The people who are responsible for stealing your money are efficient. IRS, military, and apparently some aviation program.

I don't care who is president. I'll take whoever lowers taxes the most.

the money hole program is extremely efficient!

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/in_the_know_should_the_government

QQminusS -

I assume "some aviation program" refers to my comment #1.

First, full disclosure: I am constitutionally sceptical of government's ability to do much of anything efficiently.  I am also a designated Aviation Medical Examiner (AME).

The FAA's Aviation Medical Certification Division is responsible for certifying the medical eligibility of all civilian pilots, commercial and private, as a matter of public safety.  In a sense, it is a public/private agency in that it uses private physician 'designees' who have voluntarily and at their own expense undergone specific training in aviation medicine, as its agents (AME's) who do the actual work in the trenches.  Unlike many (most?) agencies who's employees have a mindset geared toward personal job satisfaction rather than the needs of their 'customers,' the AMCD's staff mindset is geared toward getting and keeping pilots certified (and flying) as quickly and efficiently as possible, while assuring they are medically capable of exercising the responsibilities of piloting aircraft.  That mindset shows in everything they do.  And they do it in an environment of tight budgets.  No government agency is perfect, but this one comes closer than any I've encountered.

On another note, while our military does lots of things very well, efficiency has a different meaning in matters of war than the traditional economic meaning of the term, so including the military in a discussion of government 'efficiency' doesn't make a lot of sense.  Is there waste & abuse in the military?  Absolutely.  But military efficiency has to be measured by some formula incorporating lives harmed & lost, the value of which is inestimable, meaning that any assessment of military efficiency is necessarily qualitative.

well we know it's not the Post Office...Obama even said so! 

Just a thought: When has the post office, ever, been efficient? I mean you go back to the mail coaches and further back to royal mail - it's never been efficient. So...really...is it a good basis to make such a claim on?

Actually, for a long time the Post Office DID run efficiently.  When the internet started taking over, as you might imagine, revune went down.  When the Post Office asked (a long time ago) to close down some unnecessary post offices, congressmen, who didn't want to lose the "prestige" associated with having X number of post offices.  They were told they couldn't close them down.  This is the difference between a business and the government.  Decisions in the government are made for political reasons more often than interest in efficiency or value.  Another thing that the post office got shot down on was closing on Saturdays.  (Though I don't the reasoning on that.)  Lastly, they have no control over their pricing.  So the Post office wanted to run within its means, to control those things that they could and were not allowed to do so. 

One other thing, have you ever noticed how much more expensive FedEx and UPS are?  Its like tenfold! 

The only remaining efficient agency is Social Security.

The FDA is an excellent government program.

As Americans you are probably not aware of the tragedies that happened in other countries where such an oversight over drugs was traditionally missing well into the late 20th century.

The US military also seems very efficient.

Generally, the US government is very efficient indeed and needs little improvement. You should look at other countries to see what's possible and what you are already doing better. Comparing the US government to a non-existing ideal is futile.

My proposals for changes would be moving responsibility for education to the state level and reforming the postal service.

Everything else seems pretty OK to me.