Why Can’t We Cut the Budget?
September 26, 2012 at 9:31 am in News by Dustin Siggins 12 Comments
Earlier this week, this blog highlighted a report on improper payments in the Social Security Disability and Insurance program. The report, conducted over an 18-month period, looked at 300 cases of disability awards and found about one-quarter of them had awards improperly given.
This brings up an important part of the federal budget: fraud, waste, abuse, duplication and stupidity. While the long-term budget problems of the United States federal government are most closely related to health care and retirement programs, interest payments, defense spending, a lack of tax reform and a slow-growing economy, streamlining what is spent within existing programs is critical.
How many of your tax dollars are lost to fraud and other inefficiencies? Nobody can say for certain, unfortunately, because of the size and complexity of the federal government. However, consider the following:
- In February, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is set to release the third of three reports on duplication of programs in the federal government. While GAO does not provide an estimate of cost of duplication, due to the complexity and cross-over components of many of the programs, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) – whose amendment to a 2010 debt ceiling hike created the GAO audits – has estimated each of the reports could amount somewhere between $100 billion and $150 billion of the federal budget. This means duplication could take up anywhere from 7.9% of the budget to nearly 12 percent.
- A recent report from Senator Coburn’s office analyzed $70 billion in unused federal grant monies, and noted that nearly $700 billion could be sitting, unused, from decades worth of grant releases.
- A report from GAO in March 2012 looked at government-wide improper payments and found $115 billion in improper payments in 2011, or about 3% of the total budget. Even this government-wide audit is in actuality only a partial look at the government, since part of the Department of Defense – as well as other agencies – does not have a proper estimation methodology and is therefore not included in the audit.
- A CBS report in 2009 claimed $60 billion is lost to fraud in Medicare alone.
Obviously, it is difficult to quantify how to save each dollar that is lost to fraud and other inefficiencies in the federal government – it is far too large and complex to simply pluck a dollar number out of thin air. According to a conservative Republican Senate staffer I spoke to about these issues, as well as a budget expert for a liberal think tank, legislation aimed to eliminating fraud, waste, abuse, duplication and stupidity would probably only find a few tens of billions annually to cut.
So what does this all mean for grassroots activists? No one solution is perfect, nor is one being endorsed by Tea Party Patriots, but something must be done. The easiest solution would be to cut programs and departments entirely, but obviously that is politically difficult. At the very least, better oversight would be a good step forward.
When all is said and done, it’s going to take more than eliminating fraud and duplication to balance the budget and prevent a fiscal collapse of the nation. Tea Party activists across the nation know this. However, eliminating these tens or hundreds of billions from the budget could give us more breathing room financially – and for those who are tired of big government politicians and media organizations telling us there isn’t much to cut in the budget, it is a giant weapon to use in response.
Note: The federal government has launched a new website highlighting efforts to lessen fraud and recapture monies lost. While the site is clearly designed to put the current Administration in a positive light, it seems to be a good resource for seeing how much money is lost to improper payments and fraud. Here is the official list of high-error programs on the site:
High Error Programs
|
Program |
Improper Payments |
| Medicare Fee-for-Service | $28.8B |
| Medicaid | $21.9B |
| Unemployment Insurance (UI) | $13.7B |
| Medicare Advantage (Part C) | $12.4B |
| Supplemental Security Income (SSI) | $4.6B |
| Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (RSDI) | $4.5B |
| Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) | $2.5B |
| National School Lunch Program (NSLP) | $1.7B |
| Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (Part D) | $1.7B |
| Pell Grants | $1B |
| Rental Housing Assistance Programs | $1B |
Why can’t we (the president, Congress, other policy makers) cut the budget? Because the voters don’t want them to.
They respond to the signals they get from voters and so far, the signals have been very mixed if not clearly preferring more spending. Form bringing home the bacon, to building more defense weapons, to wanting to get more support from narrow demographic groups, when it comes to specific programs, pressure almost only comes from the side of more spending.
Yes, we (the Tea Party) have had some success in drawing attention to the overall spending levels, but success will only come when we are able to say cut here, and here. Budgets are not lowered across the board, they are lowered by setting priorities. So far, that hasn’t happened.
We can’t get a handle on mis-spent money because there is no proper feedback mechanism built into the budget process to reduce waste and duplication.
The simplest and demonstrably most effective method for achieving a substantial cut in the waste is to adopt zero base budgeting.
The current system is built on a foundation of this years spending plus an increment, therefore the incentive is for a bureaucrat to spend every dollar budgeted and find ways to spend even more or suffer a cut in next years budget. If the incentive were to instead require the justification for every dollar spent every year then the bureaucrats self interest would be more closely aligned with that of the taxpayer, effectively building a self regulation mechanism into the system.
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2012/05/22/Why-America-Should-Declare-Bankruptcy-Now.aspx#page1
I am more worried about our money being flushed down the toilet of the Pentagon. Not to mention subsidies for Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Big Farming.
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville
We can’t cut the budget (reduce our debt) because our politicians have no character and are more worried about being relected than preserving our nation. They have created a large portion of our society into suckling useful idiots willing to give up anything to simply have their turn on the government teat. Shameful.
Allan, you sound like you know a thing or two about teats. Where are you from? Kentucky? West Virginia? Oklahoma? Most net recipients of federal aid are goldurned red states. My state (California) contributes significantly more to the treasury than it gets in return. Time for you guys to shut up and say thank you.
Your state sucks the lifeblood out of its people AND dumps the burden on the fedgov to be bailed out. “Shut up” typical libtard mantra…free speech is great unless of course you don’t agree with a libtard. I do hope you have a shrink on retainer..when your bubble bursts next month you’re likely to have a meltdown (and Im armed).
Just like a winger to threaten violence. You creeps are certifiably unhinged. And just in case you care to review a fact:
http://www.calinst.org/pubs/balance2003.htm
On average, as a Californian, I pay on average $1,409 in taxes than I receive back from the feds. But, you don’t hear me complain that my money is going to subsidize the nonviable teabilly states. The thing that gets me is that you guys don’t even realize what big teat suckers you are. Say thank you. I am armed, but with a brain.
Thanks Teaswiller! I hope my state is getting LOTS of your money.
How do you feel about this whole process of the federal government transferring wealth from state to state? Should they be doing it? Does it produce good results? What authorizes them to do it? Is it really the will of the people, expressed through their elected representatives? Are there any limits to that supposed “will of the people”
By pretending that the “general Welfare” clause and the “commerce clause” are broad grants of general power to our government, we have given the government virtually absolute power over our lives and our economy.
It’s not realistic to expect that a government with absolute power will not use it, or that they will use it wisely.
Neither is it realistic to dream that simply voting in “good” people will ensure that absolute power will be reined in.
Limited Constitutional government cannot exist if the Constitution grants unlimited power to the government.
First of all Social Security, Disability and Medicare spending have nothing to do with the rest of the Government. They do not contribute to the deficit. They are fully funded by taxpayers paying into the programs. Payments that are wasted simply reduce the amount of money in the Social Security Trust Fund. For an accurate accounting of Social Security, please read the CBO report.
You mean of course fully funded by I.O.U.s in the form of Treasury bonds, which will have to be redeemed with tax dollars- so, there is in reality no “trust fund”, and never has been.
I also read not long ago that current payments into F.I.C.A. are not sufficient to meet the current payout- so, already, the bonds are being redeemed with current tax dollars to pay current benefits.
No matter, even unrealistically rosy projections have Medicare bankrupting the country in the near future, so the rest won’t matter anyway.