The Inevitability of Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in Trillion ‐​Dollar Spending Programs

David BoazIn 2009, as the federal government was rolling out the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program and preparing to spend another $787 billion in President Obama ’s “stimulus” package — both with little serious examination by Congress, I wrote a blog post titled “How to Spend a Trillion Dollars without Waste and Fraud. ”The first line of my post was “You can’t.” And I noted that the federal government knew that, because both Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for TARP, and Gene Dodaro, the acting comptroller general, hadtold a House subcommittee— after the passage of both bills — that the government’s experiences in the reconstruction of Iraq, hurricane‐​relief programs, and the 1990s savings‐​and‐​loan bailout, along with the lack of written policies in the new programs, did not bode well.Now we are embarked on a much larger government spending program. Tony Romm of theWashington Postpoints out, “Totaling nearly $6 trillion [over two years], the loans, grants, direct checks and other emergency assistance summed to more than the entire federal budget in the fiscal year before the coronavirus arrived.” How’s it going? Well …In Stamford, Conn., a 46 ‐​year‐​old residentpleaded guilty after putting a portion of $4 million incoronavirus aid toward the purchase of a Porsche. And a Mercedes. And a BMW.In Somerset, N.J., a 51 ‐​year‐​old womanall...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 23, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: David Boaz Source Type: blogs