With out-of-control spending, rapidly increasing national debt and an all-time high national deficit you would hope the government would eliminate wasteful spending. Unfortunately, in the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) report on wasteful spending on duplicative programs within the federal government more than $400 billion taxpayer dollars is being spent on 1,500 duplicative, fragmented and inefficient programs. This outrageous number is on top of the $100 billion identified by last year’s report. 

This is the second year of a three-year process that the GAO is comprehensively reviewing federal spending for duplicative programs. It is evident that not much has changed in a year.

I am disappointed to see that our government is spending such an unspeakable amount of taxpayer dollars on more than 1,500 programs that have been identified as wasteful.

Most notably:

• $3 billion have spent spend on over 200 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) programs. Many of which have not conducted evaluations on how well their programs are working. 
• $736 million spent on 14 different diesel emissions and Federal funding for 55 surface transportation programs.
• 82 duplicative teacher quality programs
• $62.5 billion on 18 duplicative domestic food and nutrition programs

This information translates into years of wasted tax dollars. The President wants to continue this unsustainable spending and force the taxpayers to pay for it instead of changing how this hard earned money is spent. The President’s 2012 budget plan proposes to raise taxes by $2 trillion in order to pay for this spending spree.  While we need Washington to get its fiscal affairs in order, the first step of this process is to eliminate unnecessary and wasteful spending, not increase taxes.

This is unacceptable and we must demand this administration work to alter its spending immediately and to eliminate spending on unnecessary and frivolous programs.

To read the GAO report click here.

 

As I have previously stated, President Obama’s “accommodation” of religious liberty in his revised health care mandate covering contraceptives, sterilizations and abortifacients raises more questions than it answers. Perhaps, the most egregious part is that the President refuses to acknowledge that the Constitution guarantees conscience protections and instead tries to run around them.

You don’t “accommodate” religious liberties, you respect them. That’s why they are enshrined in the Constitution. Those Constitutional protections should prevent the President from trampling the conscience rights of Americans and religious institutions who hold a strong belief that contraceptives, sterilizations and abortifacients are wrong. Clearly, however, they are not enough. President Obama’s “accommodation” shows that he considers conscience rights to be an inconvenience in his effort to remake America in his vision. That is why we need to pass the “Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.”

The “Respect for Rights of Conscience Act”—introduced by my colleague from neighboring Missouri, Senator Roy Blunt—seeks to restore conscience protections that existed before President Obama’s flawed health care law. These are the same protections that have existed for more than 220 years since the First Amendment was ratified. It will likely be taken up in the near future as an amendment to the Highway Bill.

Many longstanding federal health care conscience laws protect conscientious objections to certain types of medical services. President Obama could have just as easily followed that course when he issued a mandate requiring almost all private health insurance policies—including those issued by religious institutions such as hospitals, schools and non-profits—to cover sterilizations and contraceptives, including emergency contraceptives, at no cost to policyholders…. ....but he did not. Now Congress must step-up and protect the religious liberties of all Americans.

In case you missed it: Senator Boozman was on KHOZ in Harrison Wednesday morning discussing the budget, gas prices, HHS contraceptive mandate and Second Amendment Rights. Listen to the conversation at the link below.