Related subjects discussed on separate pages:
Ethanol
Wind and
solar power
Farm subsidies
High-speed rail
Amtrak
Head Start
The Welfare State
Electric cars
Sports stadiums and arenas
Fluorescent light bulbs
The National Endowment for the Arts
Planned Parenthood
Unionized government workers
The United Nations
National Public Radio and PBS
Pork products in the stimulus bill
President Obama spends our money on himself
Cash for Clunkers
Green jobs
Wasteful Wartime Spending
The Big Dig in Boston
Wasteful Spending in Public Education
Pork Barrel Projects, one of the biggest of which
is NASA.
The Endless and Ineffective War on Poverty
Democrats'
'American Rescue' Bailout Would Enslave Us to Debt and Lockdowns. [Scroll down] Third, we passed a
coronavirus relief bill in December — that is, just two months ago. That bill ran to $900 billion and then
some, and that money hasn't even been spent yet. Come to think of it, neither has all the money from the earlier
coronavirus relief bills. By some estimates, there's about a trillion dollars sloshing around the system, waiting to be
spent. And, by the way, the CBO projects that of the $1.9 trillion in spending authorized by this bill, about
$700 billion won't be spent until at least 2022. So much for "emergency" relief. Fourth, this bill contains a
bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with the coronavirus, or relief from it — a massive increase in the minimum wage,
for instance. That's been on the progressive Democrats' wish list for years, since long before anyone had ever heard of the
coronavirus. It's a terrible idea under any circumstance — the Congressional Budget Office says it will cost
1.4 million jobs — but it's a particularly bad idea to roll it into a bill that its supporters claim is designed
to help those struggling to find work. Beyond the minimum wage increase, there's $135 million in funding for
the National Endowment for the Arts, another $135 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and $200 million for
the Institute of Museum and Library Services. And there's about $350 billion to bail out big-spending state and local
governments that ran up huge debts over the last two decades. What has that funding got to do with the coronavirus?
Democrats'
'American Rescue' Bailout Would Enslave Us to Debt and Lockdowns. Democrats want to prolong the
lockdowns — to keep businesses shuttered, to keep people looking for work from finding gainful
employment — and they want to use another $2 trillion of taxpayer money to do it. But because the taxpayers
don't actually have the money, Democrats will have to borrow (again!) from our children. Except that when "borrowing,"
it's customary to ask the lender for the loan, rather than simply take the money and leave behind an I.O.U. And there is
no request being made to future generations. There is simply the appropriation being made and a bill being sent to
future generations in the form of an addition to the national debt, so we shouldn't call it "borrowing;" we should call it
what we do when one person takes another's money without permission — we call that "stealing." That's a long
way of saying Democrats want to steal money from our children to prolong the lockdowns.
Minneapolis
Paying 'Influencers' $1.2M to Shape Public Opinion During Derek Chauvin Trial. Well, it looks like the Sixth
Amendment may be as unwelcome and out-of-date in whatever it is America appears to be degenerating into as the First
Amendment clearly is. The local CBS affiliate is reporting the almost unbelievable news that Minneapolis officials plan
on shelling out around $1.2 million in taxpayer money to "six social media influencers, with a large local following, to
help push their message" during Derek Chauvin's second-degree murder trial for the death of George Floyd.
Sen
Kennedy: Democrat COVID Bill 'Is a Left of Lenin, Neo-Socialist Wish List'. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)
has slammed the Democrats' proposed $1.9 trillion COVID relief package for being "chock full" of unrelated "spending porn."
The Republican senator blasted the bill during a Wednesday [2/24/2021] appearance on Fox News's "America's Newsroom." Kennedy
noted the package that is supposed to provide assistance to Americans during the coronavirus pandemic but it is, instead, crammed
full of far-left policies. He called the bill a "neo-socialist wish list" because it is full of items that have nothing
to do with the virus and includes money for transit projects, illegal immigrants, and more.
House
OKs $1.9T Coronavirus Bill — With 2 Democrats Voting Against It. The U.S. House of Representatives
approved a massive $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package early Saturday — the sixth COVID bill passed since
the pandemic began a year ago. The vote around 2 a.m. ET was 219-212. Two Democrats voted against their party's
plan: U.S. Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Kurt Schrader of Oregon. Both lawmakers also opposed a $3 trillion
bill last May that ultimately failed. Golden issued a statement defending his decision. "During challenging times, the
country needs its elected leaders to work together to meet the most urgent needs in their communities," Golden said, according to
The Associated Press. "This bill addresses urgent needs, and then buries them under a mountain of unnecessary or untimely spending."
Every
Illegal Claiming Asylum Gets An Average Of $1100 In Loans And Can Then Disappear No MSM Coverage. According to
a new study released by FAIR, the annual cost to U.S. taxpayers is $1.8 billion and over five years, that financial burden
skyrockets to $8.8 billion. Those figures are only estimates because refugees will access welfare and other government
assistance at different rates and the number of refugees entering the U.S also changes from year-to-year.
Big
spending Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus bill is only his warm-up act. President Biden is pushing for
Congress to ram through a $1.9 trillion spending package in the name of dealing with COVID-19 and its economic effects.
But this mammoth package is only the beginning of his coming spending spree. To start, it is worth reiterating how
excessive and unnecessary the legislation being pushed by Biden is at this point. To date, the federal government has
already enacted $4.1 trillion in spending in response to the coronavirus. And with infections plummeting and the
vaccine supply exploding in the coming months, the economy is ready for a comeback. The $1.9 trillion that Biden wants
to pass vastly exceeds the projected output gap, or the difference between projected economic activity without policy changes
and potential activity if the economy were functioning normally.
Stimulus
check: $1,400 for you, $1,400 a week for federal employees. President Joe Biden's coronavirus stimulus package
outlines a one-time $1,400 check to families financially affected by the virus. Yet the fine print in the House
stimulus bill sneaks in this fascinating nugget: If you're a federal employee, you can receive $1,400 a week in paid
time off for 15 weeks if you decide to stay at home and virtually school your child. As first reported by Forbes, the
carve-out is included in the bill's $570 million "Emergency Federal Employee Leave fund," which is exclusively reserved for
federal employees.
Dems'
COVID Bill Takes Waste, Fraud, And Abuse To A Whole New Level. The bill is riddled with spending unrelated to
the COVID crisis, gifts to big unions, bailouts to states that don't need them, and bad economic policies. [...] We have
already exposed the many lies being used to justify this spending monstrosity. The details now available in the House
bill add insult to injury. While Democrats claim the need is urgent, almost $700 billion of of the funds won't get
spent until sometime over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This is particularly true when
it comes to money for education and labor — which includes dollars for schools, colleges, child care, and the $15
minimum wage. Less than 10% of the $293 billion thrown at these programs will go out this year, according to the
CBO. More than a third won't get spent until after the next presidential election!
Biden's
climate 'fix' is fantastically expensive and perfectly useless. Across the world, politicians are going out of
their way to promise fantastically expensive climate policies. President Biden has promised to spend $500 billion each
year on climate — about 13 percent of the entire federal revenue. The European Union will spend 25 percent
of its budget on climate. Most rich countries now promise to go carbon-neutral by mid-century. Shockingly, only
one country has made a serious, independent estimate of the cost: New Zealand found it would optimistically cost
16 percent of its GDP by then, equivalent to the entire current New Zealand budget. The equivalent cost for
the US and the EU would be more than $5 trillion. Each and every year.
US
spent $787,000,000 on 'gender equality' projects in Afghanistan. And it's likely that no one who allocated or
spent this money had any idea why women are discriminated against in Afghanistan, and why "harmful socio-cultural norms" kept
them from making major progress. They have no clue about this because it's all about Islam, which is likewise not
mentioned in the article below. All too many on the side of freedom become as politically correct as any leftist when
it comes to Islam, jihad, and Sharia.
These
Are Some of the Garbage Items House Dems Added to Their New COVID Relief Bill. House Democrats late Friday
released the text of their $1.9 trillion Wuhan coronavirus relief bill. While some of the bill addresses actual
challenges Americans face, there are a handful of items that are, arguably, not related to the pandemic. [...] If passed and
signed into law, the federal minimum wage — which currently sits at $7.25-an-hour — would increase to
$15-an-hour over the next five years. Democrats set aside $50 million for "family planning." As of now, the
Hyde Amendment is in place, which bars taxpayer funds from being used for abortion. [...] Although higher education has teetered
because of the virus, Howard University is the only higher education facility that would be given money to recoup funds lost
during the pandemic. Gallaudet University is listed in the bill, but it's a specialized university for students who are
hard of hearing. It is important to note that Vice President Kamala Harris is an alumna of Howard University, which is
an unlikely coincidence. Another $135 million would be allocated for the arts and humanities, likely museums that
received funding during the CARES ACT.

How
Minneapolis created a crime wave (in the progressive media's own words). I apologize for not knowing who
created the chart [left], and for being unable to obtain permission to use it. But it is too good not to share with
readers. I suspect that whoever put it together would appreciate having it spread far and wide. The main reason
that I like it so much is that it uses progressive mainstream media headlines to make its point. We bemoan the censorship
that social media and the MSM exercise to protect their phony narratives. But often, carried away by their own crazy
beliefs, they report on absurd actions with a halo of righteousness, and then can't ignore the consequences.
The
CBO Just Destroyed The Case For Biden's $1.9 Trillion COVID 'Relief'. he non-partisan Congressional Budget
Office released its economic forecast for the next decade. It got little press attention, probably because it
completely undermines the arguments for another massive COVID-19 stimulus bill. President Joe Biden and Democrats in
Congress continue to portray the economy as deep in a recession. In Wisconsin on Wednesday, for example, Biden said
that "Now is the time we should be spending. Now is the time to go big." But according to the CBO's economic
forecast, real GDP this year will climb by 4.6%. Assuming that holds true, it would be the biggest annual increase in
gross domestic product since 1999. What's more, GDP will have made up all the ground lost by the pandemic lockdowns by
mid-2021, according to the report.
Under
COVID-19, leftists jump to make Vermont school lunches wasteful and 'woke'. When schools closed in Vermont,
lunches were provided to students across the state — often by buses that delivered food instead of picking up
children. The rationale was that some students depended on school meals for nutritional needs: as the Department
of Health and Agency of Education justified: "....the ongoing economic impacts of COVID-19 may mean that many more children
are currently facing food insecurity at home." But this effort has been costly and inequitable — both
financially and environmentally. Overspending, inefficiencies, and unequal distribution of COVID funds are themselves
"ongoing economic impacts" that will ensure food insecurity persists for our children. Part of the 35% COVID-fueled
increase in the national debt has been caused by a floodgate of benefits created with borrowed funds. "Normal" filters
against fiscal abuse were set aside when COVID struck, using the "food insecurity" mantra. Huge waste has resulted, as
seen in Vermont.
Yet
Another Big Lie Behind Biden's $1.9 Trillion COVID Bill. Last week, governors and mayors from around the
country came to the White House with cups in hand for COVID aid and found a president eager to listen to their pleas of
poverty. "They've been working on their own in many cases," President Joe Biden said, promising to come to the rescue
with $350 billion in federal "relief" funds. It was a good act. But back home, states across the country are
reporting huge surpluses, thanks not only to previous federal COVID handouts (which totaled more than $400 billion) but
because tax revenues are surging as the economy rapidly rebounds. As the City Journal reports, "Undoubtedly some states
and cities have faced challenges, but nationwide, state and local governments have seen tax revenue rebound to pre-pandemic
levels, even as they have continued to receive a large influx of federal funds."
Activists
push Democrats to give stimulus checks to 9M taxpaying noncitizens. Democrats face pressure from immigration
activists to provide pandemic relief checks to millions of immigrants who are illegally residing in the United States but pay
taxes. Behind the scenes, left-leaning advocacy groups and nonprofit organizations are pushing to get $1,400 checks,
including in major pandemic relief legislation not only for the 2.2 million U.S. citizen children who were excluded from the
two previous checks but 9.3 million adults who pay billions of dollars in federal taxes. Altogether, the measure could
cost the federal government $13 billion. The National Immigration Law Center, Church World Services, and Service
Employees International Union are leading efforts to whip Senate Democrats into adding language for the checks into the
pandemic relief legislative package. The move is not expected to succeed but could complicate negotiations within the
Democratic Party in the coming weeks.
Dems
Rush New COVID Bill While Feds Sit On $1.3 Trillion In Unspent Relief Funds. "Time is a luxury our country does
not have." That was Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer explaining why Democrats are in such a mad rush to pass a massive
$1.9 trillion COVID "relief" bill. What Schumer, President Joe Biden and other Democrats, and the mainstream media fail
to mention is that the government still hasn't spent $1.3 trillion of the previous COVID relief funds. If the public
knew that, would a majority be in favor of anything like the new Biden plan? For those with short memories, there have
been five COVID relief bills in less than a year, with total spending of $4.1 trillion — all financed by deficit
spending. President Donald Trump signed the most recent bill — valued at $900 billion — just
six weeks ago. Also, there have been "administrative actions" that add up to $700 billion.
Schumer
and AOC Team Up to Announce Taxpayers Now on the Hook for COVID Funerals, Including for Illegal Immigrants. If
there's one way to make sure COVID-19 deaths don't go down, this is it. New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer joined forces this week to publicize a federal program that will
reimburse the families of coronavirus victims up to $7,000 for funeral expenses for deaths from the disease that occurred in
2020 — even if the death involved an illegal alien. And, according to CNN, Schumer said the lawmakers want
the program to last as long as the pandemic does — which means the numbers are likely to show the pandemic lasting
a good long time.
Does the Pope need our money?
Catholic
dioceses accept at least $1.5 billion in taxpayer aid during pandemic despite full coffers. When the
coronavirus forced churches to close their doors and give up Sunday collections, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte
turned to the federal government's signature small business relief program for more than $8 million. The diocese's
headquarters, churches and schools landed the help even though they had roughly $100 million of their own cash and short-term
investments available last spring, financial records show. When the cash catastrophe church leaders feared didn't
materialize, those assets topped $110 million by the summer.
The Editor says...
Any bailout of the Catholic Church, to the exclusion of all other denominations, could easily be seen as the establishment of a state religion.
But the Catholic Church is the last organization in town that would need a government bailout. See
Wealth of Roman Catholic Church impossible to calculate.
Ohio
paid out $330 million in fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits in December alone. Ohio paid at least
$330 million in fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits claims between April and December of 2020, Ohio Department of Job and
Family Services Director Kimberly Henderson said Wednesday [2/3/2021]. It's the latest indication of how widespread
benefits scams have been, as the government lowered verification standards so it could more quickly get money in the hands of
people hurt by the coronavirus crisis. In all, 56,000 fake Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims between April and
December have been identified so far, Henderson said during a Zoom call with reporters. The number of fraud cases during
that period is likely to keep growing, as many reports are still being investigated, according to ODJFS spokesman Tom Betti.
Is it wasted money if it hasn't been wasted yet? Or is it just lost?
Dems Still Haven't Spent $1 Trillion from Previous 'Stimulus' Bills. As scored by the Congressional Budget Office, the total cost of stimulus laws enacted
over the last year amounts to $3.7 trillion. More than $1 trillion of available budgetary resources remain to be spent.
Notable examples of remaining funds include:
• SBA's Paycheck Protection Program: $280 billion
• Health Spending: $239 billion
• Economic Injury Disaster Loans: $172 billion
• Unemployment Insurance Expansion: $172 billion
• Education Funding: $59 billion
• State and Local Aid: $58 billion
• Stimulus Checks: $52 billion
• Food Stamps: $33 billion
• Child Care and Development Block Grant: $10 billion
• Agriculture: $29 billion
The federal government apparently can't spend coronavirus relief dollars fast enough to keep up with the pace that Congress is
passing ever-larger multi-trillion-dollar budget busters.
Biden
wants to make his DOJ funnel money to the Left. One of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions's most important
acts in office was his genuinely swamp-clearing 2017 reversal of a corrupt Obama administration practice at the Department of
Justice. Sessions forbade the department from reaching settlements with deep-pocketed defendants that involved cash
payments, not to taxpayers or victims, but to third parties — in practice, often to left-wing social justice
organizations. "When the federal government settles a case against a corporate wrongdoer, any settlement funds should
go first to the victims and then to the American people," Sessions said, "not to bankroll third-party special interest groups
or the political friends of whoever is in power." Unfortunately, one of President Biden's first acts in office was to
initiate the reinstatement of this corrupt practice.
