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.

So, Mr. Coburn, what will you do about it?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/17/senator-questions-18b-spent-on-job-training-as-study-suggest-rampant-waste/

I've seen these types of reports for a long, long time, but I never hear about any followup or any effective effort to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in general. I hear of symbolic gestures and small tweaks, but no large scale efforts to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in government.

Especially from Coburn. I've heard Coburn on various talk shows going on about wasteful spending, but nothing ever changes except the waste, fraud and abuse increase. Waste, fraud and abuse are usually dismissed as too small to worry about when we have large entitlements to worry about. Maybe we need to look at SS and Medicare as part of the waste, fraud and abuse -- and wasteful military spending that does nothing to enhance our national security. If we look at real waste, fraud and abuse, it might entail the greater part of government spending.

Defense spending

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/make-believe-defense-cuts/#utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Cato-at-liberty+%28Cato+at+Liberty%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Above is a link to a Cato article doubting the administration's claims that defense spending is being or will be cut. Hawks defend military spending by showing how it's a small percentage of overall government spending, but this is bogus. Like the article claims, shifting costs and hiding expenses don't reveal the whole picture, and, besides, this argument is no better than the dismissal of dealing with waste, fraud and abuse because it's such a "small amount".

The truth is that government spends way too much on welfare and other government expenditures, so comparing the costs of one part of government with overall spending is meaningless -- the issue is how much can be cut while still maintaining national security. As for waste, fraud and abuse, who cares what percentage it is of overall costs, just cut it out. The same goes for the military -- if we have useless or overpriced contracts and weapons, and if we are fighting useless wars -- cut it out!

Waste, fraud and abuse

This morning on Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough said, in disbelief, that some of the New Republicans believe the deficit and debt problem can be handled by dealing with waste, fraud and abuse. Well, they are right, unless, like Scarborough, you're more interested in dissing Tea Party types than you are thinking about waste, fraud and abuse. Just the obvious waste is enormous, especially in areas like wasteful military spending and irrational contracts which overpay contractors, and foreign aid that goes to dictators. If you count nepotism, cronyism and failed government programs, the savings increase substantially -- like the DOE, ICC, etc. Even it's suuposed to be a quasi-government creation, eliminating the Fed would go a long way toward turning our economy around and stopping the abuse and fraud caused by central planning. Then there's Obamacare which is filled with waste and fraud -- Big Pharm and Big Insurance are being bribed to committ suicide.

Abuse can be counted in the five wars and the military bases across the world -- this is abuse of our military which should be respected, honored and used wisely. Medicare and Medicaid are fraught with fraud, and a facile search of this will give enough examples. Fast and Furious is an example of the incredible waste caused by the War on Drugs -- there's no telling how much this costs in terms of fraud, waste and abuse. If we really went through government and cut out all fraud, waste and abuse, we'd be doing fine. It appears that Joe is the one who doesn't understand.