JAMES COOK - August 21, 2012

GIVE THEM ALL ACCOUNTING/COST BENEFIT CROSS TRAINING.

D Miller - August 21, 2012

Many decades ago, I read a book called Zero-Based budgeting. It won’t solve everything, but it would require justification EACH year for programs and projects instead of end-of-year spending to justify increase in next budgeting period.

Joey Prince - August 21, 2012

Cut the federal budget by 50 percent. Shrink the size of government to fit. Use the rest of the income to pay down debt. When the debt is paid decrease taxes.

Elaine Connelly - August 21, 2012

Get rid of all of the current members of Congress, House and Senate. Take away their generous benefits, make them pay into SS. AND ABOVE ALL ELSE IMPLEMENT TERM LIMITS.

Carroll Underwood - August 21, 2012

There could be no mismanagement if there were no program, so elimenate all but the most basic programs in all of the basic departments and eliminate all but the basic departments. I know. I was once a bureaucrat. If you leave those non-essential programs there there will become ‘essential” and the staffing will explode.

Duncan Smith - August 21, 2012

If you want to stop government waste, the first step is to reduce the size of the bureaucracies. With fewer people, you will naturally save money, but more important, there will be fewer people trying to justify their existance by dreaming up ways to spend money. The next step is to operate the government on a budget that must be presented by the President and then debated and adopted by both Houses of Congress in its final form. Any President who attempted to operate as Obama has with no budget would be denied funds for any expenditure not related to National Defense – Homeland Security would not be included. The final and most important step is to give the President Line Item Veto power, so that once and forever we have a final line of defense against pork or someone to blame if it is not used. While we are at it, we should require all Lobbyists to register and buy a very expensive license that would then allow them to purchase equally expensive “Hall Passes” to the Senate and House office buildings; and finally, there would be “Access Passes” that would get them into the outer offices of Senators and Congressmen. The Access Passes would also be very expensive with Committee Chairmen at $50,000,000 down to Freshmen at $5,000,000. The idea is to make buying influence so expensive that businesses will do it the old fashioned way using sweat. D

Rick Moessner - August 21, 2012

How can this be avoided. Simple dismantle the Dept of Agriculture and return responsibility to the states. This is another unaccountable, unnecessary, corrupt, dysfunctional bureaucracy with faceless bureaucrats stealing our freedom and our money. Ditto for Depts of Energy, EPA, Education.

Keith Brobst - August 21, 2012

Do what profitable industry does. Fire those responsible for screwups like this and advertise in whatever method is necessary to let others know the consequenses of mismanagiing programs. This is totally unacceptable for government monies to be wasted like this.

Chuck - August 21, 2012

every office should make a budget for every year, some years more some less, instead they just tack on inflation. if an office returns money to the general fund then they dont get it the next year. if every tax was only spent on what the tax is for then there would be a guideline on how much each government department has to work with. do away with the general fund and make budget directors in government earn their salary

J Hugh Nichols - August 21, 2012

I think that U.S. Govt employees responsible for wasting our public resources should be immediately fired without any of their earned benefits (because many would like to be fired and retired early). I know this is harsh but it is the only way to stop it. Slapping their hands just dosn’t work.
J Hugh Nichols

William Haun - August 21, 2012

Some one or a group of people should be put in charge of an activity and made responsible for its profitable return to the taxpayers. Who are these people running the technology security activity for the Dept of Agriculture? We never seem to know if some one or some group is responsible and we never know if there are consequences. There should be.

Obviously you could write a book on this topic. This is just a very brief comment on the subject.

William M Snedden - August 21, 2012

Government, at all levels, but especially at the Federal level NEEDS oversight of ALL programs before they are launched and at least annually after they are launched. There should always be a cost of implementation estimated as well as a benefits analysis to allow continous testing of efficacy. For example, the training program that doesn’t result in the trainee being hired displays a waste. It would be far better for the government to pay a business to train AND HIRE the people and with the skills needed in that business.