The
'Tells' of the Deep State Poker Players. [Scroll down] In whatever indirect way the American people
speak, they have spoken: no more increases in government spending. But our Democratic friends propose to spend
trillions on climate change and on Medicare for All, and I know not what else. And that is after all the massive
spending on COVID stimulus. Ain't gonna fly, and that is the meaning, I think, of all the Biden executive orders.
Biden's handlers are throwing everything at the wall, hoping something will stick. I doubt it. The problem is
that USG is facing the fact of Chantrill's Law: "government programs cannot work because you can never reform them."
Pensions? Health care? The only thing our leaders have done recently is try to squeeze in more free stuff with
ObamaCare and add stealth income taxes to Medicare. Education? But our teachers don't feel safe!
Pelosi,
Biden and Newsom Show How Grift and Fraud Makes the Democrat World go Round. The big news out of California
this week is that the utterly incompetent jackasses in the Newsom administration paid out no less than $31 billion in
fraudulent unemployment payments since last April. I say "no less than" because some reports peg the number at a cool
$50 billion. And that's just in one state. [...] Yeah, I guess when you're sending unemployment checks to crime
organizations in China and Russia, your security measures could be said to be lacking.
Biden's
Energy Nominee Divvied Millions In Taxpayer Funds To Alternative Energy Startups That Went Bankrupt. President
Joe Biden's nominee to head the Department of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, divvied out millions in taxpayer funds during her
two terms as Michigan governor to alternative energy companies that eventually went bankrupt. In one instance,
Granholm's administration provided a $9.1 million refundable tax credit to a renewable energy company registered to the
address of a single-wide trailer and run by a convicted embezzler named Richard Short. Short was found to be in
violation of his parole and sent back to prison after appearing on stage with Granholm in 2010 to accept assistance from the
Michigan Economic Growth Authority, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential. Granholm also granted $10 million to an
electric car battery manufacturer, A123 Systems, in 2009 and lauded the company in a press conference, saying it would help
"make Michigan the alternative energy capital of North America and the advanced battery capital of the world."
CA
EDD admits paying as much as $31 billion in unemployment funds to criminals. As much as $31 billion in
California unemployment funds have been paid out to scammers, California EDD admits. ABC7 News' 7 On Your Side has been
tracking the numerous fraudulent claims that have been plaguing the EDD and on Monday afternoon, it confirmed that even more
money than previously reported has been paid out to scammers.
Another
Democrat indignity for the National Guard: Toddler snack meals. The fiasco involving the Democrats'
misuse of the National Guard just keeps expanding. [...] So in addition to having to sleep on an icy garage floor in
30-some-degree weather after a full day of standing watch at the Capitol, to ensure that the fully vaccinated Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez doesn't fear for her life, the troops get cheap low-protein junk food of the very lowest-end sort. Capri
Sun? Costco soft granola bars? Pop-Tarts? I estimate the retail value of those three plus the apple at less
than $3.00, and if bought at wholesale, probably less. [...] So whoever it was, it kind of looks as though a contractor took
the cash and minimized delivery, quite possibly keeping the extra for himself. There are more ways than one of creating
a $6,000 toilet seat, it seems.
Get
ready for more Obama-era green energy scams. With Democrats about to control all the levers of power in
Washington, the biggest winners might be the wind and solar companies. These firms' stocks continue to surge mostly
because President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to invest several hundred billion dollars in green energy through a pipeline of
taxpayer-funded grants, loans, tax credits and loan guarantees. This game plan looks suspiciously like a replay of the
litany of green "stimulus" fiascoes that Biden piloted as vice president back in 2009 with the $800 billion Obama stimulus
plan. The experiment in the government as an investment banker belly-flopped with embarrassing failures from Solyndra,
Fisker Automotive and Abound Solar. Taxpayers lost billions of dollars on these lemons.
Cuomo
to DC: Give me $15 billion or I shoot what's left of my tax base. [T]he self-appointed paragon of gubernatorial
virtue finds himself short on funds despite having one of the highest tax rates and largest tax bases in the nation. In
fact, Cuomo told the state that Washington DC either had to send him $15 billion immediately, or they'd have to pay.
Oh, and he'll also sue to get it.
Some
people are inadvertently throwing away stimulus check debit cards: Couple says the mailing looked like a scam. As if
waiting for a stimulus check to arrive wasn't frustrating enough, now it turns out some people are throwing their $600 away. Jim
Wallace almost tossed a letter he received in the mail the other day. "I received a white envelope, with clear plastic on the top
left corner and in the middle," Wallace said. Nowhere was a U.S. Treasury or IRS return address in Washington, D.C. that would
have indicated a stimulus payment.
Get
Ready for More Obama-Era Green Energy Scams. With Democrats about to control all the levers of power in
Washington, the biggest winners might be the wind and solar companies. These firms' stocks continue to surge mostly
because President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to invest several hundred billion dollars in green energy through a pipeline of
taxpayer-funded grants, loans, tax credits and loan guarantees. This game plan looks suspiciously like a replay of the
litany of green "stimulus" fiascoes that Biden piloted as vice president back in 2009 with the $800 billion Obama stimulus
plan. The experiment in the government as an investment banker belly-flopped with embarrassing failures from Solyndra,
Fisker Automotive and Abound Solar. Taxpayers lost billions of dollars on these lemons. One of these disasters,
the Crescent Dunes thermal solar power plant, located in the Nevada desert, is still embroiled in court battles to sort out
who pays for all the losses.
Why
'Helicopter Money' Won't Help Us Out of This Mess. The concept is called helicopter money. Nobel
Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman coined the term in 1969 to envisage how sudden increases in money supply universally
distributed would affect spending and saving. His conclusions were not favorable. No one took it seriously at the
time. Everyone agreed that it should be avoided. However, some people now think it will help get the country out
of the present mess. It seems like an ingenious way to get the money in the hands of those who need it. [...] Hence,
everyone is turning to helicopter money in the form of universally issued stimulus checks. The thinking behind this is
that government spending is not enough. It is time to be daring and give the cash directly to consumers so they might
rush out and spend it.
California
COVID-19 benefits fraud could reach $9.8 billion. California may have paid out nearly $10 billion in phony
coronavirus unemployment claims — more than double the previous estimate — with some of that money
going to organized crime in Russia, China and other countries, according to a security firm hired to investigate the
fraud. At least 10% of claims submitted to the state Employment Development Department before controls were installed
in October may have been fraudulent, Blake Hall, founder and CEO of ID.me told the Los Angeles Times. The Times on
Friday [1/15/2021] said that would work out to $9.8 billion of the benefits paid from March through September.
CA
EDD Fraud Has Now Reached 9 BILLION, With International Crime Syndicates In The Mix. I, and my other RedState
colleagues have done our best to stay on top of California's Employment Development Department fraud. [...] But the
corruption is like an avalanche. Once the earth underneath is moved, it snowballs downward, until the entire mountain
falls. And in regard to California's Unemployment Insurance fraud the mountain is falling fast: "While millions
of Californians are battling each day to put food on the table amid the idled COVID-19 economy, payments from the state
earmarked to help them have been ripped off to the tune of nearly $10 billion, according to a security firm hired to
investigate the fraud."
Say a prayer for New York
City. Gotham's in trouble. Not just because it's suffering under the weight of crushing woes —
soaring violence, out-of-control homelessness, a broken economy, a broke City Hall. And a population that can't flee
fast enough. But also because none of the would-be saviors running for mayor is offering any meaningful plan to turn
things around. [...] Instead, candidates are more interested in reversing "inequities" and addressing racial "imbalances."
You might expect, for instance, that City Comptroller Scott Stringer — the city's official, elected budget
watchdog — would run almost single-mindedly on a plan to overhaul spending norms, confront labor and demand
sacrifices, à la the 1970s, when Gotham nearly went bust. Or push ways to save struggling businesses.
Instead, he's focused on the need for a diversity czar and procurement preferences to minority- and women-owned businesses.
(Seriously.)
Taxpayers
paid £1.5million for Sadiq Khan's 'woke' NYE light show, featuring BLM fist salutes and NHS tributes.
Sadiq Khan spent up to £1.5 million of public money on a BBC-backed 'woke' pro-EU, NHS and BLM firework and drone
display on the Thames that was cooked up in secret with Scotland Yard and narrated by Sir David Attenborough, MailOnline can
reveal today. Labour's Mayor of London kept the taxpayer-funded event a mystery to avoid crowds gathering during the pandemic
at Greenwich where rockets were fired from a barge in the river and 300 drones flew above the O2 Arena in south-east
London. 10.8 million locked-down Britons, forced to celebrate New Year at home and eager to bid farewell to a miserable
2020, tuned into BBC One to watch the display, which City Hall told MailOnline had a £1.5million budget with Mr Khan
having the 'final sign off on the content of the display'.
Thanks
to new law, expect more widespread stimulus fraud. Remember that the $900 billion behemoth bill legislators
just passed is actually their second major "stimulus" effort. The new spending bonanza comes as a follow-up to the $2
trillion CARES Act Washington passed in March — yet it hasn't fixed any of the first bill's glaring
problems. The CARES Act sent 1 million stimulus checks to dead people and untold thousands more to random European
citizens. So, too, its uber-expanded welfare system lost more to unemployment fraud than the entire unemployment system
paid out in 2019. And while many conservatives misguidedly view the Paycheck Protection Program as the saving grace of the
CARES Act, the grant program ostensibly intended to help small businesses stay afloat was also rife with fraud and co-opted
by big, wealthy corporations.
'Hawaiian
Princess' Abigail Kawananakoa, 94, received a $142,000 PPP loan to pay nine personal staffers. 'Hawaiian
Princess' Abigail Kawananakoa, 94, has received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan worth $142,000 to pay nine personal
staffers during the pandemic, following a legal battle over her $215 million fortune. She was granted the PPP loan in
April to keep the staffers on her payroll, despite the James Campbell heiress raking in around $14 million each year from her
trust's stock, according to Hawaii News Now. Kawananakoa suffered a stroke in 2017, which her longtime lawyer, Jim Wright,
claimed had left her impaired.
Penguins,
valued at $650M, received $4.82M COVID loan. There are 123 teams among the Big Four North American Men's Sports
Leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL). Only one of them received a loan under the Paycheck Protection Program. That team
is the Pittsburgh Penguins, who received a loan of $4.82 million through the program authorized by the CARES Act.
According to the Small Business Administration's website, "The Paycheck Protection Program is a loan designed to provide a
direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll."
The Editor says...
The term small business should be defined somewhere. The definition is probably
in this
incomprehensible document, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to hunt it down. Whatever the definition may be,
I doubt if the Pittsburgh Penguins qualifies as a small business.
Congress'
Christmas Tree Bill [is] Loaded with Climate Ornaments. Americans on both sides of the political
aisle — and politicians as divergent as President Trump and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
(D-N.Y.) — are justifiably outraged at the $900 billion pork barrel spending bill disguised as COVID-19 "relief"
that won congressional approval on Monday. The president is pushing back, posting video messages that detail the bill's
giveaways to foreign countries and special interests unrelated to easing the devastating economic consequences of shutdowns
ordered by Democratic and Republican governors alike. There is no end in sight to these punitive, costly decrees, which
have done nothing to stop the spread of a virus that cannot be stopped; viruses outsmart humans almost every time and
considering the sad crop of human leadership in the world right now, it's not exactly a high wall for any pathogen to scale.
How
Congress Can Give Americans $2K Relief Checks and Cut Omnibus Pork to Pay for It. President Donald Trump has
urged Congress to increase the amount of the direct relief payments to Americans to $2,000 by cutting out the unrelated pork
in the coronavirus rescue package and government spending bill. Breitbart News has calculated how much that increase
would cost and what could be cut from the 5,593-page omnibus bill to offset it. The House and Senate passed the
combined $900 billion coronavirus relief package and $1.4 trillion government spending bill on Monday night [12/21/2020],
but the massive 5,593-page omnibus bill immediately drew criticism for sending billions of dollars of aid to foreign countries
while only allotting $600 relief checks for Americans.
The Editor says...
The voting-age population of the U.S. is
approximately 255,200,000.
$1.4 trillion divided equally among us would be $5,485 per capita. But the money would come from the national debt,
so we would all be undertaking an unsecured loan from our grandchildren. Either that, or the government would be printing money,
which would result in inflation. (And buying votes.) Either way, it seems nice in the short term, but it's destructive in
the long term. About 90 percent of the omnibus spending is unnecessary, in my opinion.
Sen.
Roy Blunt says $2,000 COVID-19 stimulus checks wouldn't pass. President Trump's call for Congress to amend the
$900 billion COVID-19 relief bill to increase direct payments to eligible Americans from $600 to $2,000 cannot pass the
Senate, according to a top Republican in the body[,] who said he remains hopeful the commander in chief will sign the
measure. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) cautioned that it would be "a mistake" to not sign
the coronavirus relief bill. "There's been some apparent misunderstanding about what's in the regular appropriating
bill and what's in the COVID relief bill, and generally the regular appropriating bill includes things the administration
asked for," the No. 4 Senate Republican began by saying.
Rand
Paul provides details about how government wastes your taxes. On Tuesday [12/22/2020], Congress passed a
grotesque spending bill that ostensibly provides for Americans suffering from the economic collapse Democrats and RINOs
forced onto America and for funding the government before it shuts down. In fact, what it does is insult Americans with
a pittance, make easy loans available for big businesses and favored leftist constituents, and send billions of dollars
overseas, often for initiatives (such as border walls) that leftists refuse to fund at home. The bill's timing was
perfect for Rand Paul's annual Festivus grievance Twitter thread detailing how badly your money was wasted in 2020. The
obscene spending bill that a bipartisan Congress passed in a mad rush on Tuesday night is already old news. President
Trump has appropriately called the bill a "disgrace" and has called on Congress to send him a new bill that gives hurting
Americans $2,000, instead of $600 (while illegal aliens get three times that amount). In addition, he calls out the fact
that, even as the bill denies relief to Americans, it sends billions of dollars overseas, none of which will benefit
Americans. [Video clip]
Trump
Should Veto The $2.3 Tril, 5,593-Page COVID-19 'Stimulus' — 2020's Biggest Fraud Of All. Based on a
U.S. population of roughly 330 million, the $900 billion stimulus amounts to $2,727 in spending per person. OK, but how
much of that goes into people's pockets? A pittance: $600. Yet, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi committed
the unforgivable sin of holding up those $600 checks for struggling American families in order to hurt President Donald
Trump's reelection chances. This is politics at its most cynical and is a prime example why average Americans today
hold politicians in such low esteem. All told, the bill for this sprawling legislation comes to $2.3 trillion —
yes, that's trillion with a "t". Add that into Green's earlier calculation, and the amount spent per household grows to $6,969.
Sure, but all that is going to COVID-19 relief for individuals and small businesses, right? No, not even close —
$1.4 trillion from the Consolidated Appropriations Act is dedicated to the federal government's fiscal 2021 budget.
It was all cobbled together in the last hours of closed-door negotiations, focused on getting massive servings of pork spending
and new, useless government programs added, not on COVID-19 relief. That was just the selling point to all us rubes.
Thanks,
Dems, for stealing Christmas. [Scroll down] Where did all the other money go you ask? Well,
according to President Trump, they plan to send; $85.5 million to Cambodia, $134 million to Burma, $1.3 billion to Egypt and
the Egyptian military (who will buy their weapons from Russia), $25 million for gender programs in Pakistan, $505 million to
Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, $40 million for the closed Kennedy Center in
Washington D.C., $1 billion for the Smithsonian, and $154 million for the National Gallery of Art. I finally understand
why so many Americans are depressed this Christmas. Our government is really broken — almost beyond repair.
Social
Security Is A Mess: There Are 6 Million Active Accounts Of People Aged 112+. Our friends at Open The Books
continue to expose government waste — and fraud — and in their latest investigation, they have shone the spotlight
on one of the largest wastes in the US government: the Social Security Administration. What they have uncovered is that last year
alone, Social Security admitted to $8 billion in improper and mistaken payments. The punchline: when they dug deeper,
they found that there are six million active social security numbers of people aged 112 and older... even though only 40 or less or those
people exist in the world. The root cause of this collosal abuse: failure to verify death. And yet while you won't read about
it in the papers, the four-year total sum to US taxpayers is roughly $2.8 billion, which in today's numbers when trillions are thrown
around may not sound like much, but add up all the other areas of government waste, and soon you end up with far greater numbers.

Improper
Payments: Analyzing $2.3 Trillion Mistakenly Spent By The U.S. Government Since 2004. [There were] $175 billion
in estimated improper payments reported by the 20 largest federal agencies, averaging $14.6 billion per month.
