Screwing in the lightbulb

 

 

"Question: How many government workers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Answer: Unknown, as for most of them, it is way too hard..."

Let me first apologize. I really should not be on the government's case again today. But it is low fruit on the tree. It is like the kid back in school who wears a "kick me" sign on his back. It really does seem like every day there is something new. Something so screwed up, one might think it was almost done on purpose.

Today in the paper was a small article about a small amount of money which seems to have been misappropriated by the SSI (disability) program. It is really no big shakes for a program which seems to be on a path to insolvency. A government watchdog group has determined the Social Security Administration, through the SSI program, has paid out $19B over the last decade to unauthorized people. Shocking right? It gets worse. The payments not only went out to those were no longer disabled, but also to people who have died.

This story comes out right on top of the whopper about the DOD anthrax screw up. You know the story. Where inert anthrax was going to be sent to some labs nationwide and live anthrax was sent by mistake. So far so good - nobody has died. However, the story could have turned out much differently. Will someone be held accountable for this or fired? Not likely. Your chances of getting fired from a government job are less than winning the Power Ball.

Of course a week or so ago the story was the 96% failure rate the TSA received on their last audit. The punishment for the acting director? Reassigned. Not fired, reassigned. The VA in Phoenix is still a mess with wait times. With the VA, the beat goes on. It is still a mess. And of course, let us not forget about the hack job with our government data base. Because it was so loose on cyber security, Chinese hackers were able to breach it and steal millions of identities.

I really don't know what the answer is. It has been like this for quite a while. No matter the agency, it is always the same. Accountability is low, performance is low, and life is easy. Money is of no consequence. It is like play money for many. Monopoly money. And yet the people in this country who love big government, will work overtime to defend this sad and broken system.

So next April 15th when you write out your check to Uncle Sam, rest easy. Good stewardship is a term which has not yet been learned by our government. Nor is it welcome. However the trio of waste, fraud and abuse are alive and kicking...