Three Ways to Reduce Federal Spending
Information recently released by the General Accounting Office (GAO) confirmed that the Bush administration has made the federal government more wasteful and inefficient than it has ever been - and that’s saying a lot.
According to the new report, government employees spend at least $147 million on first and business class tickets annually, in violation of government rules that require workers to fly coach. No wonder federal travel spending jumped 55 percent from 2000 to 2006 (from $9 billion to $14 billion).
But travel spending is just the start. Under President Bush’s watch, the administration has added 2.4 million contractors to the payroll (plus more than 100,000 federal civil servants). Throw in no-bid contracts and bonuses for political appointees, and it’s no wonder that the administration has squandered a surplus projected to be $5 trillion over 10 years into a deficit projected to be more than $2.8 trillion.
The next president is going to have to clean up the mess in Washington if he or she is serious about cutting the deficit. Here are three ideas to start the reform process.
First, put an end to exorbitant spending on federal travel.
One of the first things companies cut when faced with budget problems is travel. Yet, despite our record deficits, government expenditures for travel have grown by leaps and bounds. This is particularly odd considering that the last decade has witnessed remarkable improvements in telecommunications technology, which should cut the need for face-to-face meetings. Putting a hard cap on travel expenditures and cutting the expected rate of growth in half would save $18.5 billion over the next ten years. To ensure that emergency travel needs are met (and that federal departments don’t go over their caps) agencies should be required to hold 10 percent of their travel budget in reserve until the last month of each fiscal year.
Second, cut the number of contractors working for the federal government by 750,000.
As a result of the administration’s disregard for constraining the size of government, there are approximately three times more contractors working for the federal government than the total number of military personnel and civil servants combined. While many contractors and consultants provide useful services - sometimes (but not always) at a lower cost than the federal government - the explosion in the growth of this workforce has been too fast, and the numbers are too high in light of current budget deficits. Furthermore, the Bush administration’s competitive sourcing initiative has placed an over-emphasis on outsourcing civilian government positions to private contractors who are largely unaccounted for. As a result, it is difficult to assess whether or not any savings have derived from the program.
The next president should get an accurate accounting of the total number of federal contractors, what they do, and why, and cut the total number employed Washington by ten percent over the next ten years, saving the taxpayer approximately $285 billion.
Third, ban bonuses for political appointees.
While the savings from banning bonuses to political appointees would be small in relation to the deficit ($15 million over ten years), the principle it would reestablish - service to one’s country should be bonus enough-is important if we are to restore budget accountability and the responsibility ethic to our government in Washington.
If we are serious about getting spending and our deficits under control, government reform must become a way of life, not a campaign slogan. The three proposals above would represent an important first step in the process of cutting the size of government and making a downpayment on reducing our nation’s deficits.