Billions
in foreign aid, pet projects stuffed into COVID relief bill. Uncle Sam is about to play Santa for
America — and the world. Congress passed a $2.3 trillion COVID-19 relief and government funding bill that
gives just $600 to most Americans struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic — while doling out gifts to foreign
countries and powerful lawmakers. In addition to the slim stimulus cash payout, the bill contains a $300 weekly
unemployment supplement, $284 billion in loans to small businesses and money for transit systems and entertainment venues
hard hit by the virus. The COVID-19 legislation — which was combined with the nation's regular annual
spending bill — also contains more pork than a Christmas ham. The legislation adds not one but two National
Mall museums, $10 million for "gender programs" in Pakistan and $2.5 million for "internet freedom."
Massive
Coronavirus "Relief" Bill Stuffed With Billions In Giveaways To Foreign Countries. After months of haggling,
the long-awaited coronavirus "relief" stimulus has now made its way through Congress and the massive bill is a Christmas gift
for special interests. By the time that final negotiations had been hammered out, the gargantuan legislation clocked in
at nearly 6,000 pages, giving members no time to read it with both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell applying pressure to cram it through. The House passed this pork-stuffed monstrosity that provides only crumbs
in the form of a measly $600 payment to Americans who are reeling from the economic damage inflicted by Democrat lockdowns while
lavishly rewarding special interest groups and doling out foreign aid including millions for "gender programs" in Pakistan.
The Editor says...
I sifted through the 5,590-page bill for about an hour, and found a few interesting nuggets. I probably could have found a lot more, except that the PDF version is
so massive that my little laptop had a hard time looking for specific terms; for example, it took about 30 seconds to find every instance of the word "black."
As many PDF documents do, there are many cases in which there are two or more spaces between words, and computers tend to take search terms literally. Here are some
of the (ahem) unusual expenditures I stumbled across: [On page 122] "Section 789. None of the funds made available by this or any other act may be
used to restrict the offering of low-fat (1% fat) flavored milk in the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program, as long as such milk is not inconsistent
with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans published under section 301 of the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act of 1990." That requires
an act of Congress? [On page 296] "For payment to the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System Fund, to maintain the proper funding level
for continuing the operation of the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, $514,000,000." [On page 1004] "$55,400,000 shall be for minority
AIDS prevention and treatment activities[.]" [On page 1272] "$300 million for the National Endowment for Democracy." Whatever that is.
On page 5448 you will find about sixty pages of legislation having to do with horseracing. There is also a whole lot about "minority business development." Some of
the items are notable for sheer opacity: [On page 107] Section 743: "For school years 2020–2021 and 2021-2022, none of the funds made available by this Act may be
used to implement or enforce the matter following the first comma in the second sentence of footnote (c) of section 220.8(c) of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations,
with respect to the substitution of vegetables for fruits under the school breakfast program established under section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966
(42 U.S.C. 1773)." I wonder was the "matter" under consideration, and why that couldn't have been spelled out? Much of the foreign aid money can
be located by searching for the word democracy.
Foreign Aid?
Pakistani Gender Programs? Here's What's in the $2.3 Trillion Spending Bill. Congress passed a $2.3 trillion government
funding and coronavirus relief package on Monday [12/21/2020]. President Trump is expected to sign the bill into law, but Americans are
in dismay over what they perceive to be massive amounts of pork tacked onto the legislation. The 5,590-page bill, which contains
$1.4 trillion to fund the government and $900 billion for COVID-19 relief, was posted online for public viewing on Monday afternoon,
giving no time for any analysis that would make a meaningful impact on the bill before it came up for a vote. The legislation was
full of aid to foreign countries, including $33 million for "democracy programs" in Venezuela. Some foreign-aid figures from the bill:
• $169,739,000 to Vietnam
• $198,323,000 to Bangladesh
• $130,265,000 to Nepal
• $505,925,000 to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama
to "address key factors that contribute to the migration of unaccompanied, undocumented minors to the United States"
• $461,375,000 to Columbia
• $74.8 million to the "Caribbean Basin Security Initiative"
• $132,025,000 to Georgia
• $453 million to Ukraine
• Up to $15 million to Pakistan for "democracy programs" and up to $10 million for "gender programs"
Notably,
the bill spends hundreds of millions of dollars to secure the borders of other countries, specifically those in the Middle East.
House
Voting Today on 5,600 Page Pork-Filled COVID Package No-One Has Read, McConnell Wants Unanimous Consent. [T]he
UniParty is in full swing and they don't even care what our opinion is about this massive $2.5 TRILLION (approximated because
it hasn't been scored) COVID/Omnibus spending bill that totals over 5,600 pages. The actual 5,600 page bill wasn't
populated for public review until shortly after noon this afternoon and staff had an issue putting it on-line.
Incredibly, and in keeping with the previous approach preferred by congress, the House plans on voting on this bill today;
and Mitch McConnell wants the Senate to pass it by unanimous consent (no recorded votes). My rough review shows an
approximately 70/30 split on the $900+ billion COVID package. Approximately 30 percent +/- of the bill will actually
help working class families and businesses on Main Street. Approximately 70 percent of the bill will go to political
donors, special interests, environmental lobbyists, K-Street groups who wrote the bill, foreign interests, Wall Street and
corporate beneficiaries.
The Grift That Keeps On Giving.
As always, the powerbrokers in Washington have packed a long-delayed (to rob Donald Trump of any pre-election credit) Covid relief bill with
copious amounts of pork projects which have nothing whatsoever to do with public health or the pandemic. They do, however, bring home
the bacon for a wide variety of special interests:
• $453 million to Ukraine (maybe hiring Hunter Biden was a good investment after all!)
• $10 million for "gender programs" in Pakistan.
• $1.3 billion to Egypt
• $700 million for Sudan
• $130 million for Nepal
• $4 billion for Navy weapons procurement, $2 billion for the Space Force, and another $2 billion for
Air Force missiles (in fairness, all of this sounds WAY more effective than Purell).
• $208 million to upgrade the Census Bureau's computer systems (perhaps with Dominion software
to help "accurately count" the number of people who'll need new Democrat representatives).
• $40 million goes to the Kennedy Center (presumably to fill the currently unused space with hospital
beds and ventilators.)
• $193 million for federal HIV/AIDS workers to buy cars and insurance overseas
• Funding for a new museum offering programming, education, and exhibitions on "the lift, art, history,
and culture of women."
$10m
for Pakistan 'gender programs'? 'America First' trends in furious response to pork-filled Covid 'relief' bill.
The text of the latest COVID-19 stimulus bill has been posted and Americans are noticing more than just the small portion
that bestows them with $600 checks. In fact, the long-awaited and much-demanded stimulus checks, to help Americans deal
with the pandemic's economic effects, make up a drop in the pork-filled bucket of taxpayer-funded handouts. Along with
funding for coronavirus vaccine distribution and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, there is an eye-popping array of
outrageous spending — and funding to other nations.
House
Passes $900 Billion COVID Relief Bill. The Senate passed a $900 billion COVID relief bill Monday night,
delivering aid to the businesses and families that have struggled through months of stalled negotiations. The
5,593-page bill handily passed in the House 359-53 before being approved by the Senate 92-6. The six votes against the
measure came from Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Rand Paul (Ky.) Rick Scott (Fla.), Ron Johnson (Wisc.), Mike
Lee (Utah) and Ted Cruz (Texas). It is now set to arrive on the desk of President Trump, who is expected to sign
it. The legislation passed as part of a broader $1.4 trillion spending package that included dozens of unrelated
provisions, pushed off to the end of the legislative session thanks to protracted gridlock over the scope and scale of the
relief bill.
New
COVID-19 Relief Bill Also Creates 2 New Museums and a Library, References Dalai Lama Controversy. The main
thrust of the bill is to provide $600 per person to people below a certain income threshold and to expand the Paycheck
Protection Program for various businesses. But that's not all — not by a long shot. For instance, the
bill also instructs the Smithsonian Institution to create two new identity-based museums: one for women, and one for Latinos.
(The legislation refrains from using the phrase "Latinx.") The bill also takes a position on the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama,
expressing that in the view of the U.S. government, "the wishes of the 14th Dalai Lama, including any written instructions, should play
a key role in the selection, education, and veneration of a future Dalai Lama." The bill includes a provision prohibiting any
federal funds from being used by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), an activist group that no longer
exists in the United States. It attempts to normalize U.S. foreign relations with Sudan, criminalizes illegal streaming, and
creates a plan for building a Theodore Roosevelt presidential library in North Dakota.
That
COVID Relief Bill Gets So Much Worse, and It Should Infuriate You. This morning [12/21/2020] I wrote an initial
take on the newly agreed upon (agreed upon by Congressional leadership at least) coronavirus relief package. I focused
on some of the ridiculous, unrelated domestic hand-outs in the bill. Later, Jennifer Oliver O'Connell did another dive
into the general terribleness of the legislation because there was just too much wrong with it to cover in one piece.
Well, as per our usual agreement with Congress, more and more is being discovered in the 5600 page monstrosity, and it
gets so much worse. For example, did you know there are big payouts to foreign governments all throughout the bill?
No connection to Covid at all:
Covid
relief bill to make illegal streaming a felony with up to 10-year prison sentence, in landmark victory for Hollywood
studios. The entertainment industry is poised for another major win from the pandemic with the proposed
Covid-19 relief bill including increased penalties for companies that illegally stream copyrighted material.
Studios have been trying to pass copyright legislation to curb piracy for almost a decade since the failed 2012 Stop
Online Piracy Act. If the 5000-page Covid-19 relief package passes, buried in there will be increased penalties
for illegal streaming of movies and music that could carry up to 10 years in jail, as first reported by The Hollywood
Reporter. The latest win for Hollywood studios comes after California governor Gavin Newsom declared that those
in the entertainment industry were essential workers and therefore exempt from the state's strict stay-at-home orders.
Coronavirus
Stimulus Bill Funds Hundreds of Millions in Aid to Palestinians. The coronavirus relief bill released Monday [12/21/2020]
includes $250 million in investment aid for the Palestinians and for encouraging Israeli-Palestinian dialogue in a provision titled
the "Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act of 2020." The provision, named for retiring Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY),
is buried deep within the nearly 6,000-page legislative text.
What's the difference between this and racism?
Latino
museum will be built in D.C. after 25-year effort by Menendez. A new National Museum of the American Latino
will be built in Washington under a provision included in legislation funding the federal government through Sept. 30.
The effort had been spearheaded by New Jersey U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez for a quarter-century, dating back to his tenure in
the U.S. House. Menendez was the first Latino elected to Congress from New Jersey. "We have overcome tremendous obstacles
and unbelievable hurdles to get to this historic moment, but, as I've said before, Latinos are used to overcoming obstacles,"
Menendez said. "With this vote, Latinos and Latinas across our nation will finally have their stories, struggles, and
impact on our country validated by the United States Congress."
The
Only Thing Missing From This Absolute Cluster of a 'COVID Relief' Bill Is $ for Shrimp on a Treadmill. As
feared, the so-called COVID relief bill is another behemoth Christmas tree offering by politicians spending your money on
behalf of Uncle Sugar. This allegedly $900 billion bill ostensibly was written to help people wracked by the economic
hit of COVID. It's anything but. It's another spendulous travesty and should be vetoed by President Trump —
before Christmas. Opening the economy while encouraging best health practices is the appropriate response at this
point. Congress has thrown $3.3 trillion at the problem during the coronavirus pandemic. It's time to let the
people run their own affairs.
Sen.
Ted Cruz Is Right: Congress Labeled End-Of-Year Spending Bill "COVID Relief" to Cover the Pork. As we've
covered thoroughly at RedState, Congress passed a pork-filled monstrosity Monday and called it COVID relief, believing that a
$600 check would satiate most Americans and keep them from looking deeper into the bill's contents. In most years that
might be true, but during a year in which a good part of the country has been locked down for nine months, in which millions
have lost their jobs (and more), and in which the hypocrisy and corruption of our elected "leaders" has been fully revealed,
well, good luck with that. It took months for Congress to act on pandemic relief back in the spring, and they tried to
attach a bunch of pork then, too. The first bill bought them a few months — months which brought the
problems with the bill into full view — but still, House Democrats didn't seriously push for any type of targeted
bill because they knew it would give Donald Trump a PR victory.
Chicago-Area
Transit Agencies Face 'Drastic' Service Cuts As Pandemic Ridership Plummets. On a recent weekday morning at
Chicago's Jefferson Park Blue Line station, Bobby Patel manned a magazine stand from behind a plastic screen. A sign at
the door reads, "one customer at a time." On an average weekday before the pandemic, thousands of commuters would pass
through the Jefferson Park Transit Center on the city's Northwest Side. It's home to the Blue Line, 9 CTA buses,
several suburban PACE buses and a METRA commuter rail stop. But on that weekday morning — though it was
technically rush hour — the station was nearly empty.
The Editor says...
I used to work in downtown Dallas, but I've only been there once this year; and on that one occasion (in April 2020),
I was very surprised to see the commuter trains running around empty. It is not uncommon to see empty DART buses
driving around the suburbs. Operating dozens of empty buses is a money-wasting enterprise.
Ilhan
Omar's husband received $635k in Covid-19 bailout money for his consulting firm. Ilhan Omar's husband received
$635,000 in Covid-19 bailout money for his consulting firm, despite the congresswoman paying his company nearly $2.25 million
this year, according to a new report. Tim Mynett's E Street Group was given $134,800 in Paycheck Protection Program
(PPP) loans and an additional $500,000 in Economic Injury Disaster loans (EIDL) in April, records show. Mynett co-owns
the Washington D.C. firm, which has also been paid $2,256,700 since the start of 2020 from Omar's campaign for services that
include digital advertising, fundraising consulting and website production, campaign records show.
Oregon
Gave Antifa Your CARES Act COVID Relief Tax Dollars During the Riots. Wait, It Gets Worse. That which is
rewarded is repeated. Apparently, the State of Oregon wants more antifa and Black Lives Matter rioting. At at
time when violent rioters were setting fires, looting, and terrorizing the people of Portland, they were rewarded with U.S.
CARES Act COVID relief funds. Repeating: When Portland was burning, the state of Oregon gave the arsonists
gasoline. The group "SNACK BLOC" that received CARES ACT money designed to help people in need — or so we
thought — is unabashedly antifa and BLM. It's not even a semantical close call. Oregon's Health
Authority gave money to a group that came out of the shadows to support antifa and riots.
Five
charged for allegedly raking in thousands in MTA overtime fraud. "MTA overtime king" Thomas Caputo and four
other current and former employees of the transit agency were busted Thursday for allegedly reaping thousands of dollars in
pay for time they didn't actually work — and instead spent bowling, vacationing out of state and, in one case,
running a 5K. The defendants — four Long Island Rail Road workers and one subway maintenance worker —
were among the MTA's top earners in the period of alleged fraud, the Manhattan US Attorney's Office said, thanks to annual OT
payments of $240,000 or more. "These employees allegedly worked very hard — to steal MTA time and money,
ignoring their duty to keep the tracks and rails safe for their fellow workers and riders," said MTA Inspector General
Carolyn Pokorny, whose office helped unravel the alleged scheme.
California got $1.3
billion in wildfire relief. Victims have received nothing. California has received more than $1.3 billion
in federal aid to rebuild after the 2017 wine country wildfires, the 2018 Camp fire in Butte County and other disasters from
those years. But disaster-affected homeowners and renters have yet to receive a single penny. The cause:
years-long federal and state bureaucratic delays. As a result, renters like [Linda] Adrain are going without permanent
housing while homeowners are unable to cobble together enough money to rebuild their homes. In the Butte County town of
Paradise, which was heavily damaged in the Camp fire, disaster victims are still living in cars and recreational vehicles on
their properties as they await further financial assistance.
IRS
Says Its Own Error Sent $1,200 Stimulus Checks To Non-Americans Overseas. The IRS now acknowledges that its own
error caused some citizens of other countries to mistakenly receive $1,200 coronavirus relief payments — and that
the mistake is likely to happen again if more stimulus money goes out. When reports of the mistake first surfaced, the
U.S government placed the blame on those non-Americans, saying that many noncitizens erroneously received stimulus checks
because they had filed incorrect tax returns that made them appear to be American. But many non-Americans who received
stimulus money do not file U.S. tax returns. One of them is Susanne Wigforss, a 78-year-old Swedish citizen who lives
in Stockholm.
