Eliminate the
Duplications
Do not feel bad if
you do not understand this sequestration process and associated problems. I have several degrees in Political Science
and I do not have a clue as to how and why we arrived where we are.
We are spending more money this year for the federal
government than we spent last year. Next
year, we will spend more money on the federal government than we are spending
this year. So how did the word “cuts” come
to dominate the discussion?
“Cuts” mean low risk, undocumented individuals can be
released one week before the “cuts” are due to take place. “Cuts” mean there
will no longer be children’s tours of the White House.
On the day the “cuts” were due to take place, Secretary of
State Kerry announced $60 million in aid for the Syrian rebels. Three days, after the “cuts” had been
implemented, the federal government announced four hundred new employment
positions. And I have not heard where
our suddenly impoverished government has suddenly put a stop to the exporting
of very expensive, sophisticated war equipment to the Egyptians, including $250
million two days after the “cuts”. Does
any of this imply a retraction of government or anything other than business as
usual?
If these “cuts” are real, let me suggest some ways to reduce
the budget deficit and debt without the sequestration process and without
causing a maximum of pain to the American taxpayers.
The Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) has released
two studies about duplications within the federal government. When the GAO released its report in 2012, the
President and Congress had information about 132 areas of government
duplication.
Need support for entrepreneurs? Fifty three programs for
entrepreneurs operate across four federal departments costing $2.6
billion. The four departments are
Commerce with eight programs, Agriculture with fourteen programs, the Small
Business Administration with nineteen different programs, and the Department of
Housing and Urban Development with twelve programs. With this kind of resource investment, we
ought to be producing entrepreneurs like they were M&Ms. Or maybe, it is the Keystone Kops approach to
support for entrepreneurs that fails to produce a plethora of new business
starts as intended by our federal government.
Need some economic development? No problem.
Call your federal government which only has eighty economic development
programs across four different federal departments at a cost of $6.5 billion.
Unemployment is still high in the country, isn’t it? No way it should be so high because your
federal government has no less than forty seven employment and training
programs across nine agencies and departments at a cost of $18 billion.
Maybe instead of asking about “cuts”, we ought to be asking
what on earth this duplication is bringing the American taxpayers aside from
confusion? How are all the money and the
array of programs reaching, for example, the unemployed?
This duplication means not only are people within the
federal government are duplicating the efforts of others, they are also
unknowingly funding duplications in research, in consulting firms, and even in
lobbying.
Over all, the GAO has identified 1,362 duplicative programs
costing more than $364 billion. The
total sequestration number, at the present, is much lower than what can be
saved through a consolidation of all the duplicative programs at the federal
level.
This seems to me to be low hanging fruit, along with the
Marie Antoinette GSA Las Vegas parties, for even the unimaginative in
Washington. Moreover, the elimination of
government duplication and the subsequent frustration rained down on taxpayers
would seem to be a prime area for a little bipartisanship to finally rear its
pretty face.
