This Week In Waste – November 7, 2025
Welcome to This Week in Waste, a series by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) that highlights how taxpayer dollars are being wasted in the federal, state, and local levels of government and efforts to fight back against this spendthrift behavior.
CAGW Releases $5.4 Trillion in Prime Waste-Cutting Recommendations
CAGW’s Prime Cuts 2025 report includes 512 recommendations that would save $606.2 billion one year and $5.4 trillion over five years. Key proposals include reducing Medicare improper payments by 50 percent, ending Community Development Block Grants, reforming the 340B drug pricing program, eliminating the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, and selling excess federal real property. Read more here.
The United States Postal Service (USPS)’s Frightening Fiscal Failures
The USPS is projected to lose more than $9 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2025, following losses of $6.5 billion in FY 2023 and $9.5 billion in FY 2024, and continuing the streak of losing money in every quarter since 2009. Postmaster General David Steiner can begin to reverse this fiscal failure by ending the ineffective Regional Transportation Optimization initiative, suspending costly construction of duplicative processing facilities, and imposing a hiring freeze for non-delivery positions. He should also increase collaboration with the private sector and refocus on efficient, affordable nationwide delivery and service standards. Read more here.
Vaccines Benefit America’s Physical and Fiscal Health
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for children born between 1994–2023, routine childhood immunizations will have prevented 508 million illnesses and 1,129,000 deaths. Every $1 spent on childhood vaccinations yields approximately $11 in savings, while adult immunization programs can return up to 19 times their cost. Vaccines are essential to the physical and fiscal health of Americans and people across the globe. Restricting access to vaccines and adopting policies that would stifle innovation will have a devastating impact on the economy and endanger lives. Read more here.
Reversing Restrictions on Duplicative Funding for Broadband Programs Is a Bad Idea
The Community Broadband Action Network is urging the Department of Commerce to reverse the National Telecommunications and Information Administration rule that makes Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program participants forgo federal operational subsidies for broadband. This is an unwise call, since this rule prevents duplicate funding in areas already supported by programs like the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and the Rural Utilities Service Broadband program. Read more here.