Joseph McKennan - August 21, 2012

The only way this can be avoided in the future is to down-size the USDA bureaucracy so that it can be managed. Accountability is almost impossible when bureaucracy is too big and governrnent waste is a fact of life.
In addition, citizens must be MORE proactive/reactive when they learn that $63,000,000 has been wasted and demand that their elected representatives explain why.
I realize that this means accepting personal responsibility and making their officials toe the mark. If they don’t, this is what they get– along with obamacare, gun control, restricting freedom of speech if it is not in the interest of the PARTY ( understand comrade?)

john heil - August 21, 2012

who signed the checks for these worthless expenditures. if no check, who signed the invoices for approval??? Looks like a broken water pipe, dollars are flowing and no one calls the plumber to cut off the flow. Why should I be surprised. With no budget everyone spends money. The deficit just keeps growing and no one seems concerned.

Lee Burns - August 21, 2012

I cannot think of a single private corporation that would not respond to such malfeasance in any manner other than severance without notice and without parachute of the person or persons responsible. When was the last time you’ve heard of a major player in any of the bureauacries being fired for any reason?

Dallas Brown - August 21, 2012

Reduce the size of the budget!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elect people that will do that.

Ellen - August 21, 2012

The only way to reduce government waste is to elect a Republican president, retain the Republican House and take back the Senate. Under Obama no changes will ever be made. Although Republicans have in the past been big spenders, I believe the political climate dictates that they must change their ways.

Tara - August 21, 2012

The USDA is suing me, a cattle farmer because they do not like the 7- 14 day turn around payment between PRIVATE cattle corporations. So they (the USDA) is suing my husband and I for $11,500.00 in civil penalties!!! I am refusing to pay it, so I do not know what the USDA will do to us and our cattle business. AND MANY farmers depend on us. Then I read how the USDA is wasting money. IF the Heritage Foundation contacts me, I will give you the papers in the lawsuit. If you have false teeth, you will drop them. IT is insanely ridiculous.

Joan Saunders - August 21, 2012

Cut as many departments and bureaucracies as possible then privatize the rest. When gov is auditing they are ruthless, when they doing the work they are more wasteful than any one else.

Betty Paulsen - August 21, 2012

I say fire all those responsible and reduce their pay before doing so–making it applicable to their pensions and awards.. Trouble is Government benefits and rewards are written in stone. They have forgotten that they are PUBLIC SERVANTS. Instead they have turned out to be bank-robbers and thieves without conscience or responsibility.
FIRST I would cut budgets way beyond what they actually need and make them survive or sink on them. This is just plain disgusting.

William - August 21, 2012

Thank goodness Heritage is getting this information to the public! This agency is so huge and archaic , it needs a huge cleanup. This is only a small portion of tax dollars misspent. The Dept.of Agriculture should be downsized to handle only catastrophic agricultural events and cease subsidies. The Food Stamp Program and nutrient programs should not be in this Department at all. Social service agencies are better equipped to deal with those issues and reviewed as to how relevant the needs of the participants.
William

Chuck - August 21, 2012

The people at the top need to be held accountable…maybe personally liable.

Joan Hamblin - August 21, 2012

Government mismanagement may not be avoided given the nature of the beast, but if federal programs and the accompanying bureaucracy were cut way back, the amount wasted and mismanaged would be so much less. And because there is less to watch, citizen and legislator watchdogs could catch more graft and waste.

eileen - August 21, 2012

Until we get representatives who aren’t totally consumed with their own power and who actually WANT to shrink government, I don’t hold out much hope that things are going to change. Any program as large as the ag programs are going to have a lot of waste. After all, we ARE talking about government here!

Wayne, La. - August 21, 2012

One way to handle mismanagement of funds is to force each Agency to live within a budget below there current allocation levels. Allow each Director of the Agency to allocate their designated resources in a manner that achieves their goals. If they fail to spend their budget in an efficient and responsible manner, then you hire someone else. If they go over budget, then they are irresponsible.

