As it turns out, he takes the extreme action of reworking (with the help of his friend Murray, an accountant from Baltimore) the national budget in order to save a $650 million program for helping the homeless.

They accomplish this by going through the national budget, one "line item" at a time discovering mountains of unnecessary waste that can be eliminated with the stroke of a pen. Sound far fetched?

We’ve all heard the expression, "if any business was run the way our federal government is run, the business would be bankrupt and the people responsible would be out on their asses or in jail….and for good reason!"

I do not beleive that you’ll find many people that would disagree with the above statement, So the question remains…..why is it not so?

Why do we allow our legislators continue to spend money that does not exist and commit to future spending as if there is no end to our monetary resources? Why don’t we balance our national checkbook? WHY?

One reason why can’t we afford universal health care or other inalienable rights is that so much money is squandered by funding unneeded projects or over-funding needed ones. All of which can be adjusted with the stroke of a pen.

WASTE! We waste so much money that it should be a crime and those responsible…in jail! And it’s not that this subject is new or attempts to stem the flow of waste haven’t been attempted.

A real war on government waste could easily save over $100 billion annually without harming the legitimate operations and benefits of government programs, and this is an extremely conservative estimate As a first step, lawmakers should address the 10 following examples of egregious waste.

. The Missing $25 Billion: Unreconciled transactions are funds for which auditors cannot account: The government knows that $25 billion was spent by someone, somewhere, on something, but auditors do not know who spent it, where it was spent, or on what it was spent. Treasury report concludes that locating the money is "a priority." The unreconciled $25 billion could have funded the entire Department of Justice for an entire year.

2. Unused Flight Tickets Totaling $100 Million: Between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department purchased and then left unused approximately 270,000 commercial airline tickets at a total cost of $100 million and never bothered to get a refund for these fully refundable tickets.

3. Embezzled Funds at the Department of Agriculture: A recent audit revealed that employees of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) diverted millions of dollars to personal purchases through their government-issued credit cards. The USDA has pledged a thorough investigation, but it will have a huge task: 55,000 USDA credit cards are in circulation, including 1,549 that are still held by people who no longer work at the USDA

4. Credit Card Abuse at the Department of Defense: The Defense Department has uncovered its own credit card scandal with Air Force and Navy personnel using government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 for admission to entertainment events, $48,250 for gambling, $69,300 for cruises, and $73,950 for exotic dance clubs and prostitutes

Medicare Overspending: Medicare wastes more money than any other federal program. For example, Medicare pays as much as eight times what other federal agencies pay for the same drugs and medical supplies. And the list goes on and on….

At last count, $21.8 billion worth of student loans are in default, and too many cases of fraud are left undetected. Tracking students across federal programs, verifying loan application data with IRS income data, and implementing controls to prevent the disbursement of loans to fraudulent applicants could save taxpayers billions of dollars.

Investigations by the GAO, The Washington Post, and several private organizations have found that Army Corps of Engineers studies routinely contain dozens of basic arithmetic errors, computer errors, and ridiculous economic assumptions that artificially inflate the benefits of water projects by as much as 300 percent

Significant waste, fraud, and abuse pervade Medicaid, which provides health services to 44 million low-income Americans. This system gives states an incentive to overreport their Medicaid expenditures in order to receive larger federal reimbursements. Not surprisingly, the GAO has identified state schemes that shift money between state accounts to create an illusion of higher Medicaid expenditures. Minor reforms enacted by HHS in 2001 and 2002 are expected to save Medicaid $70 billion over the next decade.

9. Earned Income Tax Credit Overpayments: The earned income tax credit (EITC) provides $31 billion in refundable tax credits to 19 million low-income families. The IRS estimates that $8.5 billion to $9.9 billion of this amount—nearly one-third—is wasted in overpayments.

10. Redundancy Piled on Redundancy: Government’s layering of new programs on top of old ones inherently creates duplication. Having several agencies perform similar duties is wasteful and confuses program beneficiaries who must navigate each program’s distinct rules and requirements.

Do you think that the waste illustrated above is a secret in Washington? It’s not!

Now all we need is a guy like Dave that believes in what’s possible when you are willing to take action.