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0 pointsrgmerk1y ago0 comments

There are no politically viable ways to make the US government significantly more efficient in a way that would leave government services unaffected.

The one big opportunity to do that is defence and it is the one that Republicans, particularly, treat as a sacred cow.

Social Security is already extremely efficient in that the cost of moving money around is minimal.

Medicare and Medicaid are also more efficient than the private sector.

Is government perfect? Hell no. But in the really big picture the big and rising areas of civilian expenditure are not where the inefficiencies lie.

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refurb1y ago

> in a way that would leave government services unaffected

I’m not sure what “unaffected” means. Do you mean from the end user perspective? Or government employee perspective?

I think people underestimate the overhead associated with many government services. Even thing like social security disability have 30-40% of the money not going to the recipient, it’s going to the administration.

If you were able to improve social security administration efficiency (benefit validation, denial appeal, check mailing costs) by just 10%, you just reduced social the federal budget by a few percentage points. That’s huge.

My own experience with government services is that significant efficiencies could be squeezed out and keep the end user service the same (or better?).

bcrosby951y ago

Where are you getting your numbers? Social security is well known as one of the most efficient government agencies.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/admin.html

A 10% increase in administration efficiency would shave of $700 million.

refurb1y ago

Social security disability has much higher admin cost percentage.

But regardless, a 10% improvement in efficiency, in one government program, potentially saves almost $1B.

That seems quite striking to me when you think about all the US government programs.

rgmerkOP1y ago

So let's, for the sake of argument, say that there are two hundred similarly sized efficiency savings to be found in the US federal budget.

Congratulations, you just saved 200 billion dollars of expenditure.

The difference between expenditure and revenue in 2023 was 1.7 trillion.

Let me be clear - if money is being spent poorly, that is bad and it should be spent more effectively, or not spent at all. I'm just trying to demonstrate that "waste", at least waste as it is traditionally understood, is almost irrelevant in any attempt to balance the federal budget.

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refurb1y ago

> in a way that would leave government services unaffected

I’m not sure what “unaffected” means. Do you mean from the end user perspective? Or government employee perspective?

My own experience with government services is that significant efficiencies could be squeezed out and keep the end user service the same (or better?).

bcrosby951y ago

Where are you getting your numbers? Social security is well known as one of the most efficient government agencies.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/admin.html

A 10% increase in administration efficiency would shave of $700 million.

refurb1y ago

Social security disability has much higher admin cost percentage.

But regardless, a 10% improvement in efficiency, in one government program, potentially saves almost $1B.

That seems quite striking to me when you think about all the US government programs.

rgmerkOP1y ago

So let's, for the sake of argument, say that there are two hundred similarly sized efficiency savings to be found in the US federal budget.

Congratulations, you just saved 200 billion dollars of expenditure.

The difference between expenditure and revenue in 2023 was 1.7 trillion.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse