Posted on 07/11/2011 5:08:52 AM PDT by Kaslin
President Obama and other Democrat leaders in Washington are spending their time trying to figure out ways to continue expanding entitlement benefits. They tell us that these benefits are needed to provide a myriad of services to an ever-growing percentage of the population that could not make it on their own. Republicans, correctly, point out that the nation can no longer afford ever-expanding largess and now borrows 40 cents of every dollar to pay for a too-generous welfare and entitlement system.
The dirty little secret that almost no one in Washington is willing to discuss is the rampant fraud that is embedded in the entitlement system. Democrats, led by Obama, Pelosi, and Reid, never discuss the high percentage of fraudulent payments in entitlement programs. Instead, they continue the mantra that entitlement spending must be preserved even in the face of exploding national debt, and regardless of disturbing signs of rampant fraud.
Increasingly, we hear jaw dropping stories of abuse and fraud that should force our leaders in Washington to put the issue of fraud and abuse within the entitlement system formally on the table. Just last week we learned of the case of the “Adult Baby” , the 30-year old guy, that lives in a diaper, is fed by bottle and thus somehow entitled to taxpayer-supplied, social security disability for his condition. Strangely, this is the very entitlement system that Obama and Democrats not only insist that we preserve, but are anxious to expand.
The case of the “adult baby” is a sad indicator of just how much fraud is already embedded into our rich entitlement system and how easy it has become for hucksters and fakes to gain access to taxpayer provided benefits. Currently, there are almost 2,000 federal subsidy / entitlement programs, and we know from GAO reports and from anecdotal reporting that fraud is rampant.
Despite two decades of topping government lists (GAO) for waste, fraud and abuse, Medicare, Medicaid, housing assistance, Food Stamps (SNAP) and several other entitlement programs continue to expand even as reports of fraud plague the system.
Democrats mindlessly push for further expansion of benefits, as the number of those eligible for Food stamps has nearly doubled in during the Obama Administration, costing some $77 billion. Worse yet, Democrats see no urgency, and might very well be completely comfortable, with the disturbing news that food stamps are now being routinely resold at deep discounts to other undeserving recipients
From the glimpses we do get from what lurks behind the curtain, it is becoming increasingly clear that fraud in the entitlement system is likely a trillion dollar problem. Not long ago, we learned that in West Virginia, a Social Security Administrative judge approves virtually all applicants seeking Social Security disability claims. Moreover, this judge is almost certainly not alone in granting benefits to non-deserving frauds whose real ambition is to gain taxpayer money for fictitious disability claims.
But do not expect Democrats or Team Obama to conduct a real inquiry to discover, much less prevent , fraud in the entitlement system They do not want Americans to know just how corrupt and easy it is for duplicitous individuals to gain benefits and taxpayer support to which they are not entitled. If Americans were to understand fully rampant entitlement cheating has become, the debate would quickly turn to fixing the corrupt system, and rooting out the frauds and hucksters that are bilking American taxpayers.
Nevertheless, to get a glimpse of just how rampant fraud has become, conduct your own experiment. Just go to your local grocery store or shopping center and take a look at the number of healthy and vigorous people that use the special parking places reserved for handicapped parking. I did, and quickly discovered that over 50% of the people using those special parking places reserved for handicapped people looked healthy and moved vigorously. Few had any noticeable disability. One 30 year-old man, pulled up in a convertible, jumped out and went on his way, comfortable in the fact that a blue Handicapped tag hung from the mirror in his car.
Handicapped parking was a good and humane idea that has become a victim of seemingly widespread abuse. The obvious point is that if fraud exists in something as simple as parking, with the only benefit being one of convenience, then how much more fraud might there be in entitlements that carry financial gain? (Think trillions of dollars).
The budget debate in Washington, and Team Obama’s insistence, that entitlements must be preserved ignores 22 years of GAO fraud reports. Once Americans have conducted an informal “Handicapped Parking Experiment”, they are going to become convinced that instead of expanding entitlements, more effort needs to be made towards uncovering the fraud now embedded within the system.
Tackling the issue of entitlement fraud and eliminating entitlement scams could well be the quickest and best short-term solution with long-term results that the government could implement. Whether talking about Obamacare or Medicaid, Food Stamps, home mortgage loan insurance or SSI, at a minimum, perhaps it’s time for our government to do an honest audit of who is receiving the benefits.
Before any further expansion of entitlements, the government needs to prove to the American taxpayer that their dollars are being spent wisely and as intended, before trying to bilk taxpayers for even more funds for these flawed programs.
Just another example from the Republican right wing of
The Rising Tide of Racism in America. (trademarked)
Yeah, but we know who really the racists are, don’t we?
