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.