Imagine for a moment taking your car to a mechanic who does not fix your car problems – and then letting that same mechanic design your new car. Sounds odd right? Yet, that’s precisely how Washington, D.C., bureaucrats run our government programs. Bureaucratic agency staff create flawed processes that cost taxpayers billions, frustrate the public, and lead to widespread failures, including unchecked fraud. Who designs the “reforms” or replacement systems? The very bureaucrats responsible for the initial disaster.
Every year, billions of taxpayer dollars vanish into Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) backlogs, Medicaid fraud, delayed services for our heroic veterans, and catastrophic federal IT failures – problems created and perpetuated by the very bureaucrats tasked to fix them. These are not accidental oversights; they are predictable outcomes in a system deliberately structured to reward inefficiency, waste, and resistance to change. Bureaucrats thrive on complexity and opacity, intentionally making accountability impossible.
Here is how the bureaucratic swamp operates: Government processes frequently create massive delays, endless paperwork, and taxpayer frustration. Rather than genuinely solving these problems, agencies propose convoluted “reform plans” designed to justify larger budgets and expanding bureaucracies. Performance is not rewarded, yet spending the entire budget is. Success is totally optional, consumption is mandatory. The faster funds are obligated, the safer next years allocation becomes, regardless of real outcomes. Complexity isnt an unfortunate byproduct – its certainly intentional.
That said, when meaningful reforms begin to emerge, they are often stonewalled by outdated public union contracts and extremely rigid job classifications. Attempts to streamline workflows or reassign staff to areas of greater need routinely get blocked by grievances or litigation, sometimes citing decades-old job descriptions. For example, one state agencys effort to reallocate staff to higher-need regions was halted by 30-year-old union agreements. Certainly, no private-sector entity could survive with rules explicitly designed to prevent improvements, but in government, bureaucratic inefficiency is unfortunately routine.
Agencies that rely on outside resources without fundamentally changing outdated processes or eliminating redundant positions contribute significantly to this waste. The costs are staggering – and measurable. The Government Accountability Office reports that over $100 billion is wasted annually on federal IT projects alone – initiatives that miss deadlines, exceed budgets, and deliver nothing but excuses. Real families suffer as Medicaid squanders resources on redundant administrative tasks, food stamp recipients endure verification backlogs that delay or deny essential aid, and critical federal projects collapse into dysfunction.
Fortunately, President Trump and his administration have demonstrated real courage in confronting this entrenched corruption. They have sidelined obstructionist bureaucrats, forced consulting giants to reduce exorbitant rates, and terminated billions of dollars in wasteful contracts. However, real structural reform requires sustained action. America must aggressively embrace performance-based contracting, ensuring bureaucrats and consultants only get paid when they deliver measurable results like faster services, verifiable taxpayer savings, and genuine accountability.
Outcome-based contracting does more than foster accountability – it unlocks innovation. When contracted partners know their paychecks depend on tangible, real-world results, they innovate, streamline operations, and compete aggressively to provide better services.
Yet, most federal programs relying on state administration continue the old way. Bureaucrats still draft their own “reform plans” and public labor unions dictate rigid job structures that stifle necessary improvements. In the end, taxpayers continue footing the bill for this endless cycle of failure.
As a former governor myself, I know what it takes to lead the reform movement by tying every taxpayer dollar directly to measurable results. When I first took office, Wisconsin was facing a two-pronged crisis: economic and fiscal. Our states unemployment rate in early 2010 was soaring at more than 9%. Our states government was facing such a deficit in our budget that we were legally mandated to take immediate action. Unlike many states, we did not sit by and let the bureaucracy take hold. Instead, we took decisive action that removed power from the bureaucrats and special interests and placed the power in the very hands of Wisconsins hard-working and deserving taxpayers. Guess what? Our decisive action worked.
Certainly, its no easy task to dismantle the machinery of intentional failure but that is precisely what current governors must find the courage to do. Just as President Trump has done to put taxpayers first, sitting governors must also follow suit. Undeniably, it will take a whole-of-government approach in order to find the courage to protect benefits for SNAP recipients by addressing backlogs, for the families that rely on Medicaid by addressing the fraud, for our heroic veterans by addressing delayed services that they earned and deserve, and by addressing the catastrophic federal IT failures that are wreaking havoc on services across our nation. Our country and its hardworking taxpayers deserve nothing less.
As President Trump and his administration continue to champion common-sense leadership, governors must reconsider their dependence on entrenched bureaucracies and public-sector unions that align with their political opponents promoting inefficiency.
Scott Walker is president of Young America’s Foundation. He served as governor of Wisconsin, 2011-19, and was a candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
