The problem with the "waste, fraud, and abuse trope is ...
by Barney68 (2024-03-05 08:51:03)

In reply to: Thanks for posting, certainly wasn't necessary.  posted by krudler


that while it's real and the numbers look impressive, it's an illusion. Imagine WF&A amounts to 1% of spending, and I suspect that's high. In a $2 trillion budget, the maximum savings would be $20 billion. Since perfection is impossible, say you net $10 billion. A help, yes. A solution, no.

Note that Social Security is a very low overhead passthrough. Not much available there.

Medicare is a different story. The problem is that the complexity of modern medicine creates a lot of opportunity for poor cost control.

DoD is huge and a significant chunk of that budget's value is in the eye of the beholder. Guessing what will be valuable in future conflicts is very tricky as is being demonstrated in Ukraine.