It seems like every day I read about how government wastes money so I thought I would record them. Since I began this blog, I have been stunned by the amount of waste, fraud, and mismanagement I have found. I recognize that some government is necessary for any society to exist but without the "profit incentive" that we have in private enterprise, government continues to grow like a cancer and along with it the potential for abuse. If you ever needed a reason to limit government, just read some of the following posts.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Tsarnaev family received $100G in benefits

The Tsarnaev family, including the suspected terrorists and their parents, benefited from more than $100,000 in taxpayer funded assistance - a bonanza ranging from cash and food stamps to Section 8 housing from 2002 to 2012. “The breadth of the benefits the family was receiving was stunning,” said a person with knowledge of documents handed over to a legislative committee today.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Another Electric Car Failure - $192 Million

Fisker Automotive executives are due before a Congressional panel Wednesday to answer questions about whether it'll ever repay nearly $200 million in Energy Department and state loans to taxpayers.

The electric carmaker, which laid off 75% of its employees earlier this month, missed its first loan payment to the Energy Department on Monday. Treasury has already seized $21 million in an effort to get back some of the taxpayer money loaned to it, but most of the $192 million that was given to the company over the three years is very much at risk.

The company suspended production of its only car, the $107,850 Karma, in February. That followed a recall of most of the cars built in the second half last year due to a possible problem with the battery's cooling system and negative reviews from Consumer Reports.

The Energy Department originally promised Fisker $529 million in loans three years ago. But as the company quickly fell into financial trouble, the department pulled back on that commitment and stopped giving Fisker money in June 2011, after it had received $192 million.

Friday, April 26, 2013

IRS Improper Refunds - $11 Billion

The Internal Revenue Service issued more than $11 billion in improper payments through its Earned Income Tax Credit program last year, according to an inspector general’s report released this week. Treasury Department deputy inspector general Michael McKenney found that the IRS has failed to comply for two consecutive years with the Improper Payments Elimination Act, which President Obama signed in 2010. The law requires federal agencies to reduce erroneous payments to a rate of less than 10 percent.

The IRS estimates that at least 21 percent of its EITC payments in 2012 were faulty. That rate showed a decline compared to the previous nine years, but improper payments over the same period increased about 22 percent, rising to at least $11.6 billion, according to the inspector general’s report. Overall, the agency “has made little improvement in reducing EITC improper payments,” the report said.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Empty Accounts Fees - $890,000

This year, the government will spend at least $890,000 on service fees for bank accounts that are empty. At last count, Uncle Sam has 13,712 such accounts with a balance of zero. They are supposed to be closed. But nobody has done the paperwork yet. So even as the sequester budget cuts have begun idling workers and frustrating travelers, the government is required to pay $65 per year, per account to keep them on the books.

“If anyone had kept open a bank account with no money, and was getting a charge every month, they would do everything they could to close it,” said Thomas A. Schatz of the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste. But, he said, the government hasn’t shown the same kind of urgency with taxpayers’ money. “It’s just lack of attention to detail. And poor management,” he said. “And, clearly, the fact that no one gets penalized for paying money to keep the accounts open.”

The money spent on the empty accounts is a tiny fraction of the federal budget. But, in its own way, it is something special: Washington’s waste, a rare specimen of cost untainted by any reward.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Examples Of Government Waste That Cost Taxpayers $16 Billion

