June 15, 2011

Manchin Reacts to 'Appalling' Report on Government Waste

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) today released the following statement after learning that wasteful spending in federal agencies jumped $15 billion from 2009 to 2010, to $125 billion. 

“With the nation facing a death spiral of debt, West Virginians expect their government to do everything it can to ferret out waste and fraud. Instead, government waste actually increased in 2010 in dozens of federal programs,” Senator Manchin said. “The fact that we wasted $125 billion in 2010 – up $15 billion from 2009 – is appalling, and should enrage every American who is watching every penny of their own budgets, and expects their government to do the same.

“The tens of billions of federal waste demonstrates, once again, that before anyone starts slashing and burning critical programs like Head Start or Social Security, we should work in a bipartisan fashion to attack and eliminate this massive waste, fraud and abuse.”


Background:

The $125 billion figure was revealed in testimony given at the House Ways and Means Committee hearing yesterday on the accuracy of the Social Security program’s payments. During the hearing, Inspector General of the Social Security Administration Patrick P. O’Carroll Jr. testified that across the board, federal agencies reported $125 billion in wasteful spending in 2010, an increase in $15 billion from 2009.

###