CNBC.com is reporting ...
"Improper US Government Payments Hit $98 Billion"
"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."
Question: can you believe what the government is saying about healthcare given their past record of outright lying about the costs, coverage and controls?
"Improper payments in the Medicare and Medicaid programs totaled $55 billion in fiscal 2009, according to documents provided by OMB."
If this was true, how can they fund the new ObamaCare initiative with this relatively paltry sum ... especially since the government has no real clue to the extent of medical-related fraud. Or if they do, why haven't they already taken actions to stem the tide of provable fraud? Something stinks in Obamaland.
"Medicare covers healthcare for the elderly and some disabled, while Medicaid does the same for the poor."
"Orszag said the error rate for payments under Medicare Advantage, where private insurers offer coverage to Medicare beneficiaries, jumped to 15 percent, or to $12 billion, in fiscal 2009. The error rate was 10 percent in fiscal 2008."
"'This was not the result of methodological changes. This is one of the reasons why, as part of health reform, we believe there are crucial changes necessary to the Medicare Advantage program,' he said on a telephone conference call."
It is not "reform" or an overhaul ... it is an out-and-out re-design of the system to support a toxic political agenda and to further crush the existing capitalist system under an unsustainable burden of debt.
"Obama has made overhaul of the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare industry his top domestic policy goal, pledging to expand medical coverage to millions of the uninsured and make healthcare more affordable."
According to the White House's Office of Management and Budget, tens of millions of people will still be uncovered and the costs -- assuming you add back in the separate "carve out" legislation will top over $3 TRILLION when the program is fully implemented. Because the OBM works for the President and is not an honest broker, we can see that they are complicit in manipulating costing scenarios -- like collecting ten years of payments, but providing care only in the last years; thus reducing the apparent cost of the bloated and malignant program.
"Orszag stressed that tougher measurement, as well as higher government spending due to the recession, explained a big part of the jump in government waste."
Billions of dollars have gone missing on the Bush and Obama Administration's watch. Without adequate accounting systems and controls, this is likely to become the standard pattern of practice.
"The government made improper payments of $72 billion in the 2008 financial year. Fraud may also be partly to blame."
An understatement: fraud and political corruption ...
"But Orszag stressed that the lack of tools to identify how much fell into this category made it impossible to estimate the size of the problem."
So why would "We the People" be so stupid as to trust the government with a massive new opportunity for increased fraud? Are we the stupid sheeple or what?
"One exception to this rule was fraud connected with improper payments under unemployment insurance, which OMB said added up to around one-fifth of the $12 billion in improper payments in that program."
President Obama is a stone cold liar when he cites government transparency and accountability ...
"Obama will sign a new executive order within a week to improve transparency and to encourage people to play straight, Orszag said."
Criminalizing behavior to exert further control over the populace?
Part of this effort will aim to explore imposing penalties on anyone who knowingly gets an improper payment — for instance if they get paid twice for the same thing. At the moment, all recipients have to do is return the money.
Considering government systems and the feeble ability of some government workers to perform even simple tasks, one might cite poor government systems, procedures and controls, not to mention errors and malfeasance, as being the proximate cause of a large portion of the errors.
"'It goes without saying that these results would be completely unacceptable in the private sector, as they should be in government, especially at a time of record deficits,' said Democratic Senator Tom Carper, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on federal financial management."
Senator Carper is a schmuck if he thinks that the government has ever been run like a business -- especially with the constant meddling and interference of politicians to subvert the system to convey some advantage to the politician's home districts and/or favorite special interests.
"Unfortunately, these numbers may still be just the tip of the iceberg since they don't even include estimates for several major programs, including the Medicare prescription drug plan," Carper said in a statement."
What the hell have the democrats ever done to rein in the costs of their multiple and massive entitlements -- which they now plan on extending to those illegal aliens who are not entitled to government benefits in the first place.
Bottom line ...
This is just another one of the self-serving statements from the democrats who propose to implode the United States under massive new debt and restrictions in personal choice and freedoms.
Time to stop the craziness before it reaches the tipping point of no return.
-- steve
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