California
Inmates Defraud Taxpayers of $1 Billion in Unemployment Benefits. A multi-agency investigation has uncovered a
scheme to steal at least $1 billion in pandemic unemployment aid. About 35,000 unemployment claims were filed in the
name of prison inmates between March and August, including a claim for convicted murderer Scott Peterson, and that at least
20,000 of them had been paid out, said Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert. [...] The fraud is not limited
to California. When the government decided to throw more than $2 trillion on the COVID problem, it was like ringing
the dinner bell for fraudsters across the nation.
Pentagon
Fails Another Audit, Will Likely Get Budget Increase From Congress Anyway. The third time wasn't the charm for
the Pentagon, which has once again failed to successfully complete an audit. Thomas Harker, the Pentagon's comptroller,
told Reuters that it could be another seven years before the department can pass an audit — something that it has
never accomplished. Previous attempts in 2018 and 2019 turned up literally thousands of problems with the Pentagon's
accounting system and millions of dollars' worth of missing equipment. In a statement, the Pentagon lauded the fact
that auditors had "cleared" more than 500 issues identified in previous audits. That serves as compelling evidence that
the effort is worth it, even if a clean review is still impossible. The Pentagon had resisted being audited for years.
Though Congress passed a law in 1990 requiring all federal departments to be audited every year, it still took nearly two decades
for the first Pentagon audit to be attempted.
NASA
doles out half a million in taxpayer dollars for far-out alien detection program at Georgetown. This election
week, our [Golden Horseshoe] award is going to the District of Columbia's non-voting member of Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton
for her role in securing more than half a million taxpayer dollars to ponder new and unconventional alien life detection
techniques. According to a recently released report from Open the Books, in 2019, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) awarded $549,974 to a Georgetown University program — a school with a $1.7 billion
endowment — with a focus on new methods for the detection of alien life.
November 2020 Election
Results: Dallas County. [Scroll down] Voters also approved most of Dallas Independent School
District's $3.7 billion bond package — the largest local debt proposal in Texas history. Proposition A
($3.3 billion for school facilities) and Proposition B ($270 million for technology equipment) passed; Propositions C,
D, and E to fund stadium upgrades, a performing arts theater, and a natatorium, failed. The bonds will cost local taxpayers an
estimated $6 billion with interest — a staggering sum on top of the $4.4 billion in bond debt and interest the
district already owes. The new bonds won't be paid off until 2061.
The Editor says...
The taxpayers are spending "$270 million for technology equipment." Twenty years from now, if not much sooner, most or all of that
equipment will be completely obsolete, yet it won't be paid for until 2061. By then, there will be several more layers of debt.
The
Money Pit: Watchdog chronicles $19 billion wasted in Afghan reconstruction effort. This week, our award
is going to the U.S. government at large for wasting $19 billion in its efforts to reconstruct Afghanistan following the U.S.
invasion of the Islamic nation to destroy Al-Qaeda and defeat the Taliban. Since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in
2001, Congress has appropriated $134 billion for the reconstruction of the country. In October, the Special Inspector
General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) released a new report, detailing where some of that money has gone over the
past nearly two decades. Of the total amount spent, SIGAR reviewed about $63 billion spent on projects in the region,
nearly 30% (or $19 billion) of which was classified as waste, fraud, and abuse. In the 19-page report, the special
inspector general describes the way money has been spent in Afghanistan as "carelessly, extravagantly, or to no purpose."
We Don't Need No Stinking
Giant Mirrors. [Tweet] A Medicine Hat solar thermal project was demolished for scrap last week after the
city, fed gov, and provincial carbon tax fund invested a total of $13M into the project. After an unsuccessful trial,
Medicine Hat was unable to sell off the equipment.
FDNY
firefighter with annual $136K disability pension moonlights as stuntman. A New York City firefighter has been
moonlighting as a stuntman — while also raking in a $136,684-a-year disability pension, according to court
documents. Firefighter John A. McGinty retired with the lucrative annual payout citing leg, hip and spinal injuries in
2016 after 25 years with the FDNY. But it turns out McGinty, 58, works as a professional movie stuntman, according to
his own LinkedIn page. McGinty — who also goes by the stage name John Mack — says he is adept at
fighting, driving stunts, falls below 30 feet and small fires, according to a profile on management site CMG Talent.
His personal cell number listed at the bottom of the profile is a dead giveaway.
Millionaire
owner of iconic Strand Book Store in NYC pleads with public for help as revenue drops. An iconic New York City
bookstore is asking the public to save it from financial ruin brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic even though it is owned by
a multimillionaire wife of a US senator who recently bought at least $115,000 in Amazon stock and then got a PPP loan while
laying off workers. [...] [O]utraged Twitter users noted that the store's owner, Nancy Bass Wyden, the wife of Senator
Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, is reported to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
Rapper
who sang about bilking unemployment is arrested for bilking unemployment. A rapper who posted a YouTube video
bragging about bilking California's unemployment system was charged Friday with doing just that. Prosecutors say Nuke
Bizzle, whose real name is Fontrell Antonio Baines, was part of a scam that collected at least $1.2 million in bogus payments
from California, using the coronavirus pandemic to rack up the cash. In the video, titled EDD, for California's
Employment Development Division, the rapper shows himself going to the mailbox with stacks of applications, and bragging that
"you gotta sell cocaine, I just file a claim."
Group
That Sponsors BLM, Left-Wing Orgs Reportedly Received $170M in Taxpayer Money. A group that serves as a fiscal
sponsor for various liberal-leaning organizations has reportedly been the recipient of almost $170 million in government grant
money. One tumbles down a rabbit hole when exploring the financials of the Tides Center, the gatekeeper of these taxpayer
funds. The San Francisco-based nonprofit, in conjunction with its sibling Tides Foundation and working under the Tides umbrella,
has shrouded itself behind a 501(c)(3) status, while cloaking its extensive heritage as a left-wing cash clearinghouse.
Taken
for ride? D.C. paid $5 million in improper charges for late, overbudget streetcars. This week, [the
Golden Horseshoe] award is going to the government of the District of Columbia, for making $5.2 million in improper payments
to the prime contractor on the city's streetcar project. According to September 2020 report by the D.C. inspector
general, the D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) has been billed $55.3 million by the Nebraska-based HDR Engineering
Inc. since 2010, when the D.C. Streetcar program began — almost 10% of which turned out to be non-allowed
charges[.] According to the report, the payments that shouldn't have been made include charges for duplicate services,
excessive overhead and service fees, and unauthorized subcontracting work. Further, a little over $900,000 in costs
were paid for services that "may not have been rendered."
Seattle
pays ex-pimp $150,000 to offer 'alternatives to policing'. Seattle now has on its payroll a convicted pimp who
once vowed to "go to war" with the city — a $150,000 "street czar" whose mission is to come up with "alternatives
to policing," reports said. Andre Taylor — who appeared in the documentary "American Pimp" about his life as
"Gorgeous Dre" — is getting $12,500 per month for a year, along with an office in Seattle's Municipal Tower,
according to the contract published by PubliCola. It comes just a year after his organization, Not This Time, was paid
$100,000 to sponsor a speaker series that was called "Conversations with the Streets." Taylor led one of the first rallies
in Seattle after the police-custody death of George Floyd, the Seattle Times said.
IRS Sent $1.6
Billion To Dead People: GAO Report. The Government Accountability Office issued a report in which they
reviewed the federal government response to COVID-19, and found that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had sent more than
$1.6 billion to dead people. In particular, GAO reviewed the distribution of funds, also knows as Paycheck
Protection Program (PPP), a program that provides guaranteed loans through lenders to small businesses, and unemployment
insurance. Overall, federal obligations and expenditures government-wide of these COVID-19 relief funds totaled
$1.5 trillion and $1.3 trillion, respectively, as of June 30, 2020.
Green
Jobs? What Green Jobs? On the campaign trail in 2008, candidate Barack Obama promised he would create 5
million new green jobs. Months later, the Obama-Biden Administration took office supported by a majority in the House
and a nearly filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. The $800 billion stimulus package they passed focused on
fulfilling the 5-million-job promise. It was a tragi-comedic disaster. Together, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS) and the Department of Labor's inspector general issued four reports on green jobs. The Obama-Biden green-jobs
programs failed so spectacularly the administration defunded all future reports. Not only did Obama-Biden not create
5 million new green jobs, they could not document even half that many total (new and pre-existing). Even this failure
was after the BLS broadened the definition of a green job in an attempt to get bigger totals. [...] Though the jobs promise was
broken, the spending promise was not. The big, green chunk of the $800 billion stimulus package went to a list of
projects of which no one would be proud and that were owned by a group of corporations not needing subsidies.
More
about Green Jobs.
Some
PPP Loans Were Used To Buy Rolexes, Rolls Royces, Report Finds. As expected, a government loan program that
quickly issued money during a crisis ended up getting defrauded. The Paycheck Protection Program, which was supposed to
help small businesses stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic was allegedly used by some to purchase expensive luxury
items such as Rolex watches and new homes, Politico reported. So far, the apparent fraud is just a small portion of the
loans given out, but it still shows how easily government-run programs can be abused. "The Justice Department has brought
more than 40 cases involving false applications for more than $170 million from both the Paycheck Protection Program
and another federal lending vehicle. And the Small Business Administration's inspector general's office says it has
'initiated hundreds of cases involving potential fraud' in the two programs," the outlet reported.
Physicist
Pleads: Stop Building Stupid, Expensive Particle Colliders. After CERN announced plans to build the
world's largest particle collider yet, physicist Sabine Hossenfelder has a simple message: we'd be better off without
it. Hossenfelder, a research fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, wrote a Scientific American op-ed
in which she argues that the tens of billions of dollars the collider would cost is far too high a price tag, given there's
no guarantee that it would lead to any groundbreaking discoveries. That money, Hossenfelder believes, would be better
spent fighting climate change or — ahem — devastating new disease outbreaks.
The Editor says...
Here's another option for "what else could we do with that money": Leave it in the taxpayers' pockets.
Every government agency has a compulsive desire to expand and spend more money. Stop!
The Racist
Left Feels Entitled to Riot. [Scroll down] But here's the worst part of the Left's rigged systemic racism
racket: the Left has you paying to destroy yourself. Your tax dollars subsidized the academics who expropriated
"critical race theory" from Marxism; your tax dollars pay for the K-12 public schools where they start indoctrinating your
children with this hateful ideology; your tax dollars subsidize universities where they put the finishing touches on this
indoctrination; your tax dollars subsidize the government seminars on "implicit bias" training; your hard-earned money allows
corporations and companies you patronize to do the same coerced exercises in self-loathing and racial division. This is
despite — or is it because of — the uncontestable and bitterly ironic fact that the purpose of the
systemic racism lie is to divide Americans along racial lines.
Summary
of Critical Race Theory Investigations. The Treasury Department held a training session telling employees that
"virtually all White people contribute to racism" and demanding that white staff members "struggle to own their racism" and
accept their "unconscious bias, White privilege, and White fragility." The man who led the seminar, Howard Ross, has billed
the federal government more than $5 million for diversity training over the past 15 years. [...] Last year, Sandia National
Labs — which produces our nuclear arsenal — held a three-day reeducation camp for white males, teaching
them how to deconstruct their "white male culture" and forcing them to write letters of apology to women and people of
color. Whistleblowers from inside the labs tell me that critical race theory is now endangering our national security.
Secret Antifa tent city found,
and Portland is paying for it. Where do Portland Antifans rest during the day between riots at night? In a hidden
tent city near downtown, paid for and serviced by the city, according to a local citizen journalist. [Video clip]
Man
Finds Secret ANTIFA Tent City In Portland, They Start Slingshotting Stones At Him. A man came upon a tent city
that houses hundreds of ANTIFA rioters in the Star Park Festival parking lot by the Hawthorne Bridge Junction. The man
films what he sees and taunts the Black Bloc members who seem to be just waking up. Near the end of the video, a member
with a slingshot with stones is used to try and get rid of the man filming. When that doesn't work, they chased him
away, which was not caught on video. [Video clip]
'This
Is Where They House the Rioters!' City of Portland Houses Some Antifa Rioters Destroying the City. Portland is
wittingly or unwittingly housing some of the very same destructive rioters who have been tearing apart the city since May 28.
Let me repeat. The taxpayers are paying for their own demise and it's all under the auspices of the city. One month
before the riots started, ostensibly to allow grieving over the death of George Floyd — remember him? — the
City of Portland opened three homeless tent cities, one of which is the "Harbor of Hope." The camp is situated close to the
Willamette River, just a simple, short walk over the Hawthorn Bridge to downtown Portland, where it spills out onto riot central.
Pentagon
takes first step toward building supersonic Air Force One. Air Force One is already one of the fastest
passenger planes in the world — but the Pentagon wants to make it a lot faster. The U.S. Air Force recently
awarded a contract to the aviation firm Exosonic to begin developing a presidential aircraft that can travel at supersonic
speeds. The research award, reportedly worth $1 million, will fund work to "modify" Exosonic's existing plans for a
supersonic commercial plane into a proposal for a presidential-grade aircraft.
The Editor says...
Air Force One is plenty fast already. Air Force One always flies in the most direct route from one place to another, and only rarely
stays aloft long enough to justify supersonic flight. Air-to-ground communication allows the President to conduct his business
while en route — probably with fewer distractions.
New
CH-53K Helicopter for Marines Costs a King Stallion's Ransom. The United States Marine Corps wants to deploy a
new CH-53KKing Stallion heavy-lift helicopter, but do its "capabilities justify its premium price over, say, the CH-47,"
Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley has wondered. Described by Popular Mechanics in 2017 as "phenomenally
expensive," the CH-53K program is becoming more controversial as Marines continue to fight in non-amphibious environments like
Afghanistan. The Marines want to buy 200 CH-53Ks for $31 billion, or $138.5 million a copy, a price that already
increased from $131.2 million merely in the year 2016-2017. By comparison, the Marines' F-35B variant of the Joint Strike
Fighter costs $122.8 million each. Developed since 2006, the CH-53Ks were supposed to begin operational service in 2015,
a date now delayed until sometime in 2023-2024.
USPS
Threw Away Millions in Custom Stamp Program Out of Protest of Religious Stamps. The United States Postal
Service allegedly shut down its recent "custom stamp" initiative over the fact that multiple customers attempted to create
stamps featuring Jesus Christ and other religious imagery, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon. The
agency, which has been struggling with funding for years, turned to the custom stamp program in an effort to generate
revenue. The initiative allowed for Americans to create their own stamps for a price, which ultimately created millions
of dollars for the notoriously inefficient bureaucracy. However, the program was scrapped in June after too many stamp
designs were requested that featured religious symbolism.
After
Cutting NYPD Funding, De Blasio's Wife Gets $2 Million a Year in Taxpayer Paid 'Staff'. Why does a mayor's wife
need a staff at all, complete with a $70,000 a year videographer? Good question. But apparently, that's the
current setup in New York City, which should surprise no one. The Daily Mail has released some details on Chirlane
McCray's setup and it's pretty astonishing. Not only does she have 14 people on her "staff" — the taxpayers
are on the hook for about $2,000,000 as a result.
Chirlane
McCray staff enjoys $2M staff of 14 amid NYC budget crisis. There's no money for regular trash pickups or to
maintain city parks, but Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife enjoys a 14-member staff — including a $70,000 videographer
who captured her baking cookies during the pandemic. Some of the Chirlane McCray staffers, who cost city taxpayers
nearly $2 million a year combined, work for the first lady's $1.25 billion mental health initiative ThriveNYC, which has
come under fire for its lack of metrics. "Whatever happened to ThriveNYC?" asked City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens).
"How much taxpayer money will the mayor's wife pilfer before leaving office? How can she sleep at night hiring these
hacks knowing so many other city workers are facing layoffs this fall? This is a disgrace!" Ulrich fumed.
Washington
State Will Provide $40 Million In Coronavirus Relief For Illegal Immigrants. After months of pressure from
activists, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) has agreed to set aside $40 million in coronavirus relief for workers in the
U.S. illegally. As The Daily Wire previously reported, Seattle's city council sought $100 million in relief funds from
the state for illegal immigrants who didn't qualify for the federal government's coronavirus stimulus. The city passed
a resolution in May that called for the creation of a "Washington Worker Relief Fund" that would provide "economic assistance
to undocumented Washingtonians during the COVID-19 pandemic."
