Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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4 UCW October 25 - 31, 2023 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR Alyson Hansen editor@upandcomingweekly.com ASSISTANT EDITOR Sam Olsen assistanteditor@upandcomingweekly. com ART DIRECTOR Courtney Sapp-Scott art@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Isaiah Jones graphics@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITERS Aubrette Reid Amber Little Hannah Lee Carrie Jackson Lena Simmons Kathleen Ramsey Jamie Bishop Sheila Barker CONTRIBUTING WRITERS John Hood, Pitt Dickey, Joseph Dowless, Char Morrison, Christopher Thrasher, Cynthia Ross MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister linda@upandcomingweekly.com SALES ASSISTANT Sheila Barker salesassistant@upandcomingweekly. com COVER Cover design and photo by Isaiah Jones Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan St. P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: 910-484-6200 FAX: 910-484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and information on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Published weekly on Wednesdays, Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Liberty, Pope Army Airfield, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. © 2020 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: pexels.com, Metro Creative Connection,, vecteezy.com and freepik.com. Association of Community Publishers JOHN HOOD, Board Member, John Locke Foundation. COMMENTS? Editor@upand- comingweekly.com. 910-484-6200 As Russia's full-scale war against the in- dependent country of Ukraine approaches its 20th month, the role of the United States in arming, training and funding the Ukrainians has become a point of con- tention between Joe Biden and some of his potential GOP opponents, as well as among Republicans on Capitol Hill. Does the issue deserve debate? Sure, and I say that as an advocate of America's support for Ukraine. But if your primary concern is its cost to taxpayers, many other issues should concern you more. Take benefit fraud, for example. Medi- care, Medicaid, Social Security and other entitlements are the main drivers of defi- cits. In 1973, federal spending amounted to 18% of the gross domestic product. Discretionary programs such as defense, transportation, and education made up 53% of the federal budget, with mandatory spending (primarily entitlements) at 40% and interest payments at 7%. Today, federal spending makes up a quarter of GDP. e breakdown is now 27% in discretionary programs, 63% mandatory, and 10% interest. By 2053, if present trends continue, spending will ap- proach 30% of GDP. Interest payments will more than double as a share of spending, to 21%, while discretionary will continue to shrink in relative terms. e math is merciless here. Balancing the budget will require structural changes to entitlement programs. But even getting serious about benefit fraud — about indi- viduals and companies receiving taxpayer money to which they aren't entitled — would do much more to repair America's finances than cutting off aid to Ukraine would. Consider the case of unemployment in- surance. I've written often about the faulty design and management of the UI system, including here in North Carolina. During the COVID pandemic, state and federal officials made it easier to obtain benefits — and fraudsters took advantage of that to bilk employers and taxpayers. is happened to me, in fact. I teach at Duke University every other semester. A couple of years ago, someone stole my identity, claimed to have been laid off, and filed for benefits. Despite my best efforts to stop it, the crook got paid. According to the Government Account- ing Office, as much as $135 billion in UI benefits were awarded fraudulently during the pandemic. at's probably a low-ball estimate. Matt Weidinger, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, ap- plied the GAO's formula to a broader base and estimated that improper payments may total as much as $240 billion. By comparison, the United States has to date sent about $75 billion to Ukraine in the form of military, economic, and tech- nical assistance. If we expand the category to include not only spent but requested funds — and not just aid to Ukraine itself but also aid sent to our allies helping Ukraine — the total comes to $135 billion, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Now consider Medicare and Medic- aid fraud. It costs the federal treasury a minimum of $100 billion a year, and likely much more. Farm programs, energy sub- sidies, grant and loan programs, targeted tax breaks for favored industries — these and many other federal policies are plagued by waste, fraud, and abuse. e GAO estimates that the federal gov- ernment made $247 billion in improper payments in FY 2022 alone (and that figure didn't even include some welfare programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). In other words, ben- efit fraud costs American taxpayers much more than the war in Ukraine has, or will. at's not an argument against strict oversight of foreign and military aid. Nor is it an argument that all the White House and Congress need to do to balance federal budgets is to cut out improper pay- ments. at won't be nearly enough, as I've also written about many times. My point is simply that the political at- tention paid to the fiscal impact of aid to Ukraine is far out of proportion to its con- tribution to federal deficits. In a rational world, our leaders would set their priori- ties accordingly. Alas, that's not the world we inhabit. Editor's note: John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His latest books, Mountain Folk and Forest Folk, combine epic fantasy with early American history (FolkloreCycle.com). Lawmakers should get serious on fraud by JOHN HOOD PUBLISHER'S PEN Letters to the Editor Do YOU have something to say? We want YOU to be heard! We want EVERYONE to be able to voice their opinions on current community events. Let us be a place to start much needed conversations. ALL VOICES WELCOMED! EMAIL: editor@upandcomingweekly.com CALL: 910-484-6200