What Government Agencies Should be Shut Down?

[longknife]

When posting about possible 2014 election results I found myself wondering where I was on the political spectrum. One of my main beliefs is that government is too big and has many duplicated and unneeded entities. So, I asked myself the above question and did some Google Searches.

GAO Report 2013 Actions Needed to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Other Financial Benefits @ U.S. GAO - 2013 Annual Report Actions Needed to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Other Financial Benefits which comes up with 32 recommendations – clearly ignored by Congress.

Wasteful Government Spending: Duplicate Programs Squander Billions @ Wasteful Government Spending: Duplicate Programs Squander BillionsMoney Morning - Only the News You Can Profit From

50 Examples of Government Waste @ 50 Examples of Government Waste

And then, there's the maze of federal agencies as listed @ List of United States federal agencies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia run down the massive list and check it out for yourselves.

My own personal wish list beside closing Education is a streamlining of DOD. Combine all services into one entity under one command structure. Eliminate thousands of star positions and their staff and make the whole thing more responsive.

 

[Katzndogz]

All of the ones mentioned plus a few hundred more.

 

[USNavyVet]

I would scale back on them, not shut them down completely. Another issue is the huge amount of regulations that at times are contradictory. Anyway, I'd scale back on the ones mentioned and look at every agency and make cuts where I can. And work on reducing regulations and removing contradictory regulations.

 

[eagle1462010]

All wasteful spending and duplicate spending should be cut.............

But alas, the Gov't knows this and does nothing............

 

[Samson]

Of the 50 examples, nothing comes close to #14

14. A GAO audit found that 95 Pentagon weapons systems suffered from a combined $295 billion in cost overruns.

 

[Jackson]

When posting about possible 2014 election results I found myself wondering where I was on the political spectrum. One of my main beliefs is that government is too big and has many duplicated and unneeded entities. So, I asked myself the above question and did some Google Searches.

GAO Report 2013 Actions Needed to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Other Financial Benefits @ U.S. GAO - 2013 Annual Report Actions Needed to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Other Financial Benefits which comes up with 32 recommendations – clearly ignored by Congress.

Wasteful Government Spending: Duplicate Programs Squander Billions @ Wasteful Government Spending: Duplicate Programs Squander BillionsMoney Morning - Only the News You Can Profit From




50 Examples of Government Waste @ 50 Examples of Government Waste

And then, there's the maze of federal agencies as listed @ List of United States federal agencies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia run down the massive list and check it out for yourselves.

My own personal wish list beside closing Education is a streamlining of DOD. Combine all services into one entity under one command structure. Eliminate thousands of star positions and their staff and make the whole thing more responsive.

From 50 Examples of Government Waste

Six Categories of Waste

The six categories of wasteful and unnecessary spending are:
1.Programs that should be devolved to state and local governments;
2.Programs that could be better performed by the private sector;
3.Mistargeted programs whose recipients should not be entitled to government benefits;
4.Outdated and unnecessary programs;
5.Duplicative programs; and
6.Inefficiency, mismanagement, and fraud.

The first four categories are generally subjective, and reasonable people can disagree on whether a given federal program falls under their purview. Yet the final two categories -- duplication and inefficiency, mismanagement, and fraud -- are comparatively easy to identify and oppose. Thus, they are heavily represented in the examples of government waste below:

1.The federal government made at least $72 billion in improper payments in 2008.[1]

2.Washington spends $92 billion on corporate welfare (excluding TARP) versus $71 billion on homeland security.[2]

3.Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.[3]

4.Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them -- costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually -- fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.[4]

5.The Congressional Budget Office published a "Budget Options" series identifying more than $100 billion in potential spending cuts.[5]

6.Examples from multiple Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports of wasteful duplication include 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs.[6]

7.Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.[7]

8.A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent $13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, including "over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold." The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.[8]

9.Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.[9]

10.The Securities and Exchange Commission spent $3.9 million rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.[10]

11.The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida.[11]