Chicago
Spent $66 Million on Hospital That Treated 38 Coronavirus Patients. Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot's (D.)
decision to renovate a local convention center into a makeshift coronavirus hospital cost taxpayers nearly $66 million —
though only 38 patients received treatment at the facility, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Friday [8/14/2020]. The
Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the agency Lightfoot tasked with overseeing the project, overlooked a bid from a construction
company that offered to waive fees or donate them to coronavirus pandemic relief organizations. Instead, officials gave the bid to
Walsh Construction, a politically connected contractor, which billed the city $65.9 million to renovate the McCormick Place convention
center. The decision cost taxpayers more than $1.7 million per patient. In contrast, the city spent $50 million
total to equip three other centers in the Chicago area.
Why
did it take more than 2 months to stop the largest fraud in Washington state history? Revelations last week
that this spring's $576 million unemployment fraud, the largest in state history, started much earlier than previously
acknowledged have spurred a storm of new questions over the handling of the crime. Data released Aug. 3 by the state
Employment Security Department (ESD) shows that criminals were filing fake claims in the first week of March. That's
more than two months before ESD publicly disclosed the fraud and temporarily froze benefit payments, in mid-May, by which
time a staggering 56% of the weekly claims ESD was paying were from criminals, many of them reportedly overseas. But
even before Monday's disclosures, some state lawmakers and others were questioning whether ESD had inadvertently abetted the
scam by lowering fraud detection protocols to speed up legitimate claims by hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians left
jobless by the pandemic.
Despite
Funding Cuts, LAPD Stuck With $10M Electric BMW Pilot Program. The "Defund The Police" movement has prompted
the city to cut $150 million from the LAPD budget. But what about those expensive electric BMWs that were exposed in
several David Goldstein investigations? David first reported on these LAPD BMWs back in 2017 — a $10 million
pilot program that the department is still stuck with years later and for years to come despite calls to cut costs.
Last year we found an LAPD employee using one of the department's fleet of electric BMWs to commute to and from work.
Another one in 2017 using the car to get a manicure. And we found hundreds of others vehicles rarely used.
Boxes
of unopened coronavirus food for poor found dumped in Queens. Piles of unopened boxes of emergency city
coronavirus meals meant for the poor were found dumped on the side of a Queens underpass Monday [7/27/2020]. The
outrageous sign of waste — after Mayor Bill de Blasio predicted up to 2 million New Yorkers would go hungry this
summer amid the pandemic — was enough to make passers-by sick. "Why wouldn't you go give it to people in the
streets?" local resident Juan Heno said of the 34 brown cardboard boxes of food piled on top of each other along a concrete
wall below the Queens Midtown Expressway, around 57-45 74th St., in Middle Village. "The city has a lot of homeless
right now," Heno noted to The [New York] Post.
Florida
man fraudulently obtained $3.9 million in PPP loans and used some of it to buy [a] Lamborghini, feds say. A
Florida man has been arrested and is facing charges after federal prosecutors say he "fraudulently" obtained nearly
$4 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and used some of the money to buy a Lamborghini sports car. David
Hines, 29, of Miami, was charged with one count of bank fraud, one count of making false statements to a financial
institution and one count of engaging in transactions in unlawful proceeds, the Department of Justice announced in a press
release on Monday [7/27/2020].
The Editor says...
You don't think this case is unique, do you? This is just the guy who got caught.
IG
report: NASA's Orion is a program of lies. In a report released today [7/16/2020], NASA's inspector
general confirmed unequivocally what I have been saying for years, that the agency's project to build the Orion capsule has
been built on lies, from the beginning. First of all, the report slams NASA for purposely excluding from its public
budget almost 60% of the total cost for the entire Orion project. [...] In other words, since 2006 NASA has been illegally
mislabeling 59% of Orion's cost to hide this from the public. Through 2030 it expects Orion to cost almost $30 billion,
but it has been advertising the cost as only $12 billion. It appears that to Congress NASA has been more honest, though
they and Congress have worked together to try to keep this fact quiet.
California
Gov. Newsom Helps Chinese Get $1 Billion in COVID Aid. [...] I've learned my lesson this time: Don't
give Democratic governors the benefit of the doubt. I thought I'd learned it the first time. When New York's
Andrew Cuomo looked like he was showing strong leadership in the opening week or two of the coronavirus crisis, I thought
maybe we could put aside our petty differences and praise a politician from the other side. In fact, I did just
that. And then it all ended in tears. It wasn't the rambling, empurpled news conferences that made the
much-criticized presidential media briefings look like relative models of restraint. No, for me the moment I made a
clean break was when I learned the much-hailed hand sanitizer production program Cuomo was fond of touting consisted of
little more than inmates rebottling an outside product inside the Empire State's prisons in order to make the governor look good.
Claire
McCaskill's Multimillionaire Husband Took PPP Loan. The real estate investment firm founded by the
multimillionaire husband of former Democratic senator Claire McCaskill took a Paycheck Protection Program loan worth
up to $1 million, continuing its strategy of capitalizing on government programs to maximize profits. Sugar
Creek Realty, a St. Louis firm founded by Joseph Shepard, was one of thousands of companies to receive money from the
small-business relief program, which was designed to help companies keep employees on the payroll during the coronavirus
pandemic. The firm took between $350,000 and $1 million on April 6 that allowed it to keep 75 people
employed, according to figures released by the Small Business Administration.
Chinese
Real Estate Company At Center Of FBI Investigation Raked In Millions From PPP Loans. A Chinese real estate
company at the center of an FBI bribery probe involving a Los Angeles city councilman raked in somewhere between $4 million
[and] $10 million in coronavirus relief loans provided under the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the Daily Caller
reported Thursday [7/9/2020]. Shenzhen New World Group, owned by Chinese billionaire Wei Huang, received the lump sum
over two separate loans for hotels operating in Los Angeles. The group's chairman is also however, accused by federal
prosecutors of bribing Los Angeles City Council member Jose Huizar with $260,000 in poker chips and $600,000 to settle a
sexual harassment lawsuit.
Millions
In Coronavirus Relief Loans Went To Chinese Real Estate Company At Center Of FBI Bribery Probe. The Trump
administration loaned between $4 million and $10 million in coronavirus relief funds to a real estate company whose chairman
allegedly bribed a Los Angeles city councilman with nearly $260,000 in poker chips, escort services and $600,000 in payments
to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit. Jose Huizar, the city councilman, was arrested on June 23 on charges that he
accepted $1.5 million in bribes to help the developers of various real estate projects in downtown L.A. A federal
criminal complaint filed against Huizar said that a Chinese billionaire — identified in court filings only as
"Chairman E" — provided bribes to Huizar for help advancing a development project to build a 77-story skyscraper
in Los Angeles.
Only after being caught:
Florida
Democrats return PPP money amid scandal. The Florida Democratic Party announced late Wednesday [7/8/2020] that
it was returning at least $780,000 in small-business loans after its own lawmakers criticized the acceptance of the money as
highly questionable if not illegal and unethical. The party immediately applied for the loan after Congress first
passed the $670 billion Paycheck Protection Program, known as PPP, even though there was discussion at the time that the
money should go to neither lobbyists nor political causes.
Democratic
candidates benefit from PPP loans they criticized. Several Democratic Senate challengers in key races who
criticized the distribution and transparency of government Paycheck Protection Program loans indirectly benefited from the
funds. Last month, Cal Cunningham in North Carolina, Mark Kelly in Arizona, and Sara Gideon in Maine all took swipes at
the program, which was created as part of the emergency coronavirus relief CARES Act and intended to help small businesses
through the pandemic-related economic downturn. The program did not adequately distribute funds to the most in-need
businesses or communities, they argued. But the candidates appear to be fine with loans going to companies they are
connected to, which were not widely known until the Small Business Administration disclosed all the companies that received
loans on Monday [7/6/2020].
De
Niro-backed Nobu restaurants took more than a dozen PPP loans. The Nobu group of luxury sushi restaurants and
hotels took 14 loans from the U.S. small business relief program for as much as $28 million, according to government
filings. The chain, founded by actor Robert De Niro, celebrity chef Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa and film producer Meir
Teper, got funding for properties scattered across the country, from California to Texas and New York, according to data
released Monday [7/6/2020]. Restaurants were among the biggest recipients of the Paycheck Protection Program, a key
component of the government's response to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The news that big,
well-funded chains like Shake Shack and Ruth's Hospitality Group had initially gotten loans set off a furor in April,
prompting the administration to warn companies to make sure they qualified for the program.
Madeleine
Albright's Consulting Firm Took Millions in Coronavirus Relief Funding, Records Show. An influential Democratic
consulting firm that employs former Chinese government officials received as much as $5 million in federal coronavirus relief
funding, according to records released on Monday [7/6/2020]. The Albright Stonebridge Group, a Washington-based
"commercial diplomacy firm" with strong staff links to Joe Biden, connects multinational businesses and nonprofits with
political powerbrokers in the United States and abroad. The company is chaired by former secretary of state Madeleine
Albright. Records show that the firm raked in between $2 million and $5 million from the Paycheck Protection
Program that was meant to provide relief to small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.
Company
Connected to Pelosi's Husband Scored Coronavirus Bailout. A company connected to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's
(D-CA) husband received a loan from the Trump administration's $669 billion Paycheck Protection Program, a Small Business
Administration-led fund designed to provide financial relief to businesses in the wake of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
Questions
remain about 'temporary morgue' as COVID-19 deaths decline. The administration of Gov. Tim Walz made a
decision in May to spend up to $6.9 million to buy a building in St. Paul and convert it into a temporary morgue for a
possible surge of COVID-19 victims. The decision was largely based on a COVID-19 model by the University of Minnesota
and Minnesota Department of Health that projects the possibility of 16,000 to 44,000 deaths over the first year of the
pandemic. Then came June. Instead of deaths surging, they dropped from 696 in May to 402 in June for a total
so far of 1,411 since March. If one thing is certain about COVID-19, it's the uncertainty about what comes next.
But for now, the decision to spend millions on the temporary morgue will continue to be a target for the governor's Republican
critics in the legislature.
Secret
Service provided security for Hunter Biden on 400-plus trips during Obama years. Hunter Biden has already made
headlines with his pursuit of global business, raising questions about conflicts of interests by landing lucrative deals in
Ukraine and China while his father Joe was vice president. And now it's his proclivity for globetrotting travel that is
garnering attention. The son of the former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential nominee in waiting used
Secret Service protection on at least 411 international and domestic trips during the Obama years, according to records
released this month under the Freedom of Information Act to the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch. The records show
Hunter Biden made at least 29 international trips between January 2009 and July 2014 and hundreds more criss-crossing the
United States.
A
group getting millions in state tax money is leading Madison's protests and calling for defunding of police
departments. Freedom Inc. isn't shy about pushing its radical rhetoric. The Madison-based nonprofit has
advocated for the release of all African Americans from jail and the defunding of police departments. As for the
current protests, the group's leaders say "all actions against racist state violence are justified." "Stop murdering black
people, and your glass will be safe," Monica Adams, co-executive director for Freedom Inc., said while leading the third day
of police protests in the state's capital on Monday [6/1/2020]. "Thank all the youth freedom fighters who were in the
streets fighting (Sunday) night and Saturday night," said Mahnker Dahnweih, community power-building coordinator for Freedom
Inc. "Every action is a contribution to liberation." So where does a group like this get the money it needs to promote
its agenda? A lot of it comes from you.
California
Tried to Bail Out Illegal Aliens - and It's a Disaster. California's illegal alien population is its shadow
economy and with many of the industries that employ them shut down, the Democrats who depend on ghost districts populated by
illegals decided that something had to be urgently done to keep the illegal aliens from fleeing back across the border.
The Democrats figured that giving them checks would be cheaper than building a wall to keep them in. But who knew that
a $125 million stimulus program for illegal aliens would become such a disaster? Illegal aliens were eligible to apply
for up to $1,000 with $75 million coming from the California taxpayers bailing out illegals who don't pay taxes. And another
$50 million was supposed to be donated by wealthy lefties. But while the taxpayers of the state were forced to put up
their $75 million, the wealthy politically correct elites who have poured fortunes into electing Democrats didn't pay up.
Millions
lost and no one has been fired? ESD is political cronyism at its worst. I've heard the same tragic story
from hundreds of listeners. They've lost their jobs because of a government shutdown of our society. And then,
when they needed government the most to financially survive, they for weeks, and even months, have been unable to get through
to the state unemployment hotline. Has a state agency ever been more tragically misnamed than Washington's "Employment
Security Department" (ESD)? It provides neither employment nor security. The mismanagement of unemployment
benefits is another [...] indictment of Jay Inslee's leadership "skills." The sending out of unemployment checks to
citizens in our state is further delayed by the unimaginable scam that hit ESD. Nigerian fraudsters siphoned hundreds of
millions of dollars to out-of-state banks using suspicious emails accounts. All this after ESD says it spent
$44 million on software that should have caught such fraud.
$21
Million Brooklyn Field Hospital Shutters After Seeing No Coronavirus Patients. A $21 million field hospital in
Brooklyn, New York, authorized by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic
opened and closed without seeing any patients. The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook was one of several makeshift
hospital sites throughout the city intended to relieve the city's overcrowded hospitals brimming with coronavirus patients,
the New York Post reported.
$21M
Brooklyn field hospital never saw a patient amid coronavirus pandemic. A roughly $21 million Brooklyn field
hospital authorized by the de Blasio administration at the height of the coronavirus pandemic opened and closed without ever
seeing one patient, according to city officials. The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook was one of several sites
across the five boroughs converted into a medical facility as a way to relieve the city's overburdened hospital system as the
COVID-19 crisis mounted. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans on Mar. 31 — a day after the USNS Comfort
hospital ship arrived in New York Harbor to aid in the coronavirus fight — for the $20.8 million Red Hook field
hospital with an estimated capacity for 750 beds. The field hospital was built by Texas-based construction company SLSCO.
Hospitals
flush with cash got billions in coronavirus bailouts. Hospitals hoarding massive piles of cash got billions of
dollars in federal coronavirus bailouts while vulnerable health centers were forced to scrape by, a new report says.
The feds have given more than $5 billion in grants to 20 big hospital chains that already had more than $108 billion in cash,
the New York Times reported Monday [5/25/2020]. The money was among $72 billion in grants the Department of Health and
Human Services has distributed to hospitals and other providers since April under the CARES Act — the $2.2 trillion
stimulus bill that Congress passed in March to shore up struggling businesses amid the pandemic, according to the paper.
Pelosi's
Leninist Stimulus Bill. As soon as the Bolsheviks took over Russia in October 1917, Vladimir Lenin began
churning out rubles. In fact, he spent half the state's revenue on just the printing of new currency.
Within a year, the ruble was worth 100,000,000 times less than it had been before the communists took over.
Existing rubles, and any investment denominated in rubles, were worthless. Lenin's inflationary program was not a
response to the need for an increased money supply. It was a deliberate strategy designed to eliminate money as a means
of transactions and, with it, to crush capitalism. From that point on, the state would directly control the means of
production and distribution, and the people would, in theory, be dependent on the state for all goods and services.
'Hundreds
of millions of dollars' lost in Washington to unemployment fraud amid coronavirus joblessness surge. Washington
state officials have acknowledged the loss of "hundreds of millions of dollars" to an international fraud scheme that
hammered the state's unemployment insurance system and could mean even longer delays for thousands of jobless workers still
waiting for legitimate benefits. Suzi LeVine, commissioner of the state Employment Security Department (ESD), disclosed
the staggering losses during a news conference Thursday afternoon. LeVine declined to specify how much money was stolen
during the scam, which is believed to be orchestrated from Nigeria. But she conceded that the amount was "orders of
magnitude above" the $1.6 million that the ESD reported losing to fraudsters in April.
Virginia
governor spent 65 days on taxpayer-funded jaunts to his NC beach home since start of 2019. On a Saturday night
in the dead of August last year, Virginia taxpayers footed the bill as a state-operated plane roared from Richmond to one of
North Carolina's desirable beach destinations. The King Air 350 turboprop made the journey twice in six hours.
The VIP passengers? Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam and his wife, Pamela, the first lady of Virginia. The
listed purpose for a back-and-forth jaunt? The Northams took a brief break Aug. 31, 2019 from their Outer Banks beach
vacation home in Manteo, N.C., to attend a horse race at the Colonial Downs track back in their home state and ceremoniously
hand out a trophy to the winner. Then, they went back to the beach.
