Over the past three years I've tried to detail the more than $300 billion the federal government wastes every year. A few of the areas of recurring waste include:

Medicare Fraud $80 billion
Medicaid Fraud $30 billion
Governmentwide improper
overpayments (net loss) $15 billion
Department of Defense maintenance
of unused buildings $3 billion
DOD performance awards
not earned $8 billion
Emergency spending for
non-emergencies $15 billion
Mismanagement of UN
contributions $2 billion
Information Technology (IT)
mismanagement $10 billion
National Flood Insurance
Program (NFIP) $17.5 billion

Other potential areas of savings include tax reform ($100 billion) and a simple 5% improvement in efficiency in each agency ($50 billion). The list goes on and on.

With greater oversight, accountability and the elimination of waste, fraud and duplication, we could balance the federal budget and let taxpayers keep more of the dollars they earn. The American people have to stop politicians who view the federal treasury as an endless pot of funds they believe is rightfully theirs to spend. This is the kind of thinking that is causing the dollar to decline and the American economy to slip. The problem in Washington is over-spending, not under-taxation.

Sooner or later Congress will have to confront the reality that we are on an unsustainable course that is a severe threat to not just our future prosperity, but our ability to advance the cause of freedom in a world that doesn't always share our values. Congress should remember Will Durant's warning that, "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."

Congress can put our nation back on a sustainable course but that will happen only if Congress spends more time doing oversight and less time pursuing parochial politics. With enough public pressure Congress can refocus federal priorities, leave more money in the pockets of taxpayers and, most importantly, leave this country stronger, more prosperous and more free for those who will come after us.

Yeah, there are some savings that could be made but Sen. Coburn is really just trying to say....don't increase taxes on rich folks. Congress can go ahead make cuts to things that are cuttable but we don't have the luxury any longer to pretend that somehow all those dollars saved in taxes are going to trickle down to the working class and make the economy really grow. It ain't going to happen, it never does. No, we will have to practice some Keynsian economic reforms and put the budget back in the black AND begin spending enough to actually stimulate the economy by cutting unemployment and raising wages. Eventually even the rich will have to go along because otherwise we will eventually end up in a real depression. Once there political instability becomes an issue and most sane people realize that is the last thing we want and will then divvy up to get things running or face more than a financial burden.

The headline says "a whore for McBush speaks up" !

Danni,

No, that wasn't what he was saying. What he was saying is that the more money you put in the hands of the Federal Government, the more it will waste, and the less you will have.

This is patently true.

Yomelib,

Yep, when in doubt, call names!

"America became a great nation because at key moments in our history our national leaders were willing to make sacrifices to preserve freedom and opportunity for future generations. Yet, that tradition is being abandoned today in Washington"


YEAH!

Funny thing is ------- None of this was apparently a concern him prior to November 2006!

"Congressional leaders have decided that sending money home for pet projects, appeasing special interests and catering to well-heeled lobbyists are more important than giving future generations the hope and opportunity that was sacrificed for us"

See, I don't recall him or anyone else from that side of the isle EVER mentioning "pet projects, appeasing special interests and catering to well-heeled lobbyists" as a problem when it was all about the One Party, Thousand Year Republican Majority --- the one who incidentally participated and oversaw some of the most egregious acts of "pet projects, appeasing special interests and catering to well-heeled lobbyists" in recent history!

11/02/07 07:43 PM
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said Congress's deficit spending has become a moral issue surpassing abortion because it saddles future generations with massive debt before they're born
09/15/05"It is inexcusable for the White House and Congress to not even make the effort to find at least some offsets to this new spending," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. "No one in America believes the federal government is operating at peak efficiency and can't tighten its belt."


ACU lifetime rating 98%


Red, ya nut...he has alway been critical. He would be at 100% ACU except for his VChip vote.

Yeah, there are some savings that could be made but Sen. Coburn is really just trying to say....don't increase taxes on rich folks.

Posted by danni

Taxes were higher for all income levels under the last administration. You are such a Bush hatter that you are blind to all the facts.

When we get government health care, watch that medicare and medicade number skyrocket for waste and fraud.

