The Issue: Whether government overspending can be prevented with more oversight.
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The time has come to establish another cabinet department: The Department of Fraud and Waste, with the sole purpose of identifying and stopping the frighteningly boundless waste of taxpayer money (“OPM Is the Real Problem, Not the IRS,” Linda Chavez, PostOpinion, June 8).
The first secretary should be Sen. Tom Coburn, who has been railing about this issue for many years.
With the simple implementation of a flat tax, 90 percent of IRS workers could be let go, and many of the honest accountants and auditors from that agency could do the hard work of rooting out the egregious and immoral violations of our federal government.Herb Eichen
Bayside
It would behoove Congress to create a temporary Special Investigative Commission consisting of retired top law-enforcement agents, such as outstanding detectives, prosecutors, FBI officials, etc., to concentrate solely on Medicare and Medicaid fraud. A provisional court of accomplished retired jurists could be set up as well to alleviate the prosecutorial burden these cases would impose on our judicial system.
Even at the cost of up to a billion dollars, if this agency could save the American taxpayer 50 cents on the fraudulent dollar, it would be worth its cost in Medicaid savings alone.
Once the mission is accomplished, the commission could be disbanded and reassembled as needed to stem the inevitable return of corruption in the future.
Bill Chambers
Greenpoint
Since one privileged IRS official stayed five nights in a $3,500 hotel room — a $17,500 “value” — and since the IRS took $18,096 in federal taxes from me last year, fairness would require that guy to pay for me to stay in that same room for 5 nights. He can keep the left-over $596 as a tip.
Richard Siegelman
Plainview
A big government is a wasteful, terrible use of our money. As we have seen over the last few weeks, there is no accountability, and no effort to develop better ways to do things or to go after fraud.Mike Hollinger
Kansas City, Mo.
