10/11/00 9:45 a.m.
Gore's Legacy
As vice president, he oversaw immense government waste.

By Mark R. Levin, president of the Landmark Legal Foundation

e're hearing a great deal from the media and the Gore campaign about George W. Bush's purportedly weak record as governor of Texas. But little has been reported about Al Gore's record during the past 7-½ years, for which Bill Clinton has called him the greatest vice president in American history. This record is especially relevant to judging Gore's claims to be a good steward of national policy.

Gore claims responsibility for "reinventing" the federal government, i.e., streamlining the bureaucracy and making it more efficient; and he is proposing a massive expansion of the federal bureaucracy, including such areas as health, education, and the environment. But the fact is, waste, fraud, and abuse have flourished under Gore's stewardship:

• According to the Associated Press, the Medicare program made overpayments totaling $13.5 billion in one year; based on various 1998 investigations, the House Budget Committee reported that the Supplemental Security Income program loses $1 billion to fraud each year; and the Department of Housing and Urban Development has wasted $18 billion.

• The Medicaid program loses approximately $17 billion a year. Penny Thompson of the federal Health Care Financing Administration, which oversees Medicaid and Medicare, told AP late last year that the idea of overhauling Medicaid to end fraud is something "we haven't really looked into with any depth."

• The GAO also reported that the Army could not account for $833 million in shipped inventory in budget year 1998.

• Agriculture Department officials reported recently that $660 million was stolen annually, from 1996 to 1998, from the Food Stamp program.

• Last year the accounting firm of Ernst & Young reported that computer breakdowns and missing paperwork left the Department of Education unable to account for $500 million in unawarded grants.

• The General Accounting Office (GAO) reported this year that $6 of every $10 spent on the Superfund program, which is charged with cleaning up hundreds of toxic-waste sites throughout the country, went for support activities.

• Small Business Administration auditors reported that the agency lost about $56 million on loans liquidated in 1994 due to errors in the liquidation process.

• The GAO reported last year that there are major lapses in fire prevention in the national parks, including defective sprinklers, and lack of smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, and fire-fighting equipment.

• Estimates from congressional leaders of both parties conclude that federal regulations cost the private sector from $230 billion to over $700 billion a year.

• AP uncovered that "hundreds of companies prosecuted or sued for defrauding the government can still receive federal business — and many have gotten new contracts — because agencies chose not to ban them.

Perhaps Mr. Gore will have an opportunity, during tonight's debate, to defend his own record.