On July 11, 2011, President Obama issued Executive Order No. 13579 to improve and reform the regulatory process for government agencies. How this Executive Order will be implemented remains to be seen, as some agencies are forging ahead with costly, unnecessary and burdensome regulations that contravene the intent of the Executive Order.
CCAGW Supports Boehner’s Budget Control Act
With the clock ticking and the nation’s economic future hanging in the balance, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) urged all members of Congress to support House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) Budget Control Act of 2011. The Congressional Budget Office found that the Budget Control Act would reduce the deficit by $22 billion in fiscal year 2012 and $917 billion over 10 years, which is greater than the $900 billion debt ceiling increase.
SSDI Funding at Risk
In fiscal year (FY) 2010, the Social Security Disability Insurance program (SSDI) shelled out approximately $123 billion in benefits to more than 10 million disabled workers and their dependents. Reforms in the SSDI program are long overdue; without them, the fund is expected to be depleted by 2018 according to a June 14, 2011 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. One reason for SSDI’s financial woes is a 63 percent increase in overpayments, from $860 million in FY 2001 to $1.4 billion in FY 2010.
The FAST Solution to Medicare and Medicaid Fraud
Each year, Americans lose tens of billions of their hard-earned tax dollars to Medicare and Medicaid waste, fraud, and abuse. The most recent estimates from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) indicate that there was nearly $48 billion in improper payments for Medicare and $22.5 billion in the federal share of improper payments in Medicaid in fiscal year 2010. These figures are just the tip of the iceberg and do not include the countless, undocumented occurrences of theft carried out by organized crime rings aimed at defrauding Medicare, the stealing and selling of beneficiary numbers on the black market, and the creation of front groups and fake doctors’ offices that cheat the system at the taxpayers’ expense.
Rampant Waste Reported in NSF
A report was released on May 26, 2011 by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) that exposed wasteful spending at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The report found $3 billion in mismanagement, with more than $1.2 billion of NSF’s total budget of $6.9 billion for fiscal year 2010 squandered due to waste, fraud, and duplication.
Progress in Campaign to End MEADS
Created in 1995, the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) is a collaborative missile defense project intended to replace the Patriot Missile system, which has been used by the U.S. and its allies for decades. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the U.S., Germany, and Italy required that the U.S. pony up 58 percent of the development costs, with Germany covering 25 percent and Italy paying 17 percent. The U.S. has already spent $1.9 billion on the design and development phase of MEADS, but the program has been plagued with cost overruns of $2 billion and is 10 years behind schedule.
President Obama’s “Campaign to Cut Waste” Has Lackluster Prospects
On June 13, 2011, President Obama issued an Executive Order mandating a “renewed effort to hunt down misspent tax dollars in every agency and department of this government.” The President announced the so-called “Campaign to Cut Waste” by posting a short video message on youtube.com. Vice-President Joe Biden will lead the campaign, which will initially consolidate or eliminate some 500 federally maintained websites. The video specifically targeted several federal websites as a part of the initial effort, including a website dedicated to the desert tortoise, a page featuring a forest rangers’ folk music group called the Fiddlin’ Foresters, the National Invasive Species Council’s homepage, and another webpage with information about the International Polar Year, which ended in 2008.
Mountain of Government Waste at Yucca
Since the 1970s, the U.S. has been searching for a long-term site to store its nuclear waste. The nation’s spent nuclear fuel, which can remain radioactive for thousands of years, is currently sitting in more than 100 temporary facilities scattered across the country, often within close proximity to highly-populated metropolitan areas. In 2008, after decades of examination and dozens of lawsuits, the Department of Energy (DOE) submitted a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to complete construction and make operational the repository under Yucca Mountain, located in the heart of the Nevada desert, 90 miles north of Las Vegas. After approximately $15 billion has been spent on the project and federal courts across the country have reiterated the federal government’s obligation to store the waste, President Obama is intent on killing the Yucca Mountain repository.
Don’t Let Trade Adjustment Assistance Block Free Trade
George Bernard Shaw once said that if you laid all the world’s economists end to end, they still would not come to a conclusion. On most issues, from the effects of fiscal stimulus, to ideal tax rates, to the appropriate size of government, he was probably right. For every right-leaning Milton Friedman there has long been an equally leftist John Kenneth Galbraith. But there is one issue on which the vast majority of economists speak with one supportive voice: free trade.
USPS in Disarray
The problems facing the United States Postal Service (USPS) are legion. On May 11, 2011 five USPS supervisors from Michigan and Ohio were charged with taking bribes consisting of cash, cars, drinks, and lap dances. In return, the supervisors directed vehicle maintenance work worth $13 million to a contractor. A manager of a postal vehicle center in Detroit received “thousands of dollars in drinks and lap dances at a local strip club, more than $8,000 in free work done on a relative’s truck, and a $3,000 paver patio installed in the manager’s backyard,” in addition to a weekly visit from a prostitute, paid for by the contractor.