Annual federal spending today is nearly $1 trillion more than just four years ago. It’s now been more than half a year since the Government Accountability Office issued a report detailing $200 billion a year in federal government waste due to duplicative programs alone.
In June you announced the creation of a Commission to Cut Government Waste led by Vice President Biden. What specific wasteful programs has the commission identified thus far? How much money is being wasted by those programs?
Given that GAO has already identified massive government waste — including in duplicative programs — isn’t the commission itself largely duplicative? Why not simply start with eliminating the waste already detailed in the GAO report? How much waste identified by the commission has been cut so far?
What’s the likelihood that at least 50 percent of any waste identified by either GAO or the commission will be cut within the next year?