GAO finds more than $125 billion in improper payments by feds

USAspending.gov provides information about how tax dollars are spent. This graph shows dollars spent on federal grants for higher education. You can click on the map, then click on each state for amounts doled out to keep the academic lobby happy. [US government graphic paid for by US taxpayers.]

As Democrats balk at Republican efforts to cut spending instead of hiking taxes, a new Government Accountability Report offers one more reason to refuse Uncle Sam a single additional dollar. Actually there are more than 125 billion reasons.

The GAO Report on federal grants (GAO-11-773T) was issued June 23, 2011. That report found the following:
“Federal agencies reported an estimated $125.4 billion in improper payments for fiscal year 2010. This estimate was attributable to over 70 programs spread across 20 agencies. Many of those programs reporting improper payments were federal grant programs, including Medicaid.”

Progressives have turned government into an art—if you put a drawing on canvas, you could simply draw a big sinkhole. The central government’s expansion—President Barack Obama has set records for this—has created an entity that’s impossible to manage.

GAO also found:
“ From fiscal years 1990 to 2010, federal grant outlays to states and local governments, increased from about $135 billion to over $600 billion--almost one-fifth of the fiscal year 2010 federal budget, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In fiscal year 2010, over 1,670 federal grant programs were offered by 23 federal grant-making departments and agencies.”

Worth repeating: one-fifth of the fiscal year 2010 federal budget.

Senators like Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have a simpleton focus on increasing taxes by any available means.

Fact is Schumer and his colleagues don’t responsibly manage the revenue taxpayers cough up. A private sector business would send employees to jail for this kind of malfeasance.

A story at Bloomberg reported Obama wants more revenue from businesses.

This morning I saw a story in the Daily Mail (London) about the feds snooping on US doctors. Cost for the snoop study: more than $347 thousand dollars.

Smart voters will send any politico who wants a tax hike out to pasture. Tax hiking politicos have mooched off Main Street and small businesses long enough.

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/June 27, 2011)

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