Recent news coverage indicates "we", meaning the United States, are in imminent danger of attack from yet another terrorist group in the Middle East. Other journalists and prognosticators warn that agents of this new and terrifying threat may already be in the US posing as an American Citizens; therefore, it necessarily follows, we should rush over to the Middle East and wipe out this poisonous group of evil doers.
A September 26, 2014 Associated Press article claimed that, of the approximate 59,000 young families caught illegally crossing our southern border and were allowed to enter the US, about 70 percent (or an estimated 41,000) never showed up weeks later for their follow up appointments. With this kind of lax and porous treatment of incoming illegals, why would any terrorist group recruit an American citizen when they can send a seemingly innocent young person across the border seeking asylum from criminal violence in their home town?
The "60 minutes" edition (September 21, 2014) provided an expose' of how certain criminal elements are acquiring taxpayer I.D.'s with little or no difficulty and then filing fictional income tax returns to obtain tax refunds. The total "stolen" money from our government amounts to $-billions every year and is projected to increase!
Associated Press article (10/17/2011) by Elli Kennedy 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."
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 for unknown uses. It is suggested, however, this is part of a huge network to listen in on telephone and inter-net communications.
One wonders if much of Medicare fraud might be eliminated had our government chosen 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 track down these criminals who are using false I.D.'s to rip off the IRS, eliminate Medicare fraud, and reveal, not only persons living in the country illegally, but possibly help identify spies and/or terrorists.
The renowned humorist and political satirist Will Rogers often remarked "All I know is what I read in the funny papers." He also said: "I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."
Regrettably, there is little humor associated with a government in the grips of gridlock and indecision.