Averting the Washington Monument Ploy | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

Averting the Washington Monument Ploy | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Congress could require every government agency to rank its programs from the most to the least cost-effective, and present a detailed plan as to how each agency would deal with a required 10, 20 or even 40 percent budget reduction, just as businesses often have to do."

"To bring the federal budget into balance this year would require spending cuts of approximately 40 percent. No one has proposed cuts of that magnitude at the moment — Republicans are proposing cuts of about 1.8 percent of this year's budget and Democrats are only proposing cuts of 0.28 percent. If Congress and the administration fail to agree on a budget or debt-limit increase, government tax revenues would only cover about 40 percent of spending, so a ranking of spending priorities would be necessary."

"I often speak before groups of government executives, and when I ask them, 'If you were forced to substantially reduce your budgets without impairing the effectiveness of your operation and mission, could you do so — if you were freed from unnecessary paperwork and other absurd requirements?' The answer is almost always 'yes,' including those in the military."

"Rather than taking all of the heat, the members of Congress should do what boards of directors in companies and other organizations do and that is to require management to come up with specific — and very substantial — budget cuts that would not impair the core functions of the organization. Specifically, they should require each government department to state specifically how it would reduce its budget (by some specified amount) in the most cost-effective way, and be prepared to defend it before the appropriate congressional committees. In addition, the government departments should be required to rank the importance of their activities on the Internet and state how they would reduce the budget (if required to)so members of the media and the public could comment on their rankings."