Category Archives: Government Programs

Health Care, Medical Costs, Waste, Fraud & Abuse

Doctors spend 2 weeks each year on ‘obscene waste’ paperwork

October 26, 2016 ejistook

A bombshell study reveals that doctors waste almost two full work weeks each year explaining to regulators how they practice medicine.

The time spent on this paperwork robs doctors from seeing nine patients each week. One health care CEO labels it an “obscene waste,” especially because multiple reports ask for the same things. Medical staff spend even more time on the paperwork than the doctors themselves. Managing a healthcare facility can be very challenging. You have the option to outsource services from ABA Billing Companies to help make it easier for you to manage your billing documents and insurance claims.

The Health Affairs journal study attributes the red tape to federal Medicaid and Medicare regulations, plus private insurers. But most blame was heaped on federal requirements.

Only quality control reports were studied on pancreatic cancer, not the other massive health care red tape. By themselves, the quality control reports consumed 785 hours per physician, representing $40,000 per doctor in non-productive time each year, totaling $15.4 billion nationwide.

The Physician Foundation financed the study of 394 medical clinics, focusing on cardiology, orthopedics, primary care, and multispecialty practices. The authors agree quality measurement is important, but conclude “the current system is unnecessarily costly.”

Halee Fischer-Wright, president and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association, commented, “On top of the obscene waste of billions of dollars each year on quality measures, the most alarming thing about this study is that nearly three-fourths of the groups reported that the quality measures are not even clinically relevant.”

“This study proves that the current top-down approach has failed,” Fischer-Wright said. “It serves no purpose to have over three thousand competing measures of quality across government and private initiatives. . . . the federal government needs to get out of the business of dictating patient care through wasteful mandates and create simplified systems.”

Clean Air Act, Climate Change, Cost-of-Living, Economy, Environment, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, Global Warming, The Heritage Foundation

‘Costliest regulation ever’ pushed by EPA

June 10, 2015 ejistook

Claiming it wants to help us breathe better, the EPA chokes our economy.

While 40% of the country has not been able to meet the ozone standards issued in 2008, the EPA wants to go farther and faster. The proposal is a limit of 65 parts per billion to replace the current 75 ppb.

Trying to filter such tiny amounts from the air is vastly expensive. The National Association of Manufacturers reports that this would be the single costliest regulation in American history.

The Heritage Foundation’s Daren Bakst and Nicolas Loris write, “Lost jobs and less disposable income are not just economic costs; they can lead to significant health problems, particularly among the poor.”

And about carbon dioxide regulations, they say, “If the EPA is allowed to push through these jobs-crushing regulations, it will, at best, be able to boast a climate benefit of a few hundredths of a degree Celsius abated warming by the turn of the century. Sound like it’s worth it?”

Automobiles, Corruption, Crony Capitalism, Energy, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, Gasoline, Regulatory Costs, Subsidies, Transportation, USDA - US Department of Agriculture, Waste, Fraud & Abuse

‘Dirty Rotten Ethanol Scoundrels’ – Wall St. Journal

June 7, 2015 ejistook 1 Comment

A Wall Street Journal editorial notes that the EPA is reducing the amount of ethanol that must be blended into gasoline below the level required by the 2007 energy bill.

Why? Because it’s impossible to meet the goal without diluting gasoline so badly that it will damage car engines because ethanol is corrosive. Requiring 10% (E-10) is bad enough, but mandating anything higher would “damage the engines and fuel systems of most of the cars and trucks on the road today . . . risking accidents, breakdowns and valve, pump, cylinder and injector replacements rarely covered by consumer warranties.”

But to placate corn farmers, the Agriculture Department pledged $100 million in state grants to help fix vehicles that use higher blends of ethanol. That’s more taxpayer money to fix the damage caused by taxpayer subsidies of ethanol.

The WSJ concludes: “Such is the corruption of corporate welfare, which continues for no reason other than that it already exists.”

Barack Obama, Internet, Phone Bills, Waste, Fraud & Abuse, Welfare (Public Assistance), Worldwide Web

First, free Obamaphones. Now, free Internet. Next???

