The phrase “waste, fraud and abuse” now exists in politics-speak as a single word, bandied about with great and near-thoughtless regularity.  It is a linguistic nightmare.  But it is also an increasing reality.  Earlier this week, we looked at Fareed Zakaria’s fact-based takedown of California which included the fact that California spent over $24B (“billion” with a “B”) over a five year period on homelessness and yet homelessness had increased during the same period.  Somehow all that money is not making it where it belongs.  You know there is “waste, fraud and abuse”in there somewhere.

Recently California has opened a whole new arena into which money will flow in great volumes, and yet the desired results are likely to be highly questionable.  And this is an arena in which the goals are far less universally desired than homelessness – gay and transexual rights.

The California Public Utilities Commission has developed a whole massive bureaucratic nightmare of a system to certify a business as “gay-owned'” therefore permitting said business to receive preferential treatment in utility procurement.  How in the world do you prove a business is “gay-owned?” Well:

Supplier Clearinghouse, a group that certifies firms for the CPUC program, features a list of qualifications linked on its website. Applicants can secure certification by providing a letter from an “LGBT organization” attesting to their sexual preferences; proof that a newspaper identified them as “LGBT”; or three letters from “personal contacts” written “on company letterhead” attesting to their homosexual orientation. Corporate officials who “falsely represent” their business as gay face up to a year in county jail.

Supplier Clearinghouse also accepts gay-certification letters from the National LGBTQ+ & Allied Chamber of Commerce. The chamber has its own list of accepted documents, including human resources complaints or police records claiming LGBT discrimination. As NGLCC states on its website, “Certification is a journey, not a destination.”

The opportunity for “waste fraud and abuse” in all that is immense.  “You want a letter from me saying you are gay?  Sure, bud – I just need a kickback of 5% from that preferential contract you land.”  Who pays for Supplier Clearinghouse and just how much staff do they devote to this certification “journey?”  “Waste” for sure – “fraud and abuse” maybe.

The picture deepens when you consider a new California law making its way through the legislature that would permit kids to “divorce” their parents without their parents knowing about it until it was too late.  The details are complex but frightening and, of course, it is intended to “protect” kids that want to transition their gender.  Here’s where the “waste, fraud and abuse” thing comes in:

Government control over children is only one purpose of AB 1967. The second is financial. Once the county takes custody of the child, it is almost certain that he will be removed from the parent-directed residential facility. Detained children must be placed in an AFDC-FC-eligible nonprofit facility, foster care home, or institution. This requirement creates a direct financial incentive for nonprofits and their affiliated attorneys to facilitate the child’s transfer into county-approved placements.

A nonprofit can receive up to $17,616 per month in state and federal funding for a short-term residential therapeutic placement.

What family spends upwards of $17K per month per child in their home?  That’s a load of money and some of it has to end up in “waste, fraud and abuse.”

One begins to wonder if the purposes behind these bureaucratic mazes is really what they seem or if the real purpose is just to move money – government money, tax money, money TAKEN from us – around in a fashion that allows everybody to help themselves to a slice off the top.

The more bureaucratic the system, the easier it is to abuse.  The latest scandal concerning the hospice fraud that is rampant in California is another example.  Just before I left California I watched a half dozen hospice agencies set up in my small neighborhood – now I know why.

All this sets me thinking.  Maybe rather than continuously battle “waste, fraud and abuse” the government should just do less and leave it up to the private sector.  The less government does, the less bureaucracy.  The less bureaucracy the less opportunity for “waste, fraud and abuse.”  Problem solved.