美国在吵来吵去关于如何消减支出，国内则在风风火火公布“三公”支出。于是，我就很好奇，美国的三公支出是个什么水平？

根据中国政府公布的数据，“经财政部汇总，2010年中央行政单位、事业单位和其他单位的“三公”经费支出合计94.7亿元”。

美国和中国中央政府对应的是美国的联邦政府。我没有太多时间去读美国的联邦预算，不过我在US  News的网站上找到了下面这样一个消减支出的方案，里面恰恰提到了要消减差旅支出和公车支出，而且有数据（红字部分）。

具体的说就是，将“差旅支出减半，一年节省75亿美元”，“公车支出减少20％，一年节省6亿美元”。因此，换算一下，美国联邦政府一年的差旅支出是150亿美元，公车支出是30亿美元。当然美国的差旅支出和中国的公务出国支出，口径并不一样，因此不直接可比。我没有找到美国的公务接待支出，这样的支出肯定存在，只是大小无法知道。

美国2010年的联邦支出大约是3.5万亿美元，差旅支出的比例是 0.4%，公车支出的比例是0.085%，两个加在一起，不到0.5%。中国2010年的中央财政支出是4.8万亿人民币，三公支出的比例是0.2%。

我说一句：如果真的关心政府怎么花钱，三公支出其实不是最值得关注的。中国的财政，还有美国的财政，都有比三公支出重要的多得多的问题。我再说一句：从公布的数据看，很多部委的大头是出国费用。我个人的感觉是，中央政府大部分出国都是有正事的，毕竟现在越来越多的国际交流和场合都需要中国出席，双边多边的磋商谈判访问多如牛毛。但是到省级政府出国，旅游的成分就很大了。到市级或者县级政府官员出国，很多时候，最客气的也只能能说那些人是旅游途中顺便办点公事。所以，如果真要关心出国的费用，地方政府的费用应该更有看头。公车和接待费用恐怕也是。

Additional Program Eliminations/Spending Reforms

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy. $445 million annual savings.

Save America’s Treasures Program. $25 million annual savings.

International Fund for Ireland. $17 million annual savings.

Legal Services Corporation. $420 million annual savings.

National Endowment for the Arts. $167.5 million annual savings.

National Endowment for the Humanities. $167.5 million annual savings.

Hope VI Program. $250 million annual savings.

Amtrak Subsidies. $1.565 billion annual savings.

Eliminate duplicative education programs. H.R. 2274 (in last Congress),authored by Rep. McKeon,eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.

U.S. Trade Development Agency. $55 million annual savings.

Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy. $20 million annual savings.

Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding. $47 million annual savings.

John C. Stennis Center Subsidy. $430,000 annual savings.

Community Development Fund. $4.5 billion annual savings.

Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid. $24 million annual savings.

Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half. $7.5 billion annual savings.

Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20%. $600 million annual savings.

Essential Air Service. $150 million annual savings.

Technology Innovation Program. $70 million annual savings.

Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program. $125 million annual savings.

Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization. $530 million annual savings.

Beach Replenishment. $95 million annual savings.

New Starts Transit. $2 billion annual savings.

Exchange Programs for Alaska,Natives Native Hawaiians,and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts. $9 million annual savings.

Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants. $2.5 billion annual savings.

Title X Family Planning. $318 million annual savings.

Appalachian Regional Commission. $76 million annual savings.

Economic Development Administration. $293 million annual savings.

Programs under the National and Community Services Act. $1.15 billion annual savings.

Applied Research at Department of Energy. $1.27 billion annual savings.

FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership. $200 million annual savings.

Energy Star Program. $52 million annual savings.

Economic Assistance to Egypt. $250 million annually.

U.S. Agency for International Development. $1.39 billion annual savings.

General Assistance to District of Columbia. $210 million annual savings.

Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. $150 million annual savings.

Presidential Campaign Fund. $775 million savings over ten years.

No funding for federal office space acquisition. $864 million annual savings.

End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.

Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act. More than $1 billion annually.

IRS Direct Deposit:Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury,instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget. $1.8 billion savings over ten years.

Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees. $1 billion total savings.

Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees. $1.2 billion savings over ten years.

Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of. $15 billion total savings.

Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress.

Eliminate Mohair Subsidies. $1 million annual savings.

Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. $12.5 million annual savings.

Eliminate Market Access Program. $200 million annual savings.

USDA Sugar Program. $14 million annual savings.

Subsidy to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). $93 million annual savings.

Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program. $56.2 million annual savings.

Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs. $900 million savings.

Ready to Learn TV Program. $27 million savings.

HUD Ph.D. Program.

Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.

TOTAL SAVINGS:$2.5 Trillion over Ten Years