Posted by Tina
$55 Billion error in Medicare and Medicaid
$12 Billion error in Unemployment Insurance payments
“Improper US Government Payments Hit $98 Billion” – CNBC
Improper payments by the U.S. government to people, firms and contractors rose sharply to $98 billion in fiscal 2009 and President Barack Obama plans new rules to clamp down, the White House said Tuesday. ** Over half the mistakes were made in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and although some of the deterioration reflected stricter measurement, it also showed the need for healthcare reform, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag told reporters. – Reuters
If that isn’t enough there’s news about bogus stimulus “jobs” statistics reported by the Government Accountability Office. American Thinker has a fun article that exposes the whole Acornish mess:
More than 50,000 jobs, or one out of every 10 jobs the White House says were “saved or created” by their economic stimulus plan, came from projects that reported spending no money yet, according to a government report obtained by ABC News. ** The report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) analyzes the Administration’s October 2009 report on jobs saved or created by the $787 billion stimulus program and finds a “range of significant reporting and processing problems that need to be addressed.” ** The new GAO report finds that 58,386 of the more than 640,000 “saved or created” jobs listed on recovery.gov are from stimulus projects where no money has yet been spent. ** On the flip side, the report finds nearly 10,000 projects that report spending a total of $965 million without creating any jobs at all. ** The report also raises questions about how closely the contracts are being monitored. Twenty-five percent of the more than 130,000 primary contracts listed were not marked as having been reviewed by any government agency, and less than 1 percent of subcontracts were reviewed.
Whew, this stimulus package is beginning to have quite an odor about it. Remember just a few days ago I posted a story about stimulus money that was spent in phony congressional districts in some states…this article describes those in Tennessee:
“Imaginary Districts Receive Stimulus Money,” by Mark Bellinger – Newschannel5.com
Recovery.gov showed stimulus money spent in imaginary congressional districts, seven districts that are in Tennessee. ** According to the website nearly $54 million had been spent in the districts, and nearly $41 million in a district called 00. ** There was an imaginary 47th district where the government had apparently spent $2.3 million. ** “Yes, the 47th district in Tennessee. That’s right. Boy, we’re going to have a lot of pull in Congress next in redistricting,” said Cunningham. ** Tennessee has only nine congressional districts, and they are numbered one through nine. ** State documents appear to show stimulus money earmarked for the same phantom congressional districts. ** Governor Phil Bredesen’s spokeswoman, Lydia Lenker, said state officials did not file any of the reports responsible for the errors.
These phony statistics have apparently now been removed from the Recovery.gov site.
The President promised transperancy. I bet he didn’t figure this would be what everyone would discover when they looked in the window. The stimulus bill has proven to be a boondoggle from the beginning. It certainly hasn’t stimmulated the economy. But lets face it. BIG government has been the home to fraud and waste for decades. This is why small limited government is best and YOU shoulkd decide how your extra money will be spent, the closer to home the better on most things.