A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report was just released that takes an unprecedented look at duplication in the federal government (the summary of report is here.) According to Senator Coburn, the amount of money wasted on duplicate programs could reach between $100 billion and $200 billion.
The Wall Street Journal has some details:
The agency found 82 federal programs to improve teacher quality; 80 to help disadvantaged people with transportation; 47 for job training and employment; and 56 to help people understand finances, according to a draft of the report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. […]
The report says there are 18 federal programs that spent a combined $62.5 billion in 2008 on food and nutrition assistance, but little is known about the effectiveness of 11 of these programs because they haven’t been well studied. […]
On teacher quality, the report identified 82 programs that often have similar descriptions and goals and are spread across 10 federal agencies, including the Department of Education, the Department of Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Fifty-three of the programs are relatively small, receiving $50 million or less, “and many have their own separate administrative processes.”
The GAO highlighted 80 different economic development programs at the Department of Commerce, HUD, Department of Agriculture and Small Business Administration, that spent a combined $6.5 billion last year and often overlapped. For example, the four agencies combined to have 52 different programs that fund “entrepreneurial efforts,” 35 programs for infrastructure, and 26 programs for telecommunications.
Now, here is a question for those who think that any tiny cuts in government spending would hurt the economy: Would addressing this obvious waste and mismanagement of taxpayers’ money by ending the money to duplicate programs also hurt the economy?