Here we go again: Candidates pledge to search for 'waste, fraud and abuse'
Published: 2010-07-13 21:07:28By: Michael Hiltzik | Los Angeles Times | March 21, 2010
Meg Whitman will "root out fraud" and "cut wasteful spending." Carly Fiorina wants to eliminate "the billions of dollars of waste and bloat that sits in our federal budget."
Ho-hum. Is it campaign time again? As the crocus heralds the coming of spring, the sure sign that we're working up to a major election is that we start hearing all about cutting the "waste, fraud and abuse" in government spending.
Waste, fraud and abuse, or as I prefer to think of it, WFA, is the WMD of domestic politics. The search for WFA is handy for rallying the campaign troops, but the results on the battlefield tend to disappoint.
"Railing against waste in government is practically as old as government," says Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for California Studies at Cal State Sacramento. "It's a comforting slogan that doesn't stand up to any sort of rigorous analysis. That's not saying you can't be more efficient, but it's not enough to fix the budget."
As a political trope, WFA is nonpartisan, and useful to campaigns at the state and federal level alike. This year it's cited by Whitman and Fiorina, who are running for the GOP nominations for governor and U.S. senator, respectively. Even President Obamais falling back onthe theme. He told a recent Midwestern rally that healthcare reform would help stamp out up to $100 billion in wasteful, fraudulent and abusive bills to taxpayers.
What makes WFA so expedient is that it allows the speaker to ignore or evade really tough questions on policy, such as: Which programs and services will you cut to close the deficit? Consider its use by Whitman, today's most assiduous WFA hunter.