Few realize out “out of control” federal spending really is, how much is pure, avoidable waste and fraud. Years ago, my job was to oversee investigations for Congress. Later, at State, my mission included de-obligating (clawing back) misspent money. The numbers are staggering.
If Trump really wants to claw back waste, cutting future spending and redlining programs is one way. But doing a deep dive into the current federal habit of massive wastage is another.
The national debt is pushing $36 trillion. Interest alone tops $870 billion annually. That is not sustainable. The crash will come in a blink if federal spending is not reduced. It will involve potential default, accelerating inflation, currency devaluation, high interest, or a mixture.
One way to start tackling the debt problem, beyond legislative rollbacks of departments, and agencies, and excessive, unnecessary, prohibitively expensive programs, is to look directly for waste.
A 2024 study by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), akin to annual “high risk” studies by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), produced some shocking numbers. They are a start.
In short, they found that waste in federal programs is chronic, recurring, largely uncorrected, and a function of insufficient focus on matching real needs with money being given out. In effect, the federal government regularly makes improper payments, and they come to hundreds of billions.
Specifically, while wasting money is preventable, recovering some waste is within reach. Moreover, waste happens both because federal agencies allow it (or ignore it), and due to failed systems.
Accordingly, the OMB report from 2024 notes that 13 federal agencies – from a pool of hundreds, yes, hundreds – are the worst offenders. In reverse order of waste, the top 13 wasters are listed here.
The “Corporation for National and Community Service,” made overpayments in 2023 of $16 million, four percent of the agency’s budget, of which they recovered $220,000.
The Federal Communications Commission overpaid $85 million, one and a half percent of the agency’s budget, and recovered $5.6 billion of that total wastage.
Not surprisingly, the Defense Department overpaid $202 million but was able to claw back – from prior years – $1.7 billion. Meantime, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) overpaid $224 million, recovering from prior years roughly the same amount.
The Department of Education overpaid $472 million in 2023 and pulled back less than half of that. The Department of Transportation overpaid $527 million and recovered eleven million. Veterans’ Affairs meantime overpaid $1.8 billion, of which they recovered $642 million.
Moving toward the biggest proportional offenders, the Small Business Administration overpaid $3.6 billion and was only able to recapture $2.2 million. Agriculture overpaid $8.5 billion, recovering only $551 million.
The Social Security Administration, one of the biggest wasters, overpaid $11.1 billion while recovering less than half of that wastage. The Department of Labor overpaid $25 billion, getting back less than one billion. Treasury similarly overpaid $25 billion, recapturing $59 million.
Finally, the agency with a budget bigger than most foreign countries, the Department of Health and Human Services, overpaid – that is, wasted – a whopping $98.7 billion dollars, which incredibly is only 6.6 percent of the agency’s total budget. Of that, they pulled back $16 billion.
Bottom line: Federal agencies, and many state agencies, waste money through failure of data systems, the failure of oversight, and the failure to monitor who is getting what, when, and why. The next big step – even if the government will never be a sink-or-swim business – is stopping the massive waste.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
