Another issue that the Republicans ought to use in the 2014 election is the gross incompetence of the federal government under president Obama and the Democrats. There has always been waste, fraud and incompetence in the government, but Obama and his people have raised these triple disasters to an art form. Just think of some of what would be Obama's "greatest hits" on this list:
WASTE: 1. When there was a government shutdown in October of 2013, Obama had the federal government spend much more each day to keep the monuments like the World War II Memorial shut and veterans barred from visiting it than it normally cost each day to keep the place open. 2. There are over 100 different federal job training programs which each have offices, leadership personnel and other overhead. Just by combining these programs into three or four, the funds available for actual training could be raised by over 25% at no additional cost. Although this clear waste of funds has been known for years, neither Obama nor the Democrats have agreed to make any such changes. Instead, they actually proposed adding still more new job training programs to the federal government. 3. Just last week, Obama "interrupted" his vacation for two days and flew back to Washington with his entourage at a cost to the taxpayers of over 2 million dollars. No one knew why Obama returned to Washington, but it turned out that Obama wanted to attend the bachelor party for the White House chef.
FRAUD: 1. The latest estimate from the Medicare system is that each year over $60 billion is paid out by the government for fraudulent claims. Add in Social Security disability, SNAP, Obamaphones and other welfare payments and the fraud on these programs alone must be over 100 billion dollars per year. Although Obama talked about ending fraud and abuse in the Medicare system, he has done nothing in that regard. The Democrats have not even agreed to any real effort to combat fraud. The Medicare Advantage program which allowed Medicare recipients to substitute coverage by health insurers like United Healthcare or Aetna drastically reduces the level of fraud because the insurance companies make a major effort to prevent fraud. The response from Obama and the Democrats was to cut back the Medicare Advantage program. 2. Obtaining a subsidy for Obamacare insurance requires the purchaser to have an income within a certain range. We now know that more than 25% of the people receiving those subsidies were not in that range according to verified data. Millions or perhaps billions are being spent for subsidies that are not in accordance with the law.
INCOMPETENCE: 1. No list of greatest hits could cover incompetence without starting with Healthcare.gov, the federal Obamacare exchange website. After spending three years and nearly a billion dollars to develop the website, it did not work. Indeed, it still does not work today in the manner it was supposed to. It took three months after the commencement of operations for the site to stop crashing when a normal load of users connected to the site. Data was lost. Incorrect information was transferred to insurance companies. There were all manner of problems. Even as we speak, the personal data of those who registered on the site is not properly protected from identity thieves. Most important, as these horrors unfolded, we also learned that president Obama did not monitor the development of the website; he got no reports of the readiness of this central feature of his most important domestic initiative. Even worse, the head of HHS, Kathleen Sibelius also did not monitor the development of the website in a meaningful way; she left it to yet another person lower down the chain of command. Indeed, the next supervisor down also did not monitor the site development. There was a group which followed the development of the website, and this group knew that there were major problems with Healthcare.gov, but they did not have the ability to delay the date it went live on the internet. Nor were warnings from this group heeded (or likely even read) by Sibelius or Obama. 2. The federal government knew about a year ago that there was going to be a flood of unaccompanied minors crossing the border this year. The government even went out for bids on a contract for companies that would transport roughly 65,000 children in this category in 2014. Let's ignore how the government knew this fact; the point is that once the kids got here, they were put into facilities that were grossly overcrowded, filled with disease and otherwise wholly inadequate. The feds were not able to arrange any decent housing for kids they knew were coming. 3. The scandal at the VA hospitals really could fit into any of the three categories of waste, fraud and incompetence. Clearly, however, the idea that the national VA system had literally tens or hundreds of thousands of veterans waiting so long for treatment that hundreds died while waiting is a disgrace. The claim that no one in Washington knew of this problem is an even bigger disgrace. It demonstrates a level of incompetence at the top of the government that seems unbelievable.
The GOP candidates should pledge to make the government work better and at a lower cost. They can't do worse than Obama and the Democrats in that regard.
WASTE: 1. When there was a government shutdown in October of 2013, Obama had the federal government spend much more each day to keep the monuments like the World War II Memorial shut and veterans barred from visiting it than it normally cost each day to keep the place open. 2. There are over 100 different federal job training programs which each have offices, leadership personnel and other overhead. Just by combining these programs into three or four, the funds available for actual training could be raised by over 25% at no additional cost. Although this clear waste of funds has been known for years, neither Obama nor the Democrats have agreed to make any such changes. Instead, they actually proposed adding still more new job training programs to the federal government. 3. Just last week, Obama "interrupted" his vacation for two days and flew back to Washington with his entourage at a cost to the taxpayers of over 2 million dollars. No one knew why Obama returned to Washington, but it turned out that Obama wanted to attend the bachelor party for the White House chef.
FRAUD: 1. The latest estimate from the Medicare system is that each year over $60 billion is paid out by the government for fraudulent claims. Add in Social Security disability, SNAP, Obamaphones and other welfare payments and the fraud on these programs alone must be over 100 billion dollars per year. Although Obama talked about ending fraud and abuse in the Medicare system, he has done nothing in that regard. The Democrats have not even agreed to any real effort to combat fraud. The Medicare Advantage program which allowed Medicare recipients to substitute coverage by health insurers like United Healthcare or Aetna drastically reduces the level of fraud because the insurance companies make a major effort to prevent fraud. The response from Obama and the Democrats was to cut back the Medicare Advantage program. 2. Obtaining a subsidy for Obamacare insurance requires the purchaser to have an income within a certain range. We now know that more than 25% of the people receiving those subsidies were not in that range according to verified data. Millions or perhaps billions are being spent for subsidies that are not in accordance with the law.
INCOMPETENCE: 1. No list of greatest hits could cover incompetence without starting with Healthcare.gov, the federal Obamacare exchange website. After spending three years and nearly a billion dollars to develop the website, it did not work. Indeed, it still does not work today in the manner it was supposed to. It took three months after the commencement of operations for the site to stop crashing when a normal load of users connected to the site. Data was lost. Incorrect information was transferred to insurance companies. There were all manner of problems. Even as we speak, the personal data of those who registered on the site is not properly protected from identity thieves. Most important, as these horrors unfolded, we also learned that president Obama did not monitor the development of the website; he got no reports of the readiness of this central feature of his most important domestic initiative. Even worse, the head of HHS, Kathleen Sibelius also did not monitor the development of the website in a meaningful way; she left it to yet another person lower down the chain of command. Indeed, the next supervisor down also did not monitor the site development. There was a group which followed the development of the website, and this group knew that there were major problems with Healthcare.gov, but they did not have the ability to delay the date it went live on the internet. Nor were warnings from this group heeded (or likely even read) by Sibelius or Obama. 2. The federal government knew about a year ago that there was going to be a flood of unaccompanied minors crossing the border this year. The government even went out for bids on a contract for companies that would transport roughly 65,000 children in this category in 2014. Let's ignore how the government knew this fact; the point is that once the kids got here, they were put into facilities that were grossly overcrowded, filled with disease and otherwise wholly inadequate. The feds were not able to arrange any decent housing for kids they knew were coming. 3. The scandal at the VA hospitals really could fit into any of the three categories of waste, fraud and incompetence. Clearly, however, the idea that the national VA system had literally tens or hundreds of thousands of veterans waiting so long for treatment that hundreds died while waiting is a disgrace. The claim that no one in Washington knew of this problem is an even bigger disgrace. It demonstrates a level of incompetence at the top of the government that seems unbelievable.
The GOP candidates should pledge to make the government work better and at a lower cost. They can't do worse than Obama and the Democrats in that regard.
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