Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor:
More than 40% of Americans think President Trump’s aggressive attempts to reshape the federal government will make it better, and 28% have been pleasantly surprised by his actions. But what might taxpayers expect?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for example, has been in the administration’s crosshairs for early elimination. But the CFPB doesn’t use taxpayer dollars. It is funded by the Federal Reserve from interest on securities and fee for service. To date, it has saved Americans $21 billion.
Inspectors general of 17 federal agencies have been fired by this administration. They are tasked with rooting out fraud and abuse and have accountability not just to department heads, but to Congress. Their offices use much less than 1% of their [agencies’] budgets.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid make up half of all federal spending. They have administrative costs of 1%, 1%-2%, and 5%-7% respectively and are among the most-efficient governmental programs, better than most of the highest performing companies in the S&P 500. Complex mechanisms to root out fraud and abuse have been in place in these governmental agencies for decades, and this task is now widely aided by AI.
Social Security might be better served with some needs-testing reform, but cutting Medicare and Medicaid benefits will have a devastating effect considering costs are tied to out-of-control health-care spending and an aging population, not administrative inefficiencies.
Instead of cutting costs, the Trump administration has rescinded the enrollment period for ACA registration, ordered a withdrawal from WHO and cut post-COVID policies increasing the likelihood of another pandemic, and ordered the removal of drug pricing controls.
A 2022 study by a major university found that if a one-party payer like Medicare administrated all health insurance in the U.S., it would have saved almost 340,000 lives during the pandemic, as well as $438 billion annually in non-pandemic years — more than eight times the annual budget of Tennessee.
Surveys consistently show that Americans think the portion of the U.S. budget that goes toward foreign aid is about 25%, so the Trump administration is trying to eliminate it.
But USAID is only 1% of the budget, or 1.25% if we include aid to Ukraine. In addition to feeding hungry children, aiding expectant mothers, and developing fledgling economies and education programs around the world, a good portion of that goes to PEPFAR, the program that supports global funding to fight HIV/AIDS and has saved 26 million lives.
We currently have the tools to eliminate HIV as a public-health condition, but defunding will cause a resurgence, costing millions of lives and tens of billions of dollars.
Ironically, when asked how much of the budget should go toward foreign aid, these same misinformed Americans say 10%.
If the administration is more interested in avoiding federal oversight than saving money, it also wants an ill-informed public.
William Culbert
Oak Ridge