The U.S. government is too big, wastes too much money, and has a hard time accomplishing complex missions. As the Government Accountability Office put it so modestly in a recent report, “The federal government faces a long-term, unsustainable fiscal path based on an imbalance between federal revenues and spending … while addressing this structural imbalance will require fiscal policy changes, in the near term opportunities exist to take action in a number of areas to improve this situation, including where federal programs or activities are fragmented, overlapping, or duplicative.”
Yes, the government presents a target rich environment where critiquing waste, fraud, and abuse is concerned. But it also accomplishes amazing things on behalf of the American people. Who can we count on to fix the former and continue the latter? The public servants we rarely recognize, but do so deservedly this Public Service Recognition Week.
Depending on how you measure it, the federal government’s total liabilities as of September 30, 2016 were almost $23 trillion. Last year, the government spent about $4.4 trillion, even though it only took in $3.3 trillion in revenue. And with benefit programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid either already are or soon will be paying out more than they take in in taxes, our fiscal future is highly worrisome. But I’m heartened that there are some of the smartest, hardest working financial managers on the planet working on solutions to these problems, so that one day, when there are policymakers courageous enough to adopt those solutions, they’ll be ready.
Last year, government programs made improper payments totaling almost $150 billion. Not all of that was fraud, but a lot of it was. There are “bad hombres” working tirelessly to find ways to cheat American taxpayers out of their hard-earned tax dollars. But there are also armies of auditors, investigators, and analysts doing new and innovative things to find them and prevent them from stealing your money.
GAO described myriad opportunities to reduce overlap and duplication. It estimates that tens of billions of dollars could be saved by implementing its recommendations to reduce overlap and duplication, achieve cost savings or enhance revenue. For example, there are 16 federal agencies responsible for food safety. Five different, currently uncoordinated programs invest in community efforts to strengthen community resilience from disasters. There are hundreds of programs littered across the federal government working to improve the nation’s science, technology, engineering, and math capabilities.
However, a lot of good work has been done over the last several decades to improve coordination of these programs. Thanks to the president’s recent executive order calling for a comprehensive plan for reorganizing the executive branch, talented public servants are leading the way to propose reforms, reorganizations and efficiencies that will make government smaller, but more effective.
Most egregiously, the enormous government oversight network – working hard to safeguard tax dollars – gets none of the accolades it deserves. Employees of the GAO, inspectors general and offices of chief financial officers are highly focused on stretching limited tax dollars to get the biggest bang for the buck. They make it possible for the federal government to keep Americans safer, make them more competitive, and get them healthier. The benefits that flow from government are enormous: defending our nation, reducing traffic fatalities, ensuring the safety of the food supply, prosecuting criminal enterprises, finding cures for disease, charting a path to Mars. But they could be a lot better, and the oversight professionals among our public servants are helping make that so. This Public Service Recognition Week, I think they need a particularly grateful pat on the back.
Mr. Shea is a former associate director at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. He is currently a principal with Grant Thornton Public Sector.
Don’t like government? Count on our under-celebrated public servants to fix it [Commentary]