These examples were taken from Inspectors General reports to Congress:
  • In 2011, the Department of Agriculture made an estimated $28 million in inappropriate farm assistance payments.
  • The Conservation Research Program pays millions annually to farmers who don't farm parts of their land. But the USDA miscalculated the soil rental rate, wasting $114.5 million that could have been put to better use.
  • An estimated $208 million worth of single-family direct housing loans went to borrowers who had no history of stable and dependable income, poor credit, or were unexpected to be able to make their payments.
  • Up to $118 million could have been saved through better oversight of the Department of Labor's troubled Jobs Corps.
  • Because of an error in calculating performance standards, the Employment and Training Administration failed to track down $148 million in overpaid government checks.
  • More than $138 million of federal grant spending by the Philadelphia School District was either not allowed or unjustified.
  • The Department of Education sent $42.4 million to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, despite the fact that the school is ineligible to receive any federal funding.
  • The Small Business Administration underwrites loans but has been ineffective in identifying when lenders are clearly negligent. Improved reviews could save $43 million over two years.
  • The National Disaster Loan Resolution Center failed to transfer delinquent disaster loans to the Treasury Department in a timely manner, and incurred $171.1 million in questionable costs as a result.
  • The Department of Veterans Affairs does not effectively identify instances in which it doesn't have to pay for care. A report in 2011 found that, as a result, the VA could overspend by an estimated $760 million over five years.
  • The VA will award an estimated $2.5 billion worth of contracts intended for veteran-owned small businesses to ineligible businesses from 2011 to 2015.
  • Due to lax cost-controls, the Army wasted $335.9 million on a contract to maintain Stryker vehicles.
  • More than $437 million worth of costs at Los Alamos National Laboratory were deemed questionable over a two-year period.
  • The FAA could have saved $157 million by simply restructuring contracts on its multi-billion dollar program to upgrade Air Traffic Control hardware.
  • One-fifth of the Department of Transportation's Recovery Act contracts were awarded with only one or two bids. The average price difference between contracts with one or two bids and those with three bids is at least $179 million.
  • More than $75 million that could be put to better use if the Pentagon invested in reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
  • An audit of the JLENS missile defense airship found that $2.47 billion in funding for the program could have been put to better use.
  • The Department of Health and Human Services could save $2.7 billion annually by reexamining how much Medicaid and Medicare should pay for wholesale prescription drugs.
  • The government could save $1.2 billion by investing more resources in finding Medicare overpayments. A second $1.2 billion could be saved if Congress passed legislation to allow adjustments in Medicare laboratory fees.
  • The DHHS Inspector General also recommended an additional $2.9 billion could be saved on Medicare and Medicaid through other cost-saving measures.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

California Fraud, Abuse, & Waste

Losing High-Speed Rail Bidders will get $2 million each
Only one of the five construction firms will be awarded the $1.8 billion high-speed rail contract for the first 30-miles of track. However, a recent report by the U-T San Diego uncovered that the remaining four companies will get paid $2 million each, simply for submitting a bid. The California High-Speed Rail Authority claims payouts like these are supposed to attract more bidders and competitive proposals. The high-speed rail project is slated to cost $68 - $98 billion, with nearly $3.3 to $11.7 billion guaranteed by the federal government.

Cal Fire hid Millions of Taxpayer Dollars in Secret Account
Following the discovery of nearly $54 million in hidden funds by the Parks Department, the Los Angeles Times reported another abuse of taxpayer money by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). The Department set up an account with the California District Attorneys Association instead of depositing it into the General Fund. Since 2005, Cal Fire officials have hidden nearly $3.6 million, even while the Legislature and Governor Brown implemented the $150 fire tax to cover the Department’s budget gaps.

K-12 School Districts Literally Steal Kid’s Lunch Money
The Sacramento Bee highlighted that several K-12 school districts have been ordered to repay nearly $170 million in meal money, because schools used lunch funds for sprinklers, roof projects, and other “disallowed charges.” The food service program provides around 2.4 million free or reduced-priced lunches every day in California’s public schools. According to the article, the California Department of Education is responsible for monitoring the meal program, but has no sustained funding to ensure compliance.

California Bureaucrats Earn $80,000 Travel Bill, on Taxpayer’s Dime
Several members of the California Department of Veteran’s Affairs (CalVet) have incurred excessive travel expenses, all paid for by California taxpayers. According to a CBS 13 Sacramento report, officials appointed by the governor have spent $82,000 on travel in 18 months. A majority of the travel arrangements appear to violate Governor Brown’s 2011 mandate that banned all “non-mission critical” travel. It was also discovered that CalVet leadership approved each other’s trips and have racked up enough frequent flyer miles for around 30 free flights, all on the taxpayers’ dime. 

CalVet Officials Get Free Parking, at the expense of Disabled Veterans
Officials at CalVet are using parking spaces reserved for visitors and disabled veterans, instead of parking in designated employee areas. CBS 13 Sacramento discovered that several high-ranking CalVet officials avoid paying for parking on the street, an instead occupy 2-hour parking spots for visitors. Several disabled veterans have had to park across the street instead of having access to visitor parking spots in front of the Department of Veterans office building.

