The government, as an entity, has become victimized by many people within and outside of its system. It has a need for many things: products, policies, and employees, among other things and this need is taken advantage of. Companies that supply these needs take advantage of the large amounts of money that is at the government’s disposal. The individual employees of the government do the same thing but also abuse the powers that are given to them. A need for change has been ever present and is addressed in the media, but is only acted on when absolutely necessary.
Our financial crisis could be eased with the recovery and prevention of funds that have been embezzled or lost due to overcharging by companies. We face hard economic times and our budgets have been cut in many areas effecting Americans who need help the most. We have turned to cutting education, jobs, and benefits as a way to quickly turn things around. It has cost many jobs and has left families homeless and unemployed. We have avoided putting new systems into place to prevent losses from officials and companies. By no means will any one solution solve our national debt problem but a series of solutions will.
Over the course of American history there has always been some form of political corruption costing the government large amounts of money. When you think of political corruption you probably think of Richard Nixon, but he ranked number 20 in the top 25 countdown of political corruption. Since the time of Abraham Lincoln there has been documented history of political corruption (Olbermann 2008). Hundreds of billions of dollars can be accounted for through embezzlement by government officials (Olbermann 2008).
(Part 2 of video: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28245651/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/t/corruption-countdown/ )
It is not only government officials who prey on the government for financial gain. Individual citizens take advantage of government systems such as welfare, unemployment, social security, and other programs. These people take funding from these programs leaving less for the citizens who need it. There are investigators in place that are charged with detecting these false claims, but many of these fraudulent claims still slip through the cracks.
Big business has always had ties with the government by providing goods and services. There has been a history of these companies working with corrupt politicians to steal money from the government for services. Over a hundred years ago some railroad companies would team with politicians to charge the government for more track than what was laid. More recent occurrences of overcharging are from medical companies. Medical company Quest Diagnostics was recently found to have cost American taxpayers close to $15 Billion through the Medicaid and Medicare programs (Rushe 2011). These were charges by the company for procedures that were never performed. Pharmaceutical companies have also been found to be overcharging Medicaid and Medicare. One example is a Asthma medication that was being sold to insurance companies for $5 was being sold to the government for $600. In just six cases against these companies there has been $3.9 Billion recovered, and there are still 150 pending investigations (Cohen 2007).
The government is under attack and it is not in the tradition sense that we would think. It is being eaten from the inside out by corrupt politicians. It is being decayed by big business, and it is being torn apart by some of its own citizens. There exists a need for stronger regulations and monitoring of government officials, business charges, and public claims. We spend great amounts of money to ensure their security but we need to shift some of those funds to providing more security against them. We need to have a system of regulators that monitor the financial activities of these politicians. We also need more accurate monitoring of government funds paid out to companies to ensure that the funds paid out match the products or services received. Our fraud investigators need more resources available to them to detect false claims. It would be easy for the monitors in these systems to become corrupted, and a need for reassigning and accurate documentation of their efforts exists. The amount of money that we spend to upgrade these monitoring systems will be seen multiplied in return, and may help us to save jobs and benefits for honest Americans.
Sources:
Cohen (February 2007). Pharmaceutical Companies Overcharging Federal Health Care
Programs. News Medical. Accessed 12/1/11. http://www.news
-medical.net/news/2007/02/25/22146.aspx?page=2
Olbermann, Keith (December 2008) Corruption Countdown. MSNBC. Accessed 12/1/11.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28245651/ns/msnbc_tv-
countdown_with_keith_olbermann/t/corruption-countdown/
Rushe, Dominic (July 2011). UK Businessman Accuses Quest Diagnostics of Overcharging US
Government. The Guardian. Accessed 12/1/11.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/05/uk-businessman-accuses-quest-
diagnostics
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