I recently interviewed a woman 24 years old who has six kids (one set of twins).We have some "clients" who visit us as often as possible to gobble up the handouts. I recently interviewed a man and his wife who fall into this category. I noticed that last year their food stamps were $96. Their latest printout from DHS shows their food stamps to be $210. No change in their family status.She had left the Employed? and Employer? questions on the info sheet blank so I asked if she had a job.
“Yep, she replied, “My job is to get all my kids on disability. My Mama did that for me and now I want to do it for my kids. I gotta figure out a way to get the lawyer’s money and we’ll be all set.”
As I looked through her paper work, I noticed she gets a disability check of $600 something a month. Her youngest child was also on disability getting $400 something a month.
I was pissed off at the system for the rest of the day.
Another fav of mine is to ask an interviewee if they have a job and have them spit at me, “I get a government check!”
I am firmly convinced nobama and his thugs are pushing a dependency based population just as hard as they can.
“Yep, she replied, “My job is to get all my kids on disability. My Mama did that for me and now I want to do it for my kids. I gotta figure out a way to get the lawyer’s money and we’ll be all set.”
To me, this woman should be put in a mandatory work program, for at least 40 hrs./wk. Even if it cost us more money to do that (e.g. paying for daycare etc. for her children) it seems to me to be the best thing we could do to stop this cycle of entitlement.
I also think it’s high time that attorneys who shill for these kinds of people be prosecuted for fraud. There are strict criteria for disability assessments, and if an attorney is found pushing the envelope he/she should definitely be nailed for this.
This is an extremely important point. However, the most blatant fraud is found in the bureaucracies that administer the systems. The fraud in the recipients is small compared with the waste, fraud and abuse in the bureaucracies. Unfortunately, most of the attempts at rooting out the fraud by the recipients results in bigger and even more inefficient bureaucracies. BOTH must be corrected. To simply add a "Fraud Division" to the bureaucracy is counter productive in the extreme.
Another true story:
I was relating (to a liberal) what Thomas Sowell said about liberal attitudes toward entitlement fraud and abuse. He said that liberals really don’t care about fraud at all. Their only concern is that all who need it get it, and if there has to be 99% fraud in order to do so, that’s acceptable.
The Lib In Question (LIQ) then vehemently stated “That’s simply not true! We DO care about the fraud! It’s terrible.” [pause for 3 whole seconds] “But’s it much more important to make sure that everyone that needs help gets help.”
[my turn to pause, mouth open]
“That’s exactly what I said.”
[lib’s turn to pause]
“... errr... let me think about this for a minute...”
“It just sounded so MEAN when you said it.”
Few had any noticeable disability.
I call the cops when I see healthy people using a handicapped space. There’s a hefty fine.
Totally disagree with this line of thinking. My father had two open heart surgeries and was very ill. But, to look at him you'd never have known it. We have a man in our church who's heart works at about 40% capacity, he's around 55, looks very healthy. Yet he is not. He could die just from getting the flu and his heart is to weak for them to operate on him. Looking at someone isn't always a good indicator of how really sick they are.
How many of us have seen people in line at a grocery store buying and then paying for top end food( a luxury that many of us working, budget conscious,coupon clipping folk no longer afford to purchase) with a government issue food stamp card???
Then these same folks drive off in an Escalade, plastered with Obama bumper stickers, to the local convenient store to purchase lottery tickets and cigarettes.
If you even dare to question these folks purchases to the left, you are THEN referred to as not only the usual calling card of RACIST but the newest one called Bullying.
I am the only person who observes this behavior DAILY???
You really cannot tell by looking if someone is "healthy".
My sister has neuropathy in her feet and can't walk too far but looks fine, so she uses handicapped parking when other parking in not close by.
Don't be a troublemaker.
Are you kidding? I’m NURSE.
If I had a dollar for every “disability” checking drawing slug that came through our doors, I’d be a very RICH woman.
These days, a disability means a lot of things ..almost anything, any excuse to stay home and draw a check.
I’m sorry — if you can at least walk and talk, you can do a LOT of jobs. But somehow, things like chronic back pain get you out of work.
I have an old high school friend who states she’s on disability. Last time i saw her, she was running around at our reunion, walking, talking, posting constantly on the internet ...I’m sorry — why can’t she work at a call center? Tell me again? Why couldn’t she take orders over the phone? Things of this nature? I don’t get it.
I've done some work like that on a volunteer basis. More on the service end than on the determining need end. I finally had to quit doing it. I was losing all faith in people. Some people were thankful, but the vast majority were just demanding and spiteful. Professional grifters is what they are.
