minister david cameron taking questions from member of the house of comment. facingook at challenges muslim american community. >> this week on "q&a," our guest is washington post national reporter david fahrenthold. he talked about his front page article involving medicare and other investigative pieces. >> david fahrenthold, on august 17, front page, sunday the headline "medicare scheme that just kept rolling along." what is the story?

>> it is about something that lasted a long time. the power wheelchairs scam. it was a scheme where people will submit false claims for a power wheelchair. it is a very expensive device. they will get a patient who could walk and did not need a wheelchair and send it to medicare and medicare would pay them back. each one of these chairs cost $5,000. pay $5,000.ld they made $3000 or $4000 profit. mid-90'srted in the and did not end until last year. >> your article is data line los angeles, why? >> i wanted to see where you can see the government explain to prosecute a power wheelchair case. i went to see the case of a woman from nigeria who lived in l.a. who have run a scam for six

or seven years and ended up getting over $4 million from at the government. it was fascinating. they brought in some of the people who had been her patients and they walked in. it was the first sign that were not legitimate patients. they describe the skin where they were corrupted. -- they described the scheme. or $4000.00 dollars >> what happened to her? >> she was convicted on nine counts. the government put in the case no case.ad she is not been sentenced yet. >> how often has this type of trial happened? >> as there has been a lot of these trials. was where the total take $10 million or more over the life of the scheme. one of the interesting things

was the scale of the actual problem, the government has prosecuted dozens and dozens of these people but did there are many more involved. what to the government ended up doing was prosecuting only the biggest schemes and more blatant . the easiest wanted to catch them. if you had a little bit of caution or modesty and your scheming, you can stay below the radar. >> i want to put up a quote that says -- why? amazing to me. a lot of the story is medicare's inability in detecting fraudulent bills. medicare guess so many bills every day that it pays most of them and goes back to figure if they were fraudulent.

result, when medicare goes back and look at wheelchairs and find a 80% were improper, they should not have been paid. probably, it was an innocent mistake and someone off. in some cases it is from. when the government goes to look back, it is such a mess. so many erroneous claims that it'd already paid, it is not found a way to detect how many were fraudulent. >> i want to show a television ad and get you to put in context and the story that you wrote. to being placed into a nursing home. thinking about it brought tears to my eyes. this wheelchair gives me my and depend his back. >> no broken bones. i have my dignity. >> enabling seniors to live in a

their homes greatly improves the quality of life and reduces health care spending. our nation's prescribes wheelchairs because they know the loss of possibility leads to premature expensive nursing homes. it brings mobility to those in need and get most. restored pride and dignity to a generation of americans who help to build and protect our nation. america andcare and his bass. >> i have my freedom and independence and right now that is my american dream. >> somebody has to call the number on the screen and what would happen? >> nothing. the company does not exist. it had been under investigation for a long time by federal authorities who were trying to theif it's was bending

rules. to get around the medicare safeguards about who should get a wheelchair. , a similar years ago investigation when the scooter store settled a lawsuit and paid $4 million. this time last year, 150 federal agents raided. medicare cut off its funding and stopped paying the scooter store bills. >> can you still get a scooter from someone else? >> of course. if there are a number of people in the school or business and they say the crackdown has made a harder for the legitimate people who need it. wereay that the rules written about power wheelchairs. they said it is not just for somebody who has difficulty walking or will who would like more ease. it is supposed to be for someone who cannot walk and cannot use a

cane or walker or regular wheelchair. they are so disabled that they cannot get around any other way. so often, during the life of this, some of which was originally they were prescribed for things like -- very serious conditions. parkinson's, paralysis. as time went on became more prevalent, you software arthritis -- you solve more diagnoses like arthritis. more vague and less debilitating. we see and commercial and they talk about i need mobility. in theory, medicare should only should onlyot -- give to folks who cannot get around. >> let me put up a another quote. it says --

they called me i could have it, so i took it. describingat quote the beginning. it is started in miami. all greatplace where medicare schemes start from. it has criminals and old people. that is a thorough ground. it came out of miami. the way these things often work is they was sent somebody out, they will call them a recruiter. they go to your house and say are you a medicare beneficiary. they say the government is giving way power wheelchairs. you have to act now. they say you may never have another chance. the person say you can walk. and they say what if you need in a the future?

