Senator Joni Ernst put together a fairly spectacular thread detailing how she could eliminate more than TWO TRILLION of Washington waste in just 22 easy steps ... it's a start, right?
Check this out:
🧵We can eliminate more than $2 trillion of waste in Washington in 22 easy steps.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Here is how @elonmusk, @VivekGRamaswamy, and @DOGE can begin to trim the fat and #makeemsqueal. 👇
Here we go!
1. Ghost Workers 👻
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
We are spending $15.7 billion a year on underutilized buildings.
Many are vacant!
Bureaucrats refuse to show up to work, so why are we paying for empty buildings?
Good question. A better question is why are bureaucrats ALLOWED to refuse to how up for work?
2. Audit the IRS
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Hundreds of IRS agents owe millions in back taxes.
150,000 federal employees owe $1.5 billion in back taxes government-wide.
After we are done, these numbers need to be zero.
Audit. The. IRS.
Do it.
3. Undo Biden's Billion-Dollar Boondoggles
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Biden has spent $7.5 billion to build 17 EV charging stations and $42 billion to expand rural broadband but has connected zero people to the internet.
Pulling the plug on these programs will be the only efficient part about them.
Interesting - Leftists who abuse Community Notes REALLY hate this one for some reason.
4. Cancel the Crazy California Gravy Trains 🚂
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Three trains in California are costing taxpayers $144 billion to build.
Let's put a stop to these train wrecks.
Recommended
Wait ... what now?
5. Stop Christmas in September 🎅
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
From $4.6 million for lobster tail to $2.1 million for games, the ridiculous "use it or lose it" model encourages wild spending by federal agencies before the end of fiscal year.@DOGE needs to be the Grinch and save taxpayers $53 billion.
If they don't need it, they should't be allowed to waste it to pretend they do.
6. End Welfare for Politicians
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
The Presidential Election Campaign Fund uses tax dollars to fund the candidacy of longshot and fringe candidates running for the White House.
Tax dollars shouldn’t be financing the failed ambitions of politicians – let's save $16.6 million.
Tax dollars shouldn't be financing the ambitions of any politician.
7. Bad Pennies
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Currently, the federal government is paying 3 cents to produce a penny and 11 cents to make a nickel.
That makes no sense!
Only Washington could lose money making money.
Changing the composition of coins would save $50 million a year.
This is just SO our federal government, you know?
8. Trillion Dollar Secret Slush Funds
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Washington is hiding $1.6 trillion in unobligated funds, including billions from COVID.
We should not be hording money for secret pet projects when we are $36 trillion in debt.
Maybe just give that money back to the people.
We know, crazy talk.
9. Bogus Bonuses 🚀🛰️
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
The federal government spends hundreds of millions of dollars giving bureaucrats and contractors unearned bonuses for work that often never took place, including more than $500 million at @NASA.
Time to end this moondoggle.
This is freaking infuriating.
10. Silly Science
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
🦐How fast does a shrimp run on a treadmill?
🐼How fast does a panda poop?
🚽Which tastes better - toilet water or bottled water?
🐘Can elephants solve puzzles?
These are just a few of the bizarre studies funded using hundreds of millions in tax dollars.
Hundreds of millions for this?
C'mon man.
11. Unemployment for Millionaires
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Nearly 15,000 Americans earning a million dollars in income collected $213 million in unemployment last year.
The million-dollar question - why are hardworking folks paying for this?
WTAF?
12. Government Swag
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Federal agencies collectively spend $1.5 billion every year on public relations including snuggies, mascots, key chains, and coloring books.
Let's bag the swag.
But who doesn't want an IRS hoodie?
13. Head in the Clouds ☁️💻
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Consolidating federal agencies’ cloud computing software licenses would save $750 million a year.
Some of this stuff is just basic common sense.
14. China's Mad Scientists 🧑🔬
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
My investigations uncovered that Dr. Fauci and others have sent millions to shady Chinese labs for sketchy experiments.
The worst part is that a lack of transparency means we don't even know how many millions are being spent or for what.
COVID anyone?
15. UN Overpayments
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
The USA pays higher dues to the UN than any other country, and sends $15 billion more voluntarily, despite UN employees participating in terrorist attacks and encouraging illegal immigration to the USA.
Why are tax dollars undermining our national security?
UN overpayments ... and for what?
16. Defenseless Spending
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
The Pentagon wastes $125 billion on bloated bureaucracy and has never passed an audit.
Let's declare war on wasteful spending.
Never passed an audit. If normal, everyday Americans couldn't pass THEIR audits they would lose their homes or maybe even go to jail.
17. Unhealthy Benefits
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
The Federal Employees Health Benefits program wastes $1 billion annually paying for ineligible individuals.
Man, our federal government is really bad at its job.
18. Paid Not to Work
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Federal employees with no work assignments admit to napping, playing dominoes, and chess on the clock.
Simply enacting a law passed by Congress would save $31 million a year.
FFS.
19. Stop Giving Away the Farm 🚜@USDA spends millions to support pet projects like teaching pigs to play video games, subsidizing cricket farms, and other nonsense that does nothing to support our farmers.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Teaching pigs to play video games.
Alrighty then.
20. Snap Back Payments 🫰
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Bureaucratic blunders result in $10 billion ineligible SNAP payments a year.
With the snap of a finger, we could fix this.
But that might mean a federal employee will have less time to play solitaire on his or her computer.
21. Reducing Duplication
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Efficient and government rarely go with each other but implementing hundreds of recommendations from Congress' nonpartisan watchdog @USGAO would increase efficiency and save $200 billion a year.
Duplication? In a MASSIVELY huge federal government? Say it ain't so!
22. Common Sense
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
For every $1 billion spent by Washington, $102 million is waste.
Implementing basic management principles would have saved taxpayers $688.5 billion last year.
SOLD AMERICAN!
This is just a $2 trillion start.@elonmusk, @VivekGRamaswamy, and @DOGE and I will be hard at work putting waste on the chopping block and carving up Washington’s bloated budget. #MakeEmSqueal
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
We are SOOOOO ready.
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