US Gov. Spends a Dime to Make a Nickel

Democratic Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez of Illinois explains why it costs the government 1.7 cents to stamp out a penny and 10 cents to make a nickel.

Bringing Accountability to the Federal Government

Claire McCaskill is a Democrat from Missouri about to take her place in the federal Senate for the first time. As far as I am concerned she is more qualified to sit in Washington than most; instead of being a lawyer she is an auditor, having served as Missouri's state auditor.

I know a lot about federal programs. I know how badly they behave. It's not very sexy, but . . . the [Government Accountability Office] is going to love me as a senator. My office is actually going to read their audits.

Astounding. I hope she can get others on board, but she'll be fighting a lot of pet projects up there in Washington.

As senator, agency efficiency is "the most important priority I have: making government work for less money," McCaskill says. The first way she'll do that, she says, is to read the GAO reports gathering dust around Capitol Hill.

Agencies, beware. Overlooked GAO reports such as "BLM's Program for Issuing Individual Indian Allotments on Public Lands Is No Longer Viable" and "Incidents at DoD Mail Facilities Exposed Problems That Require Further Actions" could make a comeback.

Good luck, Claire McCaskill.

 

Tax Dollars for Erectile Dysfunction

I was going to write a post about the two billion dollars that Medicare is going to spend on Viagra, Cialis, etc. over the next decade, but Cranial Cavity has it covered.

Unsecured Access to Government Files

Imagine sitting on a park bench in Washington and having access to dozens of government computer networks. Never mind — the GAO tells us that you can actually do it:

But nine of the 24 major agencies haven't issued wireless-security plans, while many others provided little guidance for acceptable use, the GAO found.

Thirteen agencies don't require their Wi-Fi networks to be set up in a secure manner, and most don't monitor their wireless activity, the report said.

GAO investigators were able to pick up Wi-Fi signals from outside all of the six agencies they tested, and they were able to find examples of unauthorized activity at all six as well.

At one agency, 90 laptop computers were configured to search for a wireless connection while they were plugged in to a wireless network -- an easy way in for snoops and hackers.

Now imagine what kind of information is stored on those networks: Social Security numbers, medical information, security files, not to mention minutes from high-level meetings and itineraries of officials.

Just think, Holiday Inn runs a more secure computer network than most of our government. Now, what is anybody going to do about it?