It's a mess. How do you start trimming the fat on a pig the size of a mountain? Where do you start? The people in/near government don't want anything cut. Just the opposite - you could never spend enough to satisfy them. That's how spending increased by nearly 50% in five years. The "temporary" federal spending became permanent just like anyone who pays attention knew it would.
I have talked about the endless ways government wastes your money while making it sound good. One way I encounter regularly is that a certain percentage of contracts must be given to small businesses. Sounds good to a lot of people. But is it really? Most of the time, these small businesses were created (usually by former government workers) only to get government contracts. And they are not creators of widgets; they resellers of what other companies make. So, the government buys from a contrived SB at extremely inflated prices. And many of these SBs are "small" in name only. They are small if the government says they are small. (Look at the special treatment Hawiian companies get. Start a business; fine a Hawaiin figure head; get fat on government contracts!) Many are massive companies that do business with the government nationwide ... at extremely inflated prices. (I don't care who gets the contract, as long as the requirement can be met at the best price. That's how it is supposed to work but hasn't in a long time.)
So, I'm not sure this can be fixed from the inside. No one inside wants to or will even admit there is a problem. That's why - although it is far, far from ideal - I'm willing to see what happens with DOGE. But mostly all they can do is highlight the waste. It's up to Congress to cut the fat in any meaningful say. They have to shrink budgets and fully eliminate some departments (e.g. Education) because they don't have a constitutional justification and/or don't make any economic sense. Do I expect Congress to actually do much? No, unfortunately.
