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Trump Budget Embraces CAGW Proposals
On February 10, President Donald Trump released his fiscal year 2021 budget proposal. The budget drew heavily on the waste-cutting recommendations found in the most recent edition of CAGW’s annual Prime Cuts report. The 2019 edition of Prime Cuts included 620 recommendations to cut to wasteful and duplicative programs, saving taxpayers $433.8 billion in the first year and $3.9 trillion over five years. The President’s budget includes more than 80 percent of CAGW’s recommended cuts. Responding to the release of the President’s budget, CAGW President Tom Schatz commented, “Cutting government waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement has proven to be the most difficult task in Washington. While the president’s budget tackles numerous wasteful programs, more can be done to balance the federal budget in less than 15 years. We encourage President Trump to continue his efforts on behalf of taxpayers to cut wasteful spending and implement private-sector principles to make the federal government more efficient and effective.” Read more about the CAGW proposals included in President Trump’s budget.
Porker of the Month: Rep. John Yarmuth
Watch CAGW's February Porker of the Month Video
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) Porker of the Month for opposing commonsense efforts to stop government waste. In the introduction to his FY 2021 budget, President Trump wrote, “To ensure this economic strength continues, I have called on the Government to reduce wasteful, unnecessary spending, and to fix mismanagement and redundancy across agencies.” Instead of embracing this practical concept, Rep. Yarmuth incredulously stated that budget means “the federal government relinquishes any responsibility for the well-being of the American people and our nation.” Instead of working with the President to cut government waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement, Rep. Yarmuth has chosen to embrace partisanship and ignore the federal government’s massive $21 trillion debt. For failing to fight to protect taxpayers, Rep. Yarmuth is the February Porker of the Month. Read more about the Porker of the Month.
CAGW Slams Ongoing USPS Losses
CAGW reacted with frustration and indignation after the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced a loss of $748 million in the first quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2020. This brings the total amount lost by USPS over the past 14 years to $78.5 billion. The USPS also reported that revenue fell by $363 million compared to the same quarter last year. Responding to the report, CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “The USPS must come to grips with the reality of its fiscal situation. Several postal reform bills have been introduced and considered in the House and Senate committees of jurisdiction over the past several years. None of these efforts have come to fruition, yet time is growing short. … Without market-oriented reforms, like those proposed in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Postal Task Force’s Report, the USPS’s finances will remain in the red and eventually reach the catastrophic stage, where taxpayers will be left to foot the bill.” Read more about the Postal Service’s mounting losses.
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