"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them"- Galileo

On January 28, 2010 I wrote an article blasting President Obama and his administration for identifying $600 billion in waste and fraud in Medicare, but failing to take action to save American taxpayers that much-needed bundle of bucks. The President has included the amount of "identifed" savings" as a way to fund the biggest portion of his proposed health care reform legislation.

As a refresher, excerpts from my Jan.28 column appear between the lines below:

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"I wonder if the American people might be more excited if you told them, STARTING TODAY, you would vigorously take whatever actions necessary to stop all waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare identified by you to total $600 billion, and use it to reduce our strangling debt? If it's there, Mr. President, let's see it. NOW, not tomorrow.

I hold to my belief that it is criminal for this administration to identify fraud and misuse amounting to billions of taxpayer dollars, and sit idly by and watch it continue.

Two things should be readily recognized by all: 1) If the fraud and waste does exist, it should be remedied immediately and the money recovered. 2)If the fraud/waste/misuse does not exist to the extent the administration claims($600 billion), then nearly half the funding for proposed health care reform is not available, and the legislation is dead in the water.

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Having raked the President over the coals for that which he did not do, I must now give him credit that which he is doing. In the FY 2011 Federal Budget proposal submitted to Congress just this last Monday, there is a a provision to take all steps necessary to stop waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The administration, having recognized that available funds for those programs are being wasted, has taken the initiative to stop the abuse. That step deserves applause.

Included in the Health and Human Services portion of the FY 2011 Budget is a provision to implement a crackdown on fraud, waste and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid, which the administration estimates could save more than $1 billion a year over the next decade. A $billion($1,000,000,000)is a lot of coin, and over the next ten years will "save" the taxpayer $10 billion. Kudos to the administration for taking the steps to stop this abuse.

But(and you knew there would be one), this is where the title of this column comes into play. Remember Galileo's quote "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them"? Well, this is where the truth is discovered.

The TRUTH is that a concentrated effort to end fraud, abuse, and misuse in Medicare/Medicaid will result in $1 billion savings a year for a net of $10 billion over the next decade.

The TRUTH is that the administration has claimed as much as $600 billion in savings over the next decade by eliminating fraud, abuse, and waste in Medicare/Medicaid.

The TRUTH is that the administration's projected savings from eliminating abuses of Medicare/Medicaid has been used as the primary source of funds to finance health care reform.

The TRUTH is that, as a matter of reality as proven by the amount realized in the FY 2011 budget, there is only $10 billion of "savings"(and not the $300-600 billion) to fund the proposed health care legislation.

The TRUTH is that health care reform legislation lacks nearly half of the necessary funding, and will require borrowing huge amounts of money and will greatly increase the national debt.

"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them"- Galileo

Many extensive reviews of the budget are available on line. In addition to the one I offer as a source, similar ones are available at Forbes and ABC dot coms.

www.kmov.com/news/national/83287077.html

© 2010 Brocco Bama- Knuckle Draggin Nixon Listee - 2/4/10

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