Issa's hot air

By now most folks have heard that the new Chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Rep. Daryl Issa (R- CA) thinks that the Obama White House is one of the most corrupt administrations and that he plans to use his new subpoena powers to go on a witch hunt to investigate.

Here's one of the particulars he mentioned.

Issa also was sharply critical of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., stopping short of calling for his resignation...

"He's hurting this administration," Issa said of Holder. "If you're hurting the administration, either stop hurting the administration or leave."

Issa said he plans to lead bipartisan investigations on food and drug safety, as well as Medicare fraud.

"We can save $125 billion in simply not giving out money to Medicare recipients that don't exist for procedures that didn't happen," Issa said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "These are real dollars. Ten percent of the deficit goes out in wasted money - money that doesn't get one person health care in Medicare."

You have to wonder where Issa has been over the last couple of years. I don't even need subpoena powers to understand that this DOJ has done more than any previous administration to combat Medicare fraud.

Stopmedicarefraud.gov is an extension of HEAT. HEAT is currently hard at work in South Florida, Houston, Detroit and Los Angeles. In 2008, the multi-agency enforcement groups known as Medicare Fraud Strike Forces secured 588 criminal convictions; obtained 337 civil administrative actions against individuals and organizations who were committing Medicare fraud, and recovered more than a $1 billion in health care fraud monies under the False Claims Act. To date, in fiscal year 2009, The Department of Justice has already recovered nearly a billion dollars in health care fraud monies and recorded 300 convictions.

And on July 16, 2010, DOJ made this announcement adding to their efforts.

Medicare Fraud Strike Force Charges 94 Doctors, Health Care Company Owners, Executives and Others for More Than $251 Million in Alleged False Billing.

So yeah Issa...investigate that one!