Ben
Sasse: Fire Officials Who Approved Pandemic Aid For 'Big Abortion' Provider Planned Parenthood.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) called for President Trump to fire the bureaucrats who illegally approved millions of dollars
worth of small-business loans for Planned Parenthood clinics. Sasse issued a strong statement on Wednesday slamming the
well-known abortion provider for taking advantage of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans that it is ineligible to
receive. "Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business, tried to defraud taxpayers during the worst
economic downturn since the Great Depression," Sasse said. "The Paycheck Protection Program is supposed to be a
lifeline for small businesses, not a slush fund for Big Abortion. The administration needs to reclaim that money and
fire the bureaucrats who signed off on this scam."
Trump
Admin May Slap Criminal Charges on Planned Parenthood for Fraudulently Obtaining Coronavirus Funds. After news
broke that the Planned Parenthood abortion business fraudulently received $80 million in funds meant to help small businesses
deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus, the Trump administration has wasted no time in acting. As
LifeNews.com reported, Planned Parenthood received $80 million in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program meant for small
businesses. That is despite the fact that the rules and regulations associated with the program specifically prohibited
affiliates of larger organizations with more than 500 employees from applying. That covers Planned Parenthood as
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PFFA) alone has had more than 600 employees.
Tom
Cotton: Defund States Giving Coronavirus Relief to Illegal Aliens. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has
introduced legislation that will defund states and localities providing American taxpayer-funded coronavirus relief money to
illegal aliens. Cotton's legislation, titled the No Bailouts for Illegal Aliens Act, would prohibit sending additional
federal funds to states and localities that issue stimulus checks to illegal aliens.
Illegal
Aliens Jam Phone Lines as California Offers $500 Each in Coronavirus Relief. The State of California is
offering $500 each to illegal aliens as part of a $75 million coronavirus relief program — even as it asks federal
taxpayers for help paying for its $54 billion deficit. The program, which launched on Monday [5/18/2020], saw phone lines
jammed as "undocumented immigrants," who are ineligible for the federal aid provided thus far, called a state hotline.
Judicial
Watch sues to stop Newsom from giving 75 million tax dollars to illegals. Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch is
asking a California Court to appeals to issue a temporary restraining order to stop Governor Newsom from paying out $75 million
tax dollars to people here illegally. The Lower Court found that JW's lawsuit is likely to succeed on the merits since Newsom
has no right to dole out the money, but illegal aliens need the money and that outweighs everything. Today's [5/18/2020] filing
asks the Court of Appeal to command the Superior Court to issue the restraining order against California Governor Gavin Newsom and his
Director of the California Department of Social Services Kim Johnson, enjoining them from making what is now an imminent, May 18,
2020, illegal expenditure of $79.8 million of taxpayers' funds to illegal aliens pending the final determination of the taxpayer
action brought by Judicial Watch in the lower court.
State
Department sends $22 million in coronavirus aid to terrorist breeding ground Bangladesh. The Golden Horseshoe
is a weekly designation from Just the News intended to highlight egregious examples of wasteful taxpayer spending by the
government. The award is named for the horseshoe-shaped toilet seats for military airplanes that cost the Pentagon a
whopping $640 each back in the 1980s. We are awarding the horseshoe this week to the State Department for sending $22 million
to Bangladesh to help combat the coronavirus pandemic. Over the course of the past 20 years, Bangladesh has
received more than $1 billion in U.S. funds aimed at public health efforts. [...] According to a congressional probe released
last year, migrants from terrorist nations are trying to enter the United States via the southern border at record-high
rates, including a 300% increase in Bangladeshi nationals attempting to enter illegally across the border in Texas. In
2019, a Bangladeshi citizen was arrested in Houston for running a smuggling operation to bring illegal aliens into the U.S.
Pelosi's
$3 trillion coronavirus bill lets her play left-wing Santa Claus with your tax dollars. It's a good seven
months until Christmas, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is already playing Santa Claus with taxpayer money. The
California Democrat is proposing a $3 trillion bill, titled the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act,
or HEROES Act, that is packed full of gifts to Democrats. And incredibly, this is the pared-down version. The New
York Times reports that the original Democratic bill asked for $4 trillion.
House Bill Is a
$3 Trillion Left-Wing Bonanza. This is, in summary form, some of what the bill contains:
• Nearly $1 trillion for state and local governments, ostensibly to make up for anticipated budget shortfalls due to the virus. $540 billion is earmarked for the states, divided according to a formula. [...]
• Another round of $1,200 payments to individual Americans.
• $175 billion to health care providers, to reimburse them for lost revenue because "nonessential" health care has largely, and unnecessarily, been made illegal in most states.
• $100 billion for "stimulus funding" for education. This has no apparent relationship to the coronavirus.
• Forgiveness of federal and state student loans, up to $10,000 per person. Again, no relationship to the disease.
• $75 billion in "assistance for homeowners." I take it this is to make up for missed mortgage payments. Also, $100 billion "to help low-income renters avoid evictions." So taxpayers will be paying other people's rent as well as mortgages.
• State transit authorities would get $15 billion. I am not sure why. So more mass transit can help the next disease to spread faster?
• $75 billion for the U.S. Postal Service. Just because.
D.C.
Prep School Beloved by Dem Leaders Refuses to Return Gov't Loan. A $50 million endowment, a massive capital
campaign in the works, and a wealthy, well-connected board — none stopped a D.C. prep school from taking one of
the largest coronavirus loans issued. Sidwell Friends School, a Quaker-affiliated independent school known for
enrolling top lawmakers' children — including the daughters of former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack
Obama — accepted a $5.2 million loan under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Congress's bailout fund for
small businesses affected by the coronavirus crisis. The school, which brings in over $40 million in tuition annually,
declined to give back the loan after Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin called on "private schools with significant
endowments" to "return" PPP funds. In a letter to the community, the board of trustees cited its "fiduciary
responsibilities" as well as "our Quaker values" in its decision to keep the money — with the latter claim
particularly raising eyebrows among critics.
The Editor says...
Here is some more about the Sidwell Friends School:
[1]
[2]
[3]
Tucker: Inside the Democrats' $3 trillion
coronavirus relief bill. When the smoke clears, only China will be able to bail us out from our mountain of
debt. [Video clip]
Democrats'
new $3 trillion coronavirus bill includes $5 MILLION for lawmakers to buy new laptops and upgrade WiFi. House
offices will receive funding to buy new laptops for themselves and their staffers if the new $3 trillion coronavirus package
passes as is, a draft of the legislation revealed Tuesday [5/12/2020]. In the seventh section of the massive package,
there are only two stipulations for financial assistance for the legislative branch, including $5 million to increase
technological advances and inventory for members of Congress and their staff. That number will include money to upgrading
'imaging solution' to meet the demand for 'House imaged laptops.'
IRS
stimulus checks labeled 'DECD' sent to deceased people anyway. The Internal Revenue Service appears to have
known it was sending coronavirus stimulus checks to decreased individuals because the label "DECD" is printed on the
check. "Stimulus checks to dead people: Check says deceased right on it!" Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a
member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, tweeted on Monday with a photo of a check the IRS sent to a
deceased person with the "DECD" label next to their name. When asked about the checks, the IRS directed Just the News
to a link to the agency's webpage containing frequently asked questions about stimulus checks that advises relatives of
deceased people to return the stimulus payments made via direct deposit or check.
The Editor says...
How many of these deceased individuals will also receive a mail-in ballot?
'Western
Pact' states seek $1 trillion more in federal aid. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday [5/11/2020] that he and
his counterparts in Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Nevada were calling for the federal government to provide an extra $1 trillion
in aid to their coronavirus-ravaged states. "These budget shortfalls are so much bigger than any state," the governor said at his
daily coronavirus briefing, Deadline reported, referring to the Western pact, an alliance to increase the states' buying power for medical
supplies. Much of the aid will go to help public safety officials like policemen, firefighters and EMT's, as well as to schools.
The Editor says...
In other words, the state governments are asking the federal government to print a trillion dollars and distribute it to the
(Democrat-controlled) state governments to keep local government operations afloat. What's the down-side? Printing
money causes inflation.
Coronavirus
stimulus cash: Foreign workers, relatives of dead asked to send $1,200 checks back. The IRS issued
updated guidance on Wednesday regarding how both nonresident aliens and family members, relatives or friends of dead
individuals who received economic impact payments can send those checks back to the government. On its website, the
agency clarified that neither nonresident aliens nor dead Americans are eligible for the payments and instructed that, unless
the payment was made to joint filers and one spouse is still alive, the entire check should be returned. The return
instructions differ based on whether the payment was made by paper check or direct deposit.
Pelosi
continues push to get stimulus cash to illegal immigrants with guaranteed income plan. House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi said Friday that any guaranteed monthly income plan that Congress works on should apply to illegal immigrants with tax
ID numbers. The IRS issues Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) to illegal immigrants and other
non-citizens who lack Social Security numbers to allow them to file tax returns. Individuals with ITINs are not
eligible for direct stimulus payments in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act that Congress passed. Earlier this week, Pelosi
suggested including guaranteed minimum income for individuals in the next coronavirus stimulus package. She didn't
specify the set amount of guaranteed income being considered.
Judicial
Watch Sues California to Stop Governor Newsom's Initiative to Provide $75 Million in Cash Benefits to Illegal
Aliens. Judicial Watch announced it filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of California County of Los Angeles
on behalf of two California taxpayers, Robin Crest and Howard Myers, asking the court to stop the state from expending $75 million
of taxpayer funds to provide direct cash assistance to unlawfully present aliens. The lawsuit alleges California Governor Gavin
Newsom overstepped his authority and violated federal law when, without affirmative state legislative approval, he took executive action
to create the "Disaster Relief Assistance for Immigrants Project" and provide cash benefits to illegal aliens who otherwise are ineligible
for state or federal insurance or other benefits due to their unlawful presence in the United States.
Pelosi's
Congress Should Shelter At Home For The Rest Of The Year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is as determined as
President Franklin D. Roosevelt to exploit this crisis for political gain, on the well-founded calculation that if Democrats
ask Republicans to unleash a horde of locusts, they'll agree to half the locusts. Maybe even three-quarters!
Despite failing so far to use the pandemic to get race and sex quotas for corporate boards, insane emissions requirements on
airlines, more money for Democrat politicking funneled through unions, student loan bailouts, and bigger tax credits for
solar panels, Democrats have already commandeered it to send pork to the Kennedy Center, bail out the U.S. Postal Service,
get raises for Congress as 26 million Americans filed for unemployment, fund PBS stations, and upcharge for refugee
resettlement. And they're just getting started. Pelosi has started talking about moving beyond blanketing the
nation with deficit-funded checks into a "guaranteed income."
The
Media Took Millions in Loans Meant for Small Businesses. Even while the media is blaring stories about the
abuse of the Payroll Protection Plan loans from the Small Business Administration, its own industry took millions in loans
and wants billions more. [...] The Seattle Times maxed out its PPP loan with a $10 million payout. The
Seattle Times is not only Washington State's largest daily, but its parent company, the Seattle Times Company, owns
two other papers, and had, as recently as 3 years ago, put out 7 papers. It also owned multiple newspapers in
Maine which it sold off for over $200 million. It had two printing plants, one of which it sold. The Rotary Offset
Press, which it still owns, continues to print a variety of magazines and newspapers. But while the Seattle
Times is, like the New York Times, a multi-generational family property, the McClatchy Company owns 49.5% of
voting stock and 70.6% of voting stock in the Seattle Times Company. McClatchy has dozens of papers and had revenues of
over $800 million in 2018.
South
Carolina island gets $1M coronavirus relief loan, returns it after backlash. A homeowners association for a
luxury South Carolina island has decided to reject a $1 million loan approved through the government's Small Business
Administration's Paycheck Protection Program after facing backlash from the public, including a U.S. congressman from the
state, according to a recent report. First-term Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham slammed the homeowners association
for ritzy Kiawah Island, which is part of the region he represents, on Thursday [4/30/2020], calling its initial decision to
accept the coronavirus relief aid inappropriate, according to The Post and Courier.
More
than 200 public companies were granted $854 million in small business relief and 12 have now returned the huge
loans. More than 200 deep-pocketed public companies secured at least $854.7 million in loans from the relief
fund Congress created to help small businesses devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, according to new analysis. The
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was created to provide emergency loans to businesses with fewer than 500 employees and
without access to other forms of capital to help keep workers on the job and bills paid on time. The initial $349 billion
allotment ran dry less than two weeks after the program opened on April 3, sparking outrage as early reports showed that
dozens of multi-million dollar loans were granted to big public companies while hundreds of thousands of small businesses
seeking relatively tiny amounts were left empty-handed.
Why
Illinois Is In Trouble — 109,881 Public Employees With $100,000+ Paychecks Cost Taxpayers $14B.
Illinois could soon be the first state in history to have its bonds rated as "junk." [...] In many ways, Illinois may have
already crossed the Rubicon. Our analysis at OpenTheBooks.com shows that an Illinois family of four now owes more in
unfunded pension liabilities ($76,000) than they earn in household income ($63,585). In a state of 13 million residents,
every man, woman, and child owes $19,000 — on an estimated $251 billion pension liability. Our auditors
discovered 110,000 public employees and retirees who earned more than $100,000 last year.
Los
Angeles Lakers return $4.6 million loan received from Paycheck Protection Program. The Los Angeles Lakers
applied for and received $4.6 million from the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program but returned the
money "so that financial support would be directed to those most in need," the Lakers said in a statement. "The Lakers
qualified for and received a loan under the Payroll Protection Program," the statement from the team read. "However,
once we found out the funds from the program had been depleted, we repaid the loan so that financial support would be
directed to those most in need. The Lakers remain completely committed to supporting both our employees and our
community." The Lakers are worth $4.4 billion and were No. 1 in operating income at $178 million,
according to the latest 'Forbes' NBA team valuations.
The Editor says...
Why would the Small Business Administration have any contact with any professional sports franchise?
If
800k Americans Are Out Of Work in NJ, Why Is Gov Considering Paying Illegals $600 Every Week? New Jersey is,
unsurprisingly, very broke. Even at the best of times, the Garden State isn't known as a model of fiscal
continence. These aren't, as you may perhaps have noticed, the best of times. New Jersey's nearly out of
money. Its ability to replenish that money is going to be severely tested by the fact that it's being hit with
cataclysmic unemployment and business closures, meaning its tax base — already shrinking thanks to an exodus of
residents — is drying up. An infusion of cash if the Democrats are able to secure their much sought-after
bailout for the states won't help much, considering the fact that it still won't solve long-term structural issues that
existed before all this.
The Axios Bailout. As
Congress and the U.S. Treasury shovel billions of dollars to struggling businesses and fraudsters alike, we must be thankful
for media organizations that are providing some accountability for the public. Publicly traded companies that cut to
the front of the line for the Paycheck Protection Program have been browbeaten and berated. But what would the media do
when the perpetrator was one of their own? Axios, a digital media property with billionaire backers and a sponsorship
roster that reads like a who's who of the Fortune 100, has provided us the opportunity to find out. In a brief post on
Wednesday, Axios CEO Jim VandeHei informed readers that the site had received just shy of $5 million in the first round
of PPP funding.
Newsom
Ordered by CA Supreme Court to Defend $75 Million Giveaway to Illegals. Californians struggling to make ends
meet during extended coronavirus shutdowns were not amused when their governor, Gavin Newsom, announced the creation of a
public-private partnership to give away $125 million ($500/person) in pandemic relief grants to illegal immigrants who are
ineligible to receive unemployment benefits or federal stimulus checks (because they are not here legally, duh). Newsom
further explained that of the $125 million in funding, $75 million would come from taxpayer funds (without explaining any
legislative process appropriating such funds) and that "a group of charities" had promised to chip in $50 million.
To
Help Out with the Pandemic and Unemployment, California Will Now Pay Seniors to Order From Restaurants. If
you're a restaurant-lovin' California senior citizen and lookin' to make a few extra bucks, you're in luck. Assuming
you fit the profile, the state will now pay you to wine and dine yourself — if you order your grub. On
Friday [4/24/2020], Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new program wherein local, state, and federal money (so if you're
local, will you be triple-taxed for this?) will be paid out to eligible seniors who order food from nearby restaurants.
Coronavirus
and the era of big government. It's hard to know how much money Congress has forked out to combat coronavirus
and attempt to salvage the American way of life and the economy since late February. There's no precise, econometric
way to calculate the "three-and-a-half" bills Congress has approved in recent weeks. But, the grand total is pushing
$3 trillion. The measures have varied from an initial bill costing $8 billion — which started around
$1.2 billion — and exploding to a staggering $2.2 trillion on another. Now, the real action is set
to begin on Capitol Hill — at least behind the scenes. Democrats already have been calling for more as
Republicans try tapping the brakes.
