Every government dollar wasted on a poor programme is a dollar that a working person doesn’t have to spend on groceries, health care and education. It is also a dollar that the Government does not have available to spend on its policy priorities.
Making a few substitutions:
Every personal dollar wasted on poor choices is a dollar that the government doesn’t have to spend on the economy, health care and education. It is also a dollar that the person does not have available to spend on their own priorities.
Both of these are pretty much tautologies, advice that it would be better to do things better.
Besides that, the original quote does not occur in the document cited. Google turns up two hits for “Every government dollar wasted on a poor programme”, here and here. The former cites the latter and the latter presents it as an isolated quote from some Australian politician. The general context of all three documents is evidence-based policy-making. While a fine thing (or at least a fine-sounding thing), the quote could be said by any politician, at any time, anywhere.
Searching for the shorter phrase “Every government dollar wasted” turns up a large number of uses. Many are requotes of the above, and the rest are instances of a template that might be more honestly expressed as “Every government dollar spent on what I don’t like is a dollar it can’t spend on what I do like.”
this was an unhelpful comment, removed and replaced by this comment
Making a few substitutions:
Both of these are pretty much tautologies, advice that it would be better to do things better.
Besides that, the original quote does not occur in the document cited. Google turns up two hits for “Every government dollar wasted on a poor programme”, here and here. The former cites the latter and the latter presents it as an isolated quote from some Australian politician. The general context of all three documents is evidence-based policy-making. While a fine thing (or at least a fine-sounding thing), the quote could be said by any politician, at any time, anywhere.
Searching for the shorter phrase “Every government dollar wasted” turns up a large number of uses. Many are requotes of the above, and the rest are instances of a template that might be more honestly expressed as “Every government dollar spent on what I don’t like is a dollar it can’t spend on what I do like.”
If a tautology isn’t rational, then what is?