If we're thinking about cutting costs and being realistic in how the government #spendsourmoney...
For more than two decades (and it's hard to admit that) I have been involved in technology, software development, and hosting in one form or fashion. One thing that really bothers me is how much money is wasted on our "web-based applications and sites.
Let's take the healthcare exchange for example. Has anyone actually checked to see how much the #USGovernment has spent on https://t.co/HbZEIY1NKi?
Back in September 2014, Bloomberg published an article that says that the federal government has spent about $2.1 billion on the enrollment system.
To put this into perspective, the ACA was signed into law in March of 2010. This means that over 4 years and 6 months, the government spent $2.1 billion dollars on a website. 54 months. This comes to about $38,888,888 a month.
Granted, there are a lot of costs in this, but more than $38,000,000 per month? Let's get real. Let's say that 1/2 of that was spent on hardware and hosting each month. Now, that is A LOT of hardware, but let's stick with that. This leaves us $19,444,444 per month to be used for payroll, administrative, office space, and all that other good stuff.
If you spent $1 MN a month on office space, another $1 MN in other necessities, and another $1 MN on administrative fees this still leaves you more than $16 MN a month for payroll and related expenses (ironically healthcare, taxes, and medicare/social security)
Alright, we're now down to $16 MN dollars. Let's break this down for the development of this whole system.
If you're paying your developers on the upper end of the average salary for 2010-1014 and add a cushion to it, that would be about $175,000 per year base, with another $62,000 in payroll burden expenses for a grand total of $237,000 per developer per year which translates into roughly $20,000 per month. We know that assistants, and receptionists, and tons of other staff are going to make less than this, but to make this easy, let's say everyone is paid this much.
If you are looking at $16,444,444 per month in available funds for payroll, and you're averaging $20,000 per month for your staff (which is WAY WAY WAY overkill), this would allow you to employ about 822 people.
822 employees working on this webpage. Let that sink in for a minute.
Assuming 1 admin staffer per every 5 staffers that would give you about 685 developers and 137 administrative staff.
685 developers. I mean, let's be realistic here. 685 developers should have been able to build dozens and dozens of websites over a 4 year period.
This doesn't even take into account all of the state exchanges. I know that the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that by 2011 the federal government had already spent nearly $4.7 billion to implement the exchanges. One year later. Over $4.7 billion dollars.
Between the two programs, they spent $6.8 billion dollars on websites.
There is every bit of $5 billion dollars that could have been spent on school lunches, road repairs, or any number of other things that could actually have made significant improvements to the lives of every day Americans.
Yeah, the government needs accountability... Now.
@ATT why can a business not get to BUSINESS INTERNET TECHNICAL SUPPORT? I have been on the phone for 2 hours and 27 minutes and cannot get transferred to BUSINESS INTERNET TECHNICAL SUPPORT. I am not asking for CONSUMER OR WIRELESS. WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON OVER THERE.
@4closureFraud@TaraBull I am actually curious what the “service fee“ is for. Is it a credit card service fee or is it a general service fee. If it’s a general service fee, shouldn’t that be the tip?
Did they explain the “service fee“ or was it just there?
@JasmineForUS@JasmineForUS@RepJasmine tell us that you don’t know how the government works without telling us You don’t know how the government works.
You might wanna go read up of the war powers act in the fact that the president can initiate for 60 days without congressional approval.
@kaitlancollins He literally asked them to stand if they thought that they governments first job was to protect the citizens of America. I didn't see a single Democrat stand. Was he wrong? Is that not the job of the Federal Government?
@SpeakerPelosi@SpeakerPelosi, even though you are no longer the speaker (might change your name there), can you provide proof of a single lie that the President spoke last night? I'll wait.
@SenWarren Can you provide us, oh let's be reasonable and go with a single action he has taken contrary to the Constitution of the United States and various powers granted to him by law and Congress? I'll wait.
@RepLoriTrahan@RepLoriTrahan, can you please provide the data for all of the claims in your statement? In Oklahoma, our gas prices are down ... our grocery store prices are down ... Just wondering where you got all of this "data" that you are claiming is happening all across America.
@DemocraticWins@DemocraticWins, just wondering... Is your account satire, or are you trying to be serious? I ask, because we apparently watched two very different rebuttal speeches last night.
@JamieBonkiewicz @JamieBnkiewicz, wasn't this the case that was completely made up by someone? Just curious, because a quick search shows that it was withdrawn. Even if the CIVIL case was withdrawn, wouldn't the DA have investigated an allegation like this?
@CalltoActivism Old, tired, and boring? She had no inflection and no factual data to support her claims. Let's not forget that she has literally proposed and is about to add something in the neighborhood of 50 new taxes on the people of Virginia. She humiliated herself.
@briantylercohen I am curious, how can you sit there and ask people to support flagrant lies and misinformation and propaganda spreading?
You are absolutely delusional.
@SUBWAY worst customer service ever… Explained my sandwich five times… Plenty of cucumbers .... five, plenty of tomatoes… Five, plenty of pickles… Five. If you want us to pay for extra, I will, but plenty is not five cucumbers. oh… An inch on either side with no meat.