Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) released a report Monday calling on lawmakers to tackle government waste and inefficiencies.
The report, called “Federal Fumbles,” highlights “100 ways the government dropped the ball.” With items such as a $43 million gas station the military abandoned in Afghanistan to a $65,000 study on bugs by the National Park Service, Lankford points out what he sees as government inefficiencies.
A large portion of the report focuses on what Lankford describes as unnecessary regulations slowing down the economy. He argued these government inefficiencies are contributing to the national debt, which has grown to more than $18 trillion.
According to Lankford, even if the federal government balanced the budget and turned around a $50 billion surplus next year, it would still take 380 years to break even at that pace.
“We’re losing track of how difficult this is going to be long term,” Lankford told reporters.
“There’s this belief that [the federal debt is] so large, it’s so difficult to take on, it’s not fixable,” he said. “It is fixable.”
Lankford also targets the Defense Department for spending what he calculates to be about $4 million per solider to train the Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
He also criticized the National Science Foundation for spending $375,000 to “study the dating habits” of the elderly, as well as the National Institutes of Health for spending $2.6 million on a weight-loss program for truck drivers.
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Men like Sen. Lankford and, before him, Sen. Tom Coburn are few and far between in Washington, D.C. The truth is, the vast majority of our federal officials simply don't care about the ever-expanding debt and waste. That's why We the People need to step up and urge our state legislators to call a Convention of States. At such a convention, delegates can propose constitutional amendments that force Congress to act on reports like Sen. Lankford's.
