baseline budgeting finances government waste

#Baseline budgeting finances government waste plus

As of 2008, more than $13 billion in Iraq aid has been classified as wasted or stolen. Congressman Ross goes on to say, “…before we lay this waste and fraud entirely on the feet of departments and agencies supported by our liberal friends, I ask my fellow conservatives to remove the beam from our own eye first. The bill currently enjoys 16 co-sponsors, all Republicans.Īlas, wasteful spending is not an issue relegated to one side of the aisle. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the federal bureaucracies requesting funding would be required to summarize for taxpayers the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of funded programs. Ideally, such a mechanism would allow agency leaders to assist Congress in cutting waste, in lieu of the much-maligned “across-the-board” approach exemplified in the recent sequester. Third, each must offer three alternative funding levels, two of which must be for less money than the prior budget year.

Second, they would be required to cite the legal basis to receive an appropriation. As he asks, and answers, “So what can we do to stop government on auto-pilot? The answer – demand we start from zero – every year.” The ZERO Act seeks to accomplish a number of objectives.įirst, as part of their annual budget request, every federal department and agency would be required to provide a description of each activity for which they receive an appropriation. 239, the Zero-based Budgeting Ensures Responsible Oversight (ZERO) Act of 2013. Representative Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) has introduced this issue into the 113th Congress with his bill, H.R. Such an approach, more commonly referred to as either “zero-based budgeting” (ZBB) or “performance-based budgeting,” might encourage a more nimble and less bureaucratic public sector. But a more judicious federal government might generate greater efficiencies and considerable savings if each department, agency, and program was required to justify its budget each year, starting at zero. Of course, baseball and bureaucracies are not typical bedfellows. The baseline includes automatic adjustments for inflation and anticipated increases in program participation.”

#Baseline budgeting finances government waste plus

On October 1, the beginning of a new fiscal year, the bureaucrats blithely assume that they should be automatically granted the previous year’s funding level, plus some “extras.” This, in a nutshell, is “baseline budgeting.” As the Congressional Budget Office defines it, “the baseline is a benchmark for measuring the budgetary effects of proposed changes in federal revenue or spending, with the assumption that current budgetary policies or current services are continued without change. On the other hand, the federal government just picks up everything where it was left off the year before, regardless of performance. Poor performance, with no promise of improvement, usually leads to paltry patronage by the fans. Then, when they don’t measure up, they face even greater scrutiny from management. Instead, every year, regardless of past performance, teams must start over from scratch, demonstrating through their talents that they deserve to be in the playoffs, based on their record during the current season. The District’s boys of summer would automatically be handed the 2013 National League East division title, and fans could spend carefree months without worrying about whether the team will make it to the post-season for the second time in 80 years.īut that is not the way that baseball works. For fans of the national pastime in Washington, D.C., it would be great if the Nationals could just start the new season where they left off last year.