XPost: alt.politics.trump, alt.politics.republicans, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: leroysoetoro@americans-first.com   
      
   https://thehill.com/opinion/4933701-biden-harris-deficit-spending/   
      
   The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently announced that the 2024   
   fiscal-year federal budget deficit — the amount the government spent over   
   and above what it received in total revenue — was $1.8 trillion. That   
   makes the Biden-Harris administration by far the biggest deficit spenders   
   in modern history. Worse yet, Biden-Harris also wasted more money than any   
   other administration, roughly $1 trillion, according to the Government   
   Accountability Office (GAO).   
      
   The Biden-Harris four-year deficit total was $7.65 trillion — roughly 50   
   percent more than Donald Trump’s four-year deficit total of $5.56   
   trillion, and that figure included $3.13 trillion spent in FY2020, the   
   first year of the pandemic. Had Trump’s fourth year deficit been in the   
   general range of his first three years, his total deficit spending would   
   have been about $3.25 trillion, less than half of Biden-Harris’s actual   
   four-year deficit.   
      
   To be sure, some of the Biden-Harris deficit spending was also because of   
   the pandemic, but then Biden used the pandemic as a catch-all excuse to   
   ladle out money he was eager to spend anyway.   
      
   But with great spending should come increased efforts to minimize fraud   
   and waste. And that’s where Biden-Harris really failed. Last April the GAO   
   released its “improper payments” assessment, and Team Biden has the   
   dubious distinction of wasting more taxpayer money than any previous   
   administration.   
      
   “Improper payments” aren’t all fraud, though fraud makes up a significant   
   portion. The GAO defines improper payments as “those [payments] that   
   should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount.” So, for   
   example, if Medicare overpaid a hospital for its services, that would be   
   an improper overpayment. But there is also a lot of outright fraud in   
   health care and several other federal programs, areas where payments   
   “should not have been made.”   
      
   The GAO says that in FY2023, Medicare and Medicaid together accounted for   
   more than $100 billion in improper payments. Another $43.6 billion in   
   improper payments went to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, $21.9 billion   
   was for the Earned Income Tax Credit, and $18.7 billion was for the   
   Paycheck Protection loan forgiveness program.   
      
   But it’s when we compare the Biden and the Trump years that we get a sense   
   of the magnitude of the improper payments. Trump’s four-year tally of   
   improper payments (using the government’s fiscal year of Oct. 31 to Sept.   
   30) was $672.8 billion — which was unacceptably high but included the   
   gusher of money Congress spent in the 2020 pandemic year. Biden’s, by   
   contrast, is about $1 trillion. (Note: Since the GAO hasn’t updated its   
   document to include FY2024, I used Biden’s 2023 number again for 2024).   
      
   Here are some of the recent health care fraud stories that could make you   
   sick.   
      
   “Scammers ripped off NY’s controversial Medicaid homecare program to the   
   tune of $68M: feds,” the New York Post reports.   
   Here’s one from September: “Scammers have taken more than $100 million   
   meant for senior citizens’ Medicare bills, …” according to CBS News.   
   From last August: “At a recent federal conference Operations Officer Mike   
   Cohen, with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) announced that   
   urinary catheter scams have now cost Medicare over $4 billion in losses in   
   2024.”   
   This is from the Department of Justice last year in Detroit: “Twenty-Three   
   individuals charged in $61.5 million Medicare fraud schemes.”   
   And these are only some of the scams law enforcement caught. Had these   
   scammers kept the dollar amounts down, they might have been able to   
   continue flying under the radar.   
      
   The important point is whether the government overpaid some group or   
   individual or it was the result of fraud or some other type of scam,   
   either way the government has wasted the money — your money. While the   
   government has been trying to claw back some of those funds by finding and   
   prosecuting the crooks, most of it will be unrecoverable.   
      
   The fact is, the more taxpayer money the government hands out to   
   individuals, organizations and businesses, the more fraud and improper   
   payments there will be. And the government has never been very good at   
   catching or stopping it. So the very first step in addressing the   
   improper-payment problem is for the government to stop spending so much.   
      
   Second point, and related to the first, is that government handouts should   
   be targeted and limited to those most in need. But instead, the Biden-   
   Harris administration has vastly expanded the number of people and   
   businesses getting taxpayer money. And as president, Kamala Harris wants   
   to hand out even more.   
      
   Politicians like to claim they will save taxpayer money by reducing waste,   
   fraud and abuse, but virtually no one ever does. And these days they don’t   
   even try. Certainly, President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris haven’t tried,   
   and the $1 trillion wasted in improper payments is all the proof we need.   
      
      
   --   
   November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look   
   forward to America being great again.   
      
   We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that   
   stupid people won't be offended.   
      
   Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.   
      
   Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama   
   / Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.   
      
   Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the   
   The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood   
   queer liberal democrat donors.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)