WakeandBake
Well-known member
Ok, sounds like that could be true. Or it could be true that we are doing a pretty good job of policing abuse and it is not as widespread. Would you agree that is possible too?
And maybe the problem is not that Americans are lazy, but that the vehicles to prosperity and wealth building th at once existed are gone, and the economic implications of this fleecing are now coming into full bloom?
Maybe?
i wonder if bkf's diary has as much stuff redacted as his post count
What level of abuse do we have? What level is "satisfactory?" A belief of whether we're doing a "pretty good job" or not is subjective, but the amount of abuse is a discrete, quantifiable (and objective - at least insofar as we're discussing the current laws) number.
How much more money do you want to spend on bureaucracy to cut down on fraud?
Could we do better? Probably. All programs should undergo intense scrutiny when taxpayer money is on the line. Then again the Pentagon operates 234 golf courses around the world. Or you could refer to this list I compiled in 15 minutes of research:
$60BN in contractor fraud/waste in Iraq and Afghanistan.
$70BN in waste in weapon system procurement.
Air conditioning alone cost $12BN a year in Iraq/Afghanistan.
The DoD spends $500 MM annually on marching bands.
The Pentagon-to-Lockheed pipeline drives up the prices of weapons and prevents effective oversight of weapon manufacturing companies — all of which ends up costing taxpayers billions each year.
Weird though, that in a thread about our relationships with the Middle East and Muslims, we're talking about welfare abuse and respectability politics. Almost like it's intentional distraction...
Could we do better?
I would like to see both bureaucracy costs and fraud costs reduced. Massive amounts of tax dollars are being wasted everywhere.
This is not a topic that can be covered with short posts on a message board where posters are playing "gotcha". There are no simple, easy solutions. You can either accept a study loss to abuse and take no action...in which case the problem will only gradually get worse. (That's where we were more than several years ago) Or you can take action to stem the losses due to abuse. The cost of doing this in the short run may well be greater than doing nothing and accepting a certain level of loss. However, the loss in the long run will definitely be greater by doing nothing. Unfortunately, this is a discussion that should have been made many years ago.
Could we do better? Probably. All programs should undergo intense scrutiny when taxpayer money is on the line. Then again the Pentagon operates 234 golf courses around the world. Or you could refer to this list I compiled in 15 minutes of research:
$60BN in contractor fraud/waste in Iraq and Afghanistan.
$70BN in waste in weapon system procurement.
Air conditioning alone cost $12BN a year in Iraq/Afghanistan.
The DoD spends $500 MM annually on marching bands.
The Pentagon-to-Lockheed pipeline drives up the prices of weapons and prevents effective oversight of weapon manufacturing companies — all of which ends up costing taxpayers billions each year.
Weird though, that in a thread about our relationships with the Middle East and Muslims, we're talking about welfare abuse and respectability politics. Almost like it's intentional distraction...
Could we do better?
So who is figuring out the level of abuse if not bureaucrats getting paid to do so.
This is a discussion plenty of people have been having for a long time. You're not the first.
You don't even know what the level of loss is due to abuse.