How much Fraud, Waste and Abuse is there in the Social Security Administration (Part four)

The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis, was a major worldwide economic crisis, centered in the United States, which triggered the Great Recession of late 2007 to mid-2009, the most severe downturn since the Wall Street crash of 1929 and Great Depression. The causes of the financial crisis included predatory lending in the form of subprime mortgages and a resulting U.S. housing bubble, excessive risk-taking by global financial institutions, and lack of regulatory oversight. The George W. Bush administration presided over this Wall Street meltdown.

Voters were angry and the Tea Party was born. Elected to both houses of Congress in 2010, these folks went on a rampage against fraud waste and abuse. Unfortunately, voter wrath was deflected from the banking industry that caused the collapse of our economy, and onto the usual scapegoat. The Government once again became the whipping boy for the American people to punish.

Both houses of Congress launched a coordinated attack on the Social Security Administration with fraud waste abuse investigations. They struck gold with one poster child – a Kentucky attorney named Eric Conn, who had bribed an administrative law judge in West Virginia. In the wake of the scandal, thousands of Conn’s former clients were subject to claim re-evaluations, leading to financial hardship and distress for many innocent disabled individuals. Most were claimants who would otherwise have been approved for disability but were unknowingly entangled by Conn’s scheme to get their original benefits through his bribery and fraud rather than legitimate medical review and documentation. These unfortunates were required to relitigate their medical conditions long after evidence could be obtained. 

The mass fraud hysteria engulfed the country. Prosecutors were eager to make headlines with indictments. New regulations were promulgated to create a regulatory process for mass fraud situations. 

So what was the outcome of this crusade against waste, fraud and abuse?

The crusade ended with a whimper when there simply was no significant mass fraud to uncover and prosecute. But, as is generally the case, the damage had been done by the lie.