Watch out, IRS. Bankrupting America’s fictional agency, DEBT, has taken wasteful spending to a new level in the second episode of “The Government.”
“The Government,” a web series launched by the organization — a project of the fiscal watchdog Public Notice — seeks to shine a light on the wasteful spending practices employed by the federal government. As the fiscal year draws to a close, many federal agencies rush to spend the remaining dollars in their annual budgets, and “The Government’s” Department of Every Bureaucratic Transaction is no different.
“So, today we’re being broken up into groups by conferences,” Ben Bell says in the series’ second episode. “It’s a great way to eat up all the department’s money. Most people choose some silly theme. … Imagine Comic-Con, but with the lamest people on earth.”
Employees at DEBT put the Internal Revenue Service to task, proposing ideas such as a “Star Trek” themed video and spending money on books like “Fifty Shades of Beige” for no reason.
Despite the agency’s ability to save money — by contracting out to small businesses that work more efficiently — DEBT’s head honcho encourages employees to spend the money instead, asserting that if the extra funding is not spent, it will be lost.
“You two are nowhere near your budget line,” DEBT’s director, played by Maura Harford, says. “If you cannot use your allocation, I cannot sign off on it. Spend it or lose it.”
Bankrupting America unveiled its first episode of “The Government” in July and the mockumentary — part of the group’s Stop Spend It or Lose It campaign — saw great success.
“We’re nearly $17 trillion in debt, facing yet another debt ceiling debate, and the federal government’s ‘spend it or lose it’ budgeting practices are a part of the problem,” Public Notice Executive Director Gretchen Hamel said in a press release. “As Washington prepares for another fiscal showdown, this web series illustrates how the current budgeting system incentivizes wasteful spending and wastes taxpayers’ money.”
The group’s Stop Spend It or Lose It campaign highlights the wasteful spending practices used by many of the government’s agencies. As the Sept. 30 end date for the fiscal year draws near, agencies work to spend the remaining money in their budgets to avoid losing the allocation in the future. Such a practice leads to agencies — like the IRS — wasting taxpayer dollars to fund lavish conferences and host unnecessary seminars.
Since its launch, more than 5,800 supporters have sent letters to Congress and the White House urging them to refrain from engaging in such a practice.
Watch episode 2 of “The Government” below.
