GOVERNMENT WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE

 

Reading this year’s report of the top 100 examples of wasteful government programs produced by Senator Coburn’s office is painful. Over $30 billion worth of waste was identified last year alone. The highlights include NASA spending $3 million on research into how Congress functions, $7 billion spent, by the military, destroying useable vehicles and weapons rather than bringing them back home, $300 million spent on an army blimp that was never used before being sold for $300 thousand, and of course the $600 million spent on a faulty website. My personal favorite is the $356 million spent by the Department Of Justice since 1998 for an integrated wireless communication system (radios) that is so cumbersome, inefficient and out dated that agents use their personal cell phones instead.

In 2007 the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud reported that 9.3% of welfare payments were made for fraudulent claims. Out of $254 billion the fraud amounted to $23.7 billion. Today the annual welfare payments have grown to $397 billion, given the same level of fraud the losses would amount to $37 billion this year alone.

The IRS estimates that there will be $30 billion this year in uncollectable tax evasion and another 3-5 billion sent out on fraudulent returns. What can we expect from a government agency that admits it can’t collect $3.5 billion in back taxes from employees of the federal government. All this while sending 446 separate tax refunds to a single address worth $600,000 and 355 tax refunds to another address for over a million dollars. This degree of precision is just what we are looking for to administer another 1/6 of the economy’s money in healthcare.

The DOJ saw fit to spend $165 million for a prison in Illinois that needs very costly upgrades before it could ever be used so it joins the four other vacant prison facilities owned by the department. FBI personnel it was discovered used $11.4 million worth of FBI luxury jet travel unrelated to the agency’s mission in 2013.

No listing of wasteful spending by the U.S. Government has any effect on our Federal leviathan. The Congress will spend the $3 trillion dollars in tax revenue it gets plus ¾ of a trillion more in borrowed dollars this year. The rate of consumption exceeds $6.2 million dollars a minute. Every dime that the government spends it must first take away from someone who earned it or add it to the mortgage on our future. We as a nation cannot rely on the honesty of elected officials who buy votes and enrich themselves with spoils stolen from the taxpaying public. The tipping point is here, there are almost as many people living on government subsistence as those who pay the taxes to support them. I do not include in my handout calculations, payments to Social Security recipients who paid into the fund. The fraud of the exploding Social Security disability is front and center on my list of federal abuses of the taxpayer.

Our press in this nation continue to ignore the absurd claims by members of Congress when they claim welfare payments are viable for stimulating the economy. Taxing oneself into prosperity was described by Winston Churchill as making as much sense as standing in a bucket and trying to lift yourself up by the handle. The simple fact is people earn money and use it for things that they need or want. Either of these stimulate the economy and encourage businesses of all sizes to invest and compete for the dollars. Money left with the taxpayer grows the economy while money taken in taxes retards growth and is all too often wasted on frivolous schemes for buying votes.

Taxpayers who joined together to object to the out of control spending in Washington so frightened the “tax and spend” government insiders that the full ire of the press and muscle of the IRS was brought against them. It is hard to find any newspaper or broadcast network that has not proclaimed the TEA Party to be extreme, racist, homophobic and dangerous to the nation. The entrenched Republican establishment has even joined this chorus although the clamor from that faction has quieted as their donations have dried up.

I find it hard to believe that passing laws creating ever more unsustainable government programs is viewed as proper government while pundits label balanced budgets and pro-growth fiscal policy as voodoo economics.