Throwing the 'Book' at Overspending

Townhall.com ^ | February 16, 2015 | Ed Feulner

[Kaslin]

Ever heard of the Agriculture Risk Coverage program? How about the Price Loss Coverage program? You’re paying for them.

Along with the Conservation Technical Assistance program, the Biological and Environmental Research program, and the USDA Catfish Inspection program.

The list goes on, but why have I highlighted these particular entries? Because of the millions we can save annually by eliminating their federal funding.

Not that these are the only programs worth targeting, of course. There are many other specific steps we can take to finally put the government on the diet it should have been put on years ago. I can think of 106 of them, to be exact.

You can find each one in a new publication called, “The Budget Book: 106 Ways to Reduce the Size and Scope of Government.” Fortunately, it’s not the lengthy tome that the title might suggest. Most entries take up no more than one page. This is a practical guidebook for busy policymakers who want to make a difference now.

Calls to cut federal spending are nothing new. But they’re nearly always couched in general terms, with huge numbers that do more to depress than inspire. “The Budget Book” is designed for action. After all, what good is it to sound the alarm, to point toward the iceberg, without showing how we can steer around it?

And there are steps that we can take throughout the budget. I randomly chose the programs cited above, but “The Budget Book” has them organized by topic, from energy and agriculture to national defense and foreign aid.

Some of them will sound familiar to anyone who follows the news. For example, “Eliminate the Export-Import Bank,” which would save taxpayers $2 billion over 10 years, according to a recent CBO study. Or “Reduce Fraud in the Earned Income Tax Credit,” which would save $8 billion annually. Others, however, are relatively small programs like the ones I mentioned at the outset of this column. But large or small, they all add up. Taken individually, they may not sound like much, but combine a large number of them, and you’re talking some real savings.

It’s remarkable how many programs survive long after they’ve proven ineffective. Why is the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) still around? It was established in 1994 to put 100,000 new state and local law enforcement officers on the streets by 2000, but it didn’t come close to doing that. It’s time to cut it loose. Savings: $248 million in 2016 and $3 billion over 10 years.

Not all of the recommendations involve axing a particular program. Take #91, “Set a Work Requirement for Able-Bodied Adult Food Stamp Recipients.” We can save quite a bit by insisting that able-bodied adults must work, prepare for work, or look for work for a minimum number of hours each month in order to receive benefits -- approximately $5.4 billion annually, and $54 billion over 10 years, to be exact.

In other cases, the mission of the Budget Book (“to reduce the size and scope of government”) is best achieved by expanding a particular program. Greater access to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, for example, would offer the benefits of school choice to more families and do so in a way that doesn’t spend more taxpayer money.

The need to act couldn’t be greater. Over the past 20 years, spending has grown 63 percent faster than inflation. The federal government spent nearly $29,000 per household in 2014 -- a figure projected to rise to more than $47,000 per household in 10 years.

Much of that is driven by entitlements. Runaway spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will drive federal debt to unsustainable levels over the next few decades.

We’re running out of money. And with the arrival of “The Budget Book,” politicians have run out of excuses. Let’s get to work.

[Don Corleone]

But large or small, they all add up

As the man once said,"A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you are talking about real money."

[peyton randolph]

1. Start with zero-based budgeting. Make every penny be justified or cut. No automatic increases in anything or cr@p where a decrease in the amount of auto increase constitutes a “cut.”

2. Sunset 90% of federal agencies. They disappear within 2-3 years unless new laws expressly fund them line item by line item.

3. Time for a presidential line-item veto. Amend the Constitution if necessary to create it.

4. If 1-3 don’t work, get the tar, feathers, ropes, and sturdy lamp posts.

[Sequoyah101]

Base Line budgeting is the root of all evil in the cost of government. It imposes an AUTOMATIC and mandated by law DOUBLING of the budget every 20 years or so. AUTOMATIC, no questions asked.

I remember when it began in the 70s. My Dad was a civil service area manager and the process of budgeting pained him every year after Base Line began. The annual end of FY spending spree is nothing but criminal waste.

[Lurkinanloomin]

I don’t believe it is possible under current circumstances, but if we were to want to get Fedzilla back into its Constitutional cage, wholesale closure of agencies would be required.
Avoiding catastrophic bankruptcy will require at least some effort to reduce Fedzilla before it consumes all.

[navyguy]

The people running the federal government are too stupid, vapid, selfish, and short sighted to do anything about any of these programs (or any other). It is going to cause an entirely predictable financial crisis unlike anything we have ever seen. Count on it.

[no-s]

2. Sunset 90% of federal agencies.

Absolute Sunset on EVERY federal law, regulation, or executive order.

• The sunset must skip a session, so as to give bad law time to be repealed or modified. The vote must be conducted in the second or third session following the session when the law was enacted. This gives Congress a chance to fix things
• Only the House, as representative of the people, is voting on sunset.
• It has to be a constitutional amendment. Ordinary law is technically inferior to whatever congress wants to do at the moment.
• The vote must be an affirmation to keep, no amendment possible. It should be at the beginning of the session, before all other legislation is considered. The Representative must be present to vote, and the vote must be recorded. A simple majority of those present is sufficient.
• No Debate - the Representative is demonstrating adherence to the will of the constituency, not making deals with fellow Congresspersons. In fact the minimally necessary rules should be laid out in the enabling Amendment so rule-making doesn't become a means to sidestep sunset. Vote for organization & rules, then vote to keep the sunset at bay, heheh.
• Provisions in law, Regulation and Judicial precedent citing sun-setted provisions are automatically mooted at the end of the term, even if new legislation is passed to replace it. This will help untangle things over time and also prevent continuing side effects caused by hasty enacting

We should also take the time to do away with unelected staff making decisions and writing legislation. This might require more representatives to displace the staffers. This is probably a good thing - we need more elected representation and fewer unelected power brokers.

[oldtech]

Liking all 4 of your ideas & #4 is particularly appealing in cases where the other 3 aren’t given proper attention.