Taxpayers will Pay $5.6 Million so people can walk on partially-completed Bay Bridge
Californians will get a change to walk on the newly completed section of the new Bay Bridge before it opens on Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately, taxpayers will have to pay nearly $6 million to do so. A Contra Costa Times article examined the cost of letting nearly 200,000 walk on the newly completed suspension bridge. According to the article, previous anniversaries for the Golden Gate Bridge and even the San Francisco Giants World Series parade were paid for with private funding. Now, state officials want to add another $5.6 million onto the most expensive public works project ever built in California history.

CalPERS Managers Working Two Paid Positions
Since June of 2011, CalPERS have paid 50 managers a combined $45,000 for overtime work, according to the Sacramento Bee. These CalPERS employees are paid on salary and are prohibited from receiving overtime. According to the report, a rarely used section of the state personal manual allows for “Additional Appointments.” CalPERS has only released pay data for November 2011, where 50 managers were paid $45,000, or about $900 each. CalPERS officials said they needed help with a new computer system, and the practice will end in July of 2013.

In-Home Care Payments Made to Dead Patients
According to the State Controller's Office, poor oversight of the In-Home Supportive Services program resulted in $11 million being distributed to patients or providers of care that were deceased.  A 2009-10 investigation of In-Home Supportive Services by the Sacramento County District Attorney's office found 19 cases of fraud.  The Schwarzenegger Administration estimated fraud and abuse could account for 25 percent of in-home care costs statewide.  Unfortunately, the Legislature has repealed anti-fraud measures to ensure IHSS money was spent only on those who are in need.

State E-Waste Recycling Program Losing Tens of Millions to Fraud
According to an investigation by the Sacramento Bee, the state's e-waste recycling program has lost tens of millions of dollars due to fraud, the result of illegal material being smuggled in from out of state.  The paper reported $23 million in fraudulently submitted claims that are yet-to-be-paid and another $30 million in fraudulent claims that have been paid.

Government Employees Receiving Excessive Paid Vacation Time
According to a report in California Watch, state employees have received millions of dollars for unused vacation time, above the set limits.  The report found that at least $100 million, and likely tens of millions of dollars more, was paid to state employees who went over the cap and retired between 2006 and mid-2007.

State Fails to Recoup Overpayment for CalWORKs and Food Stamp Programs
Since 2003, counties have been overpaid millions of dollars by the state from food stamp recipients, yet the Department of Social Services has taken few steps to recover these overpayments.  By failing to take action, the state has lost $12.45 million and another $1.1 million in interest.

State Could Waste Over $6 Billion on High Speed Rail Project
A recent analysis by the Legislative Analyst's Office found that the state could end up wasting over $6 billion in state tax dollars as it works to construct a high speed rail system throughout California.  

State Fails to Implement Recommendations of State Auditor, Loses Out on $1.2 Billion in Potential Taxpayer Savings
The nonpartisan State Auditor's Office audited the operations of several state agencies between 2003 and 2010, and concluded that the state could have saved taxpayers approximately $1.2 billion had their proposals to reform operations and improve efficiency been enacted.  For example, the state could have saved $13 million in Medi-Cal savings by eliminating overbilling by equipment providers.

State Could Streamline Management of State Employees
The bipartisan Little Hoover Commission has identified two state departments with oversight over state employee management - the State Personnel Board and the Department of Personnel Administration.  Eliminating the State Personnel Board and merging its personnel management operations within the Department of Personnel Administration could save taxpayers.

Streamlining Division of Juvenile Justice Could Lead to Better Oversight of Juvenile Justice Programs
The Little Hoover Commission recommends eliminating the Division of Juvenile Justice within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and instead consolidating all statewide juvenile justice crime prevention efforts within a Governor's Office of Juvenile Justice.  This would streamline operations and improve oversight of county programs funded with state tax dollars.

Utilizing Public-Private Partnerships, Increasing Bond Oversight Will Result in Major Savings for Taxpayers
Debt service on statewide general obligation bonds is one of the fastest growing areas of the state spending.  Every dollar we spent paying back bonds is another dollar we don't have to spend on education, public safety and other priorities.  The Little Hoover Commission recommends better management of bond funds, better setting of priorities and goals and more accountability.  The Commission also recommends utilizing public-private partnerships for statewide infrastructure projects in lieu of general obligation bonds, to reduce future debt service payments.

Department of Public Health Program Wastes $5.1 Million on Non-Healthcare Services
The State Auditor's Office found a lack of accountability in the Department of Public Health "Every Woman Counts" program, which provides cancer screening services to women.  Their report found that if it had redirected half of what it spent on contracts for non-healthcare services, it could have dedicated an additional $5.1 million to pay for cancer screening, allowing an additional 41,500 women to receive healthcare services.

