It has to get wasted, er spent, or they don't get it again next fiscal year. Are you one of those people who wants to defund the government?
I want government spending reform...think of the billions wasted to keep the budget from being cut....
Under current broken system, basically if they are budgeted $1,000,000 but they only used $900,000, they have to waste the extra $100,000 or most likely the next year, they only get $900,000. So the jackasess waste the $100,000 and then argue they again need $1mm Plus inflation.
Here's my idea.. if in year 1, goobers get budgeted $1,000,000 and they only use $900,000, the the following would happen.
1. The remaining $100,000 gets set aside in an escrow account that can not be raided for another department/ project/program.
2. The following year (yr 2), their budget (after due diligence and reevaluation) gets adjusted to $922,500. The new budget is still 2.5% more than the actually used the year before. If something comes up where they need extra funding they can tap into their reserves, with the stipulation that it must be a legitimate expense and not wasteful.
3. The third year, the budget would again be reevaluated. And based on what was actually budgeted and spent on the previous year (including any reserve withdrawals), a budget would be set. So say they spent $922,500 plus $10,000, then at the most, they could be budgeted $955,823 (2.5% increase).
4 Year four, same process as before, any surplus goes into their reserve account. And following year budget is reduced appropriately.
Based on this simple idea, I just saved the tax payers at least $77,500 in year two and $44,188 in year three, just by cutting out purposely spent waste. That's $121,688 in just 2 years after implementing the change.
So yes, the government spending could get cut and at the same time REAL programs wouldn't be touched. Do this across the board and tax's could actually be cut, putting money back into our pockets. And a large portion would be spent or invested, which would do wonders for the economy. And with more people working and paying taxes, the tax revenue would increase which could be used to pay down the deficit.