Imagine if the US had NDIS

The US Government Accountability Office is an offshoot of the U.S. Congress. It is not part of the executive. Its role is to investigate how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars. It conducts audits, evaluations, and investigations of government programs and operations to ensure efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability.

It’s sort of like the Audit Office in Australia - when the Audit Office does performance audits.

And according to the US Government Accountability Office:

The federal government reported an estimated $236 billion in “improper payments” during the most recently completed fiscal year (FY 2023). Such payments are essentially payment errors that can be the result of many things—including overpayments, inaccurate recordkeeping, or even fraud.

Payment errors are a long-standing issue for the federal government. Over the last 20 fiscal years, it has made an estimated $2.7 trillion in such improper payments.

$236 billion wasted in 2023 and $2.7 trillion, yes trillion, wasted over 20 years.

These are probably conservative estimates because accountants and auditors tend to be conservative.

The $236 billion, that’s US dollars and probably around $450 billion Aussie dollars. Perhaps 2/3 of the Australian budget.

74% of this $236 billion (and I will keep repeating this number) was from

overpayments—for example, payments to deceased individuals or those no longer eligible for government programs

Think JobKeeper.

But can you imagine the size of the waste and fraud in the US budget if they had an NDIS.

In Australia, you see:

NDIS integrity chief John Dardo told a Senate committee hearing that funding intended for packages to support people with permanent and significant disabilities was instead being used to fund criminal activities and purchase cars and holidays. He added that nine out of 10 plan managers surveyed showed signs of fraud but to pursue prosecutions would overwhelm the court system.

A former Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission CEO estimated 15-20 per cent of NDIS funds were misused.

And America also does not have the crazy childcare funding scheme of Australia.

How flucked would they be if Josh Frydenberg, Katy Gallagher and Jim Chalmers worked in the US Government.

Never forget that every dollar the Commonweath government spends/wastes/pisses away is either taken by force from the current generation or the next generation.

When you don’t have to create or produce, it’s much more fun to spend and redistribute.

Government. The money pit of other people’s money.