When the Clinton administration unveiled its "reinventing government" plan last month, there was considerable skepticism about all the money that supposedly would be saved. Unfortunately, the skeptics appear to be right.
The first installment of 40 proposals from Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review sup-pos-edly would save $5.9 billion over five years. That was a rather anemic figure to start with, but most of it seems to have vanished before anything has been done.The Congressional Budget Office reported in recent days that the real savings would be only about $305 million.
Differences routinely exist between administration budget figures compiled by the Office of Management and Budget and those put together by the CBO for Congress, but not like this. The gap between $5.9 billion and $305 million is ridiculous. That's the difference between a program and no program at all.
The $5.9 billion reduction in spending is just part of the reinventing government plan touted to eventually produce $108 billion in overall, long-term savings. However, congressional budget experts say the plan would be lucky to produce a third of that.
The Government Reform and Savings Act analyzed by the CBO would allow the administration to reorganize the Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development departments and close field offices; shut down the Pentagon's Uniform Services University of Health Sciences; end the Government Printing Office's monopoly status; consolidate U.S. Information Agency activities, and eliminate grant funding for Federal Aviation Administration higher education programs, to name just a few.
Leon E. Panetta, director of the OMB, argues that Congress should adopt the administration initiatives because they will make the government work better. "The amount of money they will save is not nearly as important as the improvements they will bring about . . ."
That comment illustrates one of the troubles with federal government budget-making - what something costs is "not nearly as important" as other considerations.
Such attitudes must change if anything is going to be done about the crippling federal budget deficit.