More Examples of Government Waste
Here we go again with examples of how the government is wasting your tax dollars. These examples are once more excerpted from an article by Brian M. Riedl, The Heritage Foundation, http://www.heritage.org.
A recent audit revealed that employees of the Department of Agriculture used their government-issued credit cards for personal purchases. The credit card program was designed to save money by allowing employees to avoid the lengthy procurement process and purchase job-related products with the cards that would be paid by their agency. Taxpayer funded purchases, to a tune of $5.8 million, went for items such as concert tickets, tattoos, lingerie, car payments, and cash advances. In the USDA alone there are 55,000 such credit cards in circulation, including over 1,500 that are still held by people who no longer work at the USDA.
Medicare wastes more money than any other federal program, but lawmakes hesitate to address the programs inefficiencies. Medicare pays as much as eight times what other federal agencies pay for the same drugs and medical supplies. For example, Medicare pays $8.26 for saline solution, compared to $1.02 paid by Veterans Affairs. These high prices not only cost the program more money, but also take more money out of the pockets of Medicare beneficiaries. Higher prices mean higher co-payments. But higher prices for drugs aren't the only Medicare inefficiencies. Basic payment errors, the results of deliberate fraud and administrative errors, cost $12.3 billion annually. As much as $7 billion owed to the program has gone uncollected. In total, Medicare reform could save taxpayers and program beneficiaries $20 billion to $30 billion annually without reducing benefits.
Doesn't that make your blood boil? It certainly raises my blood pressure. That's one of the reasons I am writing my new novel, An Eagle Unchained. It points out some of the solutions that need to be implemented, such as limiting the terms of Senators and Representatives. As it is they have lost touch with the American people.
More examples are on the way over the next few days. Let me know what you think about the waste. I know the numbers are so huge it's difficult to comprehend them, but don't you think something should be done?
A recent audit revealed that employees of the Department of Agriculture used their government-issued credit cards for personal purchases. The credit card program was designed to save money by allowing employees to avoid the lengthy procurement process and purchase job-related products with the cards that would be paid by their agency. Taxpayer funded purchases, to a tune of $5.8 million, went for items such as concert tickets, tattoos, lingerie, car payments, and cash advances. In the USDA alone there are 55,000 such credit cards in circulation, including over 1,500 that are still held by people who no longer work at the USDA.
Medicare wastes more money than any other federal program, but lawmakes hesitate to address the programs inefficiencies. Medicare pays as much as eight times what other federal agencies pay for the same drugs and medical supplies. For example, Medicare pays $8.26 for saline solution, compared to $1.02 paid by Veterans Affairs. These high prices not only cost the program more money, but also take more money out of the pockets of Medicare beneficiaries. Higher prices mean higher co-payments. But higher prices for drugs aren't the only Medicare inefficiencies. Basic payment errors, the results of deliberate fraud and administrative errors, cost $12.3 billion annually. As much as $7 billion owed to the program has gone uncollected. In total, Medicare reform could save taxpayers and program beneficiaries $20 billion to $30 billion annually without reducing benefits.
Doesn't that make your blood boil? It certainly raises my blood pressure. That's one of the reasons I am writing my new novel, An Eagle Unchained. It points out some of the solutions that need to be implemented, such as limiting the terms of Senators and Representatives. As it is they have lost touch with the American people.
More examples are on the way over the next few days. Let me know what you think about the waste. I know the numbers are so huge it's difficult to comprehend them, but don't you think something should be done?
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