Our National Check Book

To be honest, it is difficult to make this stuff up; for example, the bill to extend unemployment insurance has stalled because it will cost $6 billion or so, and congressional leaders claim they must find this money from some place.  On the other hand, this nation gives away more than $30-billion every year in foreign and military aid which, apparently, is more important than the unemployed whose families face the prospect of homelessness and starvation. 

 

Incredibly, when discussing the national check book, there appears no provision in any variation of this country's budgetary process whereby this nation actually spends less than revenue generated.  A look at President Barack Obama's budget projections extending to the fiscal year 2022, he has penciled in a deficit spending spree of $5.7 trillion more dollars to be added to the current $17.2 trillion national debt.  This means our government is planning to spend an average of over $600-billion more per year than anticipated income for the next nine years.  Of course, this projection goes well beyond the Obama administration which leaves us to speculate whether there is anyone in the country sufficiently motivated to balance the federal budget or actually reduce the national debt.

 

Speaker of the House John Boehner claims "Entitlements" ought to be cut.  Medicare was in the red $37.3 billion during calendar year 2012.  But . . .instead of cuts, the Administration might consider eliminating the huge Medicare fraud. 

 

Referring to an Associated Press article (Oct.17, 2011) by Elli Kennedy who points out that Medicare fraud is estimated at between $60 billion to $90 billion per year.  "Medicare fraud," according to Kennedy, "has grown so lucrative and so easy that drug dealers and organized crime rings are tapping into it . . . because it affords greater payoffs and carries shorter prison sentences than drug trafficking or robbery."

 

On the bright side, if this fraud "thing" is ignored and taxes are raised along with cuts in Entitlements for seniors and retirees, the U.S. can continue to give some $30 billion in foreign and military aid to the rest of the world.  By comparison, if an ordinary person completely ignored the needs of his family and began borrowing money to give away to strangers, some sort of "rubber room" just might be in his future!

 

On face value, it appears the Social Security Trust fund is NOT in immediate danger of going broke.  The 2012 calendar year Trust Fund Report submitted on May 31, 2013 to Congress indicates the fund took in $840 billion and spent $786 billion leaving a $54 billion surplus to be added to the Trust Fund Assets which amounts to more than $2.732 trillion.  The real problem is the Social Security Trust Fund has no actual cash because several generations of political leaders replaced all these funds with Treasury notes and IOU's.  Accordingly, any need to draw money from surplus assets would require more government borrowing of funds to pay for the funds already borrowed  -  or raising taxes which would result in Social Security benefits being taxed twice.

 

To be fair, some provision must be made to account for the so-called "baby-boomers" who will begin drawing social security which would place a financial burden on the Trust fund - but some minor adjustments should overcome this problem.

 

Medicare's financial problems, on the other hand, are directly related to the ease with which erroneous medical claims and fraudulent activities rob the fund.

 

A Guardian news article dated June 8, 2013: "Behold the NSA's Dark Star: the Utah Data Center" points out that billions have gone into creating a Bluffdale, Utah based cyber-intelligence facility.  There is no official explanation for the real mission of this data center, except it's the largest of a network of data farms including sites in Colorado, Georgia and Maryland.  The Guardian article concludes, "it is obvious this facility will vastly increase the NSA's capacity to suck in, digest, analyze, and store whatever the intelligence community decides to collect."

 

 One wonders if much of Medicare fraud might be eliminated had our government  chose not to spy on its own citizens, but instead, provided a search mechanism for the Social Security & Medicare Trust Funds to check social security numbers against vital statistic information regarding birth and deaths.  Accordingly, this check might also reveal, not only persons living in the country illegally, but possible spies and/or terrorists.

 

The Veterans' Administration requires a better medical record system to expedite medical and disability claims and yet, many in Congress maintain it is better to spy on each other than to provide a system which might actually benefit existing governmental agencies.

 

It was Will Rogers who said, "I don't make jokes.  I just watch the government and report the facts."