Government Waste: While the Democrats grouse about a mere $61 billion spending cut, duplicative services at the federal level may account for $200 billion in needless spending. Here's a chance for bipartisan lawmaking.
A probe by the Government Accountability Office found, hopefully to no one's surprise, that the federal government is a massive web of absurdly entangled and overlapping programs.
Released Tuesday, the 345-page GAO report reveals that 15 federal agencies "collectively administer at least 30 food-related laws," while Washington relies on 80 separate programs across four agencies for economic development.
The probe also learned:
• There are five Transportation Department agencies using 6,000 employees to "administer over 100 separate programs."
• The government has "more than 2,000" data centers, many of which "often house similar types of equipment and provide similar processing and storage capabilities."
• There are 47 separate job-training programs.
• "The federal government spent more than $62.5 billion on 18 domestic food and nutrition assistance programs in fiscal year 2008."
• "In 2009 federal agencies spent about $2.9 billion on over 20 programs targeted to address the various needs of persons experiencing homelessness."
Moneynews.com did the math and reports that the pile of money "could simply have bought 145,000 homes" at $200,000 each.
• In 2003, there were eight federal departments running 62 programs that provide transportation services to the "transportation disadvantaged" public, which includes the elderly, the disabled and the poor.
• There are 10 federal agencies administering 82 distinct programs that are designed to help improve teacher quality.
Washington even has "more than 20 different federal agencies providing about 56 programs related to financial literacy"; sent out $1.1 billion in farm program payments "to more than 170,000 deceased individuals" a few years ago; and last year lost roughly $125.4 billion from improper payments by more than 70 programs.
The GAO didn't place a dollar figure on the amount of waste through duplication. But Sen. Tom Coburn, whose amendment to a debt-limit bill last year required the GAO to compile the report, believes the cost is at least $100 billion and could be as high as twice that.
"It makes us all look like jackasses," the Oklahoma Republican said, comparing the entire Congress to the symbol of the Democratic Party, which apparently isn't interested in cutting even a nickel from federal spending.
Perhaps we're guilty of hyperbole and there are a few nickels, and maybe even dimes, that the Democrats would cut. How they treat the GAO report and its damning catalog of waste will tell voters a lot about their plans for the future.
Are the Democrats determined to dig a bottomless pit of debt that they think will enable them to hike taxes in perpetuity? Or will they make a serious attempt to help Republicans rein in spending?
We can only hope that congressional Democrats will take a cue from their party's leader, who noted in his State of the Union address that "The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they're in freshwater, but the Commerce Department handles them when they're in saltwater," and humorously lamented "that it gets even more complicated once they're smoked."
If not, the country's long-term prospects are bleak, even if Republicans take the Senate and White House in 2012 while keeping the House.
The damage caused by having to wait two more years for real change won't be easy to reverse.
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