Watchdogs: From Medicare Waste to Dirty Money, Helping Readers See the Connections

The Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security . . .

Yes, there's still some of the world they don't cover.

. . . is scheduled Wednesday to open hearings on waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare's $49 billion-a-year prescription drug program. According to the subcommittee, the Department of Health and Human Services is "struggling" to come up with a figure for waste in the program. Issues like double-billing and phony prescriptions -- some "written" by dead doctors -- plague the system. While preparing for the hearings, Senate investigators also heard disturbing reports about abuse of prescription painkillers like OxyContin through Medicare.

Meanwhile, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is shifting its focus from suitcases of shrink-wrapped cash -- foreign corruption and how it impacts America, including how our lawyers, real estate brokers, lobbyists and money lenders operate -- to shining their investigatory flashlights into America's current financial crisis.

Is it possible that PSOI's sleuths will see connections between their two investigations?

"Seeing connections" leads to this season's hot "buzz word" in politics: transparency. People all along America's political spectrum now punctuate their speeches with calls for more "transparency" in government programs, more access to information for us citizens.

But transparency of government is of limited use if the disclosed information or data is convoluted, jargon-riddled, overabundant to the point of obfuscation, irrelevant or flat-out incomprehensible.

Giving you direct access to the actual "underlying documents" of our politics and government is why we started our Between the Lines feature. Part of what BTL does is "clean the glass" over those disclosed documents so you better can understand the context and content of "transparency."

Meanwhile, the non-governmental Center for Public Integrity and the Sunlight Foundation have partnered to launch The Data Mine -- an online series to highlight and then explain poorly presented or inaccessible federal government information. The site is soliciting examples of government "data sets" that should be made more user-friendly. Send them to datamine@publicintegrity.org.