Government Waste Reduction Would Ease the Need for Fiscal Sequestration

Democrats say that if republicans are so worried about the national debt and deficit they should be willing to raise taxes on the rich. Republicans say that if democrats are so interested in economic growth and putting Americans back to work, they should not propose tax increases. If the President and Congress are serious about spurring economic and employment growth and reducing the debt and deficit they need to at least agree that reducing government waste serves both partisan interests, as no one benefits by wasting precious tax revenue. Critics will say such an approach won’t go far enough, but no one can deny that making obvious if relatively small cuts are better than no cuts at all. Starting small may just be the wake-up call Washington politicians need to remind them they have a huge and unique responsibility as stewards of our hard earned tax dollars.

Moreover, if taxpayer perception of the magnitude of government waste turns out to be realistic, those obvious and easy spending cuts may be more than the politicians imagine. A 2011 Gallup poll found that Americans--young and old, regardless of political affiliation or level of education--generally believe the federal government wastes more than half of every dollar it spends. The government expects to spend nearly $3.8 Trillion this year, which means we the people believe that nearly $2 Trillion will be wasted. More than 40 cents of every spent dollar, more than $1.5 Trillion, will be borrowed money, which makes our financial situation even more outrageous and unsustainable. Even more shocking is the fact that more Americans, given their perception of waste, don’t seem more outraged and have not applied more pressure to political leaders to act swiftly and decisively on the matter.

The non-partisan Government Accountability Office recently released a report identifying billions in annual waste and potential cost savings available if only our political leaders would acknowledge and address the frightening big picture that our nation faces. The report highlights so much redundancy, overlap, fragmentation and operating inefficiencies attendant to so many government agencies and programs, one must question whether Congress, which funds all those programs and agencies, is paying any attention to the ongoing fiscal management of government at all.

Casual readers of that voluminous GAO report, or even mere reviewers of its table of contents, will fully appreciate the potential significant savings that could result from even a modest reduction in government waste. Capturing those savings would be an excellent first step or down payment on a comprehensive program to review, evaluate, reform and modernize a government budget that has been neglected and abused for far too long.