Earlier this year, the Government Accountability Office issued a troubling report detailing the exorbitant, wasteful use of taxpayer dollars on construction of Obamacare state exchanges. All told, 17 state exchanges received $4.6 billion in federal funds for failed or barely working systems. Fortunately for taxpayers, this report has sparked a long overdue investigation into this waste by Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA).
As David Catron of the American Spectator points out, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – the agency in charge of distributing funds – has shown a clear lack of interest in ensuring responsible use of the billions given to states:
“CMS is responsible for monitoring how the Obamacare start-up grants were spent and Chairman Murphy is clearly as skeptical about that agency’s commitment to proper oversight as he is about the veracity of the exchange officials. As he observed during the hearing, “CMS has seemed more focused on doling out taxpayer dollars rather than overseeing how those dollars are spent.”
In particular, GAO’s report uncovered several inconsistencies including a gap of $3.2 billion and a long backlog of bookkeeping on the part of state exchanges. As Catron concludes, it is imperative that Chairman Murphy’s investigation into this issue continues, given how much remains unknown:
At this time, much remains unknown and Chairman Murphy’s oversight subcommittee must In order to reach the truth about of the missing Obamacare grants and the CO-OP disaster, Congressman Murphy’s oversight committee must penetrate the ramparts of mendacity that have been erected around Obamacare by bureaucrats like Slavitt, the President’s Democrat accomplices, and the legacy “news” media.”
Put simply, taxpayers deserve the truth behind billions in unaccounted, and possibly wasted federal funds.