Question: What can the Government do right and, cost effectively?

Nothing that I've seen. Agree.

Erie Canal, land grant colleges, Brooklyn Bridge (and many others), Boulder Dam (and many others), The Interstate Highway System, Man on the Moon, Atomic bomb, the internet, etc.

edit: A cost overrun is a misunderstanding of the project cost. Anything else is perfection, which exists only in your conservative mind.

If private enterprise could do it at a profit, they would have done it. There is too much risk and not enough profit in infrastructure. That's why we have a gummint.

What does "cost effective" constitute? The system has maintained itself up to this date. "Cost overruns" can me contrasted with services that otherwise might be prohibitive. ALL bureaucracies are subject to mismanagement and/or corruption but in no way does "limiting government" or relying on the "private sector" necessarily alleviate those conditions.

I agree. And the military was doing fine until Obama started cutting it's budget and personal so that he can afford to go golfing. That is true, hwinnum!

For one thing they run Medicare and it is much more efficient than private or not for profit hospitals.

There are also many things that only the government can do so cost effectiveness is impossible to determine. For example: health product regulation, safety regulations, armed forces, airline and broadcast regulation, coast guard, emergency management, disease control/epidemiology, ....

The Bay Bridge and now high speed rail are the next big chisels

They could, but apparently don't want to, help support our age group, which will cloud the stars in only a few years.

A nation of ole folks.

They seem to be pretty good at taxing and penalizing.

you dont think our military is effective?