Senior moment.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills

Conservatives may be wrong in always seeming to prefer tax cuts for themselves over help for the less fortunate, but they are often right in being skeptical about the efficiency of government programs to provide that help. In West Virginia, it was recently discovered that Bob Graham, the director of Senior Services for Wyoming County (pop. 25,000), was being paid $301,000 a year. His compensation is supposedly determined by two boards consisting of senior citizens, at least some of whom are dependent on services provided by the program.

Where does the money come from? in 2002, reports the Charleston Gazette, the agencies that paid Graham's salary got $5.2 million from Medicaid and other government sources, with only $73,100 coming from non-governmental sources. Is there any state or federal oversight of these senior service programs?

According to the Gazette, "state bureau of senior service director Ann Stottlemyre said she doesn't know how Graham's organization works ... [Gov. Bob] Wise and Director of Human...