knows they are part of a scam. a lot of these schemes including the one in l.a., bringing an innocent people they do not know. they are saying i'm from the government and they are giving away free chairs, don't you want a one? >> how long did you sit in the trial? >> tuesday through friday. >> were there visitors? >> basically empty. >> what about the woman being tried? before the sentence was handed down so i do not see her reaction. it was obvious it was a strong case. found thisities have and she office manager basically kept a paper log of the scam. every single patient they recruited which is illegal and every recruiter they paid a kickback to and every person

deliver to a doctor. all of it was a map out. manager kept it. it is a running diary of a fraud. and thishe authorities person was in deep trouble legally. she remained very stoic. paper have a chart in the and i want to ask you to break it down. it had to do with the amount of money involved in all of this. on the right is said medicare, $5,000 a you go down the list. supplier, patient. explain. >> medicare paid a much more for these chairs. they paid up to 5000 dollars. often the actual wholesale price was $8,000. that is the interesting thing. you,are paid so much day the scammer, could actually buy

the chair and give it and still make a lot of money. a lot of scammers did that. if you did not deliver the chair, somebody may feel ripped off. you promised them something. they might call the authorities. often, it was better to deliver the chair for the person who did not need it. >> break it down. medicare is headquartered where? >> baltimore. >> is an there a section that deals with chairs? >> they given to regional contractors. 4ndle billing there are around the country. >> where does it start? >> let's start from the scammer's end. okay, the scammer has basically -- standard medical supplier is somebody who waits for you to go to the doctor and get a prescription and say i need a

wheelchair. with ammer starts prescription and goes looking for a doctor and patient. what the scammer does is they pay somebody to recruit a patient. patient recruiters. they go out in the community and find people often these are they goes to an apartment complex with a lot of elderly people. they find a beneficiary and they will pay them off and trick them and confuse them somehow and get the dirt medicare beneficiary number. this a little cleaner way to do it. pay for the number. take the patient to a doctor. usually the doctor is on the desk am. the patient recruiter, once they are in a the system, they are gone. -- usually the doctors in on the scam. >> do they pay the patient? >> sometimes.

they get paid at least of anybody. the recruiter does their payment and they go off to somebody. the recruited patient goes to the corrupted doctor. in l.a., there was a doctor that the suppliers knew. cases, the doctors are paid a retainer and sometimes per patient. told, only one prescription and diagnosis you can gift even if the person can while. you have to certify they cannot walk. in the cases we talked to and i saw in l.a., some of them walked up the stairs to see the doctor and he was sign and prescription. taken toy doctors trial on this and indicted? what kind of doctor would do this?

>> some doctors have. medicare feels one of the things they have not done is go after doctors. they have to have medical licenses and there's a limited supply. the type of doctors who do it -- talking to prosecutors, they say people who have trouble with our medical practice and cannot get enough patience. sometimes people who are very old and have lost a lot. it is a scheme you can work one day a week. and immigrants who have trouble building a customer base here. often, they find doctors. it is hard to ink of doctors in dire financial straits. scheme.ck to the whole the patient recruiter and they recruited the patient and you have one example where they put a bunch in the same of fan? -- same van?

from that trial. the recruiter goes to a guy and say are you a medicare beneficiary. and she will come back with a van. he doesn't need it. he can walk just fine. she said it a limited time offer. she comes with the van. they take them to the doctor at once. it does the guy who had to walk to the second floor. >> what does the doctor do from that moment? doctor'soctor'-- the roles is to sign off. the doctor will get a kickback or maybe a retainer per week. once the doctor signs off on the bogus diagnosis, they take their money and go away. the supplier has the patient's number and a diagnosis.

and those are the things you need to bill medicare. you do not have to send the diagnosis sheet they may ask later. once you get the patient to the doctor and they are diagnosed, the scam can proceed. much -- somebody is sitting over here in baltimore and get it is in the mail, what do they do? >> medicare gets millions and a day.s of claims 4 million. they go to regional contractors. >> are they not in government? >> they are private companies. they get these claims. some levelem through of analysis to make sure it is a patient number and doctor's number and they pay. it gets reviewed by a human before they are paid to make sure -- this person is getting a power wheelchair.