Dallas - August 22, 2012

I tell how we can stop, and prevent this type of theft, prison time and personal loss of property for the careless theives who ransack through our hard earned dollars. Hold them accountable for the money they WASTE.

Stephen Hendricks - August 22, 2012

This example of governmental mismanagement; very difficult to deal with entrenched bureaucrats. Eliminating 3 or 4 entire departments is the only possible approach, peeling out layers of bureaucracy would be absolutely impossible. And now we have government health care!!

Deborah - August 22, 2012

Eliminate more than half of the departments funded by tax payer dollars. Then audits should be done every 6 months and posted for all to see! Light uncovers wrong-doing & there should be much more light on these government programs!

John C. Bossolt - August 22, 2012

Here’s the solution: disband the following -
Dept.Agriculture
Dept of Energy
Dept of Education
EPA, of course,
Dept of Interior
Dept of Commerce
Dept of HHS, of course

Slash State dept by 50%
Increase defense spending 20%
Slash 75% of federal regulations, starting with newest and working backwards.

and cancel all foreign aid except for Israel and then review the list.

just for openers. Apply the billions saved to debt pay-down
(50%) and the rest to refinery and nuclear reactor construction (50%). How’s that?

P - August 22, 2012

Abolishing these departments is the answer to elimating the waste. They are not accountable to anyone and are a drain. Let market dynamics work.

John Maksanty - August 22, 2012

I would advist President Romney to:

Request an audit of all programs in existance now:
If the project is not paying for its self, do away with it.

Sincerely,

John

John H. Field - August 22, 2012

I assume there is an approval process for each of these project expenditures. The individual(s) who approved these projects should be (at the least) reprimanded with a record in their personnel files or (at the most) fired for negligence in their management of a public trust. However, a government that has not produces a budget during its entire tenure probably has no organized management system. This is a management failure and the only recourse is to replace the entire leadership team, top down.

DValcore, - August 22, 2012

We need to reform civil service penalize managers of waste and reward whistle blowers and cost cutters. Accountability is the key. Ranking system of program wiht outside input besides intial beneficaries. Also zero based budgetting every other year or two.

Sam Evans - August 22, 2012

First – Regardless of job grade, identify those individuals whose responsibilities include cost control and oversight that was not exercised and tell them not to let the door knob make contact after cleaning out their desks. Second – Put teeth into the oversight and control functions by eliminating all positions associated with the program and require the program manager take a night course in business Management and Control 101.

Donald DaCosta - August 22, 2012

Don’t know how their budget process works but suspect it may be similar to the following, which is typical in big, bureaucratic organizations where everyone struggles to protect their turf. Each year, management requires that all units in their chain of responsibility submit an estimate of what it will cost to operate that unit for the following year. Simple or complicated? Complicated if a serious effort at prognostication based on projected work load and project requirements for capital equipment, manpower, etc. but much simpler, safer and potentially career enhancing if projected at last years plus some reasonable percentage.

The former is used by the few intelligent, ethical, confident, courageous and capable enough to have no fear of “working themselves out of a job” which, effectively done, in a professional work environment, often leads to bigger, better and more important managerial responsibilities and all that goes with that. But most equate the size of their budget to their level of importance and will opt to take the “last year plus” route. Equally problematic in this process is the widely recognized difficulty of budgeting more for the following year if that projected for the current year goes unspent. In the simplest terms, spend less, expect to get less and human nature takes control.

So, what has this got to do with the problem of out of control government spending? As the year plays out and an end of year surplus looms, first line management holds a meeting and urges his or her employees to create lists of “urgently needed items” required to successfully complete the units mission and submit those requests on the appropriate forms for signature. The fiscal year end deadline is met, the orders submitted, the dollars are spent and the items arrive whenever, needed or not. The overriding goal is to ensure that the amount requested when added to the total expenditures for that year, meet the amount that was formally projected at the beginning of the year. The process will be repeated next year with each unit doing whatever it can get away with to ensure its potential growth and survival.