Taxpayers Spend $2.6 Million to Rent a Vacant Building
In 2009 and 2010, the state spent $1.3 million a year to rent a vacant office building in Rancho Cordova for EdFund, an auxiliary of the California Student Aid Commission.  These dollars could have provided financial aid for up to 1,000 college students.  In 2011, the owner of the building filed a $40 million claim with the state for unpaid rent.  The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Department of General Services also wasted $580,000 over a four year period by leasing 5,900 square feet of office space that went unoccupied.

Employment Development Department Mismanages Taxpayer Dollars
A report in the Sacramento Bee found that technology staff at the Employment Development Department mismanaged projects that were funded with federal stimulus dollars, resulting in $53 million in overtime costs.  This is in addition to a five-year delay on other projects and a previous cost overrun of more than $80 million.

Taxpayers Spend Tens of Thousands to Replace Waterless Toilets
Eight years ago, the California Environmental Protection Agency installed waterless toilets in their new headquarters building, which they said saved millions of gallons of water every year and lowered energy costs.  But in 2010, CalEPA removed the 56 waterless toilets based on complaints about how sanitary they were and the odors emitted, costing taxpayers $25,000.  CalEPA acknowledged that they had been spending $50,000 a year in additional cleaning costs around the waterless toilets. 

University of California Wastes Hundreds of Millions of Dollars on Administration
In 2010, officials with the University of California announced plans to cut $500 million in administrative "waste."  Examples of university waste include giving nearly every employee in the UC Office of the President their own printer.  Cutting down on printers has saved $300,000. 

Department of Corrections Wastes $13 Million in Prescription Drug Delivery to Inmates
A report by the State Inspector General found that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wasted at least $13 million through 2009 in the way it provides prescription drugs to inmates.  Poor management and inefficient operations in identifying and restocking medications resulted between $7.7 million and close to $20 million in wasted tax dollars.  In addition, the State Auditor found that Corrections spent $50,000 to lease 29 parking spaces at a private parking facility that were not used.

Eliminating or Reducing the Backlog of State Disputes over Prescription Drug Rebates Will Save Taxpayers Hundreds of Millions
The Department of Health Services is working to eliminate its backlog of disputes with prescription drug companies over rebates.  By resolving this backlog of disputes over prescription drug costs, the State Auditor estimates the state could save at least $285 million (based on the claim backlog reported through December 2006).

Eliminating State Mandated Local Programs Could Save Taxpayers Billions
According to a report by the State Auditor's office, the state's liabilities for mandated local programs was $5.2 billion as of June 30, 2010.  The Auditor recommends eliminating mandates that are no longer necessary and suspending those that won't adversely affect public health and safety, to generate significant ongoing savings."

Friday, April 19, 2013

Higher Taxes Will Lead to New Spending

Here's another article from the Citizens Against Government Waste:

"On November 29, 2012, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner summarized President Obama’s plan to avoid the fiscal cliff to members of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The plan called for $1.6 trillion in tax increases, but would “largely exempt Medicare and Social Security from budget cuts.” President Obama has urged in the past that the rich “pay their fair share” to reduce the deficit, meaning that tax increases on the wealthy would go toward reducing the deficit. 

However, new data from the Senate Budget Committee tells a different tale about where the money from the tax increases will go.The committee found that out of the proposed $1.6 trillion in tax increases, only $400 billion will go toward reducing the deficit. The remaining $1.2 trillion will finance additional spending, including the full restoration of the budget cuts planned under the Budget Control Act of 2011, along with “$50 billion in fresh spending on the economy,” i.e., another stimulus package. The Senate Budget Committee also contends that the plan will add $8.6 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.

While it is preferable to avoid the fiscal cliff and opt for sensible cuts to federal spending, President Obama’s plan would be damaging to the economy. It is living proof of a quote by Milton Friedman: “Higher taxes never reduce the deficit.  Governments spend whatever they take in and then whatever they can get away with.”

Taxing “the rich” will not solve any problems; the only way to reign in the federal deficit and cut the $16.3 trillion national debt is by first eliminating wasteful spending."

