Federal Government Waste

        Last week I mentioned that according to the Inspector General illegal immigrants collected $4.2 billion in fraudulent claims from the I.R.S. in 2010.   That number will be higher today.  This number doesn’t include fraudulent claims by legal citizens or claims from illegal immigrants that Obama is giving legal status. 

        The Government Accountability Office estimates that “improper entitlement payments” for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security amount to $100 billion.  This is crazy.  I have seen estimates that our federal government pays out $125 billion in fraudulent claims every year. 

        That’s just fraud.  Now lets look at other federal government waste.  Administration and web sites for Obama Care has now cost us $5.7 billion.  A new disaster management system for FEMA that does not work, cost $240 million.  The FBI has a new faulty IT system at a cost of $550 million. 

Many federal departments and agencies overlap and duplicate services, another waste.  Due to civil service employee protections, it is almost impossible to fire incompetent federal employees.  We have spent $3.1 billion in administrative leave pay for federal workers suspected of wrongdoing.  They are usually allowed to retire with benefits and sometimes even a bonus. 

        The federal Government Accountability Office estimates that 10% of all federal government spending is fraud or waste.  In a five-year study, government auditors found federal programs costing $123 billion that failed to show any positive results.

        We should be appalled at this wasteful government spending, but how do we stop it?  It is naive to think we can expect government to fix the problem.  As President Ronald Reagan said, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”

        It is clear that the public sector, at least at the federal level, is not and will never be as efficient as the private sector.  There is no profit motive with the federal government and no incentive to eliminate fraud and waste.  What private enterprise could stay in business if 10% of all spending was fraud and waste? 

        We can’t privatize the federal government, but we can reduce the size of the federal government.  We can give the states back their rights.  We can restrict the executive branch of government to those powers bestowed in the Constitution and eliminate the misuse of executive orders.  We can restrict the federal government to those functions and responsibilities spelled out in the Constitution and eliminate those involvements specifically prohibited in the 10^th Amendment. 

        I think it’s time for real change before we lose all our rights and this great country goes bankrupt.