it matches up with previous diagnosis. it might warrant a wheelchair. a fraction of claims that visit their review is small. it is less than 3%. in most cases, if you legitimate paid the claim. they send you the money. >> how much money do they send? costat they decide is the of the item. typically $5,000 for this. in theory, the beneficiary pays the 25% co-pay. the scammer ways it. -- waive it. >> 80% of what the check is? >> whatever the value is in it goes back to the scammer. >> like how did the school or store get into it? >> is a much more complicated question. fraud.ibed blatant

it started in miami. the scooter store, what the government thinks the scooter store did was basically -- people would call them and say i want a scooter. what you are supposed to do is say well, can you walk? can you get around? say, no, not really. i would like it to go to the store or beach or on vacation. in theory, you are supposed to say you cannot have a power wheelchair. what the government allege that they did was coursing -- coal or and and getting -- coercing telling them to go to the doctor and tell them about your worst of times. allegedly, the scooter store would bring people -- if your doctor says no, they would have doctors. >> who has an incentive to say

no? medicare.ry, but medicare -- you have to understand what a gigantic system it is. it is huge. $8 billion or something. it -- it is small potatoes. wouldave an incentive and like the system to work a better. they are overwhelmed by their own bills. they are looking for things, trying to find it the highest dollar. >> do they have to live within a budget? fund.icare has a trust yes, they have to live within it the budget. chris is there something in the trust fund? >> yes. when they talk about the budget, it is not like it will run out this year or sunday. >> this story has been going on for a long day. your story is on the conviction

of someone. . little bit of a cbs story >> allayed last year, former employee said the company's main goal is not to help haitians above bulldoze doctors into -- patients but to bulldoze doctors into writing prescriptions. >> so people can get the wheelchairs. even if they deny needed them? >> yes. rarely verifies if the chairs are necessary and the problem is crystallized when the inspector general released this report finding that 80% of forcare payments wheelchairs are made in error. most are for people do not need them. from 2009-2012, the scooter store overbilled medicare by as $108 million. to 2011, why

wouldn't there be an immediate tightening? >> that is a good question. the problem with medicare is it has a high air rate in a lot of things. wheelchairs are very expensive. and a huge air rate. -- a high error rate. >> let me put on the screen something you wrote. $50 billion? was thatre's response most were innocent mistakes. they do not actually know. imagine that kind of error rate with a credit card company.

paying $50 billion worth of bills. that it was not sure with accurate. >> should be done by a business is there any way to put a check and balance on this? somebody in this audience worked for medicare and said you have not got it right. >> they think they have gotten a lot of better. what was surprising to me -- i am glad we got to write about the scam to see what it took for medicare to end of the scheme. since been on the radar 1998. they have known the details. it took them on to last you can clamp down. them prepayment review. we will pay you later. ask the medicare first and we will look at everything and decide. >> i have to pull up a another

quote in your article. it is a long article. how long did you have been written before it was published? of weeksly a couple before it was published. >> you got to four pages in washington post." a race? >> that is how bad it got in some places. the skin bloomed in houston and spread out. and places around texas. a got to where people had these things. -- baton rouge and places around texas. -- it got to where people had to these things. at the peak of this, how blatant it was. >> why did they shut down the scooter store and not other operations?

store was really big and it was on the radar for a long time. before the 2007 case, federal agents and inspector general had been looking and scooter store because it was such a big operator in the space and they had commercials. wheelchairs power was a had to be prescribed by your doctor and something where you cannot walk. the commercials seem to invite people as a matter of convenience and better living that medical necessity. interested.o them that is why they focus on the scooter store. >> one of more of their ads. we found it on youtube. let's watch another scooter store ad. are living with limited mobility, call scooter store. for 15 years, we have showed you how it provides freedom. i am done harrison. my wife and i started the school

to store we believe everyone has theright to enjoy -- scooter store because we believe everyone has the right to enjoy freedom. how it can help make you mobile again. know if the right to you qualify for medicare and your secondary insurance might cover the entire cost of the scooter. and let scooter store our experts help you reclaim your right to independence. if we pre-approve you and your claim is denied, the school store will give you your power chair for free. regain your mobility and improve your life. call it now. >> once again, people should not call that number. he said we have a right to enjoy life to the fullest. and they will give you one in case you do not qualify.

