EDITORIAL: Keep a sharper eye on our trillions

Federal officials let a record $110 billion slip through their fingers last year in improper payments to felons, dead people and contractors. That's a tiny fraction of the $3.5 trillion Washington spent last year. But "a billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you're talking about real money," a quip popularly credited to the late Sen. Everett Dirksen, comes to mind. The administration has to get a tighter grip on the nation's purse.

That's the goal of the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act that President Barack Obama signed last month. The objective is to cut those payments by $50 billion through 2011. That would be good; more would be better.

Paring waste, fraud and abuse is habitually oversold as the answer to Washington's fiscal woes. But when waste includes $180 million paid to 20,000 dead people, and $230 million to 14,000 fugitive felons and other ineligible prisoners, it's clear this initiative should be a pedal-to-the-metal priority.

Under the law, agencies will have to conduct annual risk assessments. There will be more payment recovery audits. Agency inspectors general will check compliance with the new rules. And agencies will have greater latitude to spend the money they save, a good incentive to root out waste.

The nation is $13 trillion in debt and will pile on another $1.3 trillion this year. Fewer dollars going to the wrong people, in the wrong amount for the wrong reasons won't mop up all the red ink. But, save a billion here, a billion there . . . hN