Trump’s New War On Wasteful Spending

Well it is about time !! Full title of the article is: Trump’s New War On Wasteful Spending — An Advance Draft Of The President’s Budget To Congress (FY2021)

1. End Improper Year-End Waste. The federal government’s use-it-or-lose-it year-end spending spree has been going on for years. In our recent oversight report, we found $97 billion spent by 67 federal agencies during the final month of fiscal year 2018. In the last week of the fiscal year, $53 billion in contracts went out the door – that’s one in every ten dollars spent in the entire year.

[T]here are currently misaligned incentives… Agencies recognize that if significant balances are left in their accounts at the end of a fiscal year, the Congress will likely reduce their topline budget in future fiscal years.

This is something that has needed to be done away with for way to long a time.
johnbwellsnews.com...

2. Putting an End to Improper Payments. Each year, the twenty largest federal agencies admit to mistakenly paying out approximately $140 billion. For example, we found that nearly $1 billion was improperly paid to dead people. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) improperly paid $18.4 billion through the earned income tax program last year.

Since 2005, we found the federal government has improperly paid $1.2 trillion from the U.S. Treasury.

There is more idioticy and waste noted in the article.in the article
youtu.be...


www.forbes.com... 2021/

I prefer to end a thread on an even more positive note:

The Best Is Yet To Come youtu.be...

Excellent. Baseline spending has been a huge waste for decades. I've often suspected that at least some of it is making its way into black budgets. And no doubt critters' pockets.

This used to piss me off when I was active duty. I had two PC cards and was old to go buy whatever ....a dozen smartboards...furniture..blah blah blah.

I mean that money should be going to buy aircraft spare parts.

I saw this one coming and about time.

Trumps first Presidency is a learning curve for him, his second term he'll be tempered and start making massive changes.

Already he has survived Mueller, Impeachment and purged state actors from his AO, keep it up Trump.

The year-end spending spree purchases included:

Inflatable games ($42,500), model rockets ($34,000), china tableware ($53,004), alcohol ($308,994), musical instruments ($1.7 million), workout equipment ($9.8 million) and lobster tail and crab ($4.6 million).

$300 million spent on passenger vehicles, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, and snowmobiles.

$462 million spent on public relations, marketing research, and advertising.

$491 million spent on furniture and redecorating federal agencies.

$61.2 billion spent by the Pentagon in the final 30-days of the fiscal year.

Lobster tail and crab? Really? 😑

It'll be the best second term ever.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. The DoD are specifically notorious with this kind of wasteful spending. So does Trump stand by his convictions and start cutting funding to the military, angering a key part of his base? Or does he continue to increase funding, knowing full well that a large part of that funding will be spent on waste?

originally posted by: Xcalibur254
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. The DoD are specifically notorious with this kind of wasteful spending. So does Trump stand by his convictions and start cutting funding to the military, angering a key part of his base? Or does he continue to increase funding, knowing full well that a large part of that funding will be spent on waste?

This post is so black and white, did you see the source?

*Wasteful spending.

I don't think cutting the fat will be a bad thing and none of the cuts will be detrimental to his Military base, Enlisted Soldiers and all.

a reply to: Arnie123

But the DoD's wasteful spending has been known for decades and still Trump has continued to increase its budget, stating it was a necessity. So why was it a necessity to increase the budget if he knew that much of that money would be wasted?

In the end a smaller budget for the military either means angering the soldiers or angering the MIC. Either way Trump makes a powerful enemy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a strong proponent of cutting waste in the DoD. I'm just wondering if Trump will stand by that when he starts getting backlash for a reduced budget.

Most of us thought it was the most wasteful thing ever. Especially when we had no money for aircraft parts. Its fraud,waste and abuse.

Of course Lighthouse for the Blind and some local retailers will lose some money...but there ya go.



a reply to: Xcalibur254

Not this type of spending.
I usually had 25k to spend. That was one squadron on one base.
Multiply that times thousands of units across every branch. Its enough to fund a what, 5 or 6 more F35s....every year
a reply to: Boadicea

Wasteful spending is not the fundamental problem. It's the automatic reduction in annual funding that triggers it. If they don't spend it budgets get reduced the next fiscal year. A better solution would be to swipe it without the auto reduction.

Budgets are difficult to nail down for most agencies just like a household. Some years one has more disposable income and some years they don't. If they could return it with the ability to request needed funds easier that would solve it.

Another disgrace of returning the money is it's still wasted. Excess money to politicians is like a shark smelling blood in the water. They can't resist it. They will attempt to get their hands on it somehow. A good example is Social Security. It use to be self supportive. At one point it had a large surplus. Not anymore.

Trump is on the right track but it's not as simple as just preventing late year spending. That issue is due to the source of the problem; auto budget reductions.

a reply to: 727Sky

Is the message from the left going to be that we need more government spending now?

