David Bahnsen reviews Father Robert Sirico’s latest book, The Economics of the Parables:
Sirico preemptively addresses the one criticism sure to be thrown at this effort by careless critics — he never claims that the primary message of the parables he cites is intended to be economic. He explains that the parables offer moral and spiritual lessons that are primary, yet they offer “fundamental truths about the economic dimension of life that remain unchanged.” He is up front about the fact that “economics as a scientific or intellectual discipline did not even exist in Jesus’ time.” And yet, because the parables teach us “how we can derive transcendent lessons from the context of our everyday lives,” they inevitably provide an economic message that is relevant to our modern mission. This work speaks to those who have been yearning for a more Burkean synthesis of market reality and the prioritization of character; it aims to bring the very teachings of Jesus to the forefront, incorporating economic context into what we know of human endeavor. Sirico wisely reminds us that “facts alone do not satisfy human longing; rather, it is the meaning behind those facts that people seek.”
In its report accompanying the FY2023 funding bill for the legislative branch, the House Appropriations Committee included reporting requirements that will identify opportunities to trim hundreds of billions of dollars of waste from the budget.
The first requirement directs the GAO to report how much federal agencies could save if they acted on the GAO’s more than 4,600 open recommendations for improving government operations. Based on GAO’s track record, it is likely that the comptroller general will identify tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars in potential savings. The congressional watchdog has estimated that its recommendations have saved the federal government $1.3 trillion since 2002.
There is growing bipartisan interest in requiring GAO to provide this reform roadmap to Congress. The House Oversight and Reform Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee recently approved bipartisan legislation sponsored by Representative Derek Kilmer (D., Wash.) and Representative William Timmons (R., S.C.), the Improving Government for America’s Taxpayers Act, that would require a similar GAO report with streamlined recommendations and estimates of potential cost savings. The House passed the bill by voice vote last week.