Reports, reports, so many reports. What is a federal lawmaker to make of all these reports?
Take just two of them, both released today. The first, by Moody’s Analytics, warns that the Republican impulse to cut federal taxpayer spending by $61 billion over the next six months could mean the loss of 700,000 jobs by the end of 2012, according to a story on Politico today.
The other is a report by the Government Accountability Office estimating that taxpayers are paying the government to run well over 350 programs with services that are redundant, duplicative and in some instances unnecessary, a story in the Wall Street Journal says today. Sen. Tom Coburn, R., Okla., says the overlapping and repetitive programs cost taxpayers between $100 billion and $200 billion.
Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s, says all that Republican House cutting will slow something called the gross domestic product, our country’s overall economic output, by .5 percent in 2011 and .2 percent in 2012 resulting in 400,000 fewer jobs this year and another 300,000 jobs the following year that would have been created, but won’t.
Zandi calls it taking an unnecessary chance with the American economic recovery.
The Government Accountability Office study says the federal government has 82 individual programs to improve teacher quality; 80 programs for economic development, and 80 transportation assistance programs for the disadvantaged. There are 56 to help people understand finances, 47 for job training and employment, 20 programs for the homeless and 15 separate agencies in charge of our food safety laws.
The authors say the long overdue study could save taxpayers billions of dollars.
Both stories take pains to point out that the reports were generated by “non-partisan” institutions. However, the GAO study was done at the urging of Coburn, a House leader for the proposed spending cuts. The Moody’s study was produced by Zandi, in the forefront of those who say the government’s $800 billion stimulus was a success. Texas Watchdog is not among them.
“The fact that a relentless cheerleader for the failed ‘stimulus’ — which the Democrats who run Washington claimed would keep unemployment below 8 percent — refuses to understand that ending the spending binge will help the private sector create jobs is sad, but not surprising,” Michael Steel, a spokesman for Republican House Speaker John Boehner, told Politico in an e-mail response to Zandi’s report.
Looking at the reports together a lawmaker might reasonably conclude, and we’re thinking out loud here, that the only way to save those 700,000 jobs is to continue on with redundant, duplicative and unnecessary programs.
We might then suggest that taxpayers could realize their billions and billions in cost savings by declaring a one-year moratorium on the generation of federal reports.
The other is a report by the Government Accountability Office estimating that taxpayers are paying the government to run well over 350 programs with services that are redundant, duplicative and in some instances unnecessary, a story in the Wall Street Journal says today. Sen. Tom Coburn, R., Okla., says the overlapping and repetitive programs cost taxpayers between $100 billion and $200 billion.
Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s, says all that Republican House cutting will slow something called the gross domestic product, our country’s overall economic output, by .5 percent in 2011 and .2 percent in 2012 resulting in 400,000 fewer jobs this year and another 300,000 jobs the following year that would have been created, but won’t.
Zandi calls it taking an unnecessary chance with the American economic recovery.
The Government Accountability Office study says the federal government has 82 individual programs to improve teacher quality; 80 programs for economic development, and 80 transportation assistance programs for the disadvantaged. There are 56 to help people understand finances, 47 for job training and employment, 20 programs for the homeless and 15 separate agencies in charge of our food safety laws.
The authors say the long overdue study could save taxpayers billions of dollars.
Both stories take pains to point out that the reports were generated by “non-partisan” institutions. However, the GAO study was done at the urging of Coburn, a House leader for the proposed spending cuts. The Moody’s study was produced by Zandi, in the forefront of those who say the government’s $800 billion stimulus was a success. Texas Watchdog is not among them.
“The fact that a relentless cheerleader for the failed ‘stimulus’ — which the Democrats who run Washington claimed would keep unemployment below 8 percent — refuses to understand that ending the spending binge will help the private sector create jobs is sad, but not surprising,” Michael Steel, a spokesman for Republican House Speaker John Boehner, told Politico in an e-mail response to Zandi’s report.
Looking at the reports together a lawmaker might reasonably conclude, and we’re thinking out loud here, that the only way to save those 700,000 jobs is to continue on with redundant, duplicative and unnecessary programs.
We might then suggest that taxpayers could realize their billions and billions in cost savings by declaring a one-year moratorium on the generation of federal reports.
***
Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org.
Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog. Fan our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Scribd, and fan us on YouTube. Join our network on de.licio.us, and put our RSS feed in your newsreader. We're also on MySpace, Digg, FriendFeed, NewsVine and tumblr.
Photo of file folders by flickr user vpickering, used via a Creative Commons license.
Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org.
Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog. Fan our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Scribd, and fan us on YouTube. Join our network on de.licio.us, and put our RSS feed in your newsreader. We're also on MySpace, Digg, FriendFeed, NewsVine and tumblr.
Photo of file folders by flickr user vpickering, used via a Creative Commons license.
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