The next time you see some bucket of blubber riding around the mall or the grocery store on one of those little electric scooters, take a look at their shoes.  Do they look reasonably well-worn?  Well there you are.  Here is someone who is perfectly capable of walking when they want or need to. 

You do know that most of these people get their electric wheelchairs for free, don’t you?  Yup, they’re paid for by Medicare.  Certainly you’ve seen the TV commercials with the grinning seniors talking about how they got their scooter at “no cost to them!”

Have you ever wondered just how much money – taxpayer money – is spent on these scooters ever year.  Yup – I can tell you.  Back in 1999 we paid about $259 million for these scooters for seniors.  In 2009 that figure went up to $723 million.  My guess is that we’re nearing the billion-dollar mark. 

Now … hold on to your hair.  Here’s the kicker. The Medicare inspector general has issued a report showing that 61%  of these scooters provided to Medicare recipients in 2007 went to people who did not qualify for them.  What’s more, we find that Medicare pays over $4,000 for a scooter that normally sells for just a bit over $1,000. 

But if we run into a spending crunch …  let’s not do anything about hundreds of millions worth of scooters for lazy seniors --- let’s just withhold Social Security payments.