What, Exactly, Does The Federal Government Do? The World May Never Know
I & I Editorial Board
March 16, 2026
In just the first five months of the new fiscal year, the federal government has already spent more than $3 trillion – more than it spent in all of 2009 – $1 trillion of which it had to borrow.
And what is all this money going toward? The federal government was told 15 years ago to take a full, annual inventory of everything it does. It’s never been able to get that done.
“Each year, the federal government spends trillions of dollars on federal programs that support the American people and address policy goals,” notes the Government Accountability Office in a report released earlier this month. “However, it does not have a full inventory of these programs.”
That’s despite the fact that it’s been required to do so since 2011.
That law, signed by Barack Obama that January, requires a single, comprehensive list of federal programs that’s supposed to be posted on a website.
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https://issuesinsights.com/2026/03/16/what-exactly-does-the-federal-government-do-the-world-may-never-know/
