Ah, February. A month of hope. The first whispering lilts of springtime are upon us. Our old friend from Pennsylvania — Punxsutawney Phil — emerged from his burrow on Gobbler’s Knob this month and announced that winter will be over soon, giving us official permission to daydream about warm summer days, backyard barbecues, and lazy frolics along the seashore (thanks, Phil!).
Regrettably, this month also brings with it another longstanding tradition — the federal budget proposal for the next fiscal year. Even without dissecting it line by line, it is clear that this administration has learned nothing from past failures as it continues to propose massive increases in federal spending.
The United States’ debt currently stands at $34 trillion. Federal budget experts indicate that our nation faces structural deficits of nearly $2 trillion per year, despite federal tax revenues being at an all-time high. Inflation, relatively tame over the last two generations, has now returned stronger than ever, with prices on necessities up between 10 and 40 percent since 2021.
When the government spends too much, it has to borrow money to fill the gap or increase the money supply. Prices rise because there is too much money chasing too few goods. Interest rates also increase, making the cost of household debt — from credit card payments to auto loans to home mortgages — more expensive.
Jimmy Malone said it best in The Untouchables, when he took Eliot Ness on his first liquor raid: “Everyone knows where the booze is. The problem isn’t finding it. The problem is who wants to cross Capone.” Similarly, our leaders know exactly what the problem is — unfettered government spending — but none confront this looming catastrophe head on. No initiatives to bend the spending arc and put the government on the road to fiscal sanity currently exist. An illustrative example is how the government is now proposing to increase the size of the IRS.
Most Americans are aware that the IRS plans to hire thousands of new agents and employees. The chief human capital officer for the IRS, Traci DiMartini, recently said the IRS will utilize “every tool that is available to us” to implement this staffing increase. Its plan involves utilizing the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) — the government-run human resources agency — to solicit, vet, interview, and place applicants in these positions through its USA Staffing portal.
To handle such a massive project, OPM would first have to recruit and hire even more federal employees because it lacks the resources for successful completion of such a large project. These new OPM employees would receive hefty government salaries and benefits, and, once this project is complete, would desperately search for new projects to justify their existence.
Moreover, the bureaucratic geniuses at OPM lack a stellar track record in hiring — so it seems inevitable that these new hires will lead to further waste, fraud, and abuse of the U.S. taxpayer.
A recent report revealed serious flaws in data management and cybersecurity at OPM dating back to 2015, when OPM was responsible for the largest government data breach in history, exposing the private data of thousands of federal employees. This violation was so grave that OPM was forced to provide these employees with “free” credit-monitoring services, all courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.
Enough is enough. The government shouldn’t be getting bigger. But if it must get bigger, then it should be done responsibly, leveraging private-sector technical expertise to ensure cost efficiency. Until the utilization of such smart, cost-effective solutions become standard operating procedure government-wide, there is no hope of getting our financial house in order.
Perhaps we should feel lucky that Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see the FY 2025 budget when he emerged from his stump on Feb. 2. If he had, he would have been so spooked by the shadow of fiscal calamity that he would have crawled back in, never to be seen again.
Sean Moran is the former staff director of the Committee on House Administration of the United States House of Representatives. In that position, he had oversight responsibilities of all U.S. House Human Resources, payroll, and cybersecurity and was one of the official liaisons during the OPM data breach in 2015. Prior to that, he was the deputy chief of staff for Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.). He has extensive private-sector background in government contracting in the area of human capital management.