A government watchdog group released a plan Tuesday that would save taxpayers $336 billion for one year and $2.3 trillion over five years.
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) offered 607 recommendations on how to reduce the federal budget in its annual Prime Cuts report. The suggested cuts stemmed from various sources, including the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Budget Office.
“By following the blueprint provided by CAGW’s Prime Cuts 2017, wasteful government spending would be dramatically cut, and the U.S. would achieve a balanced budget within President Donald Trump’s first term,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said in a statement. “The only way to put the nation on a path toward fiscal sanity is for leaders to make bold decisions to reduce waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement.”
Adopting Prime Cut 2017’s recommendations would balance the federal budget within three years, given that the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the deficit will be $693 billion this year, according to the report.
“As Washington, D.C. adjusts to a new administration, the fiscal carnage caused by past presidents continues to haunt the United States,” the report said. “The national debt nearly doubled under former President Obama and is poised to exceed $20 trillion before the end of 2017.”
The group recommended, for example, cutting Community Development Block Grants, which would save $3.2 billion per year. Approximately one-fourth of those grants may be wasted, a previous Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.
Other recommendations include eliminating sugar, dairy and peanut programs, reducing Medicare improper payments and terminating the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
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