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The Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (PSSCC), commonly referred to as the Grace Commission, was an investigation requested by
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
President
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
, authorized in on June 30, 1982. In doing so President Reagan used the now famous phrase, "
Drain the swamp ''Drain the swamp'' is a phrase which has frequently been used by politicians since the 1980s. The phrase can allude to the physical draining of swamps which is conducted to keep mosquito populations low in order to combat malaria, prevalent dur ...
". The focus was waste and inefficiency in the US Federal government. Its head, businessman
J. Peter Grace Joseph Peter Grace Jr. (May 25, 1913 – April 19, 1995) was an American industrialist who was president of the diversified chemical company, W. R. Grace & Co., for 48 years, making him the longest serving CEO of a public company. Born in Manhas ...
, asked the members of that commission to "Be bold and work like tireless bloodhounds, don't leave any stone unturned in your search to root out inefficiency."


Report

The Grace Commission report was presented to Congress in January 1984. The report was in depth and showed that if its recommendations were followed, $424 billion could be saved in three years, rising to $1.9 trillion per year by the year 2000. It estimated that the
national debt A country's gross government debt (also called public debt, or sovereign debt) is the financial liabilities of the government sector. Changes in government debt over time reflect primarily borrowing due to past government deficits. A deficit oc ...
, without these reforms, would rise to $13 trillion by the year 2000, while with the reforms they projected it would rise to only $2.5 trillion.President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, ''A Report to the President'' (January 15, 1984)
/ref> The report's recommendations that intruded into policy were ignored by Congress, but many other efficiency recommendations were considered and some were implemented. The US national debt reached $5.6 trillion in the year 2000 and reached 13 trillion in 2010 after the subprime mortgage-collateralized debt obligation crisis in 2008. The report said that one-third of all income taxes are consumed by waste and inefficiency in the federal government, and another one-third escapes collection owing to the underground economy. "With two thirds of everyone's personal income taxes wasted or not collected, 100 percent of what is collected is absorbed solely by interest on the federal debt and by federal government contributions to transfer payments. In other words, all individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services that taxpayers expect from their government."


See also

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National debt A country's gross government debt (also called public debt, or sovereign debt) is the financial liabilities of the government sector. Changes in government debt over time reflect primarily borrowing due to past government deficits. A deficit oc ...
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Federal Reserve System The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...
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Public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...
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Public administration theory Public administration theory is the combination of history, organisational theory, social theory, political theory and related studies focused on the meanings, structures and functions of public service in all its forms. It often depicts major his ...


Other similar commissions

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Brownlow Committee The President's Committee on Administrative Management, commonly known as the Brownlow Committee or Brownlow Commission, was a presidentially commissioned panel of political science and public administration experts that in 1937 recommended sweep ...
1937 *
Hoover Commission The Hoover Commission, officially named the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, was a body appointed by President Harry S. Truman in 1947 to recommend administrative changes in the Federal Government of the Unite ...
two commissions, in 1947–1949 and 1953–1955. *
National Partnership for Reinventing Government The National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), originally the National Performance Review, was an interagency task force created under the Clinton administration to reform the way the United States federal government works. The NPR was ...
1993–1998


References


Literature

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External links


Grace Commission List The formal title is President's Private Sector Survey and called PPSS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grace Commission Presidency of Ronald Reagan 1980s in the United States Publications of the United States government United States Presidential Commissions