Thursday, April 18, 2013

GM Bailout Could Get Much Worse

Citizens Against Government Waste has an interesting article on the General Motors bailout. Here's an excerpt:

"When the decision was made to bail out the auto industry, it was widely known that taxpayers would be saddled with a multi-billion dollar price tag, although no one knew what the exact cost would be. The Obama administration claimed that the cost would be worthwhile because of the number of jobs saved by the bailout. However, the administration may want to rethink its stance; if an upcoming court case is not decided in General Motors’ (GM) favor, taxpayers could be poised to lose another $31.3 billion on top of the current, optimistic projection of $25.1 billion.

According to a December 6, 2012 article in The Washington Free Beacon, “A New York federal judge may rule imminently on a case that could reverse the General Motors Bailout and send the company back into bankruptcy.  At issue is a backroom deal hatched by GM to fulfill the Obama administration’s demand for a quick bankruptcy, draining the automaker of nearly all of its cash on hand and leaving it in worse shape than it was when it collapsed in 2009".

A November 21, 2008 WasteWatcher article written at the time the bailouts were being discussed in Congress suggested that lawmakers should have let General Motors enter into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  This would have allowed the troubled automaker to embark on much-needed restructuring while continuing to operate.  Regardless of the New York court’s decision, the bailout remains a misguided and very expensive endeavor."

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Ten Redundant Federal Programs

Catfish Inspections - The federal government spends $30 million to fund two different catfish inspection programs through the Federal Drug Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service, and under the 2008 Farm Bill the Agriculture Department will also start surveying catfish. Streamlining the inspections through one agency could save the taxpayers $14 million.

Renewable Energy Initiatives - Auditors found extensive overlap across 679 renewable energy initiatives implemented by 23 different agencies across the federal government, including 82 initiatives for wind energy alone. The agencies spent about $2.9 billion on these initiatives, and another $1.1 billion was provided in tax subsidies. In one instance, one company received funding from seven wind energy programs for the same project.

Military Uniforms - Four different branches of the U.S. military spend millions of dollars on seven different combat uniforms that differ only in the color of their camouflage patterns. The Pentagon could eliminate $82 million in excess if the branches simply coordinated with each other.

Foreign Language Service at the DoD - The military spends more than $1 billion a year on 159 contractors that translate foreign languages. If the Pentagon scaled back those contracts, the savings would be $50 to $200 million a year.

National Technical Information Service - The National Technical Information Service sells federal reports to other government agencies - 75 percent of which can be found online for free. This duplication costs taxpayers $1.5 million.

Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Programs - The federal government currently funds 76 different drug-abuse prevention and treatment programs - 59 of which overlapped responsibilities.

Job Training for Vets - The Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs operate six different programs to train former members of the armed services for the private sector. The programs cost the government $1.2 billion in 2011.

Higher Education Assistance - Four federal agencies run 21 separate college aid programs that cost more than $140 billion a year. This includes eight targeted tax breaks, four subsidized loan programs, and a slew of grant programs. Still, nothing has been done to evaluate "the effectiveness of this assistance,” the GAO says.

Broadcasting Board of Governors - The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) spends 20 percent of its annual budget on 69 different language services - of which, 49 provide roughly the same responsibilities.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Taxpayer Letter To Senators

April 3, 2013
Senator Patty Murray
Senator Maria Cantwell
Washington, DC, 20510

Dear Senator:

I have tried to live by the rules my entire life. My father was a Sergeant Major, U.S. Army, who died of combat related stresses shortly after his retirement. It was he who instilled in me those virtues he felt important – honesty, duty, patriotism and obeying the laws of our various governments. I have served my country, paid my taxes, worked hard, volunteered and donated my fair share of money, time and artifacts.

Today, as I approach my 79th birthday, I am heart-broken when I look at my country and my government. I shall only point out a very few things abysmally wrong which you can multiply by a thousand fold. I have calculated that all the money I have paid in income taxes my entire life cannot even keep the Senate barbershop open for one year! Only Heaven and a few tight-lipped actuarial types know what the Senate dining room costs the taxpayers. So please, enjoy your haircuts and meals on us.

Last year, the president spent an estimated 1.4 $billion on himself and his family. The vice president spends $millions on hotels. They have had 8 vacations so far this year! And our House of Representatives and Senate have become America’s answer to the Saudi royal family. You have become the “perfumed princes and princesses” of our country.

