Even When The Feds Get It Right They Still Get It Wrong

Even when the Federal government and the Washington political class do something good for taxpayers, they cannot help themselves but step right back into another screw up that overwhelms whatever good their first good deed did. Consider the recent announcement of good news that the Feds had busted 46 doctors and other healthcare professionals across the country for bilking the government, and the American taxpayer, out of $712 million.

Details of the fraud and bust include the following, as reported by CNN:

• This was the largest Medicare bust ever.
• In total, 243 people were arrested in 17 cities for Medicare billing of $712 million worth of patient care that was either unnecessary or never given.
• In one case, owners of a mental health facility in Miami billed tens of millions of dollars for psychotherapy sessions based on treatment that was little more than moving patients to different locations. 
• Four other people are charged for mass-marketing a talking glucose monitor, shipping the monitors to Medicare patients across the country who didn't need or order them, and then billing Medicare for the devices to the tune of more than $22 million.
• Health care providers got in on the scam by paying kickbacks to fraudsters who got their hands on Medicare patients' personal information which they would then use to bill Medicare for care never given. 
• These fraudsters often got the patient information by preying on the down and out in society by canvassing places like homeless shelters and soup kitchens.
• A Los Angeles doctor allegedly billed $23 million for 1,000 power wheelchairs and home health services that were not medically necessary and often not provided. 
• In a Florida case, a health care provider received $1.6 million from Medicare for prescription drugs that were never purchased and never given.
• "In these cases, we followed the money and found criminals who were attracted to doctors offices, clinics, hospitals and nursing homes in search of what they viewed as an ATM," said FBI Director James B. Comey.
• The DOJ's Medicare Fraud Strike Force team led the investigations which since 2007 it has charged 2,300 people who have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $7 billion. 
• In recent years, the Strike Force team has expanded from two cities to nine.

Great news, criminals ripping off the American taxpayer might finally be brought to justice. But let’s consider some of the downside to this whole, less than comprehensive law enforcement effort:

• These people were arrested for ripping off $712 million. However, there is no mention of how much of that $712 million will actually be recovered, much of it is likely to already have been spent and is gone forever.
• We have previously reported many times that credible, nonpartisan analyses and sources estimate that Medicare loses anywhere from $40 to $60 billion a year to waste and criminal activity. Thus, if we assume that the $712 million was all ripped off in one year, unlikely, than the recovery rate from the “biggest bust in Medicare history” is a measly 1.8% on $40 billion or 1.2% on $60 billion.
• Since the $712 million was probably obtained over a period of years, then the recovery rate is highly likely to be well below 1%. And this is the biggest bust in history, meaning other busts likely got far less.
• The strike force has been in operation for nine years, 2007 to 2015 and has busted criminals who had illegally collected $7 billion in Medicare funds. If we assume the lower end of annual Medicare ripoffs and waste is $40 billion, nine years worth of such behavior is about $360 billion. That means the task force has recovered a staggering...only 1.9% of the criminal activity and waste.

Look, I am happy that hundreds of people were busted and hundreds of millions of dollars were identified as stolen (not recovered). If some of that money can be recovered and funneled to reducing the national debt, helping the homeless and unemployed, feeding the hungry, then great. 

But come on, a measly 1.9% rate for nine years. Seems the taxpayers are still being abused by a government that cannot get out of its own way when it comes to wasting taxpayer wealth. 

But the story somehow gets a little worse. Even if the Feds can collect the $712 million that these 243 people stole, it will get wiped out by the embarrassing findings of a recent inspector general report relative to Obama Care. That Federal audit report found that the Department of Health and Human Services cannot find out what happened to about $2.8 billion of Obama Care subsidies that have already been paid out.

This should not come as a surprise. The entire Obama Care data processing effort has been a disaster from day one. The online exchanges failed to work properly for weeks. The systems security features were almost non-existent, subjecting millions of Americans to identity theft risk. The interface between the exchanges and insurance companies were chaotic.

Thus, we should not be surprised when the inspector general’s report shows that those systems now cannot track almost $3 billion in just the first four months into the Obama Care world. Apparently the whole system was launched without finishing and checking the accuracy of the back end processes that would communicate between the Federal exchange and insurance companies. 

The audit went onto say that HHS did not have an internal system to ensure that subsidies went to the right enrollees, or in the correct amounts: “[The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] CMS’s internal controls did not effectively ensure the accuracy of nearly $2.8 billion in aggregate financial assistance payments made to insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act during the first four months that these payments were made,” the inspector general said. Furthermore, “CMS’s (HHS) system of internal controls could not ensure that CMS made correct financial assistance payments.” 

