Government Waste: Obama Claims $18B in Savings
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Susan Walsh/AP Photo
President Obama’s campaign against wasteful government spending has saved taxpayers nearly $18 billion in 2011, the White House announced today.
Officials attributed the savings to greater oversight of Medicare and Medicaid payments, Pell Grant applications and Food Stamp distribution by federal agencies, all following a 2010 Obama executive order that mandated improved accountability.
Roughly 4.7 percent of all government payouts last year were made in error, down from 5.3 percent in 2010, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
Medicare, which federal auditors say is the source of 40 percent of all government waste, trimmed $7 billion in fee-for-service payment errors in 2011, officials said. The improper payout rate dropped from 10.2 percent to 8.6 percent over the year.
“Through aggressive and innovative solutions being deployed by federal agencies, we are on track to meet the President’s bold directive to prevent $50 billion in payment errors by the end of 2012,” said OMB director Jack Lew in a statement.
Still, the savings announced today are a small fraction of a much larger and costlier problem.
Federal agency payouts of the wrong amount, to the wrong individuals, or for an inappropriate purpose totaled $115 billion in 2011, Lew told reporters on a conference call.
The federal government made more than $125 billion in improper payments in 2010, according to the Government Accountability Office, including $34 billion through Medicaid fee-for-service alone.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said today the administration is launching four new pilot programs to further address Medicare waste, while proposals to address the issue put forth by Obama in his 2012 budget linger in Congress.
“We still need Congress to act on the President’s proposal,” Sebelius said. “Until Congress acts, we will continue doing everything in our power to save money on behalf of the American people.”
The White House cast today’s announcement as part of the president’s We Can’t Wait campaign, a series of unilateral, relatively modest bureaucratic actions meant to portray Obama as an active and decisive leader.
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Come on Republicans! Attack! Here’s a bit of good news for the country. Rip it apart! Tear it up! Dismiss it and attack Obama! Come on Republicans, don’t let us down here……………..
Posted by: Searambler | November 15, 2011, 5:01 pm 5:01 pm
So he claims he saved 18 billion. Then he turns around and blows a trillion. Numbers do not add up.
Posted by: specialty57 | November 15, 2011, 5:03 pm 5:03 pm
Sea, yes it is good news, now if he would put it toward the debt instead of spending it on something stupid like usual, we could maybe get somewhere. But that won’t happen will it?
Posted by: specialty57 | November 15, 2011, 5:05 pm 5:05 pm
So…….that just means he cleaned up after 2009 and 2010, allowing all that corruption. He is probably grossly overstating the success as well.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | November 15, 2011, 6:20 pm 6:20 pm
Obama’s budget runs about 100 times what he claims to be saving. What a brilliant man!
Posted by: s | November 15, 2011, 6:29 pm 6:29 pm
These are excellent changes!
I’m not surprised there was so much waste under the previous (Bush) administration. Don’t forget it was that administration that ‘misplaced’ $2 BILLION in the Pentagon budget just before 9/11, and then ‘misplaced’ $9 BILLION in Iraq in dealings with Halliburtion and others.
Posted by: John | November 15, 2011, 7:29 pm 7:29 pm
john@7:29
.
George Kaiser in July 2009 openly boasts about his ability to get his hands on oBama stimulus funding. “There’s never been more money shoved out of the government’s door in world history, and probably never will be again, than in the last few months and in the next 18 months”.
.
oBama stimulus indeed…. no waste in there at all.
Posted by: Michelle Shu Jas | November 15, 2011, 8:07 pm 8:07 pm
no waste in there at all.
Posted by: Michelle Shu Jas | November 15, 2011, 8:07 pm 8:07 pm
Astounding low rate of waste in the ARRA stimulus – especially when compared with the ‘business as usual’ pork barreling under previous administrations.
Posted by: Gerry | November 15, 2011, 8:11 pm 8:11 pm
There’s a hell of a lot more waste in the Government than 18 billion…more like a a trillion or two.
An honest president could find it. Unfortunately, we don’t have one.
Posted by: Kevin Fodor | November 15, 2011, 8:12 pm 8:12 pm
We blow through 18B in less than two days.
Meanwhile from Barry’s We CAN Wait campaign, the Canadians are looking to the Chinese for an oil deal after Barry’s pathetically wimpy vote of present on the Keystone pipeline. 20,000+ jobs are going, going…..
Posted by: foggy | November 15, 2011, 8:13 pm 8:13 pm
gerry @8:11
.
“Astounding” was the exact word used by George Kaiser and other oBama cronies when they saw the amount of taxpayer dollars being shoveled out the doors of the White House and into their pockets. Protect the middle-class indeed.
Posted by: Michelle Shu Jas | November 15, 2011, 8:28 pm 8:28 pm
Posted by: Kevin Fodor | November 15, 2011, 8:12 pm 8:12 pm
President Bush’s budget for 2009 was $3.1 trillion. And that didn’t include the wars nor the TARP funding. No waste there I’m sure. It’s all Obama’s fault.