In the middle of the night, you voted in the Affordable Health Care Act, a.k.a. “Obama Care,” a bill which no more than a handful of senators or representatives read more than several paragraphs, crammed it down our throats, and then promptly exempted yourselves from it substituting your own taxpayer-subsidized golden health care insurance.

You live exceedingly well, eat and drink as well as the “one percenters,” consistently vote yourselves perks and pay raises while making 3.5 times the average U.S. individual income, and give up nothing while you (as well as the president and veep) ask us to sacrifice due to sequestration (for which, of course, you plan to blame the Republicans, anyway).

You understand very well the only two rules you need to know – (1) How to get elected, and (2) How to get re-elected. And you do this with the aid of an eagerly willing and partisan press, speeches permeated with a certain economy of truth, and by buying the votes of the greedy, the ill-informed and under-educated citizens (and non-citizens, too, many of whom do vote) who are looking for a handout rather than a job. Your so-called “safety net” has become a hammock for the lazy. And, what is it now, about 49 or 50 million on food stamps – pretty much all Democrat voters – and the program is absolutely rife with fraud with absolutely no congressional oversight?

I would offer that you are not entirely to blame. What changed you is the seductive environment of power in which you have immersed yourselves. It is the nature of both houses of Congress which requires you to subordinate your virtue in order to get anything done until you have achieved a leadership role. To paraphrase President Reagan, it appears that the second oldest profession (politics), bears a remarkably strong resemblance to the oldest.

As the hirsute first Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton (1834 – 1902), English historian and moralist, so aptly and accurately stated, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” I’m only guessing that this applies to the female sex as well. Tell me, is there a more corrupt entity in this country than Congress?

While we middle class people continue to struggle, our government becomes less and less transparent, more and more bureaucratic, and ever so much more dictatorial, using Czars and Secretaries to tell us (just to mention a very few) what kind of light bulbs we must purchase, how much soda or hamburgers we can eat, what cars we can drive, gasoline to use, and what health care we must buy. Countless thousands of pages of regulations strangle our businesses costing the consumer more and more every day.

As I face my final year, or so, with cancer, my president and my government tell me “You’ll just have to take a pill,” while you, Senator, your colleagues, the president, and other exulted government officials and their families will get the best possible health care on our tax dollars until you are called home by your Creator while also enjoying a retirement beyond my wildest dreams, which of course, you voted for yourselves and we pay for.

The chances of you reading this letter are practically zero as your staff will not pass it on, but with a little luck, a form letter response might be generated by them with an auto signature applied, hoping we will believe that you, our senator or representative, has heard us and actually cares. This letter will, however, go on line where many others will have the chance to read one person’s opinion, rightly or wrongly, about this government, its administration and its senators and representatives.

I only hope that occasionally you might quietly thank the taxpayer for all the generous entitlements which you have voted yourselves, for which, by law, we must pay, unless, of course, it just goes on the $17 trillion national debt for which your children and ours, and your grandchildren and ours, ad infinitum, must eventually try to pick up the tab.

My final thoughts are that it must take a person who has either lost his or her soul, or conscience, or both, to seek re-election and continue to destroy this country I deeply love and put it so far in debt that we will never pay it off while your lot improves by the minute, because of your power. For you, Senator, will never stand up to the rascals in your House who constantly deceive the American people. And that, my dear Senator, is how power has corrupted you and the entire Congress. The only answer to clean up this cesspool is term limits. This, of course, will kill the goose that lays your golden eggs. And woe be to him (or her) who would dare to bring it up.

Sincerely,
Bill Schoonover

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Key ObamaCare Program Is Already Broke

Click here to read an Investors.com article regarding the Affordable Care Act. Some excerpts:
  • The $5 billion fund set up by ObamaCare to cover new high-risk insurance pools in each state from pre-existing conditions is already running out of money — a full year before projections.
  • Panicked to control mushrooming costs in its pre-existing conditions insurance plan, or PCIP, the Health and Human Services Department is having to curtail benefits to cancer patients, among others. It's a bad omen for the larger plan.
  • Americans can look forward to the same cost overruns followed by cost controls followed by curtailed benefits followed ultimately by denial of care. Controlling this massive new entitlement will require government-mandated rationing of medical services and care for the sick and higher taxes for the middle class.
  • If the Democrats in Congress and the White House miscalculated how much it would cost to fund hundreds of thousands of ObamaCare applicants with pre-existing medical problems, imagine how badly it's low-balling the cost of subsidizing millions of other uninsured Americans, who'll be eligible for a generous array of "free" preventive-care services?
  • In 1965, the Johnson administration figured Medicare would cost $12 billion by 1990. Its actual cost was $110 billion. Now it's almost $600 billion and climbing.
  • Obama's comically named Affordable Care Act doesn't fully go into effect for another nine months, when some 30 million uninsured crash the medical system (not counting illegal immigrants). Yet it's already exploded original cost estimates.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Billions Wasted on Duplicative Federal Programs

