GAO Report

I was shocked, shocked I tell you, by the following item...

The General Accountability Office (GAO) has released a study which was mandated by law in January, 2010. Its mandate was to study government waste and inefficiency. Among its findings, some would be funny if they weren't throwing taxpayer money down the drain...

82 different programs across 10 agencies to improve teacher quality

80 programs to help the less fortunate secure transportation

56 overlapping programs to help Americans understand personal budgeting

47 job training programs, 44 of which overlap

20 programs across 7 agencies dealing with homelessness

15 agencies administering 30 food-related laws

Some of the programs struggled to explain to GAO what they do. According to GAO, 18 programs for domestic food assistance initiatives are run by the Dept. of Agriculture, Homeland Security and the Dept. of Health and Human Services. GAO estimates that $62.5 billion is spent on these programs. But "little is known about the effectiveness" of 11 of those programs, the report states. Of the 47 job-training programs run out of the federal government, only five could provide an "impact study" since 2004 looking at "outcomes." About half of them provided no performance review at all since 2004.

This report lends credence to Reagan's observation that the closest thing to eternal life on this earth is a government program.

When republicans recently proposed $61 billion in spending cuts for the remainder of this year's budget, democrats were horrified by such draconian measures. According to some estimates, the waste and duplication detailed in the GAO report amounts to hundreds of billions per year. I wonder if democrats will claim that the sky is falling if republicans actually try to root out this waste.

It's worth noting that the only reason we are having a budget battle right now is that democrats chose not to offer a budget last year. The reason they didn't is that they did not want voters to see their budget before the elections. Alas, their attempt to hoodwink the voters failed. And with the results of the election, they have been hoisted with their own petard.

I can't wait for next year's GAO report. Any bets on whether the situation has improved?