For months we've been arguing over spending cuts. Democrats say that heartless Republicans want to use an axe while they prefer to use a scalpel. According to the GAO, the axe will do fine.

Yesterday the non-partisan GAO released a report entitled Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue. Coming on the heels, as it does, of the President's $3.73 trillion 2011 budget and read to the a cappella accompaniment of the rabid, Astro-Turfed union thugs still protesting in Wisconsin; it is a stake in the heart of progressive spending practice.

For decades conservatives have protested as progressive legislators have trotted out one incapable constituent of theirs after another and wailed; "We need a federal program to ensure bad things don't happen to these good people!" Conservatives have been constantly vilified for wanting to starve children, throw seniors into the streets, and allow the homeless to freeze to death.

Then we are treated to nightly news video of persons lining up for housing vouchers in Detroit; many of them checking out the latest posts on Twitter and Facebook on their $500 smart phones while waiting in line for those vouchers. Or my personal favorite from Arkansas: A person standing in their living room complaining that she's been denied federal assistance to pay her light bill while in the background of the shot we get a clear view of her 50" flat screen HD TV and her X-box 360!

Here are just a few of the highlights of this report;

• There are at minimum 15 agencies split between the USDA and the FDA that are involved in food safety oversight.
• There are 31 unique entities within DoD to outline "Warfighter Urgent Needs".
• The USDA, Dept. of Commerce, HUD, and the SBA have a total of 80 economic development programs between them.
• There are five agencies within the DOT that own over 100 surface transportation programs.
• There are seven federal agencies that oversee and operate over 20 different homelessness programs.
• There are 18 domestic food assistance programs
• DoE, HHS, and DoL oversee in excess of 44 employment and job training programs.
• There are a total of ten different federal agencies administrating 82 teacher quality programs.
• There are more than 20 unique agencies operating 56 different financial literacy programs.

My first impression is why did we need an $800 billion stimulus program if we already have 80 other economic development programs? I also cannot help but believe that such a situation as the results of this report could have been avoided if progressive Senators and Congressmen of both political stripes had signed up for just ONE of those 56 economic literacy programs offered by the federal government. Then again recent proclamations by President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid et al, are more than sufficient evidence to prove that the words "federal government" and "economic literacy" are mutually exclusive terms.

Here's a jewel of a statement from the report itself; "The Department of Transportation (DOT) currently administers scores of surface transportation programs costing over $58 billion annually. The cost to repair and upgrade roads, bridges, and other infrastructure so they can safely and reliably meet current and future demands is estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars. However, large increases in federal expenditures for transportation in recent years have not commensurately improved system performance." [1] How can this be?  I'd be willing to bet that these programs have been running for a decade. One would think that for spending over a half a trillion dollars that most of these roads and bridges would be fixed by now. But all that spending plus the spending for "shovel ready" infrastructure projects in the stimulus bill and the infrastructure is still in dire need of repair. Thanks union labor! Here in Arkansas we've discovered a way to eliminate 90% of highway workers. We invented a shovel that stands up by itself.

According to pg. 130 of this report; "The federal government spent more than $62.5 billion on 18 domestic food and nutrition assistance programs in fiscal year 2008." $62.5 billion divided by the 17 million citizens supposedly living below the poverty line would provide $3,676.47 to each of those 17 million people to buy food: Not for each family, for EACH PERSON! That's 80% of what my wife and I spend together as a household each year on groceries. How can there possibly be anyone without food?

Here's another scathing statement from pg. 144 of the report. "For example in the Department of Education, eight different offices administer over 60 of the federal programs supporting teacher quality improvements, primarily in the form of competitive grants." I'll be willing to bet that there is not one Wisconsin union teacher enrolled in any of the reported 82 teacher quality improvement programs run by this federal leviathan as evidenced by Wisconsin grammar school children whose reading scores haven't budged a single point in a decade while unit cost per student has climbed over 30%!

And the report goes on and on and on. The literally hundreds of overlapping and fragmented programs add up to tens of billions of dollars in government waste annually: Enough to make the case that we could triple the amount of cuts offered by the Progressive-in-Chief and not miss a single one of those programs. In addition, this report puts paid to the "We will actively find and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse" statements constantly parroted by the President and his minions. Turns out, the most direct method that could be employed to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in government would be to eliminate progressives from government. Who knew? Conservatives did; that's who.

This should be an epiphany to progressives across this country. All they've done for decades is cry "Spend, spend, spend!" I'm certain they have had no earthly idea how much redundant spending they've foisted on the taxpayers over the decades. They never keep track of what is spent, they just keep demanding more!

I, for one, am through with debating progressives over money, taxation, and the need for more government spending. By the time I finished reading this 345 page report last night I was physically sick. I'm also no longer a fan of cutting the federal government back to 2008 levels. They should be cut to the FY 2000 levels of $1.7 trillion.

[1] GAO: Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue pg. 53.