Congress is Insane to Advocate Expansion of Compromised Medicare and Medicaid

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today slammed the federal government and the for its continued tolerance of improper payments; the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) most recent data reveals that the amount of taxpayer money lost to improper payments is $98 billion.  Almost half of the losses occur in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which are bleeding money because of fraud, abuse and the structural flaws in the programs.  The White House intends to issue an executive order within the week to address the problem of improper payments.

“The White House is joining a long list of previous administrations who have sought to distract us from the political damage of waste and fraud, deflecting the negative attention by calling for yet another commission, issuing another memorandum calling for an end to the epidemic,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “Unfortunately, another memorandum or executive order is nothing more than a band aid on gaping fiscal wounds like Medicare and Medicaid, which are structurally flawed and highly politicized.  Yet, while the administration is professing outrage about the tens of billions in waste and fraud out of one side of its mouth, it is supporting a massive expansion of both of those bloated programs in the House healthcare reform bill and adding 108 new bureaucracies, commissions, panels, as well as thousands of regulatory provisions.”

The OMB report echoes multiple Government Accountability Office reports (GAO) that have been issued since the enactment of the Improper Payments Act of 2006.  The most recent, in xxxx, 2009

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.  Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.  www.cagw.org.