This week, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs lead by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) released an investigative report on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) entitled, “How Some Legal, Medical, and Judicial Professionals Abused Social Security Disability Programs for the Country’s Most Vulnerable: A Case Study of the Conn Law Firm.” In the […]
This Is Another Nice Mess You’ve Gotten Us Into
The New York Times had an interesting story yesterday, which also raised some questions that need to be answered. According to the Times, the delays for signing up for insurance on the healthcare exchange are directly tied to a software crash when Obamacare officially opened on October 1. The problem occurred at the very beginning stage of […]
Computer Glitches or Poor Program Management
According to a July 17, 2013 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had obligated $303.4 million (77 percent of its total obligations for Obamacare) to establish the healthcare data hub, provide information technology support for federal employees working on the healthcare exchange, the Healthcare.gov website, and a healthcare […]
A Government That is Too Big
More and more news reports are surfacing about the overreach by the Obama Administration with regard to the partial government shutdown. Remember, some 82% of government spending is exempt from the shutdown. It is the White House that ultimately determines what is essential and stays open and what doesn’t in the federal government. First a […]
“As the Government Shuts Down to Save Money, Veterans Pay the Ultimate Price”
William Gladstone, Prime Minister of Great Britain in the 19th Century, once said: Show me the manner in which a nation cares for its dead, and I will measure exactly the sympathies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land, and their loyalty to high ideals. As hundreds of World War II […]
A Clean CR is a Dirty Rotten Shame
On the October 2nd edition of Fox News Channel’s Special Report, columnist Charles Krauthammer decried the Democrats’ disingenuous insistence on a “clean CR,” implying that such an approach is actually a ratification of failure. On the one hand, it would underscore the fact that both chambers of Congress had failed in one of their most […]
We Aren’t Greece…Yet
There was a great article by Holman Jenkins in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday entitled: “Behind the Noise, Entitlement Reform.” My summary of his piece is: Perhaps if some Greek politicians had put their foot down 10 years ago to halt their country’s overspending and demanded reform of its nanny state, maybe their country […]
CAGW Releases October WasteWatcher
For Immediate Release Contact: Leslie K. Paige 202-467-5334 October 3, 2013 Alexandra Booze 202-467-5318 Sequestration is Better than Sliced Bread By Tom Schatz WasteWatcher, October 2013 It is time for official Washington to admit that sequestration is the best thing that has happened for taxpayers since Gramm-Rudman in the mid-1980s. Domestic discretionary spending is being reduced […]
Sequestration is Better than Sliced Bread
It is time for official Washington to admit that sequestration is the best thing that has happened for taxpayers since Gramm-Rudman in the mid-1980s. Domestic discretionary spending is being reduced and will continue to be cut as long as Congress sticks to the sequestration limits.
Legislation Puts Recovery Auditing, and Taxpayers, at Risk
Government waste, fraud, and abuse are a scourge on American taxpayers and a multi-billion dollar insult to the federal budget, but preventing improper payments, particularly in Medicare, is now running into roadblocks despite being a rare example of success. Medicare providers, particularly hospitals, which have for years received billions in improper overpayments, now fully appreciate that new auditing and recovery techniques dramatically inhibit the flow of those overpayments. More importantly, officials managing an actuarially and fiscally compromised Medicare program now have the ability, motivation, and authority to demand that providers repay those funds.