Washington’s Culture of Corruption

We’ve gotten to the point where you need a guide-book to keep track of all the scandals in Washington.

As a fiscal policy wonk, I focus mostly on the sleaze at the IRS, but I also recognize that the other scandals are equally troubling.

So I’m amused by Lisa Benson’s portrayal of the…um…plumbing problems at the White House.

But there’s a theme to all the scandals, regardless of whether they’re happening now under Obama or whether they happened under Bush or during the reign of previous Presidents: Many of them take place solely because government is large, bloated, and involved in areas where it doesn’t belong.

Here’s my video explaining why corruption is much more common when government is bigger.

P.S. You can see some of my favorite Benson cartoons here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

And here’s my favorite one, which criticized Obama’s class warfare policy and became part of my political cartoon contest.

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Your Tax Dollars at Work: Medicare Financing Plastic Surgery

What’s the most absurd “health” expenditure by government?

Your tax dollars at work

There are lots of potential responses, including $240 million for penis pumps. Or how about the fact that Obamacare allows taxpayer-subsidized viagra for sex offenders?

But another potential answer is cosmetic surgery for “droopy eyelids.” Here are some of the details from a Miami Herald report.

Aging Americans worried about their droopy upper eyelids often rely on the plastic surgeon’s scalpel to turn back the hands of time. Increasingly, Medicare is footing the bill. Yes, Medicare. The public health insurance program for people over 65 typically does not cover cosmetic surgery… In recent years, though, a rapid rise in the number of so-called functional eyelid lifts, or blepharoplasty, has led some to question whether Medicare is letting procedures that are really cosmetic slip through the cracks — at a cost of millions of dollars. …From 2001 to 2011, eyelid lifts charged to Medicare more than tripled to 136,000 annually, according to a review of physician billing data by the Center for Public Integrity. In 2001, physicians billed taxpayers a total of $20 million for the procedure. By 2011, the price tag had quadrupled to $80 million. The number of physicians billing the surgery more than doubled. …surgeons also acknowledge an increased awareness of the surgery fueled by reality television, word-of-mouth referrals, and advertising that promises a more youthful appearance. And doctors concede they face increased pressure from patients to perform eyelid lifts, even when they do not meet Medicare’s requirement that peripheral vision actually be impaired.

Yet even though the Medicare requirements aren’t being met, these surgeries are still taking place. Why? Well, because the doctors and old people both realize that Uncle Sam will pay the bill so long as you make a nebulous claim that peripheral vision is affected.

Just like doctors and scammers will agree on a diagnosis of “bad back” or “mental illness” in order to get somebody on the taxpayer-financed disability gravy train.

In other words, once politicians create a pile of free money, people will figure out ways of getting their hands on that money.

That’s true for all programs.

But because of the amounts of money involved, Medicare is a far bigger problem than other programs, as explained in this video.

Which is why we desperately need the right kind of entitlement reform.

P.S. You won’t be surprised to know that other nations also have crazy government-financed health systems. In the United Kingdom, for instance, you can get a boob job at taxpayer expense. The government in the United Kingdom also provides taxpayer-financed sex trips to Amsterdam. And the bureaucrats at the European Commission get penile implants at public expense.

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