No, we really don't need a top down review. In DC that means some congressional committee will listen ad nausea to the special interest groups who simply cannot be put of existence and will live another day after a nice contribution is made.
We need a across the board cut of 10 % per year until we reach a certain level of sustainability based on revenue.
Every federal dept have very well paid non political people running them and for the most part are competent.
Let dept management, not politicians decide how to eliminate, reduce, reorganize, scale back the layers of federal workers in a fair and human way and eliminate the programs which have lived their useful lives out or combine them if they have merit with one of the other 10,000 programs .
We are talking about a huge bureaucratic, mostly political, out of control pandering bunch of goofs and an American public who doesn't know any different.
There is huge waste, maybe as much as 20%, that is hidden beneath the surface.
I am all for whatever forces them to look at this waste. Call me skeptical, but an across the board 10% cut isn't going to do it.
Maybe an itemized list of all expenses with enough detail to be able to sort out waste from need. Has a third party, maybe someone in the press, ever done this?
I realize that it is a astronomically huge task. But it has to be done. And you are going to anger some very powerful people when you start poking around. Watch out.