Luxury
Hotel Company Is Biggest Beneficiary of Small-Business Funds. Hotels, luxury resorts and management companies
that funnel money back to a single company have secured about $53 million in federal virus aid, the largest known amount to
benefit one firm and the latest example of how the government's small business relief program is also helping big
companies. Ashford Inc., an asset management firm based in Dallas, makes money partly by advising two real estate
investment trusts: Ashford Hospitality Trust and Braemar Hotels & Resorts, which together own more than 100
properties. Those companies reported in public filings that their hotels had received millions in forgivable loans
through a government program meant to help small businesses. The so-called Paycheck Protection Program ran out of its
initial $349 billion on April 16, leaving many small companies with no assistance.
Some
inmates receiving coronavirus stimulus payments, watchdog warns. Some inmates are receiving the $1,200
coronavirus economic stimulus payments that are part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, according to a government
watchdog. "We have no doubt that inmates are receiving checks for the same reason dead people are receiving checks,"
Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, told Just the News. "The IRS is relying on 2018 or 2019 tax
returns, and does not know whether the taxpayer is deceased, incarcerated, or divorced, all of which, among other factors,
would impact their eligibility to receive stimulus checks today," he also said.
Ivy
League schools including Harvard, Princeton and Yale net millions in coronavirus bailouts despite billions in
endowments. Ivy League schools have been criticized for netting millions in taxpayer-funded coronavirus
bailouts despite swimming in endowments worth billions. The country's most prestigious private universities including
Harvard, Princeton and Yale are among the beneficiaries of Washington's $2 trillion rescue package to keep businesses afloat
during the epidemic. Higher education institutions have been apportioned $14 billion of the aid provided under the CARES
Act to weather the financial hits landed by the lockdown.
Update:
Harvard
Backs Down: University Says It Will Not Take Coronavirus Aid. Harvard University said it will not take
the $8.6 million in aid with was granted as part of the U.S. government's efforts to cushion the economic impact of the
coronavirus lockdown, reversing itself and bending to U.S. President Donald Trump who said Tuesday [4/21/2020] that the university
should not take the money. "Harvard is going to pay back the money and they shouldn't be taking it," Trump said Tuesday at a
White House press briefing.
Illinois
Dems' $41 Billion Demand Includes $10 Billion Pension Bailout That Has Nothing To Do With Coronavirus. Illinois
Democrats are demanding $41 billion from the federal government for coronavirus relief, including $10 billion for Illinois's
cash-strapped and underfunded public pension plan. The most fiscally mismanaged state in the union that has criminally
neglected funding its public pension fund for two decades wants Washington to pull its chestnuts out of the fire?
Certainly, states should get something. But what Illinois is asking for is shocking.
Non-Essential
Workers? Most Are in Government. There's a stark contrast in suffering between the private and public
sectors in this era of unprecedented government intrusion into American life and business. Millions of mom-and-pop
shops are shut and their income is decimated and large-company employees are furloughed. But we hear virtually nothing
about government workers being laid off — or even taking a pay cut. Let that sink in: the folks whose work
and taxes underwrite bureaucrat pay are cut off from livelihood while those they support in government are not only not
hurting, but many are being given what are essentially paid vacations. And we're hearing talk about non-essential
workers? The vast majority of non-essential jobs are in government.
Wasteful
Spending? State Department sends hip-hop stars to India for cultural understanding. The Golden Horseshoe
is a weekly designation from Just the News intended to highlight egregious examples of wasteful taxpayer spending by the
government. [...] This week, our award is being given to the State Department for funding a $70,000 program called "Bridging
Cultures Through Hip-Hop." The goal of the project is to "explore the commonalities and differences between India and the
United States through this influential music genre," according to a State Department grant description.
Gov. Inslee owes
US Army, Feds an apology. A week ago, Jay Inslee slammed our federal government for not doing enough for our
state. "The fact is, we cannot get as much help as we would like from the federal government", he said. This was
a week after the United States Army, under orders from the Trump administration, sent hundreds of soldiers to build a 250-bed
hospital at the Century Link Field Events Center. That hospital has sat empty ever since. Not one patient.
On Wednesday [4/8/2020], Inslee announced that he wanted the facility disassembled and sent back to the federal government.
How much do you think think this assembly and disassembly is costing taxpayers?
The
Federal Government Is Spending $60 Billion To Keep Mostly Empty Commercial Planes Flying Over the U.S.. Pending
minimum service rules would require airlines to keep operating a certain number of flights, regardless of how little demand
there is for air travel.
Airlines
Make Out Like Bandits in $2.3 Trillion Coronavirus Aid Bill. Despite the best efforts of Rep. Thomas
Massie (R-Ky.), the House of Representatives just passed the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security
(CARES) Act by a voice vote. The Senate had already approved the bill by a 96-0 vote on Wednesday [4/1/2020], so it now goes
to President Donald Trump's desk. That's good news for the country's airlines, which are set to receive roughly $60 billion
in financial assistance. That includes $32 billion in cash grants to air carriers to prevent employee layoffs, with
$25 billion of that going to passenger airlines and $4 billion to cargo carriers.
Democrats
Introduce Measure to Extend Coronavirus Relief Check to Illegal Aliens. Democrats on Friday introduced a
measure to amend the $2 trillion CARES Act, extending the cash payment benefit to non-citizens, including illegal
aliens. Three House Democrats, Reps. Lou Correa (CA), Judy Chu (CA), and Raúl Grijalva (AZ), introduced the
Leave No Taxpayer Behind Act designed to amend the cash payment portion of the CARES Act — the $2 trillion
emergency economic relief measure designed to help U.S. citizens who are facing economic hardship caused by the coronavirus
pandemic — to extend to non-citizens.
House
Democrats introduce bill giving coronavirus aid to illegal immigrants. House Democrats introduced legislation
Friday that would allow illegal immigrants to receive money from the coronavirus relief package. California
Rep. Lou Correa and two other lawmakers introduced the Leave No Taxpayer Behind Act that would amend the $2 trillion
coronavirus stimulus package, according to the Daily Caller. "I was appalled to learn hardworking, taxpaying immigrants
were left out of the $2 trillion CARES Act," Correa said in a statement Friday [4/3/2020].
Watch for Waste
in Stimulus Spending. With the pork stuffed into some of the COVID-19 stimulus proposals — like
Democrats' plan to bail out the U.S. Postal Service's debt, reform small newspapers' pension programs, and give a $35 million
payout to D.C.'s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — we need to be vigilant to ensure this stimulus
doesn't turn into a slush fund as others have. A decade ago, President Barack Obama enacted an $862 billion stimulus
package to reverse the Great Recession that followed the financial crisis. The program fell short of its lofty job
creation, infrastructure, and growth goals, in part because too much stimulus money was spent on irrelevant and inefficient
programs. Many people have heard about the $535 million in stimulus money wasted when failed solar panel company
Solyndra went under, but waste, fraud, and abuse under the previous stimulus program were widespread.
Our Crooked Congress.
Democrats decided that the Chinese coronavirus pandemic was a great time to try and backdoor their long laundry list of
Leftie goals. While Americans are fearing for their lives and livelihoods, Pelosi and her crew were treating the crisis
as though it were a political gift — a genie in a bottle who could make all their wishes come true. Green
New Deal, open borders, funding sanctuary cities, forcing unions on mid-sized companies (500-10,000 employees) if they take
government funds, ballot harvesting, and a cool $350 million for migrants and refugees, among other items. But even
more insulting is that the Democrats decided it was time to take advantage of a crisis to hand out goodies for their friends:
$75 million for the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio, $50 million for the Office of Museum and
Library services that already got funded for the year, $8 billion for tribal governments, $10 billion for
the U.S. Postal Service, $25 million for the Kennedy Center (because nothing says helping the American people like giving
the Kennedy Center a facelift even though it's sitting on a $140 million endowment), and — wait for it
kids — a $25 million pay raise for the House of Representatives as well as $20 million for the FBI
to cover "salaries and expenses."
In
Light of the Kennedy Center Layoffs, a Republican Congressman Introduces a Bill to Get Back Our $25 Million.
Last week, Congress passed a $2 trillion stimulus bill and — like Kermit the Frog's romantic dreams —
there was a bit of pork involved. As you likely know, the bill included $25 million for the Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts. And, as I relayed on the 28th, after the relief package was passed, the Kennedy Center laid off 96
orchestra members.
Leaked
Audio: Kennedy Center President Deployed Lobbyist to Secure $25 Million in Coronavirus Stimulus, But Not a Cent for
Workers. The Gateway Pundit has received audio of a video conference call between Kennedy Center President
Deborah Rutter, members of their human resources department, and 200 of their employees. The audio was first obtained
by Jack Posobiec of One America News. As the Gateway Pundit previously reported, the John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts infamously received a controversial $25 million from Democrats in the coronavirus relief package —
and just hours later they told their performers and employees that they will not be getting paychecks.
Kennedy
Center Tells Musicians It Will Stop Paying Them Hours After $25 Million Bailout Is Signed. The John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts informed members of the National Symphony Orchestra that they would no longer be paid just
hours after President Trump signed a $25 million taxpayer bailout for the cultural center, according to an email obtained by
the Washington Free Beacon. Nearly 100 musicians will no longer receive paychecks after April 3, according to an
email from the orchestra's Covid-19 Advisory Committee. "The Covid-19 Advisory Committee was broadsided today during
our conversation with [Kennedy Center President] Deborah Rutter," the email says. "Ms. Rutter abruptly informed us
today that the last paycheck for all musicians and librarians will be April 3 and that we will not be paid again until the
Center reopens."
Coronavirus:
Illegal Aliens Demand $1.2K Each in Taxpayer-Funded Checks. Illegal aliens are demanding they too receive
$1,200 in federal checks from the government as part of a Chinese coronavirus crisis relief package. Open borders
organizations like the George Soros-funded United We Dream, the National Immigrant Justice Center, and the National Immigration
Law Center — all of which represent the roughly 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the United
States — are pleading with the federal government to cut federal checks to illegal aliens who have Individual Tax
Identification Number (ITINs).
$5
trillion down the drain. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, everyone should read Robert Higgs' economic
classic "Crisis and Leviathan." The critical warning of this masterpiece is that government always uses a crisis —
from the Civil War to the Great Depression to World War II — to expand power, not only during the emergency but
also afterward. Emergencies tend to ratchet up the cost and power of government permanently. That expansion of
government authority is especially unwise now, given that when this coronavirus fiasco is finally over, it may go down in
history as one of the greatest government screwups in American history. That's saying a lot.
The
U.S. Navy is spending $400K to fix clogged toilets on its newest aircraft carriers. Two of the Navy's newest
aircraft carriers require a unique system to keep the toilets unclogged and cost $400,000 to fix each clog, a government
watchdog said in a report released Tuesday [3/24/2020]. The USS Gerald R. Ford and USS George H.W. Bush, both
based in Virginia, were constructed with a toilet system similar to those used on a commercial plane. But with 4,000 people
on board the ship, the toilets require an acid flush of the system. "While each acid flush costs about $400,000, the Navy
has yet to determine how often and for how many ships this action will need to be repeated, making the full cost impact
difficult to quantify," the congressionally-mandated report by the Government Accountability Office said.
13
Key Things to Know About the Senate's Giant Coronavirus Bill. Congress's response to the economic consequences
of the coronavirus should be targeted, temporary, and directed at public health efforts while limiting politically motivated
bailouts and abuse. Unfortunately, the Senate's version of the CARES Act, which continues to be held up amid political
fights, misses this mark by including special benefits to specific industries that will exceed $200 billion. And that's
not the only thing wrong with the legislation. The $1,200 checks going out to most Americans will add substantially to
our debt — while providing taxpayer funds to plenty of people who don't need more money. The legislation
also gives the Treasury Department too much control over huge loans to businesses — loans that don't come with
enough strings to ensure they're strictly used for business situations caused by COVID-19.
The Stimulus
Package That Will Not Stimulate. First, a reminder for Congress and the White House that money doesn't grow on
trees and we've already been spending like drunken sailors for 20 years. Sure, this is a highly unusual situation, but
because of the corrupt and obscene spending that is part of life in Washington, we just can't throw money at things.
We're not financially sound enough. Second, stimulate what? We're not supposed to be out there "consuming."
Stimulus packages, if you are a Keynesian, which I am not and last I knew most conservatives were not, operates on the
principle that the economy can be goosed by the government injecting money into it. That is an unproven theory at best
as it seems that FDR's endless spending and federal programs in the 1930s prolonged the Great Depression. Obama's
stimulus package in 2009 after the last panic set the stage for the worst economic recovery in the history of recorded
economic recoveries. But also, we've all but pushed pause on the economy, so there is about zilch to stimulate.
This is a bailout. And guaranteed that once it gets to Congress, it will be larded up further.
Feds
spending $7.5 million on retirement village for chimps. The Golden Horseshoe is a weekly designation from Just
the News intended to highlight egregious examples of wasteful taxpayer spending by the government. The award is named
for the horseshoe-shaped toilet seats for military airplanes that cost the Pentagon a whopping $640 each back in the
1980s. This week, we are awarding the coveted title to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for a
$7.5 million contract awarded to Charles River Laboratories to house retired government chimpanzees used in prior
research. Though the facility estimates an ability to house up to 288 chimpanzees comfortably, there are only 40-50
elderly chimps in the program. Meaning between $150,000 and $187,000 will be spent on the eldercare of each ape.
Much-touted
Crescent Dunes solar plant goes bust. Do readers remember the Crescent Dunes solar power plant in
Tonopah? The project commenced some 10 years ago and was financed in part with a $737 million federal loan
guarantee. Nevada Energy fully supported the project, promising to buy power at a rate almost six times as high as the
market at the time. At the same time, the company was destroying Nevada's residential solar businesses by pushing
through a measure to reduce the "buyback" of energy generated by households to less than one-sixth of the going rate.
How is the Crescent Dunes doing? It ceased operations in April.
$11.6 Million for
Zombies. In an effort to identify and prevent payments after death, the Social Security Administration (SSA)
established a program under which states and US territories can voluntarily contract with SSA to provide the agency with
death data to compare with its records. States electronically submit death reports to SSA, and SSA automatically posts
the state death information and terminates payments to deceased beneficiaries. Unfortunately for taxpayers, Puerto Rico
does not have such a system in place, which has led to millions of overpayments to dead people. The Puerto Rico
Department of Health provided SSA's watchdog, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), with the vital records data of
approximately 568,000 Social Security number holders who died in Puerto Rico from January 1992 through December 2016. [...]
OIG found that SSA issued approximately $11.6 million in posthumous payments to 149 beneficiaries who died in Puerto
Rico during that time period.
California
Lottery gave away $212,500 in Scratchers on 'Ellen.' Some call it a misuse of funds. Comedian Ellen DeGeneres
drew wild cheers from the studio audience of her television talk show in December when she announced each person in
attendance would receive a $500 bundle of Scratchers tickets from the California State Lottery. Lottery officials saw
it as a publicity boon, but a whistleblower complaint filed by some lottery employees argues the agency's giveaway of the
tickets — which have a combined face value of $212,500 — should be investigated as a "misuse of funds,"
according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The controversy comes just weeks before a state audit is
scheduled to be released on lottery finances in response to a string of recent scandals that included allegations of wasteful
spending, improper gifts and nepotism.
Report:
Missing $1.8 Billion in Aid Linked to Corrupt Oligarch Who 'Bankrolled' Ukraine Revolution. In a live video
presentation, Thursday night, conservative radio host Glenn Beck accused the Obama administration of funneling $1.8 billion
in taxpayer dollars to Ukraine in order to fund the Ukrainian revolution against Russia. Calling the scandal bigger than
the Reagan-era "Iran Contra" scandal, The Blaze founder said that his research team made the discovery while looking into the
phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky, which spurred the Democrats' now-failed impeachment
charade.
$225M
new N.J. port still hasn't created the jobs that were promised, mayor says. Nearly three years after a $255 million
state-funded marine terminal opened in Gloucester County, the Port of Paulsboro is still only bringing in steel from Russia and the effort
to diversify and increase the cargo may be several years away. The port, maintained by the South Jersey Port Corp, was touted as the
first new marine terminal on the Delaware in nearly 50 years when it opened in winter 2017. It was formerly a 190-acre petroleum
storage field that had to be cleaned up and redeveloped.