>> that was the confidence that you would qualify. that does not happen very often. >> what happened to doug harrison and his wife susan? >> i talked to him. he is fighting to clear his name and make people think it is not an illegal business. theral agents raided scooter store it last year and seized all of the documents and they still have not brought charges. they are trying to make sense of paper.nt pile of what is next would be a criminal trial where harrison would have a chance to clear his night or have a day in court. >> what was his reaction when you called him? >> he called me. he believes there were scammers. there was a lot of scamming. the scamming he is talking about is the kind i described where the recruit the patients on the streets was that he believes the scooter store was dawn at

legitimate this is a helping people. go back to the scooter is self. how much would actually cost wholesale from the main factor? >> there's a difference between the scooter and power chair. scooters are cheaper but power wheelchairs, you can get them for about $940. >> how does medicare go to $5,000? >> it depends on medicare -- on the manufacturer's suggestion. there were a lot of studies along the way on federal watchdogs saying other people do not pay as much. the v.a. does not pay as much. medicare continued to pay so much. they were very slow to respond. now competitive bidding has brought the price down and they box it it that medicare

up front and now it is rent to on. it up front and now it is rent to own. >> you see all kinds of agencies they get into it. health and human services, fbi, homeland security must be in it some way. who -- is there anybody really looking at this? >> the people who do the best job is health and human services been down the desk for a long time. inspector general. they have been making a lot of the cases. doctors onlyost prescribe this amount in a year and this one has done 1000. they look for the anomaly. and the justice department. they started a task force. they started in miami.

it desperate out to a bunch of different cities. frustrated. they are behind. we talk about the power wheelchair scam. they spend all of the money trying to beat it. scams use ather different use of equipment or brace or insole for adult diapers. those are growing up around them. >> a quote from the article -- >> that is right. >> pay and chase. >> if you think about the beginnings of medicare, the idea was -- it is a system for paying doctors and who can you trust more to your doctor?

on your heartte or prescribe medicine, we will trust them to bill us correctly. the system has grown so much assisted then that fundamental trust-based section -- system, it is an honor system. it makes people dishonorable. we talk about this in the story. that is why the equipment scam was so good. you did not need a medical license to get in. you can be a corrupt doctor but you have to go to medical school first. the medical supplier and anybody off the street could become a medical supplier a you would be afforded that same kind of trust. >> have you found anybody along the way who did not get their money? meaning the doctor or patient recruiter or supplier or patient and they started ratting? >> let me think about that -- no.

cases where couple the whistleblower got a share and was not expecting it. sometimes they will steal your number and deliver a chair and you would have no idea where it came from. >> what about the dead doctors? >> sometimes they would find out. -- for a long time, medicare was pretty bad. bad at determining when people are dad -- dead. the government does a pretty poor job of an medicare was one of the people who was taken for a ride. somebody would die. social security keeps up. medicare may not rely it that dead for years. ie scammer would call and say

am the doctor and i have moved. i need to move my office's given theo x and address to the scammer. the medicare will send in mail to someone else. as long as one piece has to be medicare number, that is all you need. they would revive dead doctors. over the years, millions and millions of dollars were built to medicare. medicare said they are better. it is recently that of a salt of the loophole. >> i want to read the last paragraph of your story.

>> that gives you a signal. a clamp down on power will chaired but there are so many ways to steal from medicare. prosthetic limbs are very expensive. medicare gets a lot of money. you would think they want to know if the patient had a record of and get tatian. less check their medical history. -- of amputation. check their medical history. they later counted up of the anomalies. a lot of people were getting amputated in leg one day. it brought the authorities. >> you said the woman convicted was from nigeria? >> that is right. >> how often did you find it was people from other countries? worthy illegal -- were they illegal? >> it began in a cuban community

