Waste, fraud and abuse -- oh, that's just pennies

I've had arguments with modern liberals about fraud, waste and abuse, especially regarding Medicare and Medicaid, and the liberals snickered at my naive diligence to save money -- they said that waste, fraud and abuse are not worth the effort, that government does good work, and we can't expect government to be a lean, mean, efficient machine. Waste, fraud and abuse is the price we pay for doing good work and providing a safety net.

The link above is to a Cato article, and the estimates regarding waste, fraud and abuse are conservative, but when you think that foreign government are stealing this much money from the US through these programs, it's amazing that liberals can't see how this is a major problem. It's simply delusional denial to defend such incompetence. I'm convinced that statism is a social/political disease, and it will destroy America if the disease is not eradicated.

Everyone who has paid into Medicare for a long time should receive the coverage, but young people should have the liberty to design their own retirement safety net through private sector plans, using the money they have to pay into Medicare to purchase the private plans. Medicaid should be replaced with private healthcare assistance. Government has proved it cannot manage such programs, and we should never again give government such power.