Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below:
Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
On May 11, 2011, I emailed to this above address and I got this email back from Senator Pryor’s office:
Please note, this is not a monitored email account. Due to the sheer volume of correspondence I receive, I ask that constituents please contact me via my website with any responses or additional concerns. If you would like a specific reply to your message, please visit http://pryor.senate.gov/contact. This system ensures that I will continue to keep Arkansas First by allowing me to better organize the thousands of emails I get from Arkansans each week and ensuring that I have all the information I need to respond to your particular communication in timely manner. I appreciate you writing. I always welcome your input and suggestions. Please do not hesitate to contact me on any issue of concern to you in the future.
Here are a few more I just emailed to him myself:
- The federal government cannot account for $24.5 billion spent in 2003.16
- The U.S. General Accounting Office refuses to certify the federal government’s own accounting books because the bookkeeping is so poor.
- Of the 26 departments and major agencies, 18 received the lowest possible rating for their financial management, meaning that auditors cannot even express an opinion on their financial statements.17
- The Medicare program pays as much as eight times the cost that other federal agencies pay for the same drugs and medical supplies.18
- The federal government made $20 billion in overpayments in 2001.
- The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s $3.3 billion in overpayments in 2001 accounted for over 10 percent of the department’s total budget.19
- Recently, the Department of Agriculture was unable to account for $5 billion in receipts and expenditures;
- The Internal Revenue Service does not even know how much it collects in payroll taxes.20
- Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.21
- The Army Corps of Engineers has been accused of illegally manipulating data to justify expensive but unnecessary public works projects.22
- A recent audit revealed that employees of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) diverted as much as 3 percent of the USDA budget to personal purchases through their government-issued credit cards.23
- Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 for admission to entertainment events, $48,250 for gambling, $69,300 for cruises, and $73,950 for exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.24
This is how bad it is getting:
Anti-Poverty Spending Is Surging
The Daily Hatch 