Position Paper | 2

 Position Paper 2 - Interest Issues and/or Groups

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) is a private, non-profit organization that works to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government through research and public education activities. Citizens Against Government Waste was created following the former interest group under the support of former President Ronald Reagan, called the Grace Commission. 

The Grace Commission, established in 1984, was an organization structured to conduct research and public education on government waste and mismanagement. Former President Reagan lead the volunteers of the Grace Commission to "work like tireless bloodhounds to root out government inefficiency and waste of tax dollars." For about two years, over a hundred corporate executives and community leaders led a 2,000 person army of volunteers on a waste hunt, which led to a total of 2,478 recommendations that would save $424.4 billion over three years without executing necessary services. This Private Sector Survey on Cost Control was founded by late businessman J. Peter Grace and late Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jack Anderson. 

Overtime, the Grace Commission has proved to be accountable to tax payers, gradually abolishing the governments comfort of wastefulness. As a result of former President Reagan's legacy, the CAGW has been created to protect the public from accounted for financial instability. The trust that citizens have put in the Grace Commission and their promising efforts to actively save their wasted tax dollars has smoothed the shift of the two interest organizations.

CAGW is a nationwide source, widely acknowledged for their credibility and successful reformation of spending within the federal government. The CAGW utilizes mass media to inform the public of the government's spending activity and how everyone can input to prevent the negatives. CAGW has been featured on news media outlets, including The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post--some of the top legitimate and most famous news outlets nationwide. 

The Citizens Against Government Waste website offers intel on their most utilized media, which includes but does not conclude, 

• The Waste Watcher
• Poker of the month
• Press Releases 
• Op-eds
• Media Inquiries

From extensive research, the most beneficial media of CAGW proves The Waste Watcher, Press Releases, and Op-eds to be the most informative, which have been featured nationally in news outlets. The Waste Watcher is the staff blog and features daily dispatches covering government waste stories on federal, state, and local levels. The blog is updated multiple times a month, with no real limit on how many issues they present or the specific context of the issues (whatever seems to be wasteful spending of taxes). Medicare Must Be Reformed and Saved Not Expanded is short article that was posted November 4, 2024, in which the publisher stated, "The 2024 Medicare Trustees Report estimated that Medicare Part A will be depleted by 2036.  Medicare beneficiaries are at risk of losing or paying more for their benefits, and taxpayers are at risk of payroll tax increases or a massive bailout due to this inevitable financial shortfall." 

Press Releases are CAGW's primary tool for reading the news media to highlight every type of government waste issue. Op-eds cover government waste stories and are published in newspapers and magazines around the country. Similar to the Waste Watcher, the press releases and op-eds are structured to publish readings for the public on government waste problems in current affect on citizens. The press releases establish new interest issues presented by the organization and their current standing with the issue. Press releases also provide contact information for viewers that have questions regarding curiosity on involvement, etc. 

Citizens Against Government Waste also utilizes social media for their target audience, although not as actively as the blogs and press releases. CAGW's Instagram displays recent issues released by the organization--described with a "did you know" concept, however not as informative as some of their other media sources. CAGW has a YouTube page with 1.67k subscribers and a Facebook account, in which the posts are repetitive. However, YouTube accompanies CAGW's Porker of the month, which is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interest of taxpayers. The strategy behind Porker of the month is to encourage other government officials to contribute to the organization's concept of "pork-barrel spending" and help change it for the better. 

X (Twitter) is structured like the media on CAGW's website, with press releases and op-eds with links that viewers can click on for more information. The X account has 15.1k followers, which clearly demonstrates why this social media is more active and intentional than the others with less following. However, it would be beneficial for CAGW to prioritize growing their other social media accounts in order to reach a more active audience. TikTok would be a great way to start gaining the trust and action of Generational Z, who are persistent in changing popular topics online that they collectively view as wrong. 

Citizens Against Government Waste is a successful and determined non-profit interest organization that seeks after the betterment of the people. Taxpayers are losing loads of money that can be saved and used for buying homes, paying student debt, and providing for family essential needs. Citizens Against Government Waste prioritizes these facts and follows after the legacy of the Grace Commission in order to change how the government wastefully spends tax dollars.