联邦政府每年至少浪费纳税人$2470亿资金
CNBC新闻 ｜2023-04-18
根据美国政府问责局(government Accountability Office)的数据，2022年，不当支付（指政府错误支付的款项）使美国损失了2470亿美元。据美国政府问责局估计，在过去20年里，美国政府因简单的支付错误损失了近2.4万亿美元。
The federal government wastes at least $247 billion
传统基金会(Heritage Foundation)的预算和支出专家理查德·斯特恩(Richard Stern)说，“在过去几十年里，政府损失了数万亿美元，就像你把它掉在人行道上一样。这些钱是从辛勤工作的美国人那里偷来的，最终白白浪费掉了。”
但这还不是全部。来自非营利组织和肯塔基州共和党参议员兰德·保罗(Rand Paul)等议员的监督报告称，每年还有数十亿美元被浪费——从花费17亿美元维护空置的政府大楼，到投资2800万美元购买用于阿富汗沙漠的森林迷彩服。
重复的程序是另一个令人担忧的原因。
反对政府浪费公民组织主席汤姆·沙茨说：“政府问责局每年都会发布一份关于重复和交叉项目的报告，每年他们都会发现越来越多的这样的项目。”
批评人士说，这些问题主要源于政府试图解决问题的方式。
沙茨说：“在私营部门，如果有人在做某事，他们会看到自己想要做什么或出售什么，然后决定如何做，以及成本是多少。在联邦政府，一切都是‘去花更多的钱’，如果这不起作用，那就是‘再花更多的钱’。”
政府问责局的职责是审计和报告联邦政府的任何浪费开支。但专家认为，它并没有以它可以或应该的方式影响政策变化。
“我认为他们有足够的权力，但我认为他们没有足够的人力或资源，”布鲁金斯学会(Brookings Institution)高级研究员伊莱恩·卡马克(Elaine Karmarck)说。
然而，监督组织表示，政府的浪费性支出可能会给经济健康带来痛苦的后果。
斯特恩说：“随着政府支出的增加，赤字也在增加。发生的事情是，它把房间里的氧气都吸走了。它正在摧毁投资。这是在拿我们的未来押注。它正在减缓我们的增长。今天，你看到的通货膨胀在很大程度上就是这种情况的结果。”
The federal government wastes at least $247 billion in taxpayer money each year. Here's how
- The U.S. government wastes billions of taxpayer dollars every year.
- The U.S. has lost almost $2.4 trillion in simple payment errors over the last two decades.
- Oversight reports claim that billions more dare being wasted every year on needless and duplicative programs
- Wasteful spending by the government can have painful consequences to the health of the economy, according to watchdog groups.
The U.S. government wastes billions of taxpayer dollars every year.
Improper payments, which refer to payments that are made incorrectly by the government, cost the U.S. $247 billion in 2022, according to the Government Accountability Office. The U.S. government has lost almost $2.4 trillion in simple payment errors over the last two decades, by GAO estimates.
“The government has just lost, as if you dropped it on the sidewalk, trillions and trillions of dollars over the last few decades,” said Richard Stern, a budget and spending expert from the Heritage Foundation. “That is money that was stolen from hardworking Americans to just simply get wasted.”
But that’s not all. Oversight reports from nonprofits and lawmakers like Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., claim billions more are being wasted every year — from spending $1.7 billion maintaining empty government buildings to accidentally investing $28 million on forest camouflage uniforms to be used in the deserts of Afghanistan.
Duplicated programs are another cause for concern.
“The Government Accountability Office every year issues a report on duplicative and overlapping programs and every year they find more and more of these programs,” according to Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste.
The problems mainly stem from the way our government tries to solve an issue, according to critics.
“In the private sector, if somebody is doing something, they see what they’re trying to do or sell and then determine how to do it and how much it will cost,” Schatz said. “In the federal government, everything is ‘Go spend more money’ and if that doesn’t work, it’s ‘Go spend more money.’”
It’s the job of the GAO to audit and report any wasteful spending by the federal government. But experts argue that it doesn’t influence policy changes in the way that it could or should.
“I think they have enough power, but I don’t think they have enough manpower or resources,” said Elaine Karmarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Nevertheless, wasteful spending by the government can have painful consequences to the health of the economy, according to watchdog groups.
“As the government spends it runs up a deficit,” Stern said. “What happens is, it’s sucking all the oxygen out of the room. It’s destroying investment. It’s mortgaging our futures. It’s slowing our growth. Today, the inflation you’re seeing is a large result of that.”
Watch the video to find out more about why taxes feel so high in the U.S. and why so much taxpayer money gets wasted.
