|
||||||||
Notch Bulletin: Government Waste Costs Notch Victims Despite optimistic forecasts of budget surpluses and a continued strong economy, poor oversight allows the government to burn up our tax dollars. Waste, fraud, and abuse hit Notch Victims particularly hard because Members of Congress are fond of ducking behind the excuse that a lack of funding is their reason for not supporting Notch Reform. This simply is not good enough. Recent government audits have uncovered the need for better oversight of agency funding. The Education Department, for example, was unable to give a Congressional panel an accounting of disputed parts of a $32 billion budget and billions more in student loans it manages. Representative Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), chairman of the investigating panel, read internal department e-mails and other documents that recounted duplicate payments to grant winners, including an $800 million college loan to a single student. A government corporation that was supposed to help farmers and rural communities by financing new industrial uses for crops has been shut down after losing about 75 percent of the $43 million in investments it has made since its creation seven years ago. We find it galling that a branch of the government could invest in businesses that had “little or no chance of success” and then fail to monitor the companies to make sure the money was properly used. In one case, an individual used $344,000 of the government's $450,000 to pay off personal debts, and then shut down his business. The “Notch Fairness Act,” versions of which are in both the House and the Senate, would provide a choice of either Lump Sum payments over four years totaling $5,000 or an improved monthly benefit to those born 1917 through 1926. Over 80 percent of Notch Victims who responded to TSCL surveys have indicated they support the Lump Sum option. We urge you to contact your Members of Congress now to ask them to co-sponsor the “Notch Fairness Act.” The “Notch Fairness Act” caps the cost of Notch Reform to around $45 billion or less. Congress can and should take stronger action to ensure government agencies stop wasting our money. This article first appeared in Volume 5, Issue 4 of "The Social Security and Medicare Advisor" newsletter (March/2000). To receive future editions of "The Advisor" in its special, free e-mail version, please click here. | ||||||||
|
|
||||||||