12. Over half of all farm subsidies go to commercial farms, which report average household incomes of $200,000.[12]

13.Health care fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $60 billion annually.[13]

14.A GAO audit found that 95 Pentagon weapons systems suffered from a combined $295 billion in cost overruns.[14]

15.The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades.[15]

16.Washington will spend $126 million in 2009 to enhance the Kennedy family legacy in Massachusetts. Additionally, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) diverted $20 million from the 2010 defense budget to subsidize a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute.[16]

17.Federal investigators have launched more than 20 criminal fraud investigations related to the TARP financial bailout.[17]

18.Despite trillion-dollar deficits, last year's 10,160 earmarks included $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California; $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; and $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Georgia.[18]

19.The federal government owns more than 50,000 vacant homes.[19]

20.The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland.[20]

21.Members of Congress have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars supplying their offices with popcorn machines, plasma televisions, DVD equipment, ionic air fresheners, camcorders, and signature machines -- plus $24,730 leasing a Lexus, $1,434 on a digital camera, and $84,000 on personalized calendars.[21]

22.More than $13 billion in Iraq aid has been classified as wasted or stolen. Another $7.8 billion cannot be accounted for.[22]

23.Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion. In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, "Girls Gone Wild" videos, and at least one sex change operation.[23]

24.Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications.[24]

25.Congress recently gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint a Chinook salmon on a Boeing 737.[25]

26.The Transportation Department will subsidize up to $2,000 per flight for direct flights between Washington, D.C., and the small hometown of Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) -- but only on Monday mornings and Friday evenings, when lawmakers, staff, and lobbyists usually fly. Rogers is a member of the Appropriations Committee, which writes the Transportation Department's budget.[26]

27.Washington has spent $3 billion re-sanding beaches -- even as this new sand washes back into the ocean.[27]

28.A Department of Agriculture report concedes that much of the $2.5 billion in "stimulus" funding for broadband Internet will be wasted.[28]

29.The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were refundable.[29]

30.Washington spends $60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks.[30]

31.Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 on admission to entertainment events, $48,250 on gambling, $69,300 on cruises, and $73,950 on exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.[31]

32.Members of Congress are set to pay themselves $90 million to increase their franked mailings for the 2010 election year.[32]

33.Congress has ignored efficiency recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services that would save $9 billion annually.[33]

34.Taxpayers are funding paintings of high-ranking government officials at a cost of up to $50,000 apiece.[34]

35.The state of Washington sent $1 food stamp checks to 250,000 households in order to raise state caseload figures and trigger $43 million in additional federal funds.[35]

36. Suburban families are receiving large farm subsidies for the grass in their backyards -- subsidies that many of these families never requested and do not want. [36]

37.Congress appropriated $20 million for "commemoration of success" celebrations related to Iraq and Afghanistan.[37]

38.Homeland Security employee purchases include 63-inch plasma TVs, iPods, and $230 for a beer brewing kit.[38]

39.Two drafting errors in the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act resulted in a $2 billion taxpayer cost.[39]

40.North Ridgeville, Ohio, received $800,000 in "stimulus" funds for a project that its mayor described as "a long way from the top priority."[40]

41.The National Institutes of Health spends $1.3 million per month to rent a lab that it cannot use.[41]

42.Congress recently spent $2.4 billion on 10 new jets that the Pentagon insists it does not need and will not use.[42]

43.Lawmakers diverted $13 million from Hurricane Katrina relief spending to build a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers -- the agency partially responsible for the failed levees that flooded New Orleans.[43]

44. Medicare officials recently mailed $50 million in erroneous refunds to 230,000 Medicare recipients.[44]

45.Audits showed $34 billion worth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant waste, fraud, and abuse.[45]

46.Washington recently spent $1.8 million to help build a private golf course in Atlanta, Georgia.[46]

47.The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses; 40 percent of this funding goes to Fortune 500 companies.[47]

48.Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.[48]

49.The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually not to farm their land.[49]

50.The Commerce Department has lost 1,137 computers since 2001, many containing Americans' personal data.[50]

That is just 50 examples of probably thousands. And they cannot find any spending cuts. A HUH.

