TAXPAYER WATCHDOG IDENTIFIES $1.2 TRILLION IN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WASTE | Citizens Against Government Waste

TAXPAYER WATCHDOG IDENTIFIES $1.2 TRILLION IN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WASTE

Press Release

For Immediate ReleaseContact: Sean Rushton or Philippa Jeffery
November 9, 2001(202) 467-5300

 

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), America’s largest taxpayer watchdog group, released this month its annual compendium of wasteful and inefficient programs in the federal budget.  The report, Prime Cuts 2001: A Commonsense Guide to Leaner Government, is a compendium of budget-cutting options that, if implemented, would save taxpayers $1.2 trillion in the next five years.

"Prime Cuts 2001 provides the Bush Administration and Congress a roadmap for reallocating federal resources from waste, fraud, and abuse to our post-9/11 vital needs," CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  "With the massive new spending on defense, intelligence, and homeland security, to say nothing of economic stimulus, eliminating the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste thrown down the drain annual is a matter of national security.  With all the  blubber in the budget, there is no excuse for a return to deficit spending or for tapping Social Security surplus funds.

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Prime Cuts Catalog is a compendium of 543 budget-cutting options gleaned from the original Grace Commission report, the Congressional Budget Office, the House Budget Committee, and other sources. 

Prime Cuts are the ever-present Appalachian Regional Commission, the USDA’s Market Access Program, the Export Enhancement Program, and the International Space Station.  Termination of the space station alone would save taxpayers $9.8 billion over five years.

Prime Cuts recommends privatizing several government functions, including the antiquated Power Marketing Administrations and Tennessee Valley Authority, for a combined savings of $20.5 billion over five years.  Prime Cuts also suggests repealing the Davis-Bacon Act, which costs taxpayers approximately $265 million each year in inflated federal construction costs.

 

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