Obviously, yes. Free college, free healthcare, free housing, UBI’s.

originally posted by: Stupidsecrets
A better solution would be to swipe it without the auto reduction.

I totally agree on this!

Someone should tweet Trump about it!

a reply to: Xcalibur254

This is the burning question. It's exactly the same here in the UK.

Local councils, Schools, government contractors, the NHS and the biggest culprit of all, the MOD.

IT'S GOT TO STOP.

Funding should be granted on necessity just like any other investment

originally posted by: Xcalibur254
a reply to: Arnie123

But the DoD's wasteful spending has been known for decades and still Trump has continued to increase its budget, stating it was a necessity. So why was it a necessity to increase the budget if he knew that much of that money would be wasted?

Because Trump is correct, it IS a necessity and will always be a necessity, however, spending it is a different matter and primary focus, Trump has no issue dishing out cash, just spend it WISELY, this has been part of his platform for a very long time.

Increasing the Budget at his current tenure seems like status quo for his initial Presidency, almost four years later he is pushing for a tightening of the belt.

In the end a smaller budget for the military either means angering the soldiers or angering the MIC. Either way Trump makes a powerful enemy.

Well it will depend on what stays and gets distributed, as long as Soldiers get a raise, at any percentage, it'll be a plus.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a strong proponent of cutting waste in the DoD. I'm just wondering if Trump will stand by that when he starts getting backlash for a reduced budget.

Well, we're here now, hmmm?

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: 727Sky

Is the message from the left going to be that we need more government spending now?

Obviously, yes. Free college, free healthcare, free housing, UBI’s.

"Bankrupt the Target Country morally and financially"

I see that being played out a lot.

Right now, if an agency does not spend what it is alloted by the time they are supposed to, they reduce the future funding. I have personal knowledge of that from some friends that were in charge of dispersing funds. On top of the reduction in the next budget, they have to deduct what they have left. The agency cannot save anything so they can get a bigger project the next year, So they waste the money, they cannot even buy too much inventory for next year, because that inventory is not used.

This problem plagues many agencies, and much of the stuff they do buy winds up at auction and fetches pennies on the dollar. I have bought some good stuff at auctions that was never used for pennies on the dollar. For me it is good, for the taxpayer it is bad. I still kick myself for not bidding higher on the twenty grand water analyzer, it worked great, if I would have bid three hundred five instead of two hundred fifty two bucks it would have been mine. It had enough testing supplies to last my whole life or to test the minerals and chemistry of half the wells in the county. Now I renewed my bummed out feeling. The worst part, I will be bringing a sample of my water to the company who got the bid to have it fully tested, it is a hundred twenty five bucks, should have done it five years ago....he was a hundred bucks back then.

Oh, sorry for going off topic.

If Trump's administration could fix that policy, it would be good for all the taxpayers, the military does a lot of that too, so do most of the federal and state agencies, use it or lose it is very common.

originally posted by: 727Sky

2. Putting an End to Improper Payments. Each year, the twenty largest federal agencies admit to mistakenly paying out approximately $140 billion. For example, we found that nearly $1 billion was improperly paid to dead people. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) improperly paid $18.4 billion through the earned income tax program last year.

Since 2005, we found the federal government has improperly paid $1.2 trillion from the U.S. Treasury.

There is more idioticy and waste noted in the article.in the article

www.forbes.com... 2021/

So this is how the Goverment has run for 80 years or more. If you don't spend it all you get less the next year and so they waste a good chunk come Sept. It is funny a business is opposite in they push hard in the 4th quarter to get earnings, not spending, to end the year on a good note of earnings. With Trump being a businessman I wonder if this is why he see the status quo as being so wrong.

originally posted by: Xcalibur254

But the DoD's wasteful spending has been known for decades and still Trump has continued to increase its budget, stating it was a necessity. So why was it a necessity to increase the budget if he knew that much of that money would be wasted?

You can only fix one thing at a time. If you have some drippy faucets in your house do you just stop using them and turn off the water main, or do you still use them and at some point you fix them as you can it. Also, I don't think you understand where a good chunk of that money is going...It is not all being wasteful...

a reply to: Arnie123

Trumps first Presidency is a learning curve for him, his second term he'll be tempered and start making massive changes.

Hopefully he has purged all the NWO hold overs from his cabinet and replaced them with patriots who share his vision of Making America Great ... I just wish him good health and time to implement many of the changes he needs to do... Hopefully the warped/sick individuals in the house of representatives will be voted out of office, which should make it easier to get stuff done for the good of the country... Either way with all his judicial appoints already made the NWO folks are fuming as they see their plans for open borders and socialist inspired taxes evaporate and they can do nothing about it for many years to come....I hope.