Duplicative Federal Programs Cost U.S. Taxpayers Much More Than $23 Billion A Year
By Adam Andrzejewski for RealClearPolicy
President Donald Trump’s 2021 budget to Congress touted his “pro-growth policies” as being responsible for “one of the strongest economies in American history” but it also noted how much of federal spending is wasteful.
“A bloated federal government, with duplicative programs and wasteful spending, remains a critical threat to America’s future,” according to the budget section “Stopping Wasteful and Unnecessary Spending.”
To eliminate waste, the budget proposed eliminating duplicative programs and gave 10 examples – including the U.S. Department of Agriculture making payments to farmers for crop loss under both a disaster assistance program and the crop insurance program, which pays some farmers more than 100% of their loss.
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The president’s budget suggested saving taxpayers $4.7 billion by consolidating 29 overlapping elementary and secondary programs into a new block grant to states and school districts.
It would have consolidated the 40 programs across 15 federal agencies engaged in “workforce development” that spend $19 billion per year.
It also planned to remove funding for 14 health professions training programs in the Department of Health and Human Services, as there are 91 healthcare training programs in the departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, and Veterans Affairs.
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The budget points out that there are numerous federal programs that duplicate those of state and local governments or the private sector.
It suggests eliminating the USDA’s Rural Business Service Programs, which have given more than $1 billion in the last decade to “already successful businesses that could qualify for private sector capital.”
These examples are only the tip of the waste iceberg that, if eliminated, would save taxpayers billions of dollars.
Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.
The #WasteOfTheDay is presented by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.
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