I've since redirected my resources toward providing meals at a shelter for battered women and children. I deliver piping hot nutritious meals right to the plates of people who both need and appreciate it.
I long ago quit throwing money at things like the United Way, Unicef, etc. If you are going to give, find a way to give it right to the people who need it and are thankful.
“Don’t be a troublemaker.”
Two black Escalades pull into two handicapped spots at the Golden Coral. A bunch of young “minorities” pile out of each suv. I walk with a cane, and am 8 rows away from the door. Screw them! Obvious abuse!
47% of blacks in Portland, OR are on foodstamps. Most other large cities have similar numbers. Foodstamps is a qualification for many other programs.
Also the people who are supposed to be the gatekeepers for these programs fall into two main categories: bleeding heart liberal women and blacks with a chip on their shoulders. It is well known who to see to get the goodies in the community.
Yes, I agree, in this case I would also call the cops.
I think it’s a $250 fine! For each spot!
Yep, one of my pet peeves, something that I've been noticing more and more of over the past couple of years. The one "handicap" that many of these people share is their morbid obesity.
I stayed in a casino in Pahrump, NV this spring where the fine for parking in handicapped parking without having a plate or placard for it started at $2,000!!! They take it VERY seriously out there.
“I call the cops when I see healthy people using a handicapped space.”
Now Kaslin, I am so glad that the Good Lord blessed you with x-ray vision so that you can see right through to peoples bones and organs to see what their disability is. Wish He'd give that gift to a lot more people so that I and thousands of people who are honestly handicapped will quit being pressured by all you know-it-all-Dudely-do-rights out there. Like the ones who used to criticized my late husband who had had several heart attacks and by-passes for parking in a handicapped spot. The very day he died, we had gotten involved in a screaming match in a parking lot because a woman said he wasn't handicapped because she couldn't see his handicap and she was calling to report us to the police. He ended up ripping his shirt open and showing her all of the scars on his chest from surgeries and told her to touch his breast bone which after so many operations, would not heal closed together any more. You could feel and see the titanium wires used to hold his breast bone together. He was only 48 (I was 46) when he died from a heart attack and I still miss him to this day.
I try to forget the ugliness of that woman who accused him of not being handicapped but unfortunately, that memory is indelibly entangled with the memories of him dying later that night. Was that you Kaslin??? Did you stand in a parking lot and call a man a fraud and a cheat just because YOU couldn't see his handicap????
I wish they could see into my badly damaged knees and see just how many operations I have had on them just trying to help me keep the ability to walk for a little while longer. I crushed both knee-caps when I was 15 being thrown from the back of a galloping horse. I'm now 57 and watching my world shrink daily as I can only walk shorter and shorter distances. I even walk with a limp and cane and I still get criticized by you do-gooders who can't see the scars from all my surgeries on my legs. Do you people always have to be able to clearly see evidence that someone is handicapped?? Government doctors see EVERYONE before a person can be labeled handicapped. Who are you to say that these doctors are wrong??
I wish people could see into my sister's lungs which are being devastated by bouts of chronic bronchitis and COPD. She can't walk very far either and has to use handicapped carts in stores that provide them. She has very good hearing and can all the comments about how healthy she looks and how she should be ashamed of using equipment provided for truly handicapped people.
I even hear people complaining about my sister parking in handicapped parking when she takes our father to the store to get him out of the nursing home every few days for a little while. They complain about him using a wheel-chair or a handicapped cart in stores. They say he looks well enough to get up and walk. He is 84 and dying of Parkinson's disease. He has no more mind that a pre-school child, if that. He hasn't stood on his own two feet for several years much less be able to walk without people holding him up. He is a survivor of the kamikaze sinking of the USS Princeton in WW II. He served honorably in the Navy for 6 years. He literally held the future of this country in his hands for almost 60 years as an educator. And now all people who see him looking hale and hearty can say is that it's a shame he's using equipment meant for people who are truly handicapped.
I had a girlfriend who was born with a heart defect. It really, really limited her range of activity. She used handicapped parking and was always amazed at the amount of viciousness with which people would tell her that she didn't look handicapped so that meant she wasn't and she shouldn't park in handicapped parking. Another friend had severe Lupus. She died in her 20’s from the disease. She wouldn't apply for a handicapped parking permit because when she first had one, she was constantly being told by people that sound very much like you that she looked healthy so she couldn't be handicapped. She told me several times that she wished people could see what the disease was doing to her inside.
People look but seldom do they actually see. The next time you think a perfectly healthy person is getting out of a vehicle parked in handicapped parking, stop and think before you pick up that phone. Does this person have a handicap that I just can't see??? How about are they driving a handicapped person around?? Handicaps, half the time, aren't necessarily visible to the naked eye.
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