Waste, Fraud and Dysfunction
Kim Rogalin: "Cracking down on waste isn't just about saving money; it's about restoring integrity to safety-net programs and protecting taxpayers. And if fixing this problem is not quintessential 'efficiency,' what is?"--Veronique de Rugy
"Before the election last year, nobody was talking about cutting anything...on the margin, it may still wash out pretty positive relative to the counterfactual where DOGE didn't exist."--Ryan Bourne.
"Given the incentives of federal workers and the tendency of government to only ever get bigger, it's possible to regard DOGE's work as a smashing success."—Christian Britchgi
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) estimates that the federal regulatory burden is a hidden tax costing well over $1 trillion.
The $101.4 billion of improper payments made by Medicare and Medicaid in 2023 accounted for 40% of all improper payments across the entire government that year, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
But 75% of spending goes to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, veterans' benefits, and interest payments on the national debt. Those so-called "mandatory" spending programs constitute the majority of federal spending and most of the expected spending growth in the coming years. Achieving the substantial $2 trillion in savings our nation urgently needs, we must address the primary driver of federal debt: unchecked mandatory spending.
The executive branch has very limited authority with respect to spending. While there is tremendous waste and dysfunction within the federal budget, the largest problem is the government doing too many things it shouldn't and subsidizing nearly everything under the sun. Congress has primary responsibility for the size, scope, and spending of the federal government.
Large-scale federal government reform is not under the executive control. DOGE must also put together a package of budget cuts for Congress to work on. DOGE must also focus on government subsidies to private businesses and look at wasteful grant programs delivering billions of dollars to state governments.
"There is an entire industry of economists, policy wonks, and government auditors who have spent decades identifying wasteful spending and drafting savings blueprints for an ambitious Congress or president to adopt."--Jessica Ried