Investors.com has an excellent article on government waste. Here are some excerpts:
  • The Government Accountability Office's latest annual report on government waste and duplication found 31 areas in the government that overlap, duplicate efforts or are egregiously inefficient. That's on top of the 131 found in its previous two annual reports. In many cases, the government has no idea whether any of these programs actually work.
  • Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who pushed for this report, figures the latest examples alone add up to $95 billion — more than the spending cuts under this year's "sequester." There are, for example, 23 agencies pushing more than 670 renewable energy programs, a quarter of which President Obama added. In wind energy alone, nine agencies threw $4 billion at 82 wind energy projects in 2011.
  • Four federal agencies run 21 separate college aid programs that cost more than $140 billion a year, including eight targeted tax breaks, four subsidized loan programs, two grant programs, and a half-dozen others run by the Veterans Administration and Defense. Yet nobody, according to the GAO, has bothered to evaluate "the effectiveness of this assistance."
  • There are six job training programs for veterans, but neither the VA nor the Labor Department has bothered to determine whether the $1.2 billion spent on them gets any results.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

How Stimulus Money Was Spent

In an effort to jump-start the nation’s economy, Congress in February 2009 passed the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009″ (better known as the “Stimulus”). According to Harry Reid, the Stimulus "will strengthen our economy by creating millions of good-paying jobs here at home; deliver tax relief for 95% of workers and invest in America’s future by fixing our communities’ roads and bridges, improving our children’s education and making our country more energy independent. Our plan also guarantees transparency and accountability to ensure that taxpayers’ money is spent wisely."

Here are two examples of how the money was actually spent:
  • The University of Indiana (at Bloomington) received, as a result of the stimulus, $423,500 to study “Correct Condom Use.” Yes, you read that correctly: “Correct Condom Use.” And guess how many jobs that program created: zero!
  • A. study entitled “Ethnic Differences In Responses To Painful Stimulus” received $712,000. The University of Florida (at Gainsville) got that one. Again, zero jobs were created.
As of the middle of 2012, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that an increase of between 0.2 million and 1.5 million new jobs was created as a result of the stimulus. So, using CBO numbers, at that point, each job created cost somewhere between $540,000 and $4.1 million.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Is Disability the New Welfare?

There is an interesting article on The Patriot Post website titled "Is Disability the New Welfare?". Here are some excerpts:
  • The government in Britain recently did something interesting. It asked everyone receiving an "incapacity benefit" -- a disability program slowly being phased out under new reforms -- to submit to a medical test to confirm they were too disabled to work. A third of recipients (878,000 people) didn't even bother and dropped out of the program rather than be examined. Of those tested, more than half (55 percent) were found fit for work, and a quarter were found fit for some work.
  • ... the number of people on disability has been doubling every 15 years (while the average age of recipients has gone down).
  • Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health notes in his recent book "A Nation of Takers: America's Entitlement Epidemic" that 29 percent of the 8.6 million Americans who received Social Security disability benefits at the end of 2011 cited injuries involving the "musculoskeletal system and the connective tissue." Fifteen percent claimed "mood disorders." It's almost impossible, Eberstadt writes, "for a medical professional to disprove a patient's claim that he or she is suffering from sad feelings or back pain." 
  • In an illuminating and predictably controversial exposé for "This American Life," NPR's "Planet Money" team tried to figure out why, since 2009, nearly 250,000 people have been applying for disability every month (while we've averaged only 150,000 new jobs every month).
  • As the nature of the economy changes, disability programs are sometimes taking the place of welfare for those who feel locked out of the workforce -- and state governments are loving it. States pay for welfare, the feds pay for disabilities.
  • There are those who are quick to argue that this is all bogus, there's nothing amiss with the disability system that greater funding and a better economy won't fix. Maybe they're right. One way to find out would be to ask every recipient to get a thorough examination, just as they did in Britain. Maybe the results here in the United States would be interesting too.