Other findings in the report show that HHS did not have a process in place at the time money was being paid out to “prevent or detect any possible substantial errors” in Obama Care subsidy payments and could not “ensure that financial assistance payments were made on behalf of confirmed enrollees and in the correct amounts.”

Great, the Justice Department may have recovered upwards of $712 million that were likely stolen over a period of years from HHS’s Medicare program and then HHS goes out and likely lost almost $3 billion, in just four months, by being totally inept when it comes to Obama Care subsidies. Even when the Federal government and the political class that operate it give us good news they still manage to overwhelm us with bad news.

There are only two solutions to this incredible criminal waste and theft of taxpayer wealth, a short term and long term solution:

- Short Term: Nine years after trying to track down criminals that are stealing from taxpayers via the Federal government and it is safe to say that hundreds of billions of dollars went unaccounted for and the recovery rate is incredibly small, less than 2%. Thus the better short term solution is to offer rewards for anyone who turns in anyone who is scamming the government. Give them a 10% reward of what ever is recovered from their tip.

Police departments have been using this tip process for decades to have the community help them apprehend street criminals. Why not use the same theory to apprehend white collar criminals who rip off taxpayers? Get the whole citizenry involved with the potential of a large financial reward, a cut of what money is recovered. Waiting nine years for the task force to put a substantial dent in the criminal activity is not working, time to try something new and creative.

- Long term: this is just another example of a government beast that is out of control and totally dysfunctional. As we have pointed out a number of times, the Federal government today is no different than Jabba The Hutt from the Star Wars stories. Jabba was a large, formless blob that fulfilled no worthwhile function but who consumed massive amounts of resources via tyranny. 

Severely downsize the Federal government and have it work on far fewer efforts that might actually work rather than what they do today, work on way too many efforts that are either not needed, too expensive, are criminally infected, or plain just do not work.

Because even when the Federal government gets it right (finds the criminals involved in $712 million worth of fraud over years), it still gets it wrong (loses almost $3 billion in just four months).

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Help Wanted, Lawyers and Legal Resources, To Fight The Invisible Empire, Part 2: The Havoc That Washington Has Wrought

Yesterday we reviewed how incompetently the Washington political class has been doing their jobs, neglecting their duties as demanded by the Constitution and current laws and statutes. It was the second in a four part series, which concludes on Friday, of what we called “suing the government to make the government accountable” week.

This series started with a Monday post which reviewed a massive, $43 TRILLION law suit that has been filed in the Brooklyn Federal court by the Spire Law group. The suit contends that entities and people within the Federal government and large banks conspired together for the benefit of both the banks and certain political elements.

Today we will review what major problems and challenges this invisible empire and lack of execution of basic government obligations has heaped upon the American public and our democracy. The basis of the following realities is from a Heritage Foundation analysis from January, 2012. Where appropriate, we have updated the information, based on how life has unfolded since that time:

- As of January 24. 2012, the U.S. Senate had gone exactly 1,000 days since it had lasted passed a formal, Constitutionally required national budget.

- Since no Senate budget has been passed since that date, we are now well beyond 1,250 days a real budget has been passed.

- The Heritage Foundation called this inaction “an egregious dereliction of duty on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D–NV) watch.”

- By enacting continuing resolution upon continuing resolution (short-term measures to keep the government running, spending money at the current rate), the Senate has taken a pass on leading the nation to some sort of fiscal sanity, which the Heritage Foundation claims is all to the detriment of the poor and middle class.

- The budget process is supposed to force Congress to set priorities to protect the people’s money and wealth and put it to its appropriate, optimal use.

- Instead, according to the Hertigage Foundation's conclusions and probably the conclusions of most rather human beings, “the Democrat-controlled Senate has abdicated its responsibility.”

- As a result of this abdication, the deficit is soaring, causing a looming tax burden and injecting uncertainty into the economy, leaving jobs and economic growth on the table.

