Picture this scenario: It’s lunchtime. You’re hungry, so you go to Orange and Brew for a panini. You place your order, and because you have an unlimited meal plan, you hand the cashier your meal card. When you get your sandwich, the cashier demands that you pay for it again using your debit card. When your tuition bill comes due, you see that the price of the sandwich was added to your statement, forcing you to pay for it a third time.
Let’s hope it was an especially tasty panini.
While this scenario may seem absurd, this is exactly the situation that was uncovered this week at the federal level in a report on government waste released by the Government Accountability Office. In the report, it was revealed that American taxpayers are forced to pay multiple times for services and programs that are redundant, inefficient and wasteful.
The news that the government wastes money comes as no surprise to most people. However, before this report was made public, it is likely that few were aware of the sheer magnitude of waste that spills out of Washington’s coffers. In this season of turmoil over federal spending, now would be the perfect time to identify overlaps in the federal budget and eliminate all redundant or otherwise wasteful programs.
The following are some of the findings from the GAO’s report:
Eighty-two federal programs are designed to improve teacher quality.
Fifteen agencies are in place to enforce food safety laws.
Fifty-four programs promote financial literacy.
Forty-seven job training programs are hosted by the federal government, 44 of which overlap.
In all, 33 areas of “overlap and fragmentation” were found to exist. Even if everyone were to concede that it is the government’s job to perform a task, does anyone really think the task can be performed better if carried out separately and simultaneously by the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security?
Aside from the findings of this report, even more waste is caused by overlap of different levels of government. Federal, state, county and municipal monies often are spent to cover the same things. Utilities and emergency response programs are especially renowned for overlap.
And can anyone explain why we need a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a Florida Department of Environmental Protection? Or why a single road needs to be patrolled by the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Highway Patrol and the Gainesville Police Department?
As in all things, partisan politics often get in the way of reducing these wasteful overlaps.
For example, if a politician were to call for the elimination of one of the 20 existing federal programs that deal with homelessness, the other side of the aisle would invariably label the effort a heartless attack on the homeless population. If the federal deficit is to be brought under control, such political wrangling must be called out for the folly that it is, and waste must be eliminated.
The GAO report found that $200 billion could be saved on the consolidation of federal data centers alone.
Government functions, like paninis, should only be paid for once.
The time has come for Washington to walk the talk about wasting hard-working Americans’ money.
Bob Minchin is a fourth-year Electrical engineering major. His column appears on Fridays.
