The Obama Administration Is Proud to Announce That It Won’t Be Spending Quite As Much Taxpayer Money on Payments to Crooks and Dead People

Peter Suderman | June 30, 2010

He may be dead... but he can still collect government handouts! Outgoing OMB director Peter Orszag gets serious about fiscal responsibility:

Whether it’s buying in bulk or reducing the number of improper payments to dead people and crooked contractors, the Administration is committed to instilling a new sense of responsibility for taxpayer dollars by eliminating what doesn’t work and cracking down on waste.

I don’t want to be too snarky here; obviously, efforts to cut back on the $110 billion spent on “improper payments”—ie: checks sent to crooks, fraudsters, corpses, zombies, scarecrows, department-store dummies, and computer-controlled characters in World of Warcraft—are necessary. But isn’t it a little bit embarrassing that Washington cops to blowing this kind of cash on what basically amounts to incompetence? Over a decade, $110 billion a year would more than cover the entire official price tag for the health care overhaul. Yet this kind of waste is business as usual in Washington, so the administration’s response comes down to, “Well, we’re trying to cut back.”

Reason needs your support. Please donate today!

Try Reason's award-winning print edition today! Your first issue is FREE if you are not completely satisfied.

Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment or disable your ability to comment for any reason at any time.

|6.30.10 @ 2:01PM|#

by eliminating what doesn’t work

So, about that War on Drugs......

Naga Sadow|6.30.10 @ 2:19PM|#

I liked the first Weekend at Bernie's better than the sequel.

☼|6.30.10 @ 2:26PM|#

He may be dead...but he's the life of the party!

Obama's 2012 campaign slogan.

B|6.30.10 @ 3:27PM|#

Man is Vincent gonna be pissed when he finds out you like a Gene Pick.

Jersey Patriot|6.30.10 @ 2:22PM|#

Anyone who talks about cutting spending by talking about cutting "waste and fraud" is not serious about cutting spending. The end.

Jeffersonian|6.30.10 @ 5:08PM|#

Word.

Tman|6.30.10 @ 2:45PM|#

They can start with reversing the $25 million worth of fraudulent payments made through their stupid Home Buyers tax credit.

the government ended up paying more than $25 million in fraudulent claims, according to an audit released this morning by the Treasury Inspector General. Some 1,300 prison inmates – including 250 serving life sentences – received $9 million for homes that they could not have purchased while they were behind bars, the report found. Another 10,000 people received credit for homes that were also claimed as a first-time purchase by another taxpayer. In one case, 67 people used the same house as their qualifying purchase.

“This is very troubling,” said J. Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, in a statement. “Congress created and modified the Homebuyer Credit to stimulate the economy and help taxpayers achieve the American Dream, not to line the pockets of wrongdoers.”

Homebuyer fraud was rife within the IRS as well, the report found. At least 34 IRS employees claimed the first time homebuyer credit, despite evidence that they already owned real estate.

I'd be happy if they would just STOP FUCKING SPENDING MONEY PERIOD.

B|6.30.10 @ 3:24PM|#

Buying in bulk? You gotta be fucking joking me. If that line doesn't illumintate this administration's fundamental lack of seriousness when it comes to fiscal responsbility, I don't know what does.

It reminds me of the stories concerning mandates emanating from this administration about lowering the thermostat by 2 degrees in all government buildings in an attempt to combat global warming.

B Hussein O|6.30.10 @ 5:11PM|#

You'd be amazed how cheap golf balls are down at Costco. I've got Geithner doing all our shopping there lately.

The Other Kevin|6.30.10 @ 3:32PM|#

I've said this before, and I'll say it again. Where there is money, there is crime. More money = more crime (aka fraud). Nobody should be the least surprised by this.

|6.30.10 @ 4:09PM|#

Whether it’s buying in bulk or reducing the number of improper payments to ... crooked contractors, the Administration is committed to ... cracking down on waste.

I took that to mean they're looking for discounted rates on bribes, subsidies and pork.

Max|6.30.10 @ 11:27PM|#

Ratfuckers on stilts.

|8.30.10 @ 10:01AM|#

TO THE WEAK-KNEED REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRAT----Wake up america!!!! This goverment is the most corrupt we have had in years. The good old boy network is very much in charge.Mr. obama and pelosi are the puppet masters.How many of their good friends benefited by the agreement " what a farce. All of the u.sSenators voted for this. I am ashamed to say I voted for the these corupted self serving politicians.With good reason they picked an out of towner to be president.All u.s departments need an overhaul. We need to rid ourselves of the puppet masters and the dept heads that bow down to obama and pelosi.I am sick of the lip service I have been getting from these dummies over violations, their friends are getting away with.in the goverment . Barack Hussein Obama , threatens friends and bows TO Mmslim.
INPEACH OBAMA ,GOD OPEN YOUR EYES.///For us there are only two possiblities: either we remain american or we come under the thumb of the communist Mmslim Barack Hussein OBAMA. This latter must not occur.THE COMMANDER.REPOST THIS

Reason.com