June 4, 2015 ejistook

America’s welfare state keeps growing because Congress allows bureaucrats to expand programs, immune from accountability to voters.

The latest proposal would give free Internet service to tens of millions of people. It would be done by the nonelected commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission.

Millions of people already get free phones through the fraud-ridden FCC program nicknamed “Obamaphones.” Expanding this to the Internet (Call it “Obamanet?”) could add tens of millions of people, thanks to FCC’s loose eligibility criteria.

The cost would be borne by the rest of us through surcharges on our cellphones, landlines and business lines. Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/3/ernest-istook-free-internet-service-expansion-of-o/#ixzz3c6rKWtYm

Waste, Fraud & Abuse

FEMA overpays hurricane damages by $177-M

June 2, 2015 ejistook

FEMA overspent hurricane reimbursements in Florida in 2004 and 2005 by more than $177 million — and the federal government is liable for another $1 billion in future disaster costs “due to lax insurance reviews.”

And now Baltimore wants taxpayers to cover the damages from its riots–which local officials stood back and let happen.

Federal watchdogs admit $100-billion wasted each year

June 2, 2015 ejistook 1 Comment

Our national government admits to wasting at least $100 billion a year, yet nobody gets fired for it. Bureaucrats and Congress don’t fix the loopholes; that could make some people mad and their votes might be lost.

Everyday people would be in prison if they handled their taxes the way our government handles our tax dollars. Government inefficiency is legendary.

The mis-named EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) is actually a public assistance program with 24% levels of fraud and waste, costing us almost $18-billion a year. Medicare wastes almost $46-billion annually, with a 12.7% error rate.

READ MORE DETAILS HERE:

For the government’s official list of “high-error programs, click HERE.

Barack Obama, Crony Capitalism, Electric Bills, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency

Checked your electric bill? It’s skyrocketing!

June 1, 2015 ejistook

Obama's Skyrocket

It’s only just begun. American households are suffering skyrocketing electricity costs thanks to President Barack Obama’s agenda. Already the average household pays an extra $120 a year.

But the worst is yet to come.

Thanks to EPA regulations that have been announced, the U.S. will lose 9 percent of our ability to generate electricity by the year 2030, even while population grows by 54 million people. That is 116% of the current population trying to get by on 91% of our current power.

Supply-and-demand dictates electric rates will climb higher and higher.

What does Obama suggest we do? Spend thousands of dollars per household to buy more energy-efficient appliances. You’ll pay more upfront but then you’ll use fewer kilowatts. But your utility bills will still climb because the cost per kilowatt-hour will be much higher.

Higher electric rates are Obama’s plan, not just an unforeseen consequence:

Barack Obama, Clean Air Act, Electric Bills, Energy, Environment, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, Propaganda, Regulatory Costs

Propaganda secret: How Obama raises electric bills yet claims he lowers them

June 4, 2014 ejistook

In 2013, President Obama was given the “Lie of The Year” award for claiming that Obamacare would allow people to keep their current health insurance. Now a new statement might win Obama that award for 2014 as well: Obama claims that his new Environmental Protection Agency regulations will lower people’s electric bills.

On June 2, he stated, “Your electricity bills will shrink as these standards spur investment in energy efficiency, cutting waste and, ultimately, we’re going to be saving money for homes and for businesses.”

Yet in 2008 he admitted his agenda was to make electricity rates “skyrocket,” supposedly to save the planet. And the EPA’s own analysis predicts their regulations will raise electric rates an extra 6% to 24% by 2020.

Careful research reveals the carefully-contrived statements Obama is using to leave consumers a totally false impression about the impact of the new EPA regulations.

Read the secrets about the propaganda: Obama’s latest brainwashing whopper — lower electricity bills

Barack Obama, Clean Air Act, Electric Bills, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency

Obama’s EPA plan is like a Three Stooges routine

May 28, 2014 ejistook

President Obama’s latest EPA plans give America only bad choices which all will cause electric bills to skyrocket.

While claiming states will have “fexibility” to reduce carbon dioxide, the limited options are all bad. It’s like a classic Three Stooges routine: The Stooges are given a choice either of being burned at the stake or beheaded. Curly chooses the fire. “After all,” he says, “a hot steak is better than a cold chop.”