- As the 1,000th day neared, here were some facts about America’s budget and why the Senate must take action to be stewards of the people’s money as the Constitution requires:

• The last time the Senate passed a formal, detailed budget was on April 29, 2009.
• Since that date, the Federal government has spent $9.4 trillion, adding $4.1 trillion in debt.
• As of January 20, 2012, the outstanding public debt stands at $15,240,174,635,409. That number is now well over $16.2 TRILLION less than one year later.
• Interest payments on the debt are now more than $200 billion per year and growing.
• President Obama proposed a fiscal year 2012 budget last year, and the Senate voted it down 97–0.
• Which may have actually been a good thing since that proposal never had an annual deficit of less than $748 billion, would have doubled the national debt in 10 years, and would have seen just annual interest payments approach $1 trillion per year.
• $1 TRILLION in interest payments a year works out to about $8,700 per family per year, just to pay the Federal govenrment's interest.
• In fiscal year 2011, the Obama administration and the Federal government in Washington spent $3.6 trillion. Compare that to the last time the budget was balanced in 2001, when Washington spent $1.8 trillion ($2.1 trillion when you adjust for inflation). Thus, in ten short years, the Federal government has almost doubled in size without anywhere close to the doubling of benefits for the citizens of this country. In fact, it acutally seems like we get less positive impacts in a less efficient manner than ever before despite the high costs.
• Entitlement spending will more than double by 2050 if nothing is done. That includes spending on Medicare, Medicaid and the Obamacare subsidy program, and Social Security. Total spending on Federal health care programs will triple.
• If this does not change, by 2050, the national debt is set to hit an unsustainable 344% of GDP.
• Taxes per household have risen dramatically, hitting about $18,400 in 2010 (compared with $11,295 in 1965).
• If the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire and more middle-class Americans are required to pay the alternative minimum tax (AMT), taxes will reach unprecedented levels.
• Federal spending per household is skyrocketing. Since 1965, Federal spending per household has skyrocketed by nearly 162 percent, from $11,431 in 1965 to $29,401 in 2010. From 2010 to 2021, it is projected to rise to $35,773, a 22 percent increase.

- Despite all of these distressing trends and out of control growth and spending, the Senate has utterly failed to execute the most basic, fundamental function of governance at the worst possible time, passing a government budget as mandated by the Constitution —when the country’s fiscal house is in disarray, the U.S. credit rating is in continual jeopardy, entitlement spending is ballooning, economic growth is historically low, high unemployment and under employment is stubbornly high, our ability to compete in the global economy is falling, etc.

The Heritage Foundation concludes:

“One thousand days without a budget is an embarrassing number, but the level of spending, deficits, and taxation that results from the Senate’s failure to exact even a modicum of fiscal discipline is terrifying. Senator Reid has said it would be “foolish” to pass a budget, but failing to pass it is proving to be beyond irresponsible. The middle class will be left holding the bag, paying for the Senate’s reckless negligence with soaring deficits, higher taxes, and a weak economy as far as the eye can see.”

Certainly discouraging news:

1. Monday’s post: politicians and government officials conspire with high ranking bankers (“banksters”) to satisfy each other’s political needs and enrichment needs to the detriment of the average American taxpayer who is not a member of the "invisible empire.”
2. Tuesday’s post: not only have Congress and the political class not meet their legal and Constitutional requirements in putting together the plans for leading the country, they rarely even do their day-to-day jobs with committee meetings, output, and legislative efforts minimal and in some cases, close to non-existent.
3. Today’s post - the Senate’s inability or unwillingness to do one of its basic jobs, develop and pass a comprehensive, detailed budget, has been going on for over 1,250 days, a timeframe in which Federal government spending, national debt, and despair over the future has grown exponentially out of control.

Disgraceful performance by probably the most disgraceful set of politicians in the history of this country. Low productivity, high debt, low accountability, high wasteful spending levels, low approval ratings, high probability for financial disaster. That is why we were so encouraged by the Federal lawsuit we reviewed in the Monday post, at least some U.S. citizens are usings one of the last avenues available to constraining political class insanity, the judicial system. Lord know that the concept of reprehensive government is not working.

But that lawsuit attacked only the crony capitalism and banker incest that has wasted TRILLIONS of dollars of taxpayer wealth. On Friday we will ask for your help in attacking the fiscal irresponsibility of the entire Federal government bureaucracy using the judicial system. I agree that our proposal might be a little whimsical, it may have little or no chance of success. However, I am reminded of a quote by Dante that fits our dire situation:

“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.”

