By Charlton Allen
Washington, DC, has long been the stage for ghoulish fiscal horror, but a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shows just how dire the unchecked spending situation has become. The report, titled “Expired and Expiring Authorizations of Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2024,” reveals a staggering $516 billion in appropriations tied to expired authorizations – programs legally dead but still consuming resources and dragging taxpayers along as unwilling victims.
Nearly two-thirds of this $516 billion – $320 billion, to be precise – funds programs whose authorizations expired more than a decade ago. According to the CBO, 49% of the acts tied to this funding have been expired for over ten years. These aren’t harmless oversights. As investigative journalist Jeremy Portnoy put it, they’re fiscal zombies –…
