Issue 503 If the Bureaucracy does not want it!?

Did you know that Congress and the President of the United States pass laws on spending that the Federal Bureaucracy does not want?  So the Pentagon will be forced to spend money on a new missile launcher that it does not even need.  The FDA will be forced to spend money on visual inspection agents for food, when a simple chemical test will due instead.  So what am I proposing?  Well read on to find out more.

The Proposal:  Here I am proposing that the Congress and the President pass a bill into law that would allow federal agencies and departments to eliminate programs that they deem redundant or are no longer useful.  So no more wasteful spending on missile launchers in the pentagon if they deem it redundant or possibly inferior to the ones they have already.  The State department can stop giving money to foreign countries when they do not vote the same way as us in the United Nations.  Departments that deal with welfare can drop programs deemed ripe with corruption or that are considered completely useless.  So many programs would be able to be cut, so much money could be saved.

How it would work:  So the idea is that the law would do one thing, that is to allow federal departments and agencies to cut programs and cease spending (even before it begins) on programs or expenditures deemed redundant, duplicative, superfluous or wasteful.  Of course, Congress will have oversight of this and have veto power over each program or expenditure cut with the stipulation that each item be voted on individually.  If the cuts get passed the Congressional veto, then the money will be deducted from the federal agencies/departments budget equal to the amount of money that was allocated that year for the continuation of that program or expense.  This will thus prevent corruption by the bureaucracy of cutting one program just to shift the money to a program or expense they favor without the consent of the people via their representatives.  This also has the advantage of letting Congressional representatives save face in the eyes of the public as they will no longer have to publicly defund a failing welfare program, or a school support program which would make them look like the evil bad guy taking money from the poor or from children.  Thus everyone can save a little face in the eyes of the public.

Conclusion:  This is a possible idea to help us deal with federal programs run amok that are deemed not needed.  Though it will have the problem of ideologues in the bureaucracies cutting programs they don't like as opposed to the ones that do not work.  So methods like an outside auditor or even a separate group within another federal branch like the treasury could make these decisions for the department/agency heads (with department heads making recommendations for cuts as well).  Again it is an idea to be flushed out, but it is an idea at the very least worth thinking about.