Everyone likes to talk about cutting government waste, but when it comes down to actually doing it too many supporters of the spending seem to come forward.
Citizens Against Government Waste, nonetheless, has 750 recommendations that would cut $280 billion in federal spending in the next year and $2 trillion over the next five years.
After the president vetoes the surrender budget, Congress will have another opportunity to ignore recommendations like this. But as our population ages, we are going to have to change the way we think about entitlement spending. As public retiree health spending bankrupts Kentucky, Medicare's red ink looms large on the federal front.
A fundamental shift in the function of government is necessary. It is one thing to rail against subsidies for studying methane production by cattle or bridges to nowhere, but until we get government out of places where it doesn't belong, such efforts will amount to nothing.
We must begin to cut back on the kind of businesses governments can get involved in. If we can manage that, we will eliminate a whole segment of government spending that generates much of the waste and corruption we see now. Only then can we get serious about cutting government spending.
