Govt waste in one year: Just a glimpse

In 2021, your federal government spent $6 million every single minute.  That’s $9 billion every day, almost $3 trillion per year.

For just a glimpse of that insanity, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the enormous Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), has 27 Institutes and Centers (I.C.s), and in fiscal year 2020 had a budget of $41.6 billion (plus a separate $3.6 billion for COVID-19 that year).  President Biden’s request for fiscal year 2023 was almost $49 billion…plus the new “mandatory” budget items ($5 billion for a new Advanced Research Projects Agency — Health, $12.5 billion for Pandemic Preparedness, and $1.2 billion for PHS Program Evaluation, etc.), which runs the total to over $62 billion.  All 27 I.C.s asked for more money; last year, the Office of the Director was the only unit that took a “cut,” from $2.521 billion to $2.519 billion.  It asked for $2.728 billion for next year.

This is for the Cabinet department (HHS) that ranked the absolute worst, by far, in “improper payments” (i.e., waste) in 2022 of $132.6 billion.  A distant second was the Small Business Administration, which wasted $37.3 billion, followed by the Dept. of the Treasury, which wasted “only” $26 billion.  Sure, let’s add some new projects and programs, ’cause it’s not as if we have a $34-trillion national debt, the interest alone on which has now surpassed the defense budget.  

According to OpentheBooks, a government watchdog group, the total “improper payments” for 2022 was estimated at $247 billion by 17 federal agencies.  That’s an average waste of $20.5 billion per month.

Agencies four through ten on this infamous list of wastrels are the Labor Dept. ($19 billion), Education Dept. ($15.7 billion), Social Security Administration ($7.4 billion), Veterans Affairs Dept. ($3.5 billion), Defense Dept. ($2 billion) Agriculture Dept. ($1.9 billion), and Transportation Dept. ($756 million).  Except for the SSA and Defense Department, seems like those other eight Cabinet departments would be a good place to start in the dismantling of the Deep State. 

Dead people made out in 2022, receiving over $532 million in pensions, disability insurance, and Social Security payments.  Alas, St. Peter doesn’t deliver retirement checks (and neither do those who cashed those payments to the dead).

It’s not all bad news, though; OpentheBooks reported that the government successfully recaptured $23.2 billion “through audits and other ‘recovery activities.’”  So those dedicated public servants were able to recover 9% of more than a quarter-trillion dollars they wasted…and I’d bet somebody will get an award for that.  The Labor Department, which overpaid $78 billion in 2021 unemployment, reduced its waste by 75% in 2022, “only” overpaying $19 billion.  There’s another Employee of the Month, I betcha.

There was no information about any punitive measures taken against employees of any agency.  Of course.  Anyone who has ever worked for or around the federal government won’t be surprised at this waste (well, maybe at the amounts), nor at the lack of accountability.  And Biden just gave this illustrious bunch a 5.2% pay raise.  Because…of course he did.

There are over 430 departments, agencies, and sub-agencies in the federal government.  Also, that’s the fox reporting on how many chickens he ate, so the actual amount of federal government waste of our tax dollars is likely much higher.

Faced with an admitted $34-trillion national debt (that doesn’t include “unfunded liabilities” to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, which runs the true debt amount to near $200 trillion), federal agencies waste more than the GDP of many countries, and they’re not even pretending to cut back.  Could you run your household like that?  Your business? 

As President Reagan said, the closest thing to eternal life is a federal program or agency.  How can any rational human being look at these numbers and not realize the absolute necessity of cutting the federal budget and bureaucracy, and not just by a little, but a lot?   Almost none of our elected “representatives,” however, see that necessity. 

A quarter-trillion in “improper payments” from only 17 agencies?  What do you figure, half a trillion in total government waste in one year?  If Congress stopped over-spending, just cutting the waste would pay off the national deficit in thirty years!  Congress controls the purse strings, so the blame lies with the congressmen.  But just as they’ve ceded most of their legislative duties to the Deep State (ergo the enormous budgets), they’ll also allow any action against that leviathan to be undertaken by a president or vice president, so they won’t have to answer to their constituents for cutting favored pork programs. 

One good thing could come from this information: anyone who gets elected to the White House sure has a good place to start in dismantling the bureaucratic monstrosity that currently rules the nation.  Are you listening, Trump?

Image via Picryl.