Yes, Cutting Government Waste Is Important
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) draws two extreme reactions from budget-focused observers.
On one side, you have cynics rolling their eyes and arguing that the truly consequential problem is not overpriced government boondoggles but rather entitlements like Medicare and Social Security and interest on the national debt.
On the other, you have optimists who believe that if we just find and eliminate enough waste, fraud, and abuse, we can balance the budget—unless too much of the savings is handed out as “DOGE dividend” checks. They point to outrageous spending on “gambling monkeys” and luxury pickleball courts as proof that government is a bloated, reckless disaster. Others think the piecemeal savings could wipe out our government’s $2 trillion annual deficit.
Both perspectives are half right and half dangerously wrong.
I spend much of my time warning people that ever-larger chunks of the budget are consumed by entitlement spending, about which President Donald Trump’s cost cutters can do little without Congress. Around half of the budget is consumed by just three programs: Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
Add in the growing cost of interest payments on our $36 trillion national debt—thanks to both reckless oversp
Article from Reason.com
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