[gdani]

Really? The waste and abuse associated with Medicare, Medicaid, and SS far exceeds what is happening with DOD spending.

Well, given the Pentagon's resistance to outside audits, I don't know how sure we can be.

That said, just because Medicaid, Medicare, etc are also very wasteful & need reform does not mean the same is not true for the Pentagon. I mean, Medicare is not "misplacing" billions of dollars in Iraq. That takes a special level of incompetence & apathy, finely honed over the decades

[kabar]

Well, given the Pentagon's resistance to outside audits, I don't know how sure we can be.

As someone who spent 8 years as a naval officer, I trust the military to be better stewards of our national resources than the bureaucrats and recipients of the entitlement programs.

That said, just because Medicaid, Medicare, etc are also very wasteful & need reform does not mean the same is not true for the Pentagon. I mean, Medicare is not "misplacing" billions of dollars in Iraq. That takes a special level of incompetence & apathy, finely honed over the decades.

The lack of audit trails does not mean that the money was stolen by anyone in the Pentagon. When you are in a combat zone, it is a little more difficult to get all the paperwork you need. I spent a year in Vietnam overseeing logistical operations. You don't have the same controls you have stateside or in a non-war zone. When someone lobs rockets and blows up facilities, you don't bother recording the serial numbers of the typewriters that were lost.

Most of the Pentagon money is in no-year accounts, which makes it more difficult to audit them.

[SkyPilot]

I mean, Medicare is not "misplacing" billions of dollars in Iraq.

No, the program is "misplacing" billions of dollars right here.

How big is Medicare fraud?

In a May 2012 report, FBI Special Agent David Welker said, “The United States spends more than $2.5 trillion on health care annually, and rough estimates indicate that anywhere from 3 (percent) to 10 percent of all health care expenditures are attributed to fraud." If you do Welker's math, the annual cost of fraud ranges from $75 billion to $250 billion.

In Miami, there’s no shortage of Medicare fraud to keep prosecutors busy

Owner, manager of Chandler hospice charged with Medicare fraud in Oklahoma

FBI - New York Doctor Charged in Alleged Multi-Million-Dollar Medicare Fraud Scheme