WHAT A WASTE – How Your Government is Abusing You through Incompetence and Fraud
It’s your hard-earned money and your government is addicted to spending it. Unfortunately for those who think that government is the solution rather than the problem, the bureaucrats and elected officials simply lack the competency or courage to ensure your tax dollars are spent wisely. In this edition of Majority Points, we’ll give you some examples of the legalized fraud and abuse that is perpetrated on the people of this country. Spread the word to friends about the need for limited government and use these as ammunition to prove that government can’t be trusted to spend your money effectively.
We all know that government is bloated and inefficient. But just how much is not generally known. The federal government alone is so big and so poorly managed that Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma has been trying to ascertain how many agencies and programs are funded by Washington for years and he still can’t figure it out. The feds haven’t produced financial statements on government spending in more than a decade. Apparently, they just don’t care that every year billions of your dollars are wasted, misdirected or fraudulently used.
Consider that a GAO report last year identified more than 100 federal programs dealing with surface transportation issues, 82 programs that are supposed to monitor the quality of teachers, nearly 50 job training programs, 20 offices or agencies dedicated to combating homelessness and 17 different disaster preparedness programs. There are 342 economic development programs, 130 programs serving the disabled, 130 to help at-risk youth, 90 early childhood development programs, 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities and 72 safe water programs. The list goes on and on.
This kind of overlap has been a problem for decades, yet our elected officials in both parties still support the creation of new programs to fuel their own political careers. Now add on top of all these programs state and local agencies and initiatives that do the very same thing. It’s easy to see why our government is failing its people.
The biggest program of them all, Obamacare, will add tens of thousands of IRS agents to the public payroll for a massive new tax levy despite the fact that the Congress passed the bill without reading it or knowing how it would be implemented, what it would cost and its potential impact on the economy. The result will add millions of people to a healthcare program without adding a single doctor – all administered by a government that already bankrupted Social Security and Medicaid. What a model of efficiency.
While the recent GSA scandal is now legendary, here are some other outrageous examples from recent years of how the growing bureaucracy is wasting your money and bankrupting the country:
- Last week it was revealed that a Treasury Dept official used office computers to set up meetings with prostitutes through Craig’s List.
- Solyndra’s loan from the Federal government - $535 Million. Enough said.
- A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations
-Auditors have discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications.
- The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades.
- Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending topped $2 billion. Debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, "Girls Gone Wild" videos, and at least one sex change operation.
- Up until recently, Washington was spending $60,000 per hour to take photos of Air Force One flying over national landmarks.
- Audits have shown $34 billion worth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant waste, fraud, and abuse.
- A Department of Agriculture report concedes that much of the $2.5 billion in "stimulus" funding to upgrade broadband Internet will be wasted
- In 2009 Washington spent $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job
And yet, last week, the Administration announced it wants more of your money to spend. Just to give you a sense of how bad things really are, if the Bush tax cuts are scaled back in their entirety, raising taxes on virtually everyone who pays taxes, and all of the fraud, waste and abuse were cut we still probably wouldn’t be able to close the more than $1.5 trillion budget deficit.
We need political courage in Washington to eliminate programs, reduce the number of agencies, shrink the public workforce, cut budgets and pass the responsibility for countless initiatives back to the states where they belong. Push your candidates and elected officials hard on what specifically they will do to cut waste and shrink the size of government. If they don’t do it. Go shopping for someone who will.
Keep America Free,
Ned Ryun
