Sorry amarone, you’re quite right: that should have been attributed to Nana, not to you.
Less than 5%, to be precise. Anyway, I’m not arguing that the percentage of federal budget waste shouldn’t be reduced, I’m just skeptical of unsupported claims that it’s “huge”.
Do you run a business, or own a home? How much of, say, your heating bill is spent on heating rooms that nobody happens to be in at the time? Is over 95% of your electricity use absolutely necessary? Do you know that supermarkets on average waste between 5 and 15% of their fresh foods inventory?
Some amount of wastage and loss is inevitable in every organization, and the bigger the organization, the more waste there is in absolute terms. I don’t think it’s helpful to focus solely on the absolute amount in “ZOMG A HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS THAT’S SO MUCH!!!” freakout mode, rather than thinking rationally about what kind of wastage rate is reasonable.
This smells wrong. The total Medicare and Medicaid budgets were about $630 billion in 2009 (Cite) so improper payments were about 10%. Your cite says they expect to reclaim about $3 billion of this which seems rather low. Are the improper payments real but directed to the wrong place?
There is obviously fraud. There is fraud whenever there is a lot of money. There is fraud directed to businesses also. However I can’t go to Macy’s and demand a 10% discount because they would have lower prices if their employees stopped stealing from them.
Nonetheless, if we wiped out fraud tomorrow (which is impossible) we’d still have a deficit. And a big one.
I have no idea; I was just responding to two posters who are normally amongst the more knowledgeable in these areas actually requesting cites for evidence of waste, fraud and corruption in government expenditure. Everyone knows it exists - the bigger question is whether anything productive can be done about it. It is an area where politicians can easily say “we will save x gazillion dollars by reducing waste”, thereby not having to identify anyone (other than fraudsters) who will be hurt by the spending “cuts.” But are any real cuts ever achieved?
I wasn’t really thinking about errors when nana referred to waste fraud and abuse. I was thinking about things like those alleged $25 cups of coffee that the justice department paid for at some conference. But you’re right Medicare fraud is big and something we cab control better than we do but I can’t believe it’s 100 billion/year. I think they’re talking about a much longer period of time.
Well, you can stop thinking about them.
Yeah, I know, thats why i said alleged.
I was initially reacting to the commonly held belief that there was rampant waste fraud and abuse in government. I totally agree that medicare could use more oversight.
I’m involved with putting on conferences, and I’ve seen plenty of catering menus from hotels and convention centers, and this little scandal made me laugh. The first time I saw one I thought “they’re charging that for a coffee urn? For that amount of food?”
And I’m also familiar with the kind of deal that was happening here.
Silly. Most those posting here have no idea of the tax code and are making crass comments based on ignorance.
Whoever earned this money to begin with PAID taxes already at the going rate. The money was then parked somewhere in an interest bearing account and the interest earned was TAXED at 15%.
There is a reason the Capital gains tax (which is what this is) is taxed at a lower rate than earned income.
It is done this way to stimulate business investment. The potential return on any small business (and all are small just starting out) determines the risk. If tax obligations take a big chunk then the risk is magnified.
Without small businesses this country will cease to exist and government will take over more and more businesses in an effort to keep things going.
An ultimate example of this is President Reagen’s adoption of IRA’s, SEP’s, Keogh accounts etc. Hate or love Reagan the establishment of these tax-exempt or deferred accounts gave rise to a HUGE surplus of cash which funded all sorts of business ventures..there was so much cash available that I remember one internet company’s IPO brought in something like 800 million and its president was a former model with no business experience! Of course it failed miserably…
You want a robust and solvent country? Cut taxes in a way that stimulates investment. Business will generate profits, employ people & the tax base will broaden considerably.
You want to turn this country socialist? Tax more and more until the only investment is by government programs, government bailouts & government handouts.
Also, it is a world economy and telling it to go away Dr. Paul, will ensure china succeeds us as a world power. It didn’t work prior to WWI and it didn’t work prior to WWII and those that fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.
The Cowboy
Something tells me that you also have no idea of the tax code and make comments based on ignorance. You don’t think carried interest has something to do with interest like on a bond or something, do you?
So if a stockbroker earns a bonus based on how well his clients are doing, we need to tax that bonus at a special low rate because … ?
The traditional argument for taxing capital gains at a lower rate wasn’t because we wanted to stimulate investment. We’ve had special capital gains rates since we started taxing income in 1913 and until 1922 capital gains were taxed at the same rate or higher than the ordinary income tax rate. Then people realized that it was a bit unfair that people were accumulating gains over many many years and then paying really high marginal rates because they were realizing all the gains from the sale in a single year (there was significant graduation then, top marginal rates were in the 70s).
And even if we are trying to promote investment, WTF does that have to do with taxing compensation at the capital gains rate. I mean you do realize that carried interest is compensation right?
People saved before that too, but it was through things like pensions. Pensions used to invest a lot of money too.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. You seem to believe in some form of supply side economics. You might as well believe in unicorns. Are you under the impression that we are suffering from lack of investment capital? People are driving down short term interest rates to below 1%, they aren’t looking for better tax rates, they are looking for a more vibrant economy, one with more demand.
Right, because you think thats where we were heading under the tax rates that Clinton had in place? Pfft :rolleyes:
We can’t be isolationist, but we don’t have to engage in a race to the bottom either. Unlike companies, countries are allowed to collude on taxation, we do it all the time, we have tax treaties with most large economies and there is no reason that a discussion of rates cannot be part of the discussion.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to make right wing posts on the SDMB.
So the free market isn’t capable of incentivizing investment without government intervention?
In the same breath you laud IRAs you say that the surge of money is creating a bubble and moeny ends up getting invested in really stupid investments. Surplus money chasing risk is a formula for disaster. I know a lot of doctors and more than a few had to push off retirement after the internet bubble and again after the financial crisis. I know a doctor who was ready to retire at 60 in 2000 and ended up signing a ten year lease on his office space after the bubble burst. Then he was getting ready for retirement again in 2007 when the financial crisis hit and he ended up signing another ten year lease in 2010. He is finally getting to the point where he thinks he can retire and this dyed in the wool Republican looks back and realizes he made more money on his investments BY FAR during Democratic administrations than during Republican administrations. He understands that correlation does not equal causation but doctors tend to look for patterns, its part of what they do and he is now wondering if he has been backing the wrong horse his whole career based on Republican support for tort reform (Virginia has had tort reform for a while now).