Another Story of Unnecessary Government Spending... - The UpStream

Once again, billions of American dollars wasted. Unesscessary government spending is at an all time high in the United States, and the reasons for this misuse are apalling. You would think with all the debt we have already piled up, the government would stop acting as if there were an endless supply of cash right? Wrong. In 2009, the government made a shocking $98 billion in improper payments! I guess wasting $72 billion last year just wasn't enough, the "leaders" of our country really wanted to outdo themselves in 2009.

We all know that doctor's signatures have always been difficult to read, but you never thought that would be the cause of your wasted tax dollars. That's right, misdirected reinbursements from the illegible signatures along with utter fraud are two leading causes of this big bucks being flushed down the drain, according to figures provided by the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag.

Orszag stated "the executive order coming in the next week will promote transparency, strengthen accountability and provide incentives to improve the government payment process." He continued by saying, "our goal is to make sure the right person or entity gets the right amount at the right time." But even after all this, he was still incapable of producing the actual amount of improper payments creditted to fraud.

The good news is, President Obama intends to issue an executive order to address the situation. The plan is to eliminate all waste of finances and especially fraud ocurring in the Medicare Advantage program. Orszag made it known that the executive order will depict the need for website dashboards, which all allow the customers of each agency to keep up with the information and track errors such as improper payments. This, along with incentives for reducing improper payments and fines for failure to report problems such as getting paid twice for the same job, should hopefully get the government back on the right track. We'll have to see what occurs in the upcoming year. Hopefully the government can get their act together and put our tax dollars towards something productive.