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The article is awfully vague about waste, but here is one thing that I know. Unless the government burned the money, it was spent on something. That something was produced by a private company, and if the government spends less, it buys less from the private contractors.
For example: About a year ago a teen conducted an experiment in which he concluded that the US government could save nearly $500 million in ink and paper if it printed all of its documents in Garamond font instead of Times New Roman. Let's assume that his conclusions are valid (they probably aren't valid, but for the sake of argument, let's say that they are.)
If the government spends $500 million less on paper and ink, then:
a. the companies that produce the paper and ink will see a drop in sales and revenue.
b. when revenues go down, companies may have to lay off people
c. when people are laid off, they rely on unemployment and other government benefits.
d. laid off people spend less and the decrease in spending hits restaurants, grocers, etc.
It is not a national tragedy, but in a city or town where the paper industry or the ink/toner industry is the major employer, it will have important repercussions.
In the same vein, I am sure that the people, whoever they are, who somehow find this wasted money in their private accounts can justify it, due to the fact they are spending that money and by doing that they help the economy.
Actually I DO know it happens because I've seen it and been a part of it while in the military. Happens all the time.
Of course I cannot say for EVERY department just as nobody out there can say it does or does not happen in every department of the government, but the fact remains is that is does happen in certain areas of spending.
well what you said here is a lot different than the first one, where you implied that it happens a lot. like i said, i don't doubt that it happens. just like it happens in corporate america.
The article is awfully vague about waste, but here is one thing that I know. Unless the government burned the money, it was spent on something. That something was produced by a private company, and if the government spends less, it buys less from the private contractors.
For example: About a year ago a teen conducted an experiment in which he concluded that the US government could save nearly $500 million in ink and paper if it printed all of its documents in Garamond font instead of Times New Roman. Let's assume that his conclusions are valid (they probably aren't valid, but for the sake of argument, let's say that they are.)
If the government spends $500 million less on paper and ink, then:
a. the companies that produce the paper and ink will see a drop in sales and revenue.
b. when revenues go down, companies may have to lay off people
c. when people are laid off, they rely on unemployment and other government benefits.
d. laid off people spend less and the decrease in spending hits restaurants, grocers, etc.
It is not a national tragedy, but in a city or town where the paper industry or the ink/toner industry is the major employer, it will have important repercussions.
Or, we're treated like adults and allowed to spend our money the way we see fit instead of "mom and dad" deciding where our money will be spent. What you leave out of your analysis is that the money the government spends is OURS to begin with. If it didn't spend that money it wouldn't need as much from US which puts more in OUR pockets to spend on what WE want.
What you seem to advocate is the big government/we know better than you system that's been in effect for many years now and is obviously flawed and rife with waste/corruption.
I believe the people who make the money from the lowliest housekeeper to the highest CEO know better where their money needs to be spent NOT the sugar daddies in Washington.
Washington should only be spending the monies needed to operate, not picking winners and losers.
As a financial analyst how much do you project or give yourself for margin of error when putting something together? Just curious as it's been pointed out that as a percentage of total spend it's not that much.
More than 1%, that's for darn sure!
However, that is also related to my having to work from publicly available data rather than having insider budgets.
When I deal with my family finances, I would be horrified if I was wasting 1% of my income. Wasting, of course, means something I get no return on. I spend over 1% on going out to sushi restaurants, but I get a very clear benefit from that.
SOME of you people need to get a lot smarter...wiki who and what is fiscal times... its "owned" by Peter G Peterson..
founder of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation who is a billionaire investment banker! A BILLIONAIRE Investment Banker ( read GWB Bank Bailout Recipient ) who has long advocated deficit reduction, reduced social welfare program expenditures, and cuts to Social Security. Its ALL about HIM and NOTHING about you .. Get Smart folks learn who is directing you and why? Peter is sooooooo wealthy he finances a blog written by professional writers to concience you , that you need less so he can have more! I will now ask you ? Who does the OP work for? Is it PP?
However, that is also related to my having to work from publicly available data rather than having insider budgets.
When I deal with my family finances, I would be horrified if I was wasting 1% of my income. Wasting, of course, means something I get no return on. I spend over 1% on going out to sushi restaurants, but I get a very clear benefit from that.
Well it's more than 1% of income due to deficit spending. However having your expenditures for a full year be off by 1% isn't bad at all. It's a potential rounding error.
I'm not horrified by my personal wasteful spending that far exceeds 1% of my income. You have to live some but in full disclosure I do save a lot of money as well but wasting 1% isn't something you should be horrified over imo
Every year, tens of billions of tax dollars are lost to waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government.
All in, the government wastes close to $800 billion every year. Enough to fix every road and bridge, invest in jobs and the future, and really help those who need it most.
If we'd get rid of all the thieves in Washington,by downsizing government to about 1/4 the size it is,our financial woes would be over! The worst enemy of the people is our own government!
I wonder if you bothered to actually think through what it would mean to reduce government to 1/4 of its current size.
You'd have to start by abolishing social security, medicare, and medicaid. Those items, plus interest on the national debt are about 75% of all spending by the federal government.
I guess we could stop funding environmental protection, the national park service, the forest service, and the bureau of land management which manage most recreational lands in the USA.
If you read the article you cited closely, its not an argument for eliminating most federal government. Its an argument for granting auditors, under the Inspector General, greater powers to deal with waste in government. That seems like a reasonable agenda and one I could support.
I personally want social security, medicare, environmental protection, and national parks. I don't want a government so limited that all it does is pay for a national defense and the light bill in Washington, D.C.
Honestly, you'd probably be lynched by the large percentage of people receiving social security and medicare if you tried to abolish these items. So, I wouldn't waste my time going down that path. No, better to actually think through a rational approach to dealing with waste in government like the author of the article you cited has done.
$43 Billion was identified, and $11B of that was RETURNED.
So the remaining $32B is what Congress failed to take action on.
$32B is roughly 1.07% of the entire federal budget.
So, while it's not an amount of money to laugh at, we're talking about 1% of the budget.
My company wastes a larger percentage than that printing reports for meetings that no one ever looks at.
This type of mentality drives me insane. "It is only 1/2 of 1%, so big whoop" is the refrain from many who either have a horse in the race, or are just so apathetic they make excuses.
The only way to reduce and try to effectively prevent it in the future is to treat even the tiniest theft/fraud/willful waste as something very significant.
Remember that 1% here, 2% there, adds up. Just because our economy is huge is no excuse to minimize the amounts as insignificant.
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