Comment by rgmerk

So let's, for the sake of argument, say that there are two hundred similarly sized efficiency savings to be found in the US federal budget.

Congratulations, you just saved 200 billion dollars of expenditure.

The difference between expenditure and revenue in 2023 was 1.7 trillion.

Let me be clear - if money is being spent poorly, that is bad and it should be spent more effectively, or not spent at all. I'm just trying to demonstrate that "waste", at least waste as it is traditionally understood, is almost irrelevant in any attempt to balance the federal budget.