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To Successfully Balance The Budget, Eliminate Fraud and Waste...Bingo!

Not intended as hyperbole, I contend there is massive waste and fraud rampant in every government program that exists. Certainly, if this is not a true contention, there can be very few where it cannot be found. You even learn of cases in the very law enforcement agencies which are supposed to be fighting to stop it.

Let’s take a look at one instance, which should not be a part of the department at all. In 2002, the program for affording low interest loans and grants was established for the USDA to encourage and assist the development of broadband services to rural areas. It seems rather incredible that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would be involved in, not only making low interest loans and grants for businesses to establish these broadband facilities, but soliciting them in a big way. Here is an interesting quote from a current article:

Right now, there is nearly $800 million taxpayer dollars for broadband development sitting unused and uncommitted in federal government coffers. As Congress searches for spending cuts with the deadline to fund government looming on Friday, this unobligated cash is low-hanging fruit for lawmakers trying to craft another short-term continuing resolution or looking to pare down the debt. (More Duplicative, Wasteful Spending: Kelly Cobb-Townhall.com April 8, 2011)

In 2005, three years after the program was launched, the Department’s Inspector General found that more than half of the money they reviewed was spent on unrelated projects or had been awarded to companies who didn’t even complete their applications. And by 2009, over three-quarters of the loans went to communities that already had broadband service – and nearly 60 percent of the taxpayer money went to places with two or more providers. And notice this quote from the same source:

A few days before government funding was set to expire on March 18, USDA sent out a notice encouraging companies to apply for $700 million in unobligated broadband loan funds sitting in the department’s coffers. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said at the time he was “keeping an eye on Congress relative to the flexibility they’ll give us on the budget.” Translation: get this money out the door before Congress notices. (Ibid)

Now, notice this, even though the Congress passed a new Continuing Resolution which stopped the funding for this project, there remains in the USDA account, $700 million of those funds not yet loaned and still available to be taken. Why not rescind those funds and return them to the U.S. Treasury. We need all the $700 millions we can get.

The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA), today sent out the following message to members of Congress urging their opposition to the latest CR. It is my suggestion that all voters send their congressmen a message to not only approve the measure but to rescind the $700 million dollars.

The loan program’s multitude of failures didn’t stop Democrats from handing USDA and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) another $7.5 billion for the same purpose in the 2009 “stimulus” package – this time not just as loans, but also pure handouts with less oversight and no strings attached. (Ibid)

And all of this is only a tiny bit of our programs whose fraud, waste and corruption accounts for billions of dollars. Control of our programs is what is needed.

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