Where can I get a Government Accountability Office T-shirt? Big fan, ever since the release of the GAO’s recent report on waste in federal spending, titled “Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue.”

When they get the budget straightened out, I’m sure they’ll start trimming their report titles.

We’ve been sidetracked in our thinking about government spending for quite some time, maybe since the late Wisconsin Sen. William Proxmire stopped giving out the “Golden Fleece” awards for small but wacky federal allocations. We’ve focused on large-scale cuts, and that goes nowhere, because the government has us all hooked.

Just the other day, I heard a business leader take a bold stand against all government interference in business. A few minutes later, I’m pretty sure I heard her whining that she doesn’t get the same assistance other companies get and admitting that in her early years she didn’t exactly follow the payroll laws that workers depend upon.

The enemy really is us.

The GAO, however, has opened a new front by pointing out that although the federal government may spend an exorbitant amount of money, it’s also poorly organized. We can probably spend less without losing any services at all.

If you operated your household budget the way the U.S. government handles your tax money, you wouldn’t write “milk” on the grocery list. You would compile a list of dairy products to be purchased, plus a list of liquids suitable for drinking, another one for baking fluids and another for light-colored substances purveyed in plastic containers.

Actually, if you were the federal government, having just four programs for one task would be the lazy way out.

The GAO leafed through the federal organization chart and found, for example, that we have 47 employment and training programs, 44 of which “overlap with at least one other program.”

It’s not so much that our government is incompetent; it’s just a little impulsive. After all, it’s only 222 years old and still finding its way.

A senator arrives at work one day and thinks: “We ought to do something to help farmers.” He reaches into the pretend cash drawer for a wad of imaginary money, breaks out his calligraphy set and writes a bill creating an agency that shall disburse payments to encourage the painting of murals on machine sheds.

The GAO doesn’t want to stifle his enthusiasm. It does wonder whether he could take a few minutes to determine whether we already have programs doing just that. Which we probably do.

The GAO also had some procedural advice for the United States.

For example, “We found that when federal agencies decide to open their contracts to competition, they frequently realize savings,” the GAO said.

Also, in fiscal year 2009, federal agencies reported that “underutilized buildings accounted for over $1.6 billion in annual operating costs.”

Getting bids, unloading unneeded property – how was the federal government supposed to know business secrets like these?

First came the recommendations of Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, and now these useful insights. We should continue to hand-deliver a list of course-correction ideas to our congressmen every couple of months. Maybe they’ll see something they like.

Meanwhile, I have my eye on GAO’s latest effort: “Additional Cost Transparency and Design Criteria for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Projects.”

I think it has something to do with rockets.