Why are we paying for all these intelligence agencies: NSA, CIA, FBI, GeoSpatial, etc?

[kentuck]

If Donald Trump can walk into a secret meeting with Vladimir Putin and give him any of the intelligence we have gathered to protect our country? What good is it if everyone knows about it? Are we wasting tax-payer dollars on intelligence gathering?

[spanone]

1. these are questions we've never asked before....we've never had a dictator before.

[Turbineguy]

2. So that they will still be there

when Spanky gets asylum in Russia.

[BSdetect]

3. Sorry to say this but they failed us.

We must now hope they can recover some real effectiveness.

[meadowlander]

5. It's not the job of the intelligence agencies to direct policy.

It's their job to gather intelligence and give it to decision makers. I don't want an "effective" intelligence service that intervenes to decide who has decision making power or not.

The intelligence agencies have given us their assessment. Russia interfered in the election.
Our president failed us and is failing us.
Our congress failed us and is failing us.
People who don't show up to vote them out in November will fail us.

[Ferrets are Cool]

4. The same reason we pay for guns and bombs and things that kill people in

godlike amounts.....because we vote the fuckers into office that appropriate the funds.