Federal Grant Negligence Exceeds $125 Billion

Center for Fiscal Accountability ^ | 2011-06-27 | Soren Kreider

[92nina]

...Out of the myriad of grant programs operated by the federal government, the GAO report identified five programs whose egregious lack of accountability resulted in the highest amount of improper payments:

• Medicaid - $22.5 billion
• Unemployment Insurance - $17.5 billion
• Food Stamps - $2.2 billion
• School Lunch Program - $1.5 billion
• Pell Grants - $1 billion

Calls for increased government transparency gain new clarity when faced with the sheer magnitude of federal negligence. Such pervasive redundancy and waste in federal grant programs is a symptom of a greater illness -- the absence of any meaningful accountability mechanism to rein in these out-of-control spending programs. While passage of the DATA Act and other efforts to improve grant transparency are necessary, it is even more pressing that reforms to these defunct programs are made – such as those suggested by Rep. Paul Ryan, whose budget plan capitalizes on the success of welfare reform in the 1990s by devolving these programs to the states. Such efforts, in conjunction with increased transparency, are the only way taxpayers will not be left holding the bag for billions in wasteful spending in years to come.

[92nina]

"Last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report stating improper payments in the federal government’s grant programs totaled $125.4 billion in 2010..."

Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at at Digg and at Reddit and in Delicious and Stumbleupon

[rokkitapps]

“nothing to cut in government, what we need is more taxes” - signed, dumbarse libs.

[chicagolady]

GRANTS TO LA RAZA and Illegal aliens NO DOUBT!!

AMERICA DESTROYED BY DESIGN!!

[DannyTN]

The problem I have with all of these Government Fraud reports is that there are never enough details.

• Is $125 billion a number that some beauracrat pulled out of thin air to justify his proposed anti-fraud department?
• Is it actual fraud and if so did they prosecute?
• Is is estimated fraud based on a sample? And did they prosecute the sample? And was the sample truly random or did they look at it for a reason.

I see government contracts claim that saved the government $xxx billion in fraud, but some of what they are claiming were legitimate claims that they refused to pay on some technicality.

[Brilliant]

Per year.