Posted on 06/07/2013 7:24:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
Suddenly, Democrats are in a tizzy about wasteful government spending. At hearings this week into the IRS's misuse of taxpayer dollars to fund staff junkets, Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, bemoaned, "The money that was spent on that -- that's my money! That's the lady who got the early bus this morning. That's her money. The one who makes $35,000. Hers. The gentleman up the street from me who makes 45 (thousand dollars) hauling trash. That's their money! So, it was wasted."
But he shouldn't be surprised. What went on at the IRS is built into the system. It's not an IRS problem. It's a problem whenever individuals are free to spend Other People's Money. The more removed those who spend OPM are from those whose money they're spending the greater the likelihood for corruption.
So far, the IRS inspector general has uncovered about $50 million spent on lavish conferences for IRS officials who attended events in Anaheim, Calif., and elsewhere from 2010-2012. The IRS staff stayed in fancy hotels, ate free meals and then sought reimbursement from the government, produced foolish videos and walked away with trinkets that may not have been worth much individually but added up to $64,000 overall.
The IRS junket scandal may be what's getting attention this week, but it amounts to no more than a few crystals on the iceberg of government waste, fraud and abuse.
Where is the outrage when government waste amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars is built into public policy? Grilling a few arrogant IRS officials makes for good theater, but where are elected officials like Cummings when it comes to the far bigger problem of wasting taxpayers' money on unnecessary federal health care payments, or paying more for federal construction projects than needed in order to appease unions, or encouraging people not to accept jobs by extending unemployment benefits for up to 93 weeks?
To take just one of the more egregious examples, studies show that the federal government wastes about $100 billion a year in Medicare overpayments. That's two thousand times more than the IRS spent on junkets. And despite congressional and executive branch efforts to rein in these Medicare overpayments, it is almost impossible because the source of the problem is not simply greedy providers or actual criminals, but the disconnect between the person who is cutting the checks and the one whose money is being spent in the first place.
When I pay my own bills, I'm careful to make sure the provider is not cheating me. It's my money, after all, not someone else's, and I've worked hard for it. It's probably less likely that the provider of goods or services is going to try to pull something over on me if he knows I'm the one writing the check. After all, he wants me back as a customer -- and he may even have to look me in the eye when he hands me the bill.
But that is not the way it works when a third party pays the check. There is simply no accountability. We turn our money over to the government to dispense it as our elected officials decide and then trust that the funds will be wisely spent.
I doubt the offending IRS officials gave a second thought to what they were actually doing when they traveled to Anaheim for a good time. You can't imagine one of them breaking into their neighbor's house to raid the refrigerator for free meals or to help themselves to a few trinkets to take home for their own enjoyment. (And if the neighbor found out, he likely would have called the police.) But because the money belonged to other people -- and anonymous people at that -- it was a lot easier for those government workers to pretend their profligacy didn't hurt anyone.
The bigger government gets the more it does, and the more of our money it spends the greater the likelihood we'll see these scandals repeated. It's all about spending other people's money.
First time I’ve ever agreed with anything Elijah Cummings had to say. Preach it, man!
Perhaps we should start sending Mr. Cummings lists of other specific examples of waste ($10 million for crystal glassware for the state department comes to mind; costs for trips for the FLOTUS...). Perhaps some of his constituents who work 2 jobs and get up at 4 a.m. to take the early bus are not all in favor of funding caviar for Mooshelle.
News Flash!
Blind Hog Finds Acorn!
Zactly.
And Linda, I still think yer purdy.
The top 6 IRS worker complaints to their NTEU union rep:
6. The hot towels in first class were only lukewarm.
5. The Jumbo shrimp cocktail had medium shrimp.
4. They overcooked my $100/lb Wagyu beef steak.
3. The minibar in my $3,500 per night hotel suite was understocked.
2. Taxpayers calling the office during cocktail hour.
And the number one complaint:
1. They make us do math!
Feel free to add to the list.
This Democrat voting block is right in there with the rest of this loose coalition of Godless Communists, Socialists, perverts, criminals, racists, pseudo intellectuals, baby killers, and various other “useful idiots” that make up the Democrat Party.
Isn’t that like saying that Nazis are not responsible for the crimes of the Third Reich?
LLS
Has anyone thought to inspect spending by Cummings on bills he has sponsored? I suspect there could be something.
Me thinks he doth protest too much.
Elijah has been a congresscritter since 1996. He was in on all the things that have been done since then.
They are shocked, dismayed, outraged whatever at the profligate spending? Yeah, right... what the hell do they expect government employees are going to do when they are told: “Here is an extra $2 TRILLION... spend it and stimulate the economy.” This was dropped right in the lap of obastard... we have no conception of where this money went and what it has done.
Give it to your friends, give it to banks, give it to unions, use it anyway you think will give this administration and advantage.
Baseline budgeting... spend it or lose it... waste is encouraged. Baseline budgeting is the root of waste in this government... getting rid of it and going to ZERO base budgeting is one start.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseline_%28budgeting%29
Me thinks he doth protest too much.
Elijah has been a congresscritter since 1996. He was in on all the things that have been done since then.
The Dims are trying to roll the IRS targeting scandal into a typical beltway government waste scandal. That Boehner is letting them get away with this is near criminal. He should be co-opting their faux outrage and making demands of the Obama Admin. Instead Boehner is apparently doing a lot of outside the beltway fundraising. Nothing will get fixed until there is a real opposition party.
Elijah had nothing to say about the money we gave to Green Companies who went broke.
That was MY money.
He had nothing to say about the Billions we are spending in the Middle east to help the Muslim Brotherhood. That’s MY money.
He has nothing to say about the millions we spend flying the jerk and the wookie all over the country raising funds for Democrats. And vacationing.
That’s MY friggin money.
I think what the DemonRATS have realized is that, while the massive amount of government waste is almost incomprehensible to even the most intelligent among us, the low-information voter can understand a boondoggle meeting/conference. This is why they’re rushing to condemn the practice.
Am I the only one who clicked on this thread thinking that it was referring to the Office of Personnel Management?
I did too. I thought the article would be about the types of people hired to work in the Govt. lol
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