One Rule Has Saved Americans from Billions in Wasteful Government Spending

United States Capitol Building

A rule requiring the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to publish annual reports on wasteful spending has saved billions of taxpayer dollars since 2011, according to an Open the Books report released Wednesday.

Former Republican Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn amended the Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 to require the GAO to include an investigation into duplicate spending between government entities in its annual report, which has saved the government $667.5 billion since its first report in 2011, according to Open the Books. Congress, however, had made efforts to stifle the GAO’s mission, threatening to cut its funding right after its first report, and has been the slowest to adopt the GAO’s waste-cutting recommendations.

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Conservative House Freedom Caucus Members Secured over $900 Million in Earmarks: Watchdog

weber Johnson

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus sponsored more than $900 million worth of earmarks over the last two years, according to a study conducted by OpenTheBooks.com and published on Thursday.

While the Freedom Caucus does not publicly list all of its members, OpenTheBooks said they based their study off of a list of 49 lawmakers that Pew compiled, which includes lawmakers who publicly identified as members of the caucus or are “closely aligned” with it.

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