A recent AP story (March 26) gives us some insight into how well the feds will run our healthcare system.
The AP reports the results of a GAO (General Accountability Office) report on the highly-touted green “Energy Star” program. This program, run by the EPA together with the Department of Energy, evaluates and rates products for their energy efficiency. Various tax cred- its and rebates are made available for products with high ratings.
The GAO, which has the task of examining government programs for their efficiency, submitted 20 phony products to the Energy Star program for rating. Fifteen of those fake products received certification that they were energy efficient.
Among the bogus products that won Energy Star efficiency awards was an 1 1/2 foot tall by 1 1⁄4 foot wide gasoline-powered alarm clock. Another was an “air cleaner” that consisted — really, you have to compliment the GAO on its robust sense of humor — of a space heater with a feather duster and strips of flypaper flimsily tacked on. The GAO notes that nobody at the EPA or DOE bothered to read the product descriptions.
In what has to be the understatement of the century, the GAO concluded that the Energy Star program is “vulnerable to fraud and abuse.” Ya reckon?