and it jumped -- in human -- in houston it was run by nigerians. it is spread to l.a.. in light of the biggest cases in l.a. have been nigerian pastors. in -- ofof the church the pass of the church would use the organization to do fried medicare. of the church would use the organization to defraud medicare. an mob. armeni they do with a little differently but they are part of the same scam. one fascinating thing i saw in another trial. was toenians' role package for thought they would do all of the work. find the patient and take them to the doctor and get a prescription. what they would have a ready is

all the paperwork ready. you pay them as a full-service operation. they would only sell a certain number of these things to any given scammer. they knew they sold too many medicare would start paying attention and the schema might get busted. a nigerian in l.a. and these knew he wasd they billing to many things and causing too much screen. they cut him off. they say you can only have 10 in a month. he took so much money in fact they got greedy and let him how more then they meant to. he got paid twice as much. they said you got more than your quota. he got caught and they got caught for stop >> we have other articles tother talk about. tell me if i am wrong. you have been at the post since 2000? >> and yes. >> harvard?

>> yes history. houston. in >> got married in 2005. >> children? >> one little girl. i want to show a video you made. hole oftitle is " sink the bureaucracy." you did it for "washington post ." let's watch it. >> it a stars here in downtown washington. employee putseral in her paperwork to retire. the four shouldn't get her full pension check, her paperwork must go on to a long journey. here.ust come a small town in western virginia. they operate an operating

center. in the caverns of an old mine. it is one of the most epic glitches. applicationirement from every federal employee is filed and processed on paper. here is how it works. when someone retires, it is printed and shipped across the country. old records from the same employee already on file must be retrieved. more thanaken from 28,000 file cabinets and others are printed out. if any document is missing, it must be hunted down. and added to the fire. this process can take days or weeks. -- and added to the file. in this put back into a computer. it is digital again. now, the average case take 60 days. that is faster than what it was a few years ago.

it is still the same as 1977. at last count, there are more 000 cases pending. than $100spent more million to automate and modernize and digitize. each one fails. the return to the old way of processing retirement papers. with a backlog mountain, the personnel has turned to a more hired 40- and they people. >> how did you get into this? >> it was earlier this year. i was talking to someone who worked for the federal government. a very high up person. he said i heard rumors that it is all done in underground salt mine in pennsylvania. it was a limestone of mine. the rest was right. the idea that federal paperwork

as passed by hand 250 feet under the ground. it is where everybody's papers goals. so few people know it exists. or it runs like it does. such an old-fashioned way. video, thed in the original forms are mailed. ups, ornt by fedex, united states mail? >> most agency send by fedex or ups. the postal service since his own employees by postal service. s own employees by postal service. chris did he figure out how much it cost? >> we cannot figure it out. >> when you went in there, one agency said you could go into their but could not quote anyone directly? >> that is right. we got a tour.

we cannot quote anybody. quoted one woman i met underground percussions the union rep and she is allowed to speak. >> bonnie? >> it that's correct. -- >> that is correct. >> that was an incredible process. it is starred at in the beginning with the paperwork

coming in of the mine. we saw the giant carved out cavern. people sit at these desk inside of a cave and call others to get the missing forms from 1985 to complete the form. on thethat work ends desk of someone else. she pulled at the computer program and her job is to take the information on paper and put it on the computer one line at a time. screen after screen all of which has little blanks to answer questions. what were the three highest year of pay? all of these small little gradations. all seemed like a good idea. they have not to build a system that can automatically search so someone has to enter by hand in the computer spits out the payment.

>> what seems the simplest and least expensive way to do this? >> the things you would have to do in other states has done this is to do it digitally. the thing he would have to do -- >> states have done it? >> states have systems was that texas can do it in a couple of days. spent0 million have been on this and is gone with no results? >> it was a terrible parallel. and workingworking and no one in government really understood the system that was being built for them well enough to know if all the pieces would work together. they did not test until too late in the game that it would fail and they will basically give up and go to the old paper system. to make it work additionally, you would have to have all the information come in a

standardized way. from the postal service and gsa. everybody kept their work in the same way and the computer could read it more easily. not impossible. they never managed to make it work. take all of this disparate kind of paper and meld them together. is 640 people who work there now. 5:00.work 8:00- they get plenty of overtime. >> they like it. it is a steady job. it is a strange place to work. you go down under the ground into sort of -- you can tell you are in the cave. the roof is a jagged rock. there's no cooking down there. all of the food is brought in. >> what did you mean the food is brought in? of people have concessions to bring food. no one can cook.

