Chronicles of Madness – Episode 34
In our Madness Chronicles episode 34, we will see the insanity of the government paying the dead and more.. Remember, insanity is a state of mental illness, serious and extremely foolish behavior, and a state of frenzied or chaotic activity. Let’s take a look at the government spending craze.
Our government agencies recently admitted to making an incredible $ 2.25 trillion in improper payments since 2004. Last year the total was $ 175 billion. That comes down to about $ 15 billion per month, or, drum roll, please, $ 500 million per day and $ 1 million per minute. If we’re not careful, they are going to spend a lot of money one of these days.
What is an improper payment? Big question. These numbers were revealed in a report by a team called Open the Books. Federal law defines the term as payments made by the government to the wrong person, in the wrong amount, or for the wrong reason. The 20 government agencies covered by the report are burning $ 500 million a day of our tax dollars. Let that sink in.
The worst offenders were Medicaid, Medicare, and the Earned Income Tax Credit. They represent improper payments of $ 121 billion or 69 percent of the total in improper payments. The recovery rate, which means they found their mistake and got the money back, is only 14 cents on the dollar. Who does that and are they still working for us? Of course, it is the government where accountability is a word in the dictionary, not the union contract.
In 2019 Health and Human Services gave away a whopping $ 107 billion. The Treasury was a piker responsible for giving away just $ 27 billion, with Veterans Affairs squandering just $ 12 billion. The bottom tier of the 20 gifting departments was the Veterans Administration, which squandered $ 22 billion. The Office of Personnel Management came in last, only throwing away just $ 339 billion.
Interestingly, a staggering $ 871.9 million was made in erroneous payments to deceased individuals. That’s right, dead people don’t just vote, they get paid too. Given that approximately 2.7 million people die each year in the United States, that means that each person killed could have made $ 323. But I doubt it turned out that way. They reported finding the main cause of the windfall of death, the lack of verification of death. These people master the obvious.
Another item they discovered was that there were 6 million social security numbers for people over the age of 112. At present, only 40 people in the world are known to be over the age of 112 in an ironic twist. Apparently, our government workers are challenged to “verify death.”
To be fair, the government is trying to fix it. In 2009, President Obama signed an Executive Order to stop improper payments. In the 5 years after his order, improper payments made by Medicare and Medicaid alone increased by $ 456 billion. But, at least he tried, right? Good news is the Department of Education. In 2018 they overpaid Pell grants and student loans by $ 6 billion. In 2019, improper payments fell to $ 1.1 billion, a reduction of 85 percent. Congratulations to Betsy DeVos. The IRS receives the award for honesty. They overpaid nearly $ 18 billion in 2019 and said it will continue as they don’t have the resources to pursue it. What country!
I just thought I’d share something so we can all feel better when we complete our next taxes.
May we wake up from this madness before it is too late. I wish you good health, and until next time, have fun, enjoy life, and watch out for the madness between us. It’s 2020 and it’s getting out of hand.