Posted on 11/18/2009 10:16:05 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON – More than $98 billion in taxpayer dollars spent by government agencies was wasted, much of it on questionable claims for tax credits and Medicare benefits, representing an increase of $26 billion from the previous year.
In all, about 5 percent of spending in federal programs in fiscal year 2009 was improper, according to new details of a government financial report that were released Tuesday. Saying the overall error rate was similar in 2008, officials attributed the $26 billion jump to some changes in how to define improper spending as well as an increase in overall spending due to the recession.
President Barack Obama is expected to sign an executive order within the next week aimed at cracking down on government waste and fraud, particularly in Medicare and other benefit programs. In the 2009 report, the government officially reported questionable Medicare payments of roughly $36 billion, but that amount will be revised upward to about $48 billion next year as the Health and Human Services Department fully converts to a new methodology that imposes stricter documentation requirements.
"We need to protect taxpayer dollars," Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters. "Every dollar that goes to the wrong recipient or in the wrong amount is a dollar not available to help an unemployed worker, or to invest in education or key priorities of the administration."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Gubamint waste of money up under Obama. I’m shocked.
98 Billion in GOVT spending .. with the new Regime.. that’s just PETTY CASH
Remember when Bambi ordered $100 MILLION in cuts earlier this year — and we were suppose to be all warm and fuzzy and impressed?
That’s 1/10 of 1 percent of the 98 BILLION in waste outlined here. And that’s just the waste they’re talking about... there’s another 900 billion where that came from.
“Put the government in charge of something, and watch it fall apart.” -Ronald Reagan
Mr. Obama and his minions can’t even brush their teeth they are so addled.
Hold muh beermug, I’m having an Everett Dirksen flashback.
Waste fraud graft and corruption usually get about a third of the action..
This is just the tip of the iceberg. ;-)
I bet it’s closer to 500 Billion...
or more!
SARK OFF!
I’d say that would be a good guess!
It is ALWAYS more than what they admit.
Ugh.
Is fraud really up? Under the RATS control I’m certain it is, but am suspicious about the target of primarily Medicare at a time the RATS assault that industry with their plans to Nationalize it for their P-O-W-E-R.
The Federal Government needs to be cut back to its original size, and adjustments made to the Constitution to insure it can never be manipulated to grow out of control ever again.
As best I can tell, they looked for fraud by Health Providers, but not by entitlement recipients. I’d guess that fraud by entitlement recipients is much more than by the middle men.
But it all depends on what you consider “fraud”. Large numbers of middle class (and even rich) college students game the system to get student aid, food stamps, Section 8, etc. Likewise at the other end. Seasoned citizens hide their income and assets and to obtain means tested entitelments.
This gaming of the system follows a continuum from a gray area to a clearly illegal (but not prosecuted) area.
The incremental cost of each F-22 is ~$143 Million. This is like misplacing 685 F-22's; the most advanced figher on the planet. The one that we may be dropping because "we can't afford it".
The physical year for governement is in the summer. so that would make it half and half spending, and it says it was about the same as 2008.
They’re not even counting the fraud ordered by the Congress and the White House: TARP and Stimulus. This is just the unauthorized fraud in one narrow area.
Change We Can Believe In!!! Yes We Did!!! effin morons...
When Rudy overhauled the welfare system in NYC in the 90's, fully 1/3 of the recipients "DISSAPPEARED" over night!
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