The Democrats in Congress and the Administration are currently trying to finalize their planned overhaul of the healthcare system in America. President Obama has promised that he will not sign any plan that adds one dime to the defecit, so there are going to be all sorts of fantasias spun when the price tag for this is released.
One of the current Democrat talking points is that we can pay for a very large portion of this by eliminating waste and fraud in Medicare. Medicare is over 40 years old now, and the Administration is quick to promise that, unlike past Administrations and past Congresses, the new breed in Washington are very fiscally aware and able to root out waste and fraud.
One need look no further than the stimulus plan that was proposed and pushed by Obama, and passed by the Democrats in Congress, to see the lie here.
Of the money spent in the stimulus package, approxiately:
- 10,000 stimulus checks were sent to dead people
- There are about 100,000 suspicious claims from home buyers who are looking for the $8000 first-time buyer tax credit, including hundreds of illegal aliens, at least one four-year old child, and approximately 19,000 people who claimed the credit and never bought a home
- Nearly 10,000 Medicare prescriptions were written out to dead people
- The Wall Street Journal estimates that as much as 50 billion dollars in stimulus money will be used for fraudulent purposes.
Remember this when the Democrats talk about eliminating fraud from Medicare in order to pay for healthcare reform: it will never, ever happen.
The “savings” generated from eliminating fraud should not be considered as any part of the budget scoring for this plan because those savings are based on nothing more than empty promises belied by past actions. This is a shell game, and the stakes are enormous. Call your representatives and senators. Tell them to vote no on healthcare reform. Many of them won’t listen (I know mine won’t), but some of the ones who are on the fence need to be persuaded.
The Clampdown 