As Congress hashes out an agreement behind closed doors to expand the government’s role in health care, a Medicaid story out of New York serves as another reminder that government is part of the health care problem, not the solution. Audits released by the state’s comptroller found $169 million in misspent funds, including a $196,000 cab bill for a woman who took a daily $300 taxi ride to visit her son in Albany for three years.
Downsizing Blog
Government vs. Private IT Spending
The government is less efficient than the private sector, and technology investment is a prime example. A column this week on the federal CIO, Vivek Kundra, by InformationWeek’s Bob Evans illustrates this reality. Evans begins his column with some well-placed sarcasm:
U.S. Best for Investing in Farmland, but...
According to AgWeb.com, “Midwestern U.S. farmland provides investors the best opportunity and risk to reward” in the world. Five factors were analyzed, including soil content, growing season, and infrastructure. But it was the last two, property rights and government support, which caught my attention.
Census Paves the Way for Subsidies
Our bloated government does a lot of things it shouldn’t, but the decennial census is one of the handful of federal activities the Constitution approves of. The census was intended simply to determine the number of seats each state would have in the House of Representatives. Today, census data is plugged into government formulas to determine how more than $400 billion in subsidies from the federal welfare state are allocated to state and local governments.
The Bailout Bowl
Neal McCluskey wrote an op-ed on the ways that taxpayers subsidize college football bowl games. As a college football fan, it pains me that I can’t even get a respite from big government on game day. This Wednesday’s matchup between Central Michigan and Troy will be particularly insulting to taxpayers because it’s the annual GMAC Bowl.
Obama to Find Budgetary Sobriety?
The White House is hinting that its fiscal year 2011 budget due out in February will be “austere.” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs didn’t provide any specifics but recently said that “it will not look as it has in the past." Well that’s a relief because the FY 2010 appropriations process finally wrapped up and spending continues to be anything but austere.
SBA is Not Small Business Solution
There is a lot of talk in the press about the difficulty small businesses are having obtaining credit. President Obama recently admonished bankers for not lending enough to small businesses. However, it seems obvious that lenders would have a more difficult time finding creditworthy borrowers during a recession. So we don’t need a politician who has demonstrated zero accountability to taxpayers second-guessing lenders, who are accountable to shareholders and markets.
Postal Employees Live It Up
The U.S. Postal Service lost $3.8 billion last fiscal year and expects to lose $7.8 billion this year. That hasn’t prevented employees from indulging in fancy foods and booze on the USPS’s dime. A recent audit by the USPS inspector general found $800,000 in unjustified and “imprudent” purchases, most of which occurred in just a five month span.
Food Stamps vs. Cash Welfare
A couple of weeks ago I discussed a New York Times report on soaring food stamp use. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that cash welfare use in New York under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program started to rise more recently. The Times calls this “something of a riddle” given that food stamp usage has been increasing throughout the recession.
New HUD Same as Old
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan recently gave a speech in New York in which he spoke of a “new direction in housing.” If there’s one constant with cabinet secretaries, it’s that they all promise that their department will be new and improved. The following are a few of Donovan’s lines that deserve comment.
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