Demonstrating the need for President-elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, the investigative arm of Congress had to direct some government agencies to “improve the efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs” in order to save a colossal $67.5 billion in fiscal year 2024, which ended in September. Otherwise, American taxpayers would be forced to pick up the tab for yet more government waste, which is rampant and has long persisted under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
To save the tens of billions, seemingly a drop in the bucket considering the government spent $6.75 trillion in fiscal year 2024, the few federal agencies involved had to receive instructions from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The nonpartisan and independent Congressional watchdog examines how taxpayer dollars are spent and provides lawmakers with objective and fact-based information to help the government save money and work more efficiently. Here are some examples that led to the latest savings. The GAO directed Medicaid to better align states’ estimates for demonstrations with recent costs, saving $13.4 billion. The Department of Energy (DOE) halted construction on a facility that is no longer necessary for treating nuclear and hazardous waste, saving $6 billion. The Department of Defense (DOD) was instructed to identify improper payments, errors, and fraud, resulting in $4.8 billion in savings. The Small Business Administration (SBA) was forced to crack down on the rampant fraud of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that doled out monstrous sums of money to small businesses recovering from the pandemic, resulting in the decline of $2.1 billion in ineligible or fraudulent applicants.
The list of examples continues and can be viewed in detail in the GAO’s lengthy report, which was recently released to the public and covers the agency’s overall performance and accountability for 2024. The watchdog estimates that the questionable programs it is currently targeting will save American taxpayers at least $50 billion in fiscal year 2025. The GAO has cracked down on tens of thousands of reckless government programs since 2002, saving approximately $1.45 trillion. However, many federal agencies have blown off thousands of recommendations that could result in $106 billion to $208 billion in financial benefits, according to GAO estimates. The congressional watchdog implies that it more than earns its keep with a budget that is a lot smaller—$811.9 million in fiscal year 2024—than the money it saves taxpayers by promoting better management throughout government, which should occur without the GAO’s mandates.
Careless spending has long been an issue for government agencies, which are typically bloated and mismanaged, and the problem has worsened significantly under the Biden administration illustrating a need for the Department of Government Efficiency. The office will be headed by billionaire Elon Musk, the head of electric car company Tesla, rocket company SpaceX and social media platform X and Vivek Ramaswamy, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and Yale Law School graduate. Besides cutting wasteful spending the new department will be tasked with dismantling government bureaucracy, slashing excess regulations, and restructuring federal agencies. It will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste, according to Musk.
Judicial Watch has for decades exposed enormous amounts of government waste and this year alone has reported on well over a billion dollars in reckless spending, just a snippet of a widespread issue. That does not include mandatory spending such as Social Security, Medicare or military and homeland security, areas that are also plagued by waste. There is a category listed as “other” in which government doled out an astonishing $238 billion in fiscal year 2024 and some of the allocations are downright outrageous. Examples range from $15 million to fight climate change in an Islamic nation that hates America and serves as a recruiting ground for terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to half a billion dollars to build electric vehicle charges in mostly underserved communities to $2 million to combat corruption in Mexican sports betting.
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