To the editor,

Some Journal  readers face a 2024 holiday season with fear and trembling over what the New Year in political Washington will bring. But please. Be positive. We could see new government efficiencies! And not through cuts to favorite welfare programs.

Ongoing government waste has long been a problem and is no small part of our $36 trillion national debt with its $3 billion in interest payments. All of our representatives share the blame for this unaccountable spending. And we voted them in, left and right.

Sen. Joni Ernst gives us a peak at how we, the taxpayers, are continuously snookered by unaccountable bureaucrats in agencies without oversight. Ending these ignored slush funds could be the miracle of the ages.

1. $15.7 billion on underutilized and vacant buildings while many bureaucrats don't show up for work.
2. $1.5 billion in unpaid government employee back taxes.
3. $7.5 billion so far for 17 EV charging stations.
4. $42 billion for expanded rural broadband yet to connect anyone to the internet.
5. $144 billion for three as yet to be built California bullet trains.
6. $53 billion in “use it or lose it before year's end” budget spending sprees.
7. $1.6 trillion in unobligated secret funds for unreported “projects.”
8. Hundreds of millions of employee payments for undocumented work.
9. $213 million in annual unemployment for people with million-dollar incomes.
10. $125 billion of defense department spending after eight years of inaccurate audits.
11. Hundreds of millions in grants for absurd and meaningless university and private research.
12. $1.5 billion annually for meaningless agency promotional swag.
13. $10 billion on ineligible enrollees in the SNAP food program.
14. $15 billion more than necessary for U.N. annual dues.
15. $1 billion annually for Federal Employee Benefits to ineligible recipients.
16. Unknown millions to subsidize the research and unreliable products of political enemies in our marketplace.

This shortlist is why we taxpaying dupes need to demand a downsized accountable federal bureaucracy. Agencies like FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security must explain the mismanagement that causes more emergency, crime and human trafficking problems than it resolves. Pointing fingers in one political direction is useless.

Contact your federal representatives and senators, no matter which party they identify with, and demand that responsible oversight and fiscal management replace lobbying, bribes, regulatory mishmash, insider trading, and impossible-to-read-before-passage continuing resolutions. 

A brighter future for all of us depends on it.

Donna O'Keefe

Town of River Falls