But herein lies the root of the problem. In the private sector there’s that proverbial “bottom line” and the profit margin. Realized profit, break even or loss, eventually alerts the top brass and prevents or forestalls fiscal disaster; appropriate, necessary and often painful adjustments are made. In the government no one really gives a damn about how much of the taxpayers money is spent or on what grounds justified. There is no “bottom line.” The important thing is to feather your nest and exaggerate your importance, which is measured by your political skills and the size of your budget. It’s not a question of how much you spent measured against how much you contributed to profitability, it’s most often just a question of how much you spent and how well you succeeded in exaggerating your importance and the “needs” of the people you ostensibly serve. “I spend more than you so get on the rung of the ladder somewhere below mine; how far below is of no interest.”

Until a way is found to effectively measure and control expenditures in the government sector, equivalent to that in the private sector, this out of control process will continue, and at an accelerated pace if government continues to grow at its current rate. Other than the electoral process, which moves like molasses in the Antartic, there is no currently effective method. The number of government employees, their salaries and benefits are now at significantly higher levels than in the private sector, in some cases at levels causing effected, complicit townships to go near or into bankruptcy.

What’s the answer? What, with any hope for real success, can be done? The natural, deliterious effects of human nature, hubris, self interest, greed, envy, etc. must be reduced to managable levels by deliberately taking advantage of it rather than allowing it to run amok. Enter the most successful economic engine on the planet, American Capitalism with its free market, free enterprise, competitive, cost controlling, profit driven approach. In a word, privitization.

Initially, the tens of thousands of government agencies and the services they are charged to provide should be examined, one by one, and those that could be privatized should be, starting with some of the biggest. The U.S. Postal service is a prime example. Public education another and much of Medicare and Medicaid management and administrative oversight another. But there must be a myriad of others that America’s entrepreneurs would be eager to compete for, against their counterparts, on a regular contractural basis. The taxpayer would, of course, continue to fund these services as long as necessary but the costs would be controlled by the natural competetive forces in the free market. I doubt it will happen in my lifetime, if ever, unless some big guns from the public, in concert with the private sector, are brought to bear.

alexander ilnyckyj - August 22, 2012

I am glad to see our money is being well spent on nothing as usual. However, there is a much larger problem and that’s the Federal Reserve. This is an item that the Heritage should go after. You’ll see why we have a $ 16 trillion debt. They are the cause of it, buy lending money to Banks which they control. The money is made out of thin air with no value and put into circulation which inflates the value of the dollar and then the price of oil gos up,price of food, up etc. Have you ever wondered why back in the 50′s a chevy cost $ 1,200. oo dollars and today the cost is $ 30,000. It’s because of the FED. a private corporation started in Jekell Island, Ga. by none other than J.P. Morgan, J.D. Rockefeller, the Rothchilds which are still in control of the banking system. Yes, there was a Sen. Aldridge from N.Y. a crooked politican who was able to push this thru in congress. So every time we have bail outs of to big to fail, the FED. and the bankers run to congress and cry that if they don’t appropriate the money, will have unemployment and it will be a disaster to the nation. So, the dumb congress vote’s for a bail out. The FED prints the money and we the taxpayers get stuck paying the bill and that increases the inflation because you just added Trillion dollars to the money supply. Now the dollars value decreases and the taxpayer pays more for fuel,food,cars,etc. So Heritage why don’t you expose this theft of the peoples wealth by the FED. (Which are the bankers) a private Corporation with a clever name so to dupe the people of this nation.

Royce Boon - August 22, 2012

Fire all the people from the highest to the lowest, who were in any way involved in these boondoggles.

Artz - August 22, 2012

Governmental budgets are far too large (even during periods of so called reductions), programs are not priortized and audits have little or no impact. Reduce spending by no less than 50% and don’t give them any more. Wwhen they say they have expended funding review the “so called “essential” programs that the funds have been expended on.. you will find that many programs that are non-essential are paid for first to the leadership can later say essential programs do not have adequate funding.. When this happens… Fire the Bums, set an example for the next leader. Repeat this process until it works.

