Hundreds Of Billions In Waste And Duplication Found In Federal Budget The Democrats Swear Can't Be Touched Without Killing People Or Something

It's a lot of money in the real world but let's remember, the federal budget bears very little resemblance to the real world.

A report from the nonpartisan GAO, to be released Tuesday, compiles a list of redundant and potentially ineffective federal programs, and it could serve as a template for lawmakers in both parties as they move to cut federal spending and consolidate programs to reduce the deficit. Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), who pushed for the report, estimated it identifies between $100 billion and $200 billion in duplicative spending. The GAO didn't put a specific figure on the spending overlap.

The GAO examined numerous federal agencies, including the departments of defense, agriculture and housing and urban development, and pointed to instances where different arms of the government should be coordinating or consolidating efforts to save taxpayers' money.

I'm torn about this kind of story and the GOP pushing it hard. On the one hand, we have to get people acclimated to the idea that we are cutting money now. Not slowing the rate of growth and certainly not spending more. CUTTING money. This is the kind of thing people understand and support.

On the other hand, people can't simply wish away trillions of dollars in deficits, debt and unfunded future liabilities but cutting every politicians favorite trio of "Waste, Fraud and Abuse". If you entirely eliminated the $700 billion in the defense budget, you'd be less than halfway home to balancing just this year's budget.

So if this is sort of "look at all the waste" is a sort of gateway drug to hook people on the idea of cutting spending, great. If it becomes a "well, we've done the hard stuff, now you politicians better leave Social Security and Medicare alone!", we're in trouble.

Still, this kind of stuff is a useful rejoinder to idiots like Congresswoman Barbara Lee who says Republicans who want to cut the budge are anti-civil rights.

Black lawmakers on Monday said GOP-proposed budget cuts would move the country in the opposite direction of the civil rights movement.

The lawmakers, all members of the Congressional Black Caucus, used the last day of Black History Month to argue the GOP-backed cuts would fall hardest on black Americans.

"It's really especially poignant that this year during Black History Month, the Republican leadership has proposed a budget for fiscal year 2011 that will fall most heavily, mind you, on the backs of the most vulnerable in our society: African Americans, Latinos, and poor, those who have been shut of the American dream," said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who described the cuts as ill-timed and destructive.

"At a time when we should be remembering and uplifting the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans, to the history, culture, civil rights and economy of America, we are literally during this month debating steps that will severely undercut and undermine that legacy," she said.

Aside from the casual swipe at Republicans as racists which is a common as it is baseless, consider what this woman is saying...a major accomplishment of the civil rights movement was making blacks de facto wards of the state. I can't imagine a more horrible fate for fellow Americans and yet she's celebrating it. But I and most of you are racists or something.

posted by DrewM. at 12:01 PM

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