So, you've identified 1.5 million out of a 1 billion dollar budget as being 'wasteful' (and an argument can be made that some of the items on the list aren't wasteful in the slightest); less than 1/2 of 1% of their budget.

Color me unimpressed with your logic here, that this represents some sort of emergency or calamity. Surely you could have done a little better than this before making a post about how Obama is wrong...

Whatever do you mean? He said this:

"“We can’t get to the $4 trillion in savings that we need by just cutting the 12 percent of the budget that pays for things like medical research and education funding and food inspectors and the National Weather Service.”"

That's entirely correct, and pointing out that tiny percentages of the budget go to things that one may not agree with doesn't change that. So, no; I don't agree with what you said here.

But it wasn't really intended as a serious comment, though, right?

But he told us during the campaign he was going to go through the budget line-by-line to eliminate wasteful spending. I feel so violated, knowing now that he never meant that.

Your point is what? We can't cut everything so we should cut nothing?

Every billion counts.

TheFish,

Let's see, individuals, corporations, municipalities and states routinely cut spending when there is a revenue shortfall.

Sure, some states raise taxes but many don't and they soldier on.

Its a myth that the federal government can't cut spending. You can reduce all federal employee pay 10%, eliminate defined benefit pension and reduce extravagant benefits as well.

Anyone who's ever been in business knows ANY budget can get cut 10% without a dramatic impact on productivity.

How much could the post office save by eliminating Saturday deliveries alone? How many other, senseless, similar savings opportunities are out there in trillion dollar federal budgets? You'll never find out unless people's feet are held to the fire and, currently, there's no incentive for any bureaucrats to save an iota of money anywhere.

PBS? NPR? They don't need a dime do they? Head Start? A vast waste of money documented by multiple studies.

The lists of waste is absurd. Tell department heads to cut. Eliminate funding for "absolutely free scooters" under medicaid that are constantly promoted.

Heck, just cut SOMETHING useless before you come and say NOTHING can be done.

It's not politically UNPOPULAR, it's politically IMPOSSIBLE. So why are you pretending that it's even worth discussion? It isn't.

I repeat again: Obama was correct. You're not going to balance the budget by cutting spending alone. It isn't going to happen. No Republican in office would support it happening. So maybe folks should get serious and start talking about what KIND of tax increases are necessary.

Actually, weather forecasting IS done by the private sector. (My first career was in weather - and I worked for a private-sector weather forecasting business. I'm no longer in weather as a profession, but am a trained - and unpaid - weather spotter.)

The main argument for a public-sector presence in weather is a public protection one. It actually makes sense to have one entity that is charged with issuing weather watches and warnings based on a single standard for such events. It's a system that works well currently.

That said, I don't know what issuing a tornado warning in Topeka has to do with providing aid or services in Africa. Seems to me that's a little out of the purview of the NWS's mission. But then, the government's gotten into a lot of things that aren't really its business, hasn't it?

Where to start...

First, the local airport here (a major one) does statistics every quarter and compares forecasts from NWS, CWSU (the aviation portion of NWS), the major airline here that does its own forecasts, and the basic computer model. Quarter after quarter CWSU comes in first, we come in second, the basic model and the airline are always third or last. In fact, the CWSU averages a better forecast by an hour. This translates into millions of dollars every month that the airlines are saved. Your brother may be a great pilot, but the statistics do not agree with him.

Second, who do you propose will pay for radars? Do you think that a rural areas of the US is going to be able to afford the cost of a radar? The communications line alone is in the tens of thousand every year. Some of the radar parts are in excess of $100,000.

Third, who will pay for the satellites?

Fourth, the media warnings come from the NWS. The main reason is to have one voice alerting the public. How will it look if six different stations issue six different warnings?

Fifth, who will provide support to the Coast Guard, the National Guard, local firefighters, and various search and rescue organizations?

The meteorologists who work for airlines offer a service that we do not. They are able to do specific routing forecasts for each of the planes, alert the pilots about any storms along their flight path, and provide direct access for the airline when any questions arise about the weather. We do a different forecast for just the airport that is used by both the commercial industry and private pilots. The other function provided by the CWSU is to be the direct link to the FAA to provide an unbiased view of the weather and when conditions will be changing. That way one airline is not able to dictate things such as ground delay programs or when flight rates increase or decrease. Without that contact, the largest airline at each hub would get a huge unfair advantage over the little guys.

A meteorologist from Southwest Airlines came to my old office a few years ago to talk about how they used our information. They take our forecasts and discussions as the starting point and then provide extra detail to their pilots that we could not. Think of it as we are providing the foundation and they are building the home.

By the way, on a side note, in his talk he spoke about how just a small increase in forecast accuracy would save each airline millions of dollars. Now that jet fuel is even more expensive, I'm sure that his numbers are much larger.