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.