GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE?

People, people wake up! Government run health care? It cannot be done. Has anyone asked lately what happen to the 2.3 trillion dollars that the Department of Defense (black budget or black hole) could not account for for the fiscal year 1999? Or, what about the 1.7 trillion in 1998. And for fiscal year 2000, they reported a 1.1 trillion dollar loss.

Below are figures quoted from Government At The Brink - Volume II. An Agency by Agency Examination of Federal Government Management Problems Facing the Bush Administration - Senator Fred Thompson, Committee on Governmental Affairs United States Senate Washington, DC June, 2001. (for your own personal copy: http://hsgac.senate.gov)

Quote from page 16. "The Defense Department’s poor financial management affects every aspect of its operations. In very cold language, the IG details the problems:
We identified deficiencies in internal controls and accounting systems related to
General Property, Plant, and Equipment; Inventory; Environmental Liabilities; Military Retirement Health Benefits Liability; and material lines within the Statement of Budgetary Resources. We identified $1.1 trillion in department-level accounting entries to financial data used to prepare DOD component financial statements that were not supported by adequate audit trails or by sufficient evidence to determine their validity.5 There is no major component of the Defense Department that can balance its books. This causes some of the most incredible examples of waste, fraud, and abuse in government. For example:

In fiscal year 2000, the Department made $4.4 billion in “problem disbursements” or “intransit disbursements.” These include payments made that do not have a corresponding
bill or “obligation.” They can also include payments that were made, but that the entity to whom payment was made did not receive it. As one can imagine, these payments are highly susceptible to fraud or error."

Footnote included: [5Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General, “Internal Controls and Compliance With Laws and Regulations for the DoD Agency-Wide Financial Statements for FY 2000,” D-2001-070 (February 28, 2001).]

Now, I would also like to share a page from that same report, showing a "complex contract payment process" (words from the report not mine):

I am sorry, but my copy doesn't show the color added to better describe where the arrows are linking to, but I believe you get the picture. Chaos begets chaos. The American people cannot afford to continue dumping more dollars (i.e. health care) on top of existing bad dollars (i.e Dept. of Defense waste). It has proven not to work. What makes us believe it will work now?