After the economic slow down at the end of the Clinton years that was agervated by a little incident on 9/11/01, our economy has had 6 years of growth. Forget about all the numbers that the government publishes and look at the stock market. Anybody that has a personal retirement account has an intrest in that, it isn't just the playground for the fat-cats. I have a fund that has averaged just a little over 10.2% growth for the last 5 years. If that is a shitty economy, sign me up.

Red, ya nut...he has alway been critical

YEAH!?

Show me where he accused the PRE NOVEMBER 2006 Majority using similarly hostile language!
Yup, he was and has been about as critical of the mess 12 years of Fake Plastic Conservatives caused as Sean Hannitittie has been ------- just not while its actually going on!

"our economy has had 6 years of growth."

Our economy had 6 years of borrowing. STock prices may have helped 401K balances but compared to the losses home owners are seeing on the values of their homes its peanuts. The average home owner is expected to lose $80,000 of value. All your "growth" was just a shift of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy. The concentration of wealth has continued to increase and will continue to do so as long as the working class are sheep.
Oh, and yes working class people did pay higher taxes under the last administration but a tiny amount more, the wealthy on the other hand paid much more. The Bush Tax Cut was not called "tax cuts for the rich" for nothing. Fist tax cut in war time, no surprise it was done by the Republicans, no surprise that we now have the largest deficits in history, no surprise that gas prices are now $4.00 per gallon, no surprise food prices are rising.....all while wages remain stagnant, even moving backwards when you consider inflation.

6 Years of growth my ass!

"I have a fund that has averaged just a little over 10.2% growth for the last 5 years.

Posted by Sniper at 2008-05-02 10:51 AM"

That's it? Pretty weak.

RED...
As a rep he was a thorn in Gingrichs side.

1999..Dr. Coburn, an obstetrician by trade, is delivering a harsh message. He says Mr. Hastert has ''no appropriations strategy'' and ''no plan to control spending'' -- and no way to avoid repeating last year's spectacle of a last-minute spending bill that included $21 billion in extras.

Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders into Insiders... 2003 Coburn

Danni,

I've made money on both homes I've bought/sold during this period. Then again, I'm not stupid enough to overpay for a house.

Certainly, Obama and Clinton both promise more spending not less, and a raise on taxes for the rich which at this point on the Lafler curve will bring in less money to the federal treasury.

Our economy had 6 years of borrowing. STock prices may have helped 401K balances but compared to the losses home owners are seeing on the values of their homes its peanuts. The average home owner is expected to lose $80,000 of value.

6 Years of growth my ass!

Posted by danni

I guess that all depends when you bought your home. Did you buy high and sell low? You haven't lost a penny on your house until you sell. Then you have to look at the purchase price and the selling price. Don't bother with what it was valued at in the peak of the housing buble.

I know you hate Bush but you can't blame him if you bought a house for $250 a square foot and it is realy worth $150 a sqyare foot. You are responsible for your spending, not me.

Maybe you are saying you bought a house for $100 a square foot, the buble took it up to $250 and now it is at $110. If that is the case, you didn't loose $140 a square foot. You are ahead $10 a square foot.

I don't understand your modern math. Spell it out for me.

I tend to agree with Danni on this. The government quoted numbers for inflation are complete BS and pretty much everyone knows that - too bad most corporations use that to adjust wages. The whole inflation rebalance was just one of the many stupid implementations of Greenspan, who was by far the worse fed chairman ever. Corporate profits today make up a larger % of GDP than ever before in the history of the US - this clearly shows that corporations are now keeping nearly 100% of the efficiency/productivity gain and not passing anything back in terms of wage increase - which everyone also pretty much knows. This is an unsustainable path unless you think the destruction of the middle class and the increase and violent crime that goes along with that is a good thing. If you do, you are in luck - move down to Mexico and you can get a taste for what the US will be in 20 years if we keep the same economic policies.

That's it? Pretty weak.

Posted by mOntecOre

For an economy that has been in the shitter for the last 7 years I thought it was OK

You know, things are going to hell in a handbasket.

Contractors are crying for pipefitters and electricians in Washington state but they are only paying $35.69 per hour plus fringes at $18.85. I don't see how anybody could possibly get by on that low of a wage. This country is in the shitter I tell you.

