Published by the Foundation for Economic Education
February 09, 2010 | Subscribe via RSS
Sheldon Richman is the editor of The Freeman and a contributor to The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
“The federal government made $98 billion in improper payments in fiscal 2009, and President Obama will issue an executive order in coming days to combat the problem, his budget director announced Tuesday.” (CNN, Wednesday)
Yes, a well-worded executive order should do the trick.
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Pingback by The Greenroom » Forum Archive » Waste, fraud and abuse on 18 November 2009:
[...] Sheldon Richman says sarcastically “Yes, a well-worded executive order should do the trick.” $24 billion of the improper payments came from Medicare according to this report; another report over the weekend suggested Medicare lost $47 billion. But the Feds are now saying they are going to count as improper incomplete or illegible documentation, which the Bush administration did not. This then permits them to “multiply by 10 the number of agents and prosecutors targeting fraud in Miami, Los Angeles and other strategic cities where tens of billions of dollars are believed to be lost each year.” These will be claimed as savings … which will be spent on expanded coverage. [...]
Pingback by Fraud, Waste and Abuse in Medicare | www.statehousecall.org on 18 November 2009:
[...] Sheldon Richman says sarcastically “Yes, a well-worded executive order should do the trick.” $24 billion of the improper payments came from Medicare according to this report; another report over the weekend suggested Medicare lost $47 billion. But the Feds are now saying they are going to count as improper incomplete or illegible documentation, which the Bush administration did not. This then permits them to “multiply by 10 the number of agents and prosecutors targeting fraud in Miami, Los Angeles and other strategic cities where tens of billions of dollars are believed to be lost each year.” These will be claimed as savings … which will be spent on expanded coverage. [...]
Comment by joebanana on 24 November 2009:
Kinda like the billions of dollars on pallets they lost in Iraq, Duh.