Call me optimistic, but I figure <a href="http://
“>this GAO report is a real opportunity for congressional Republicans to score a big win on spending while avoiding a shutdown and even allowing Democrats to save face:
The U.S. government has 15 different agencies overseeing food-safety laws, more than 20 separate programs to help the homeless and 80 programs for economic development.
These are a few of the findings in a massive study of overlapping and duplicative programs that cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year, according to the Government Accountability Office.
A report from the nonpartisan GAO, to be released Tuesday, compiles a list of redundant and potentially ineffective federal programs, and it could serve as a template for lawmakers in both parties as they move to cut federal spending and consolidate programs to reduce the deficit. Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), who pushed for the report, estimated it identifies between $100 billion and $200 billion in duplicative spending. The GAO didn’t put a specific figure on the spending overlap.
Senator Coburn is that rare breed: a real conservative who is also a bipartisan deal maker. If his numbers are right, he could put together a long-term continuing resolution even more ambitious in its cuts than the one passed by the House last month, but focused on the “redundant and potentially ineffective” programs in the (nonpartisan!) GAO report. I suspect Coburn would have an easy time building a coalition with (or at least shaming) nominal budget-hawk Democrats in support of such a measure, which could then serve as a basis for compromise between the House and Senate. The House will certainly want its C.R., itself the product of a marathon and unusually democratic amendments process, represented in whatever funding measure ultimately comes out of Congress, but these are mere details.
This could an exacto-knife to the Gordian knot that is the current impasse. I doubt Senate Democrats want to go down fighting for duplicative bureaucracies.