What’s a billion here and there? Chump change in a budget for 2019 of a little more than $4 trillion.
But, every little bit helps.
In its Prime Cuts 2018 study, Citizens Against Government Waste identifies $3.1 trillion in potential federal budget savings over five years, $429.8 billion of which the nonprofit organization says could be realized in the first year of being enacted.
CAGW’s latest study includes 636 recommendations with cuts across the entire federal government. The recommended expense cuts come from bipartisan and nonpartisan sources, such as the Government Accountability Office, Congressional Budget Office, President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2019 budget and former President Barack Obama’s “Cuts, Consolidations, and Savings” budget recommendations report.
Among them are calls to eliminate programs that have outrun their original terms and budgets, CAGW says, including the U.S. Air Force’s F-135 fighter jet development program, subsidies that amount to corporate welfare such as for the sugar and dairy farmer industries, and those that the federal government simply cannot afford, or would be better off leaving to private enterprise, such as the National Endowment for the Arts.
The single, largest source of savings would come from dramatically reducing improper payments across government departments and agencies, according to CAGW. Reducing improper Medicare payments by 50 percent alone would save U.S. taxpayers $18.1 billion over five years, CAGW Communications Director Curtis Kalin told watchdog.org.
Can the waste ever be brought under control? Our only hope lies in the businessman approach of President Trump. It’s not something professional politicians and bureaucrats are capable of doing. And that is exactly why we have to support the president’s efforts in the midterms and see to his reelection in 2020.
Much much about this @ Gov't Watchdog Group Exposes $3.1 Trillion in Potential Federal Budget Savings