A quick calculation estimates the losses at $848,674,400,000 annual loss that does not include those items where a monetary loss was not included as in nos. 6,9,12,17,24,30,34,36,38.


This does not include duplicative programs and programs examined and found to be worthless.

 

[longknife]

Jackson - a load of thanks. A perfect example of why we should clean out Congress and replace them with people who will put a stop to this!

 

[Jackson]

There are so many places that Congress should find agreement on cuts. We should all be contacting our representatives and holding their feet to the fire.

 

[eagle1462010]

We have a Congress addicted to Spending and Waste...........

When they can't even agree on a 1% cut with all the data out there they are hopeless.

 

[Stephanie]

how sick is it we have agencies inside of agencies

just a total waste and awful abuse of the taxpayers in this country

but you mention cutting any and the Democrats/liberals go ballistic telling you how you don't care for the poor, disabled, etc..Republicans in congress have become no damn better

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Can't answer you only give us one choice.

 

[National Socialist]

None of those. I say we eliminate ALL seats in congress and even congress its self and make me Supreme Ruler for life and I rule how I see fit. Sounds good to me.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

The Senate and House of Representatives. Let's make Presidents kings and see how that works. Current system doesn't so not like it could get any worse. Make the American king a 4 year office with option for 4 more. Keep elections and all that, but skip the middle man of Congress and let the king make all the decisions.

 

[Stephanie]

The Senate and House of Representatives. Let's make Presidents kings and see how that works. Current system doesn't so not like it could get any worse. Make the American king a 4 year office with option for 4 more. Keep elections and all that, but skip the middle man of Congress and let the king make all the decisions.

no thanks, I'm not into dictators
we have a President now who believes he is the king though

 

[boedicca]

It would be simpler just to list the handful that should actually exist.

Just sayin'.

 

[Stephanie]

It would be simpler just to list the handful that should actually exist.

Just sayin'.

no kidding..
seeing that list make me ill

 

[Jackson]

If we had real leaders in the House and Senate that made Rules which made attendance mandatory everyday there were speeches being made...Have you ever turned on CSPAN and watched representatives and senators making speeches to empty chambers? That's exactly what is happening! Where in the hell are the representatives we voted into office?

I ask that every member be present each day from 9am to 4pm and that they take up business . Committee work should be from 5 until 9pm. They are making very good salaries. Earn it!.. Wednesday afternoons can be for meeting with constituents in their offices.

Since their presence was mandatory, they might as well start looking at these programs deemed ineffective by the CBO and do something useful...repeal them!

 

[Delta4Embassy]

The Senate and House of Representatives. Let's make Presidents kings and see how that works. Current system doesn't so not like it could get any worse. Make the American king a 4 year office with option for 4 more. Keep elections and all that, but skip the middle man of Congress and let the king make all the decisions.

no thanks, I'm not into dictators
we have a President now who believes he is the king though

Ya cause the current system works so smoothly. US of today is nothing like what the Founders made.

With 436 people 'in charge' nothing that needs to get done will get done. Consolidate authority in 1 person's hand and impose safeguards to ensure it doesn't become a lifelong appointment, and things can get done. Kings ruled for millenia and we now study that period more than any any other because great things got done.

If something doesn't work, you change it until you find something that does. The US doesn't work and will eat itself eventually just like every other great empire has. A monarchy isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than the broken country we have now. And since we're fast approaching a critical mass point, either we fix broken things or we all die out.

America possesses the greatest military technology on Earth. And in 50 years we'll be 50 years more advanced, but so will our enemies, and they'll have the technology we have today. And unlike us they wont hesitate to use it. If we haven't fixed things by then we're all doomed.

 

[jasonnfree]

Didn't see an option for cutting department of defense. In half to begin with.

 

[editec]

Start by reconstituting the FED into a PUBLIC bank.

Everything else will fall into place when we do that.