Litigation

The U.S. Government wastes our money, and wants us to let them ?run? health care?

By Tracy Coenen

You don’t have to look far for examples of the ineptitude of the American Government. They waste billions and billions of dollars each year, but somehow, we’re supposed to believe they’ll do better with health care?

Hardly. It’s not even a challenge to find examples of waste and mismanagement in our government. And it would be irresponsible for citizens to believe they’ll do anything different when they’re in charge of our health care. In addition to the massive amount of money our government will waste, they will simply do a bad job with health care. Sorry, but I trust my current doctor more than I trust the system.

Here’s the latest example of waste, abuse, and ineptitude in our federal government:

The Census Bureau wasted millions of dollars in preparation for its 2010 population count, including thousands of temporary employees who picked up $300 checks without performing work and others who overbilled for travel costs.

Federal investigators caution the excessive charges could multiply once the $15 billion headcount begins in earnest next month unless the agency imposes tighter spending controls, according to excerpts of a forthcoming audit obtained by The Associated Press.

On a positive note, investigators backed the Census Bureau’s decision to spend $133 million on its advertising campaign, saying it was appropriate to boost public awareness. The spending included a $2.5 million Super Bowl spot that some Republicans had criticized as wasteful.

Yeah! Investigators thought wasting $133 million of taxpayer money on advertising for the Census was a good idea…. and that included some of the most expensive advertising possible. Awesome…

Here’s more waste and nonsense:

• More than 10,000 census employees were paid over $300 apiece to attend training for the massive address-canvassing effort, but they quit or were otherwise let go before they could perform any work. Cost: $3 million.
• Another 5,000 employees collected $300 for the same training, and then worked a single day or less. Cost $1.5 million.
• Twenty-three temporary census employees were paid for car mileage costs at 55 cents a mile, even though the number of miles they reported driving per hour exceeded the total number of hours they actually worked.
• Another 581 employees who spent the majority of their time driving instead of conducting field work also received full mileage reimbursements, which investigators called questionable.

But the Census Bureau promises to do better in the future. That makes me feel much better.

Full post as published by The FRAUDfiles Blog on February 16, 2010 (boomark / email).