I’ve seen first hand (just retired after 28 years air force). Yes the gov’t wastes money all the time. Some places the money is tight and they do the best they can with little money. But places where there money flows...oh man the waste that comes out of that.
So the key is defunding the agencies and they learn to do more with less. The problem is not the under-funded agencies...it’s the over funded ones.
Alot of that has to do with dumb planning. My ex MIL, worked at West Point. Her job was to take care of the Post Officer housing. When 9/11 happened and all the academics put in for deployment to get their combat tickets punched, she had way less Post Housing to fill. When they came back, the DOD wouldn’t give her the extra money they needed. So she swore she’d just spend as much as she did in previous years, so they wouldn’t screw her over.