there's a pizza guy who was the mayor of the town. and another guy who brings a mozzarella sticks. a couple of things. they truck it in. >> is he on contract with the government? >> yes. the other guy drives it to down and call him up. kind of congealed, not to the best food for the not the best way to eat food. to get out of the mine to your car is a lot of trouble. >> how long have they been underground? >> they started in 1960. it was more like a giant file cabinet. it was not meant to be a place where they process. there were not a lot of opportunities in boyars, pennsylvania. you did not have to teach a bunch of new people. they shifted more the process of from d.c. to their.

>> where is it? you can go to-- pittsburgh in north and hour. 28,000 five?really -- file cabinets? >> yes. they carved the caverns. it is just -- imagine two football fields of cabinets. possibly half a football field wide. spooky enough. people exit told by ghosts. >> how do they define your job at "washington post?" the political desk. half on more standard politics stories. i am done profiles. midterm election coverage this year. the other half is writing about the federal rock receive.

-- bureaucracy. last year, i wrote about things that the government spend money on that we did not need. an airport that nobody used. things we do not need. this is year about systems we need but problems built into them to make them run slow and waste time. and described where the breaking point came from. >> do you get tips? >> sometimes. a lot of the cases are things i find on my own. the best idea was the boyer's story. you were talking about another subject. [video clip] headline. one thing it pays them way too much money. what is going on? >> in you would think is one the simpler tasks of government to figure out if people are alive

and deserving of benefits or dead. dead rarely qualify for benefits. we are seeing a system who is meant to track who is dead or not is broken. money is sent to people who are people who areof alive are mistaken as dead. >> did they let you have at the social security administration and where is it? >> i think it is in baltimore and no. these people who had been amount ofead and no presenting themselves in person with her drivers license could get them off of the role of the dead. undead a governors to them. is davidappens when you call fahrenthold?

>> i have not gotten a lot of hostility. abouta lot of stories what the government does not do. people are generally good about talking to me about what they have and to the problems they have. im not the first person to find the problem. -- i am not the first person to find at the person -- problem. somebody has found it before and it has not made it a lot of news. i'm not the first want to bring it to their attention. the medicare folks were good about letting me. i came back to them again and again to get a good data and data that show the rise and fall of the power wheelchairs scam. they gave me data that really helped. does anybody ever react after the stories are printed by saying they are outraged? >> of the people i am writing about? >> just anybody. >> is they do. there are people outraged.

, a lot off cases watchdog groups who have been writing about it for years and nobody have paid that much attention as they are glad to have someone bring it to light. one of the stories i wrote about the v.a. right after the big of the eight blowup.- v.a. there have been reports over the years that they broke the system that were supposed to alert the leaders when someone was -- was something was wrong. that idea had been out there for a long time. the watchdogs are glad that people are taking the information and bring to get to the public. >> i have another story you wrote here. --dline

cartersville, georgia. if we went today, what will we find? >> you would not find this plane. the u.s. government for a long time had been trying to broadcast tv signals into cuba to provide either propaganda or free news or uncensored news. the problem is in cuba, it is fine for radio broadcasting. it is too far way to send tv signals. and so for a long time, we tried to blitz. we would handed over florida. it would jam the signal into the parts of the island that could get it. they moved to a plane. they outfitted with a tv signal and had in fly in circles over international waters. , a military plane which is very expensive. and a private jet plane. and son, the thing to remember

is it did not work. that wasoing something designed to undermine the castro's but it did not work. people in cuba could not see it. totally u.s. government-funded. it did not work. your role is to enlighten the cuban people and they cannot send it. they kept doing it. to stop flying the ineffective a plane would seem like surrendering. so kuester came and they had to cut money someplace was to they do not get rid of the plane but they stopped flying. cutequester came and they money someplace. -- they did not get rid of the play but they stop flying. at the time, the government agency that ran it, tv marquee, u.s. funded station in cuba. they were unwilling to part with it because they thought congress

