Steve Daines - Eliminating Redundant Federal Programs

July 27, 2011 - PRLog -- One of the factors that has pushed this country into the current debt ceiling situation is the incredible amount of waste and redundancies that are part of everyday life in Washington. According to the the Government Accountability Office (GAO), hundreds of government programs have overlaps and redundancies that have increased federal spending by billions of dollars. Redundant and overlapping programs were discovered in a long list of government agencies including Education, Defense, and Commerce

As Congress works to come up with an answer to raising the debt ceiling these wasteful overlaps provide a great example of how government spending can be reduced without denial of services or the need for a lengthy debate. These redundancies are also likely to be just the tip of the iceberg and more will probably be found with further examination.

As it stands the estimates are that between $100 billion to $200 billion could be saved by eliminating these redundant and overlapping programs. Savings such as these are substantial, especially if the elimination of these duplicate programs comes without denying services to U.S. citizens. We must also learn how these programs come into existence and take steps to ensure that the when programs are initiated, they are not a duplicate of something that is already serving the same purpose.
Still, with trillions of debt and deficits growing every year, eliminating this kind of waste is only one of the measures needed to regain control of the runaway spending that has pushed the country up against debt ceiling. It is, however, a good start.

Paid for by: Steve Daines for Montana

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Steve Daines is a fifth generation Montanan, and Vice President and General Manager of Asia-Pacific for Bozeman-based RightNow Technologies. Now Steve Daines is a Republican nominee for Congress in Montana.