Posted by: Jamie | November 15, 2011, 8:30 pm 8:30 pm
Posted by: Michelle Shu Jas | November 15, 2011, 8:28 pm 8:28 pm
You’re a few facts short of a full load Michelle, as usual.
Opinion = a personal belief or judgment that is not founded on proof.
Posted by: Dave | November 15, 2011, 8:35 pm 8:35 pm
LOL! Obama claiming he saved $18 billion reminds me of a friend who went to a 25% off sale at the mall, and came home after running up $2,000 on his credit card and told me he saved $500.00. Let me point out to Obama, as I pointed out to my friend. A few more savings like that and you will be bankrupt, or in Obama’s case our nation will collapse from his debt. Do us a favor Mr President. Stop Saving, and instead Stop Spending! Any more of your kind of Savings and our nation will collapse from your debt.
Posted by: valwayne | November 15, 2011, 8:51 pm 8:51 pm
Posted by: valwayne | November 15, 2011, 8:51 pm 8:51 pm
No, Obama is more like the person who reviews the credit card bill for you and finds out you’ve been overcharged $18 billion, contacts the credit card company and gets all that money back for you.
p.s. – your attempts to call it ‘Obama’s debt’ would be laughable if its wasn’t so corruptly wrong. The economic collapse under the Bush administration is one of the largest contributors towards our current deficits. Obama’s budgets are not much bigger than those put forward by Bush.
Posted by: Terry | November 15, 2011, 9:06 pm 9:06 pm
we know he demeans women, he protects Iran and now he wants us to believe he saved 18 billion LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO
Posted by: Dummies 4 O$bama | November 15, 2011, 9:33 pm 9:33 pm
we know he demeans women
Posted by: Dummies 4 O$bama | November 15, 2011, 9:33 pm 9:33 pm
Quite picking on the Republican candidate Cain.
Posted by: Gerry | November 15, 2011, 9:46 pm 9:46 pm
“No, Obama is more like the person who reviews the credit card bill for you and finds out you’ve been overcharged $18 billion, contacts the credit card company and gets all that money back for you.”
In other words we could outsource Obama to Mumbai.
Posted by: foggy | November 15, 2011, 9:48 pm 9:48 pm
Posted by: foggy | November 15, 2011, 9:48 pm 9:48 pm
Nope, I’m glad his government is searching out BILLIONS in bogus charges on OUR behalf.
Posted by: Gerry | November 15, 2011, 9:58 pm 9:58 pm
What a joke. Foodstamps have increased under Obama by 47%. That’s like going to the grocery store, buying way beyond budget, and brag to everyone about your diligent use of a 50 cent coupon! Don’t insult our intelligence, Mr. Obama.
Posted by: Stella | November 16, 2011, 7:42 am 7:42 am
ABC News: “Government Waste: Obama Claims $18B in Savings”
How can government spending be considered a ‘waste’ of money? According to liberals, government spending is the best way to grow jobs and our economy. This admission proves that isn’t the case after all.
Of course, he’s just making these token claims of government savings to aid his failing reelection campaign and to attempt to gain some shred of credibility in the continuing debt debate. If he could have found it in himself to cut government to do only what it must and release the billions-upon-billions more of the American people’s money in the process, we would have seen a recovery by now. Instead, Obama and liberals are too busy growing government, thereby stifling real growth, to the detriment of the people and their economy. More hope and change, anyone?
Posted by: Anonymous | November 16, 2011, 10:42 am 10:42 am
TERRY: “No, Obama is more like the person who reviews the credit card bill for you and finds out you’ve been overcharged $18 billion, contacts the credit card company and gets all that money back for you.”
Of course, the problem with your analogy is that Obama is the credit card company and the American people is the customer. The government is so wasteful and unwieldy this is just savings from errors in operation, not to mention the savings that could be garnered from eliminating the unnecessary government middleman from the equation altogether.
This is just the latest proof that government has no incentive to keep costs low by providing an efficient and accountable service. That’s why anything the government can do, the private sector will do more efficiently and cheaper, as nothing in government can replace the incentives brought about by private sector competition. That’s the beauty of free-market capitalism and the ugly that is government.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 16, 2011, 10:54 am 10:54 am
Posted by: Anonymous | November 16, 2011, 10:54 am 10:54 am
Identifying BILLIONS of dollars of errors and waste is an excellent thing in any organization! Just what should be done, and exactly what was promised.
Posted by: Dennis | November 16, 2011, 3:25 pm 3:25 pm
DENNIS: “Identifying BILLIONS of dollars of errors and waste is an excellent thing in any organization!”
Like I said, what’s even better is not wasting the American people’s money to begin with. Acting like wasting the American people’s money is okay when more efficient alternatives exist in the free market is exactly the problem with our government and the liberals that have infested it. As you continue to make excuses, billions-upon-billions more are wasted.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 16, 2011, 4:03 pm 4:03 pm
$10,000,000 so children in Pakistan can watch Sesame Street and we have Veterans who are homeless ? Duh
Posted by: baffled | December 29, 2011, 11:00 pm 11:00 pm
I’m gone to tell my little brother, that he should also visit this blog on regular basis to take updated from latest news.
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