Over Half of the Federal Government’s Spending Data Is Wrong

They even lie about the numbers.

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by chairman Rob Portman (R., Ohio) and ranking member Tom Carper (D., Del.), released a report Tuesday finding nearly every agency is failing to accurately report its spending as required by federal law.

The subcommittee reviewed over two dozen inspector general reports and determined 55 percent of the spending data submitted to USAspending.gov was inaccurate. The errors accounted for $240 billion in spending during the second quarter of 2017, according to the report.

The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014, or DATA Act, required federal spending to be easily accessible to the public through a searchable website, which became USAspending.gov. The website was revamped earlier this year, but agencies are not meeting their requirements to submit accurate, consistent, and reliable data on its spending.

The agency in charge of USAspending.gov—the Treasury Department—is among the worst culprits, as 96 percent of its own data is inaccurate.

"The most troubling aspect of the Treasury Department's difficulties in submitting accurate data to USAspending.gov is that it is the very agency that created the DATA Act standards for [the] rest of the federal government," the report said.

One hundred percent of the Defense and Energy departments' spending was either incorrectly reported or not reported at all.

The Pentagon's inspector general warned, "Policymakers may not be able to rely on the DoD's financial and award data to make decisions and effectively plan for mission critical programs and operations."

About that $1.3 Trillion Dollar Spending Bill

Sitting here thinking about the hysterical reaction on the Right about the budget deal. 

Foremost among those saying that this is the end of the Trump presidency is Rush Limbaugh. I love Rush and admire his intellect and his instincts.  He reflects the opinion of millions of ordinary people, the people that elected Donald Trump.

So I decided to do a little research. I’m a number guy and when I heard about a budget deal that allocated $1.3 trillion dollars for the next six months I began looking for numbers.  That's a lot of money but what is the perspective?  We always want to ask: compared to what?

Total federal spending has been rising almost every year since 1900, the exception being the years just after WWI and WWII. Federal spending fell sharply after we were no longer at war.  In 2008 spending was $2.98 trillion and in 2009 that figure rose to $3.65 trillion, a 22% jump in one year. The Obama budget for 2017 was $4.15 trillion.

With that as background, it’s hard to determine just how bad the bill that Congress just passed was.  That $1.3 trillion funds the government through October.  Although I have not read the bill I’m willing to admit that the bill apparently funds just about everything that Democrats wanted. That’s just the rumor. Not in the bill  (I’m told) is funding for The Wall, something that Trump campaigned on, his supporters want, and most Congressional Republicans never really supported.

One thing it does is increase defense spending, giving the military an opportunity to rebuild after years of malign neglect by the Obama administration. In an increasingly dangerous world, with challenges from a resurgent Russia, an aggressive China, the global cancer of Islamo-Fascism, and a very dangerous nuclear armed North Korea, fixing the military should be the number one priority of the Trump administration.

But back to the topic: looking at this bill dispassionately, we may register disappointment that the Welfare state is getting a transfusion instead of shrinking, but we refuse to engage in apocalyptic pronouncements with all due respect to our hero, Rush Limbaugh. It could be as bad as he says, but I need to be persuaded that it’s time to give up on Trump.

As a parting thought, the guy in charge of all that spending, the holder of the $1.3 trillion dollar checkbook is none other than Donald John Trump. It will make a big difference.