Wednesday, December 07, 2016

Pentagon buries evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste

By Craig Whitlock and Bob Woodward


The Pentagon has buried an internal study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste in its business operations amid fears Congress would use the findings as an excuse to slash the defense budget, according to interviews and confidential memos obtained by The Washington Post.

Pentagon leaders had requested the study to help make their enormous back-office bureaucracy more efficient and reinvest any savings in combat power. But after the project documented far more wasteful spending than expected, senior defense officials moved swiftly to kill it by discrediting and suppressing the results.
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To read the rest of the story, click here.

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Below is a list of proposed cuts from our bloated federal budget that the Republican-controlled Congress is considering making after Donald Trump becomes our president. The list was complied by one of our supporters who included his commentary for some of the budget items. Notice that Social Security and the military are NOT on this list.
 
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List of Proposed Republican Budget Cuts

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy -- $445 million annual savings.
 
Save America's Treasures Program -- $25 million annual savings.
 

International Fund for Ireland -- $17 million annual savings.
 
Legal Services Corporation -- $420 million annual savings.
 

National Endowment for the Arts -- $167.5 million annual savings.

National Endowment for the Humanities -- $167.5 million annual savings.

Hope VI Program -- $250 million annual savings.

Amtrak Subsidies -- $1.565 billion annual savings.

Eliminate duplicating education programs --H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.

U.S.Trade Development Agency -- $55 million annual savings.

Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy -- $20 million annual savings.

Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding -- $47 million annual savings.

John C. Stennis Center Subsidy -- $430,000 annual savings.

Community Development Fund -- $4.5 billion annual savings.
 
Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid -- $24 million annual savings.

Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half -- $7.5 billion annual savings

Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20% -- $600 million annual savings.

Essential Air Service -- $150 million annual savings.

Technology Innovation Program -- $70 million annual savings.

Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program -- $125 million annual savings.

Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization -- $530 million annual savings.

Beach Replenishment -- $95 million annual savings.

New Starts Transit -- $2 billion annual savings. 

Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts -- $9 million annual savings. 

Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual savings.
Title X Family Planning -- $318 million annual savings.

Appalachian Regional Commission -- $76 million annual savings.

Economic Development Administration -- $293 million annual savings.

Programs under the National and Community Services Act -- $1.15 billion annual savings.

Applied Research at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings.

Freedom CAR and Fuel Partnership -- $200 million annual savings.

Energy Star Program -- $52 million annual savings.

Economic Assistance to Egypt -- $250 million annually.


U.S. Agency for International Development -- $1.39 billion annual savings.

General Assistance to District of Columbia -- $210 million annual savings.

Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- $150 million annual savings.

Presidential Campaign Fund -- $775 million savings over ten years.

No funding for federal office space acquisition -- $864 million annual savings.


End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.

Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act -- More than $1 billion annually.

IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten years.


Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees -- $1 billion total savings. WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?

Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees -- $1.2 billion savings over ten years.

Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of -- $15 billion total savings.

Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress. WHAT???

Eliminate Mohair Subsidies -- $1 million annual savings.


Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change -- $12.5 million annual savings. WELL ISN'T THAT SPECIAL 

Eliminate Market Access Program -- $200 million annual savings. 

USDA Sugar Program -- $14 million annual savings.

Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- $93 million annual savings.

Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program -- $56.2 million annual savings.

Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs -- $900 million savings.

Ready to Learn TV Program -- $27 million savings..

HUD Ph.D. Program.

Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.

TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years

My question is, what is all this doing in the budget in the first place?