I found this interesting:

"Other economists have questioned the utility of the Laffer Curve. According to Nobel prize laureate James Tobin, "[t]he "Laffer Curve" idea that tax cuts would actually increase revenues turned out to deserve the ridicule with which sober economists had greeted it in 1981."[3]

The Laffer-curve concept is central to supply side economics, and the term was reportedly coined by Jude Wanniski (a writer for The Wall Street Journal) after a 1974 afternoon meeting between Laffer, Wanniski, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and his deputy press secretary Grace-Marie Arnett (Wanninski, 2005; Laffer, 2004). In this meeting, Laffer reportedly sketched the curve on a napkin to illustrate the concept, which immediately caught the imaginations of those present. Laffer himself professes no recollection of this napkin, but writes, "I used the so-called Laffer Curve all the time in my classes and with anyone else who would listen to me" (Laffer, 2004). Laffer also does not claim to have invented the concept, attributing it to 14th century Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun and, more recently, to John Maynard Keynes."

Oh, and how is that Laffer Curve working out these days????
Not so good huh???

A republican saying congress is wasting the future: laugh of the day.

DANNI

The Laffer curve worked womderfully after the Bush tax cuts. Tax revenue to the Federal government increased by hundreds of billions. When Obama revokes the tax cuts revenues to the Feds will dcrease because we are basically at the same point on the curve.

DANNI,

The Laffer curve works similarly to another economic principle. Where do you price a product to maximixe your profits? It's at the point where price times quantity sold minus cost per unit gives you maximum profit. This is not necessarily at the lowest or highest price and is not intuitively obvious. Theoretically there is a point on the curve of marginal tax rates that will maximize revenues to the Federal government. The Kennedy, Reagan and Bush tax cuts all worked. Obama's idea of raising rates is destined to fail.

" maximize revenues to the Federal government. The Kennedy, Reagan and Bush tax cuts all worked"

Sorry, you're wrong. Adjusted for inflation, the highest revenues collected by the government was the last year of the Clinton tax codes, tax year 2000. Contrary to the propaganda, tax cuts do not increase revenues.

Congressional leaders have decided that sending money home for pet projects, appeasing special interests and catering to well-heeled lobbyists are more important than giving future generations the hope and opportunity that was sacrificed for us.



Congressional Leaders?

Was this turd saying this for the first 6 years of the Bush regime? Bridges To Nowhere!

AS for 'catering to lobbyists' it was the republicans that had the unofficial rule of only dealing with lobbyists who supported the Bush regime.

The type of action described in the article is also descriptive of our men and women of the legislature. No not just now but for perhaps 200 or more years.

There is an old and not so appropriate saying that Absolute power corrupts absolutely. While this is true, it doesn't describe our elected leaders.

We need something less "absolute".

How about varying amounts of power corrupt much of the time. And does so without warning the possessor of the so called power. Seems that few humans are capable of handling power without being corrupted. Not so catchy a phrase but can you deny the truth of it?

The fucking liberal pieces of shit in congress should all be lynched .You fucking libs have got to stop doing it for the children , you fucking assholes don't have a clue , real Americans don't want you to help our children , it costs too fucking much when you do it , 100 times more , just so you can pander to the worthless fucking illegal mexicans , to get their vote , by pissing away good American dollars on human debris .Stay out of our wallets , go fuck yourselves , leave our children alone you worthless pediphyles .You don't give a rats ass about the children , you don't give a rats ass about America , it is the power you want , as much as you would like to think your rock and roll stars , you are nothing more than incompetent , inept , clueless commies , and you know what they say about commies , " the only good commie........." , you get the point .

That's a great rant, from a liberal pretending to be an extreme rightwinger. Kudos.

Rightnut-Constipation can bring on such a rant. This is even more true when dealing with a "hard" problem. If nothing else works, than a good room deoderant will do wonders.

sniper,

Contractors are crying for pipefitters and electricians in Washington state but they are only paying $35.69 per hour plus fringes at $18.85. I don't see how anybody could possibly get by on that low of a wage. This country is in the shitter I tell you.

BLS

In May 2006, median hourly earnings of wage and salary pipelayers were $14.58. The middle 50 percent earned between $11.75 and $19.76. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $9.73, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $25.73.

Full of shit you are, but lets see how much more you can lie.

Democrat or Republican,I'm willing to listen to any voice. The war is sucking up tremendous amounts of money, but does that justify not look at the wasteful expenses he has pointed out? I don't care if he's on their side or my side. My side says we need to stop the waste anywhere we can.