whining about a 2 percent spending cut, we certainly need a “culture change” in federal government.

Arlen Stensby

Crosslake