The following excerpt was written by Elizabeth Harrington and originally published in the Washington Free Beacon.
The federal government could save billions by cutting duplicative programs, according to an annual report released by the Government Accountability Office.
The GAO identified 68 new actions Congress or the executive branch could take to save taxpayers, including eliminating duplicative Coast Guard boat stations and assessing the more than 150 STEM programs across numerous agencies.
"The federal government faces an unsustainable long-term fiscal path based on an imbalance between federal revenue and spending, primarily driven by health care spending and net interest on the debt," the GAO said. "Addressing this imbalance will require long-term changes to both spending and revenue and difficult fiscal policy decisions. Significant action to mitigate this imbalance must be taken soon to minimize the disruption to individuals and the economy."
The reports are mandated by a law championed by deficit hawk Tom Coburn, the former Republican senator from Oklahoma, to identify redundancy throughout the federal government. Since the first report was issued in 2011, taxpayers have saved approximately $178 billion by GAO recommendations taken to reduce duplicative practices.
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Tom Coburn also works as a Senior Advisor for the Convention of States Project, the only grassroots-led movement dedicated to calling a Convention of States to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government. A Convention of States can propose constitutional amendments that force the feds to cut wasteful duplicative programs like these.