The Environmental Protection Agency isn’t offering anything better. They are not targeting something tangible, dirty or visible like soot or carbon particles, which is the purpose of the Clean Air Act. Instead, they want to reduce carbon dioxide, which is not a pollutant. CO2 is invisible whether it’s coming out of a smokestack, exhaled from your lungs, or released by plants at night. Obama’s justification is all about supposed “global warming” and “climate change,” not about pollution.

Watch the Stooges’ “hot steak, cold chop” bit below:

https://youtu.be/OjIWbeZ3KtM?start=121&end=139

Food, Food Police, Michelle Obama, School lunch, Uncategorized

Students complain: ‘First Lady messes up our lunches’

May 20, 2014 ejistook 1 Comment

The food fight over student lunches is personal for First Lady Michelle Obama, and personal for millions of upset school children and their families.

She has told us, “My most important title is mom-in-chief,” and “We can’t just leave it up to the parents.” The First Lady’s attitude is reinforced by the regulators at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, overseeing the federal School Lunch Program. They follow her bidding on extreme makeover of meals, but 1.6-million students have dropped out of the program rather than accept the new menus.

Bureaucracy costs lives as well as dollars

April 30, 2014 ejistook

The terrible Veterans Administration scandals demonstrate how bureaucratic indifference can be fatal, as it was with 40 patients who died. Their appointments were among hundreds never scheduled, to conceal the bureaucratic backlog.

More often, red tape costs financially, as people lose control over their own budgets. Businesses have to shift funds out of productivity and into filing reports which some time can be easier to handle using a fake paystub template.

First Lady kidnaps Easter event to push food regulations

April 10, 2014 ejistook

The annual White House Easter Egg Roll has been politicized to re-educate children and parents. Sorry, Peter Cottontail; your event has been kidnapped. And apologies to the churches.

The 30,000 guests were told, “In addition to all of the fun, the day’s activities will encourage children to lead healthy, active lives in support of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! Initiative.” In 2013, Michelle Obama proclaimed the event’s purpose was is “to celebrate nutrition and activity” and “learn about making tasty, healthy food.”

Her philosophy? “We can’t just leave it up to the parents.” That’s what the First Lady proclaimed when her husband signed the Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. That act has sparked student protests across the country for changing the school lunch program to promote items that students refuse to eat. And down-sized portions.

Too much regulation invites corruption

April 3, 2014 ejistook

Massive regulation breeds corruption as people and businesses look for shortcuts and loopholes. Politicians use complexity to “interpret” red tape to favor friends, reward donors, and punish enemies.

Obamacare is a prime example. There were 381,517 words in the Affordable Care Act passed by Congress. But by early 2014 the regulations “interpreting” the law surpassed 11,588,500 words.

Agencies, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, Gasoline, Subsidies, Uncategorized

Associated Press study says ethanol is bad for the environment

November 12, 2013 ejistook 1 Comment

Federal regulators mandate use of ethanol in gasoline for “environmental benefits,” applying what they call a “renewable fuel standard.” That makes corn a much more profitable crop than without the regulation.

But a detailed study by The Associated Press concluded that the rationale is phony. Some of the findings:

As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they wiped out millions of acres of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies, an Associated Press investigation found.
Five million acres of land set aside for conservation—more than Yellowstone, Everglades and Yosemite National Parks combined—have vanished on Obama’s watch.
Landowners filled in wetlands. They plowed into pristine prairies, releasing carbon dioxide that had been locked in the soil.

Source: The secret environmental cost of US ethanol policy

AEI - American Enterprise Institute, Clean Air Act, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency

It’s real: Red tape shuts down farmers

January 12, 2012 ejistook

Farms and red tape don’t get along very well.

A Missouri farmer explains first-hand how regulations destroy profits and keep kids from learning how to work on the farm.

Then there was EPA’s infamous plan to shut down operations because farm work creates dust.

Yet liberal groups try to claim the problems are imaginary. This farmer knows better and explains.

Read: An Imaginary Dustup? The Incalculable Harm of Regulation

Americans for Less Regulation