Steven Rankens - August 22, 2012

The government needs to be run like a BUSINESS! It’s time to stop pork barrel legislation & earmarks, if a branch of the government(most likely all) is not profitable, they need to be shut down. Most of the lawmakers don’t care about how much the government wastes, their only concern is their political career. Business people know that when you have more expenses than income, cutbacks need to be made. This President has no clue regarding a business climate and is afraid to take his spending problem. Big government is not the answer. President Reagan shut down various governmental agencies, and put the government on a diet. This President is doing everything he can to distribute our taxpayer dollars around the world, diminishing America, slowly eroding our freedoms, because of what his father had envisioned for America. Our founding fathers also had a dream for America, if they were here now, they would have already impeached Obama. I believe we should have a flat tax and term limits. To many hard working Americans are out of work, It’s time some of the bureaucrats in Washington loose their jobs! THE FIRST ONE WILL BE PRESIDENT OBAMA, GET OUT AND VOTE AND STOP THIS IDIOT!

Charles Stone - August 22, 2012

Actually, cutting the budget is not the answer; we should require every federal activity (ie each line item of each agency’s operating budget) to be clearly identified within the Constitution and for which State it applies.
Once both are satisfied, the money needs to be offered to the individual State with the requirement that the State must operate that activity for the following two fiscal years. Funding however will only be provided for two fiscal years. Or the States can put the item on their ballot during the first fiscal year to determine if their state is willing to fund the activity (ie, so many $or% allocated in their sales tax rate). If the population agrees to the higher sales tax, ok. If not, cancel the program at the end of the second fiscal year. This way, after two years much of the Federal budget will be moved to the States where it belonged anyway and will either be funded or discontinued. If one state likes the program and another does not, the people can move to the state they like. Oh, some federal workers will lose their job; they can have first choice to be considered in the states that elect to keep the program. Best ones get the job, the rest go looking, or retire.

Larry Sparks - August 22, 2012

This is just another example of liberal economic philosphy that waste taxpayers money. This must be stop now, the people responsible fired, demoted or forced to retire.I hope this information does to the Agriculture and Budget committees as lessons learned. If these programs were placed in the budget at the last meeting by a Senator or Representative, we need to know who and person held accountable.

Jeff Yetter - August 23, 2012

If it has to do with government, the answer ALWAYS is: DEFUND! DEFUND! DEFUND! Shrinkage will automatically follow.

Victress Jenkins - August 23, 2012

The money that was wasted by the Agriculture dept. could have fed many families who are hard hit by the financial problems in this country. Such “gross” waste is inexcusable!! I agree with Mr. Moessner’s comments!!! Let the states handle the agricultural needs of its citizens.

another agency that needs abolishment is the Dept of Education and/or put it back where it came from HEW -Health Education & welfare

Larry Wilkins - August 24, 2012

This will never change until we have people in office making these decisions that have character, integrity,believe what is wrong is wrong and what is right is right, based on Biblical values.

Louise Brummett - August 24, 2012

Cut the federal budget by 25-50 percent – period.

Wade - August 27, 2012

Scrop their current authority. Congress then must define each government office’s mission in very narrow and specifici terms. Give them their mission statement; don’t allow them to create or modify their duties or responsibilities without congressional approval. Cut their operating budget to 25% of current allowance and tell each employee from the top down they must accomplish their mission or be replaced. No earmark spending of any kind under any circumstances. All spending must be for a single function/purpose and within the confines of their newly defined mission.

Terri Buckler - August 27, 2012

For each dollar that is wasted cut the AG’s budget as much. If Taxes go down because of the economy, then the AG will have to learn to live or die by what money is coming to it. If any department looses 25% of its budget it should be shut down.

Steve in Texas - August 27, 2012

The best way to stop such activity is to punish those who do it. Punish = public reprimand, firing, criminal charges, etc. As long as people can get away with spending other people’s money on waste, they will do it.