Citizens Against Government Waste
Last updated
Last updated
We don't need "geniuses" to reinvent the wheel. We just need to source information from think tanks who have done most of the legwork already.
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) is releasing Prime Cuts 2024, which has been published since 1993.
The 2024 version contains 539 recommendations that would save taxpayers $377 billion in the first year and $5.1 trillion over five years.
The recommendations were drawn from longstanding and new proposals from CAGW, including some that were set forth by both Democratic and Republican administrations and members of Congress, as well as nonpartisan sources.
Prime Cuts 2024 addresses every area of government spending. For example, the report proposes eliminating the Market Access Program (MAP), which aims to help agricultural producers promote U.S. products overseas. MAP is a corporate welfare program that funnels millions of dollars to large, profitable corporations and trade associations that can well afford to pay for their own advertisements. Eliminating MAP would save taxpayers $871.5 million over five years.
Numerous cuts can be made at the Department of Defense (DOD) without jeopardizing national security, including eliminating the earmarks members of Congress add each year for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to fund additional planes not requested by the Pentagon. Canceling such earmarks would save taxpayers $282.4 million in the first year and $1.4 billion over five years. Since FY 2001, legislators have added 39 earmarks for the JSF program, costing $12.4 billion.
The recommendations also include longstanding proposals to eliminate the sugar, dairy, and peanut programs; reduce Medicare improper payments by 50 percent; and sell excess federal property.
The Prime Cuts Summary contains 17 recommendations, in order of one-year savings, that would save $26 billion in the first year and $132.4 billion over five years. The full database of recommendations can be accessed at CAGW.org/PrimeCuts.
By following the blueprint provided by CAGW’s Prime Cuts 2024, wasteful government spending can be reined in, and the nation can begin to chart a path toward fiscal sanity. Prime Cuts 2024 is essential reading for taxpayers, the media, and legislators alike.