When President Obama asked federal employees to offer budget cutting suggestions, he received 86,000 ideas. Some were bordering on the ridiculous (ask TSA officers to scour floor for loose change). But others were more pragmatic (stop “use it or loose it” budgeting policies that incentivize taxpayer funded spending sprees at year end, stop printing paper calendars for divisions that track appts online, don’t allow different armed forces to design individual armed services logos). In the end, not a single budget cutting proposal was heeded, as Washington proved once again that partisan priorities trump fiscal responsibility.
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The Entrepreneurial Instinct (McGraw-Hill, Sept 14 2012)
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Monica Mehta 
Changing the culture within bureacracy, implementing proper reward systems and added accountability focused on efficiency along with undermining the lobby system and its multitude of hidden costs are real alternatives to cutting programs and should be done in conjunction with cutting ineffective and unnecessary programs.