might have them fly it again. i learned the plane is gone. we are no longer paying the money. congress the lines was preserved the money. the october to may, administration spent over $750,000 on a plane that a clear not worth the money. i have to go back. you are telling us that this plane would take off every day. it would fly over the keys and track a signal into q but that was not a receivable. becauseept doing it member of congress said it was necessary? >> we do not want to admit that we were blocked and we were giving up. spending? to stop the anybody? >> i forget the u.s. congressman. people tried. it is a contention of strong

anti-castro lawmakers who protected it saying it is not that much money and the grand scheme of things and we do not want to concede defeat. ani looked up and try to get overall figure of how much was spent all year. the only figure i saw was $26 million a year. did you find a figure? knowdio marquee, i do not -- it works and people can get it in cuba. the amount of money spent on the plane and tv broadcast over the years, it was the many millions leading up to the point i was writing about. >> why did it happen? >> to me, the interesting thing about all of these stories is s eeing how for so long there was not really any sense that money was limited.

there were things we would spend money on to solve a political problem. appearance that we were challenging castro. would spend money to solve some political problem in congress and keep spending along after the problem had gone away. oftentimes, people saw because it was in the budget as untouchable. it took a long time to get people to realize we have to cut something. >> how did you get into this? the journalism business? you went to harvard as a how did you get there? post"started out of "the as an intern thinking i would go to law school. journalism is wonderful. it is so hard to give up once you started. such an is having that such an in string -- such an interesting job.

the night time. whatever crime. you get a view into the city life. it shortens your attention span that it is hard to do anything else. desk forhe night city a long time. the d.c. police for stuff i worked on the environment for a long time. chesapeake bay. and the last new england bureau chief. >> where did you get to the interest? college, i worked on the college paper and got hooked. i worked on internships before i graduated and loved it. >> how long will we have a newspaper like "washington post?" how many thousands of words were in the story? two four pages. how long do you think it will last? answerll to you what my

would of been a couple of years ago. bought by jeff bezos who put a lot of money into it. he wants people to read us. people see us as indispensable in their lives. somethingies tell you you do not know. something they cannot get anywhere else. for us, it is part of our business model. feed forke fun of buzz this short attention span. even they do long takeouts. thishas done some of stuff. these long, involving stories that people get so much more than a short story. and offer a product that is useful for everybody. >> when you ran the big wheelchair story, what kind of reaction did you get? >> and got a lot of clicks. it got a lot a shares on social

media which is a good way of seeing how people are interacting with it. and a lot of a notes for people. e-mails saying i'd had no idea. like a federal prosecutor. just a print paper, you had to wait for somebody to write a letter. now you get instant feedback to know people are reading. >> how often on the stories you have done is that somebody does something about it? >> generally, not very often. i was writing about these things , spending that did not need to happen. a surprising amount of results may be because of those things ,ere small enough that people people could see. people saw a way to make a change. usda'syou about the a magician evacuated

rabbits in the case of an emergency. a magician who had a rabbit and talked about the absurdity of it. it went online in a couple of hours ago the usda got rid of the rule. >> who started it? >> fascinating about how regulation start. they wanted to regulate zoos and medical facilities that had huge amounts of animals. congress wrote the law loosely. budget, theyh our started saying if you were exhibiting one animal, the magician had one a rabbit and he is exhibiting an animal. they required him to get the same license you would have to get for a zoo or circuits. -- it is alicense funny story. he was doing his magic show at a

library in missouri and a usda inspector came out of the crowd and set where is your license for the rabbit. he had a license and he thought it was the end of it. they required him to have a disaster plan. >> david fahrenthold of "washington post." we are out of time. we will do it again one day. >> thank you. >> for free transcripts or to give us your comments, visit us at q-and-a.org. "q&a" programs are also available as c-span podcasts. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> up next, british prime

minister david cameron takes questions at the house of commons. a discussion on the future of islam and america. at 11:00, another chance to see "q&a" with david fahrenthold. david cameron answered questions tan referendum. his is 35 minutes. >> order. >> questions to the prime minister. mr. eric joyce. >> not here. >> the prime minister. mr. speaker. >> prim