Latest / The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why the Federal Government Pays More for Light Bulbs
Episode 46 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast digs into a seemingly small but staggeringly wasteful line item: the price the US government pays for standard light bulbs. Lucas and Luna trace how a single General Services Administration contract for 60-watt equivalents costs taxpayers 8 times what a warehouse club charges. They walk through the procurement maze — the Buy American Act, the Trade Agreements Act, the 50-page specification documents, the 90-day payment terms that bake in a risk premium — and show how a modest reform in one agency cut costs by 40 percent. A clear, concrete look at how…
The skinny
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