So, you have a 90-year-old federal agency that returns $87 for every dollar invested, recommended $50 billion in savings every year, writes over 1,000 reports to Congress every year and had 80 percent of its recommendations over the past five years instituted (at least on paper), all on a budget of half a billion dollars a year - peanuts compared to other government spending. You would think that this agency would get a big atta boy thanks and increased spending from the Congress to hire more staff and find more fraud and waste during these tight budget times.

No such luck. Both chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committees had suggested cutting the budget of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) enough to cut into the staff that goes out and investigates how the money is spent. It seems to be an odd situation where the Congress would cut its own agency that saves them money, but the clue is who is insisting on the cuts - the appropriators of the money.