Dissemination takes work. Materials in the right languages are needed. Finding the minimum necessary detail and visuals help. Delivery to new parents has to be done when they need the information, else they won't be receptive or remember. Then you need to get these materials into the birthing centers, to midwifes and nurses, etc. An evaluation component is also helpful to see if the approach can be improved, etc. Having this done in a repeatable way is important, every day there are new parents.

I don't see the price tag for this, but a few million dollars isn't all that much given the complexity of the dissemination challenge. It's probably a program but likely not an entire department. Curating knowledge and getting it to right people's attention at the right time is hard work. Did you see the materials they produce/disseminate?

https://safetosleep.nichd.nih.gov/resources/order

That sounds like a sure way to ensure they don't get the info, buried as a bullet point among thousands (in a pdf).

Do you value the lives of infants so poorly that you think a PDF will do it?

Chesterton's fence is undefeated.

Cutting government waste sometimes requires hiring more "inefficient bureaucrats". Oftentimes the existing structure is that they're capital allocators for armies of consultants. Nobody wants to go after that waste. Hell, the "waste" they've gone after, for example the CFPB, was recouping money! Government waste is a facade for the real belief, a dislike for a competent administrative state.

It's even more fundamental than that. The debate of wasteful vs austere government isn't intellectually curious and goes against HN guidelines.

Although expensive, it wouldn't surprise me if the F-35 was financially profitable for the US.

  The F-35 jet program accounts for about 27% of Lockheed's revenue

  Lockheed financials: 2024 net sales $71.0 billion. Recorded pre-tax losses of $2.0 billion associated with classified programs 

  Returned $6.8 billion of cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases in 2024

  Total Assets @Q1 54.96B

  $110.94 B Marketcap

  Nearly 80% of the $46 billion in revenue in 2014 was generated from purchases by the US government

  Total foreign ownership of US companies is about 40% (I wonder if total US ownership of foreign companies exceeds foreign ownership of US companies?)

Total costs (e.g. externalities, political) and benefits (e.g. security, influence) are harder to guess at.

The US political system puts a huge amount of pressure on allies to buy US armaments. The US military industrial capitalism is complex, and has massive political backing. Christmas lights sell missiles. I also wonder how much of the F-35 profitability comes from a Gillette/SaaS/HP financial model? Wars destroy capital goods, which is great if you're selling them.

The entire framework is federal, the money comes from the fed, and the implementation is via fed grants given to local programs to achieve a broader result. It's a very federal program.

Yes it does. Paying for a land delegating work to locals is one of the most common patterns for federal action.

Pork is good. Pork helps grease the wheels of government, it helps things pass and helps facilitate compromise.

That's how most federal programs work. Congress appropriates the money, a federal agency defines requirements, and then states, cities, or non-governmental entities apply for grants.

For example, my city is trying to build a bridge. There's a particular federal program for this (which will probably get killed by Trump), so the city applied for funding and now it's their job to build the bridge.

I wasn't really talking specifically about this program, just kind of in general.

Although I'm not really sold on even the approach you describe - it seems like it's just a way to funnel taxes from local people -> federal -> back to local.

Skip the middleman?