The financial collapse of our economy and democracy, the burdening of our children’s and grandchildren’s generations with unsustainable debt and taxation levels to me is a great moral conflict. This conflict will happen unless we step out of neutral and hold those in Washington accountable as if THEY were in the hottest place in hell.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

More Pirceless Insanity From The American Political Class - Small Minds Working On Small Objectives

- Annual amount of taxpayer money lost to fraud and criminal activity in the Social Security Program - $70 billion a year

- Annual amount of taxpayer money lost to fraud and criminal activity in the Medicare Program - $60 to $90 billion a year

- Annual amount of taxpayer money lost to fraud and criminal activity in the Medicaid Program - $30 to $40 billion a year

- Annual amount of taxpayer money lost to unnecessary and obsolete deployment of about 140,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, Japan, and Europe - $35 billion a year

- Annual amount of Congressional member earmarks that politicians wastefully dole out in exchange for re-election financial support - $16 billion a year

- Annual amount of savings by eliminating the dysfunctional, ill performing, and unneeded Federal government's Department of Education - $107 billion a year (Source: Cato Institute - Downsizing Government Project)

- Annual amount of savings by reducing the Federal government's civilian headcount by 200,000 people, back to the civilian employee level prior to Obama's inauguration - $20 billion a year

- President Obama's latest effort to trim excessive government expenses via reduction in government coffee cup purchases - Priceless

As always, you cannot make this stuff up. The above list of REAL expenses cuts via fraud and criminal activity reduction and unnecessary military and government bureaucracy spending comes out to at least $338 billion a year.

In the face of these pre-identified savings and a fast approaching $15 TRILLION national debt level, the President signed an executive order on November 9, 2011 that instructed the government bureaucracy to take the following steps:

• Reduced the amount of money Federal agencies can spend on promotional (T-shirts,coffee cups, pens, etc.) items to promote the work of their agencies. 
• Reduced the amount of government cell phones and computers to be purchased and issued to employees.
• Encouraged Federal agencies and employees to use video conferencing as a replacement for traveling.
• Reduced the size of the government executive vehicle fleet.

The President's objective is to eventually reduce government spending by $4 billion in these areas of government expense. $4 billion, pathetic. While a reduction in any unnecessary government spending is always a worthy goal, consider the $4 billion in light of the big picture:

• $4 billion is only 1.2% of the amount we identified above in potential savings.
• $4 billion is only .002% of October, 2011's monthly Federal government deficit.
• $4 billion is only .0003% of the expected 2011 Federal budget deficit.
• $4 billion is only .0001% of the expected 2011 Federal budget.
• $4 billion is only .0003% of the soon to be $15 TRILLION national debt.

As you can see, this executive order from the President can only be categorized as feeble. Again, I applaud all government spending savings but these meager levels should be attained by middle level management government employees. I certainly would hope the most powerful man in the world would be involved in more global areas of government efficiency, well beyond cutting back on coffee cup purchases.

How meager are these potential expense savings? Consider the impact if we scaled the above math calculations to an average American household's budget (about $50,000 a year):

• If the Federal government's 2011 budget deficit was equivalent to the average income of a typical American household, then Obama's $4 billion expense reduction would be equivalent to $1.54.
• If the Federal government's 2011 total budget was equivalent to the average income of a typical American household, then Obama's $4 billion in expense reduction would be equivalent to $.55.
• If the Federal government's national debt was equivalent to the average income of a typical American household, then Obama's $4 billion in expense reduction would be equivalent to $.13.

In other words, these proposed savings by the most powerful person in the world is equivalent, at most, to the cost of one Sunday newspaper per year.

Unbelievable insanity. And this passes for leadership in Washington. Two steps from "Love My Country, Loathe my Government" come to mind:

1. Step 1 would reduce Federal government spending by 10% a year for five years. This is the only way we can make any kind of substantial dent into Federal government spending and our national debt. This is the kind of bold leadership and initiative the President would be taking if he was a real leader. Worrying about coffee cups is neither leadership or effective.
2. Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federal politicians. It is becoming pretty obvious that the current set of Washington politicians do not know how or are unwilling to make the deep and necessary cuts to spending that are needed to save the country. The saddest part of this observation is that many of these expense reductions can be done without alienating voters, only the criminals that defraud government programs and expense contractors that would see their business decrease as we reduce unnecessary military spending.

As today's title says, these are small political class minds working on small objectives. Unfortunately, given the issues facing the country today, we need broad imaginative minds working on large, strategic, and imaginative solutions. This dichotomy is what causes the insanity.


Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available, at http://www.loathemygovernment.com .It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.



Please visit the following sites for freedom:
 http://www.loathemygovernment.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com/