Posted on 01/24/2019 11:04:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind
In fiscal year 2018, $137 billion was paid improperly by the federal government, according to a recent report. That number sums all the improper payments by what the government calls high-priority programs. They are programs with improper-payments estimates exceeding $2 billion annually.
If it makes your head spin, it should.
Always the optimist, I have tried hard to find some good news in this years number. I have been tracking such improper payments for a while, and I am happy to report that, while they grew dramatically between their FY2013 level ($106 billion) and FY2015 ($137 billion), they havent gone up since.
Now thats where the good news stops, I am afraid. In 2015, the $137 billion was spread over 15 programs. The $137 billion in improper payments in 2018 is spread over 12 programs. In other words, each programs improper payments have grown.
Now, not all of these improper payments are the result of fraudulent activities. Some of them, which include overpayments as well as underpayments, might result from clerical error, from an innocent failure to confirm that a recipient is eligible to receive the amount of money that is disbursed, or from any violation of federal guidelines or rules.
While that may not sound as bad, these are still large-scale mistakes, errors that Uncle Sam continues making year after year in all impunity.
Interestingly, although not surprisingly, most of the governments high-error programs are social welfare programs, which are fairly well-known for having low administrative costs in part because of poor oversight. The highest dollar amount of improper payments comes from Medicaid. The program registered $36.2 billion in improper payments, or almost 10 percent of the $370 billion paid out to beneficiaries in 2018 in total. Second-highest is Medicares fee-for-service program, with improper payments totaling $31.8 billion (or 8.12 percent of that programs total payments). If you add the $15.6 billion in improper payments under Medicare Advantage (Part C) to the other two health care programs, you get 60 percent of all improper payments on the list.
Traditionally, the highest rate of improper payments comes from the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program. Not this time. In 2018, the distinction goes to the Veterans Health Administration VA Community Care Program, with an error rate of 105 percent! Basically, all of this programs $8 billion in payments were improper. The tremendous level in this programs improper payments (and the program wasnt on the list of high-error programs before) isnt the result of a sudden increase in payments going to the wrong parties, or paid in the wrong amounts, or paid twice or more for the same service. Instead, it seems to be the result of changes made in what the VHA is counting as improper payments for instance, all the transactions that did not follow acquisition regulations. Nevertheless, such a stupendous error rate should make us wonder whats going on.
The EITC is hardly off the hook, though. The $18.4 billion in improper EITC payments represents a substantial portion 25.06 percent of the EITCs total 2018 spending of $73.6 billion. Thats right. A full quarter of the programs payments were improper.
This high error rate is not new. In fact, the EITC is well-known for its high error rate. Ironically, the program is administered by the Internal Revenue Service, a government agency that isnt known for its leniency toward taxpayers making reporting mistakes. Unfortunately, this fact has had no impact whatsoever on the unconditional support and praise the program receives from both the political left and right. In fact, not only has EITC funding expanded, from $65 billion in FY2015 to its current level, but this program is on everyones wish list for yet further expansion. Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute and I do not share this wish; indeed, we have written that the EITC should be terminated.
Also on the improper-payments list are programs with very low rates of error but massive dollar amounts of improper disbursements. One such program is Social Securitys Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (RSDI). While its improper-payment rate is only 0.68 percent, thats still some $6.2 billion of payments gone wrong. This low rate is easily explained by the large overall amount of benefit payments made by this agency ($910 billion in 2018). However, just because a program has a low reported rate of error doesnt mean that taxpayers shouldnt be displeased.
Now, if I were the one measuring improper payments by government, I would include all payments made as a result of expansions in peoples eligibility to receive money from government programs. Many such programs distribute taxpayer funds to people under questionable and in some cases, highly objectionable circumstances. I am thinking here of programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Social Security Disability program. Then, I would add in all the programs that have no place being funded at the federal level or with taxpayers dollars (corporate welfare, transportation, and education spending come to mind). Some of these programs are both inappropriately funded at the federal level and have expanded beyond the original intent of the program because of very questionable changes to eligibility standards. Needless to say, my list would be much bigger!
But while we can debate the merits of whether government should be involved in certain activities (like extending loans to small businesses or for green energy), policy makers at least should agree not to tolerate the high levels of improper payments currently made by many existing programs. The difficulty is that the government has grown so big that no one is accountable for improper payments. With a government so large, it is delusional to believe that there is any form of meaningful oversight going on, especially when no one seems to care at all. The best evidence for my gloomy conclusion is provided by this report, which lays out the numbers in ways easy to understand but will have no noticeable impact.
Year after year, I complain. And year after year, high rates of improper payments occur.
its Obama’s walking-around money.
That could build a lot of walls.
Nobody robs banks anymore.
The thieves just get government jobs.
Another possibility.
all liberal programs
If you make enough money to pay $25,000 per year in taxes t the Federal government, over a 40-year working life, you will have given the Federal government ONE million dollars.
Let that sink in for a bit.
HRC stole $6 Billion from State Department. Gov’t refused to look and/or audit. Nothing to see here.
Now you know where Obama got his plane loads of cash....WTF
“The highest dollar amount of improper payments comes from Medicaid.”
Surely this is not the same Medicaid Program the Rats are promoting as the savior of 0BAMACARE?
makes the 6 bill hillary stole at State look like a piker.
Hmmm. The payments were ‘improperly authorized.’ But SOMEbody had to authorize them, somebody had to approve them. Now if we required the persons who improperly approved these payments to pay the Treasury back for their mistake, I’ll bet there would be fewer mistakes.
I was doing a thought experiment while showering this morning. (I know, I'm weird.)
800,000 non-essential workers without pay this last month as of tomorrow. Let's imagine that each gets an average of $5000 a month salary ($60G/year). Just a guess, pulled it out of thin air, but lots of them get over $100G/year and few would be in the minimum wage category.
$5000 times 800,000 equals $4 billion dollars a month. Let that sink in; $4 billion dollars a month for non-essential federal employees, every month. Probably a lot more than that. That's almost what President Trump is asking for building the wall at this time. It's chump change for the federal government.
Their money was your money. And the government does not give a damn.
See: Iranian Mullahs
“...grew dramatically between their FY2013 level ($106 billion) and FY2015 ($137 billion)...”
Guess who.
mark
Money for their secret space programs and their underground bunkers has to come from somewhere.
The state of california informed by letter that I have $47 coming to me for tax year 2017. They did not send me a check as they will no doubt will claim it for this coming tax year.
#2 He stole $100 million and put it in his foundation.
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