This $1 Billion
Solar Plant Is an Obsolete, Expensive Flop. Bloomberg reports that a planned $1 billion solar plant was
out of date and obsolete before it could even be completed. The Crescent Dunes plant opened outside of Las Vegas in 2015,
when its technology was already behind, and the solar boom since then has completely eclipsed it. Now, the closed and
abandoned plant is the subject of huge ongoing lawsuits. In a way, Crescent Dunes was like the Elon Musk dream solar farm
of its heyday after construction was approved in 2011. It covers about 300 acres with thousands of solar collectors
that power a central molten salt tower. In 2011, a handful of companies presented plans for the plant and received over
$700 million in government loan guarantees.
The feds bet $737 million on
a salt tower for solar power. You'll never guess the result. An inconvenient truth is that the sun sets
each day, but the Obama Administration's green planners had an app for that. They decided to invest in the Crescent
Dunes facility that would use molten salt to store heat from the sun, produce steam, and generate electricity even at
night. The utility NV Energy had already agreed to buy the electricity. Government support would carry the
project to sunny success. In September 2011, the Energy Department described how the 110-megawatt facility would "be
the first of its kind in the United States and the tallest molten salt tower in the world," powering more than 43,000 homes a
year. The precedent was Solar Two, a small pilot plant decommissioned in 1999 that had shown it was technically
feasible to use molten salt to store and generate power. But in a 2006 report the Energy Department said the
10-megawatt facility "was never expected to be a viable commercial-scale plant and, in fact, did not validate economic
feasibility." No worries. It's only taxpayer money, [...]
Illinois
Takes Steps to Ensure Undocumented and Transgender Students Can Apply For Aid. Illinois has massive financial
problems, but it's good to know they are prioritizing things so well.
Computers spew checks like this because they operate without sanity.
IRS
Sent $46,378,040 in Refunds to 23,994 'Unauthorized' Aliens at One Atlanta Address. The Internal Revenue
Service sent 23,994 tax refunds worth a combined $46,378,040 to "unauthorized" alien workers who all used the same address in
Atlanta, Ga., in 2011, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). That was not the
only Atlanta address theoretically used by thousands of "unauthorized" alien workers receiving millions in federal tax
refunds in 2011. In fact, according to a TIGTA audit report published last year, four of the top ten addresses to which the
IRS sent thousands of tax refunds to "unauthorized" aliens were in Atlanta. The IRS sent 11,284 refunds worth a
combined $2,164,976 to unauthorized alien workers at a second Atlanta address; 3,608 worth $2,691,448 to a third; and 2,386
worth $1,232,943 to a fourth. Other locations on the IG's Top Ten list for singular addresses that were theoretically
used simultaneously by thousands of unauthorized alien workers, included an address in Oxnard, Calif, where the IRS sent
2,507 refunds worth $10,395,874; an address in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the IRS sent 2,408 refunds worth $7,284,212; an
address in Phoenix, Ariz., where the IRS sent 2,047 refunds worth $5,558,608; an address in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where
the IRS sent 1,972 refunds worth $2,256,302; an address in San Jose, Calif., where the IRS sent 1,942 refunds worth
$5,091,027; and an address in Arvin, Calif., where the IRS sent 1,846 refunds worth $3,298,877.
Taxpayer
group cites AOC as 'Porker of the Year' for 2019. A watchdog group named Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on
Tuesday its "Porker of the Year" for 2019, citing her sponsorship of the costly "Green New Deal" proposal. Citizens
Against Government Waste President Tom Schatz said the New York Democrat received 54% in the group's online poll, easily
beating out Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who garnered 25%, and four other candidates. "The results are
not surprising, as Rep. Ocasio-Cortez's $93 trillion proposal exemplifies the Congress's failure to protect the
taxpayers' hard-earned money," Mr. Schatz said. "For pushing a radical plan that would destroy the American
economy, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez deserves the distinction of 2019 Porker of the Year."
Citizens
Against Government Waste Names Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 2019 Porker of the Year. Today [1/7/2020],
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) announced the results of its online poll for the 2019 Porker of the Year.
There were six worthy candidates who were guilty of plugging pricey policies, promoting earmarks and wasteful practices, and
pushing a big-spending agenda. After the votes were tallied, the dishonor went to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
(D-N.Y.), who was named CAGW's March Porker of the Month for introducing the egregiously expensive "Green New Deal."
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez received 54 percent of the vote, more than twice as much as the 25 percent for runner-up
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Senator Warren was named CAGW's 2019 May Porker of the Month for proposing "free"
college and a taxpayer-funded bailout of all student loan debt.
Two
tribes aren't recognized federally. Yet members won $500 million in minority contracts. Companies set up
by members of a self-described and state-recognized Creek Indian tribe in Alabama have received more than $240 million in
federal minority-business contracts, despite a determination by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs that there is no credible
evidence the group has Native American ancestry, a Los Angeles Times investigation has found. Federal contracts worth
an additional $273 million have gone to two companies run by a member of a different Native American group in Alabama
with no federal recognition as a tribe.
Trump's
Biggest Wins Of 2019. [Scroll down] Space Force: Trump signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization
Act into law Dec. 20, which formally created the U.S. Space Force. The Space Force became the 6th independent branch
of the military, and was the first new military service to be created in more than 70 years. Along with NASA
administrator Jim Bridenstine, Trump has redoubled American efforts to be the leader in space exploration and defense.
The Editor says...
If a Space Force exists, why are we still paying for NASA?
Senator
Rand Paul Releases Over $50 Billion Waste Report — $466,991 Frog Mating Calls Study, $34 Million For Textbooks For
Afghan Students. For years, former Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) would publish what became known as his
"Wastebook." Now, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is bringing to light the wasteful and unconstitutional spending of the federal
beast. In his 2019 "Festivus" Edition of "The Waste Report," Paul lays out just how Americans' tax dollars are being
spent without their authorization per the Constitution, and then he lit up Twitter with a barrage of tweets highlighting some
of the top wasteful spending in the past year. Senator Paul, chairman of the Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency
Management (FSO) Subcommittee for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), released his 2019
Festivus edition of The Waste Report,
which is his fifth edition.
Afghanistan
Papers Prove US Gov Blew $3 Trillion, Lied About It. Less than a day after 2000 documents were published
proving the govt knew the Afghanistan War was unwinnable, Congress approved nearly a trillion dollars more. It's rare
that I read something on the Washington Post that I don't find highly biased, even repugnant. But with their recent
article on the Afghanistan Papers, they truly knocked the ball out of the park. The facts they shared should have every
American protesting in the streets. Trillions of dollars have been spent on a war that the Pentagon knew was unwinnable
all along.
Ted
Cruz Blasts Spending Bill: Funds Planned Parenthood, Gun Control. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted the
$1.4 trillion spending bill that passed the House and Senate this week and was signed into law by President Donald Trump on
Friday. The 2,313-page piece of legislation spends $1.4 trillion and will fund the government until September 30,
2020, through most of what is anticipated to be a combative election season. [...] The senator said the spending deal benefits the
"lobbyists who are bankrupting this country," and told CBS 11 it represents "lobbyists' Christmas present."
House
Funds Key Programs but Adds to Government Bloat, Waste. The House passed two spending bills totaling $1.4 trillion
Tuesday [12/17/2019] to fund the federal government through the remainder of fiscal year 2020, which began Oct. 1. Although
the first bill would provide much-needed funding and budget certainty to core constitutional responsibilities, such as national
defense, the second "minibus" is a Christmas tree of bloated spending and add-ons that have no place being voted on through an
appropriations bill. The House passed the two bills, introduced late Monday afternoon, in less than 24 hours.
The Senate is expected to consider the two measures later this week. The fact that the House voted on more than 2,000
combined pages of text within 24 hours of introducing the two bills is a troubling symptom of Washington's budget
dysfunction. This is not the way that the budget process is supposed to work, and it leads to wasteful spending and
other negative impacts for American taxpayers.
Climate
change policies are going to be costly, says U.N.-backed report. Tighter government climate regulations by 2025
could wipe up to $2.3 trillion off the value of companies in industries ranging from fossil fuel producers to agriculture and
car makers, an investor group warned in a report. Rules aimed at lowering carbon emissions are expected to accelerate in the
coming years as countries scramble to meet obligations under the 2015 Paris climate agreement limiting global warming.
The Editor says...
Before any of this effort is undertaken, it should first be proven that the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is
harmful, that man-made sources of CO2 outweigh natural sources, and that the greenhouse effect is approaching a "thermal runaway"
condition. None of these has been proven. Thus it is apparent that the government is in a big rush to solve a problem
that doesn't exist. There is no "climate crisis." There is no "planetary emergency." There is no "existential
threat." Not only that, there is no global warming.
Wasted
Spaces: How the Federal Government Runs Its Real-Estate Empire. In a months-long investigation, we
learned that no one really knows just how many buildings the federal government has — not even the feds
themselves. In recent years, the government's own estimates have ranged from about 120,000 to 400,000. And these
figures do not even include the Defense Department and Intelligence agencies. According to its most recent reporting,
DoD has about 280,000 buildings in the U.S. and abroad. All totaled, the federal government may own and lease about
two-thirds of a million buildings. Maintenance expenditures for government facilities are also not fully known.
Government estimates range as high as $21 billion spent annually on government-owned buildings, nearly $7 billion to lease
office space, and about $2 billion to maintain empty properties. A large part of the discrepancy in the number of
buildings owned and leased is due to who is doing the counting and how each agency identifies its buildings' status.
New
York City to Free 125K Accused Criminals, Give Taxpayer-Funded Housing, Job Training. The state of New York is
likely to free at least 125,000 accused criminals from prison next year and provide many with taxpayer-funded housing and job
training services thanks to criminal justice reform laws. As Breitbart News has reported, the state's series of bail
reforms will ensure that suspects accused of crimes deemed "non-violent" are not jailed before their trial dates and do not
have to post bail. [...] Across the county, jailbreak legislation is helping to free thousands of accused and convicted
criminals from prison. Federally, the First Step Act that was signed into law by President Trump has thus far freed
about 240 sex offenders, nearly 60 convicted murderers and assailants, as well as almost 1,000 inmates convicted of drug
crimes. Also freed by the First Step Act is Joel Francisco, a notorious former leader of the "Latin Kings" gang who
immediately returned to a life of drugs after his release and is now accused of murder.
Pentagon's
Second Audit Identifies 1,300 New Problems. The second ever audit of the Department of Defense ended,
predictably, in a second consecutive failure. [...] The recently completed audit uncovered 1,300 new problems with the
Pentagon's budgeting and record-keeping. That's on top of the 2,410 separate findings and recommendations made last
year, when auditors cracked open the department's books for the first time in history. Auditors also identified 25
"material weaknesses" — broad areas, such as the F-35 fighter program, where managerial and record-keeping
failures put taxpayer dollars at risk. Auditors gave Pentagon officials credit for resolving about 500 of the issues
identified last year. That should prove that the Defense Department was wrong to resist audits for so long, and it gives
us some measure of hope that the biggest black hole in the universe of federal spending might someday be reduced in size.
Cornell's
new library exposes students to more than literature. The sleek new library at Cornell University has a design
flaw that allows people to see up the skirts of anyone browsing for books, students and reports say. The
state-of-the-art building — which took more than $21 million to build over five years — features
elevated platforms with see-through grated floors that put visitors on full view as people pass below, the students say.
The Editor says...
Yes, and this design would allow smoke and fire to spread throughout the whole building in a matter of seconds.
And if you drop an earring on the floor, there's no way to know how far it will go. Moreover, all this assumes that the
library patrons are all well-behaved citizens who act like adults. Never mind the view from below — what
about a homeless drunk on the uppermost floor vomiting (or worse) on everyone below?
It's
Time To Let The Crony Export-Import Bank Die. The Export-Import Bank — the poster child for
corporate welfare — was due to expire at the end of September. But it has been given a temporary reprieve
while congressional leaders plot to renew it on the sly by attaching it to a must-pass spending bill, meaning the bank will
never get the scrutiny taxpayers deserve. Ex-Im subsidizes export transactions using sweetheart terms —
including below-market-rate loans — that are backed by the American taxpayer. According to the bank's
website, the agency provides financing when "private sector lenders are unable or unwilling to" and "assumes credit and
country risks that the private sector is unable or unwilling to accept."
The Editor says...
Articles like this have circulated for years. Nothing is going to change. Similarly, some have been clamoring for the elimination
of public funding for Sesame Street, too, but that's not going to change. Farm subsidies, ethanol subsidies, windmill subsidies, boondoggles,
earmarks, white elephants, pork barrel spending, bridges to nowhere, robots on Mars, and endless spending on things that nobody asked for
will continue uninterrupted until the U.S. currency collapses under the weight of the national debt.
Trickle-Down
Bureaucracy Is Destroying Vermont. So much money is spent on reports, studies, and employment for state workers
that Vermont's property tax rates are some of the highest in the nation. To the extent that any of the money does come
back down, it is indeed a mere trickle. Vermont demonstrates the government bloat that plagues many states, and the
effects are becoming apparent. Vermont now has fewer than 700 conventional dairy farms — but the Vermont
Department of Agriculture and the UVM Extension Service steadily increase employees, and salaries. This is quite
typical of the virus-like quality of the Vermont bureaucracy — it grows, and citizens lose wealth or leave.
Vermont has nearly twice as many full-time state employees per 10,000 residents as New Hampshire, yet Vermonters are
struggling much more than their thriving neighbors. There is no growth, and the governor has infamously offered $10,000
bribes to out-of-state earners to reside in Vermont.
Newsom's Gas-Tax Switcheroo.
[Scroll down] My favorite local example involved the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District, which scared
the heck out of residents about West Nile virus and an encroaching menace: the red imported fire ant. Such pests could
be handled by, say, calling an exterminator if you found a nest in your backyard. Instead, voters gave the district
more money. Its main priority after the increase was to increase its workers' pensions by 62 percent. A
few years later, the agency tried to spend from $1 million to $10 million hatching a mosquito museum.
Robocop
Fail raises questions. [Scroll down] So here's this woman witnessing a violent confrontation and she's
frantically pushing the helpful looking button on the robot that says "Emergency Alert." But nothing happens. Her
friend finally dials 911, but by the time the cops arrive (fifteen minutes later) there's a woman being wheeled out to an
ambulance and the assailants are long gone. The (human) police had an explanation. As it turns out, the Emergency
Alert button was never connected to the 911 dispatch office. The messages were being sent instead to the
manufacturer of the robot, where they either didn't receive them or had no idea what to do with them. And after yelling
at the women to get out of the way, the robot reportedly continued gliding smoothly along past the ongoing fight, continuing
on its route through the park playing some sort of science fiction melody as it went. So how much did you pay for this
robocop again?
Money down the drain in
Puerto Rico. Imagine having the task of distributing the most aid money ever for a natural disaster responsibly
to a government mired in corruption and under FBI investigation. That's what's happening right now in the U.S.
territory of Puerto Rico two years after two hurricanes, Maria and Irma. You have $91 billion reasons to care.
That's how much of your tax money is intended for recovery. Today, we go to Puerto Rico to follow the hurricane money
and the fraud.
Senators
chide NEA for spending taxpayer money on Che Guevara portrait. Florida's two senators demanded answers Tuesday
after revealing the National Endowment for the Arts paid $45,000 for a traveling art exhibition featuring a portrait of
socialist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, saying U.S. taxpayers shouldn't subsidize the idolization of a man involved in
"mass murder." Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott said it was an insult to exiles who lived through the Cuban
revolution to see their tax money go to aggrandize Guevara.
Fools,
hacks, and liars: Democrats out to destroy America via Pres. Trump. Almost without exception, most
who run for political office, as well as their appointees, smile, and preen for the aforementioned media with lies of "I just
want to serve." No one stands up and says "I want to Destroy America." With idiotic civil rights laws and
a national voting rights laws, all passed in the name of "all men are created equal" we see wretched bureaus like the CIA, FBI,
a litany of cabinet-level tax-soaking offices running the lives of the citizens while smiling into cameras with phony dictums of
having served the people. And the service of most of these departments are not allowed by the constitution nor for the
most part, do they perform the service for which they advertise. As an example, The Department of Energy finds no
energy source. The Education Department teaches no one. The agriculture Department grows nothing (but debt).
The Commerce Department does not engage in commerce. They simply provide jobs for bureaucratic servants.
Feds
rush to spend 20% of $500 billion in one month in 'use it or lose it' spending spree. Federal agencies have
shelled out tens of millions of dollars on cars, movie cameras and other items in a contract spending spree that happens
across government at the end of every fiscal year. The State Department dropped more than $33 million on passenger cars
in the first two weeks of this month and the Justice Department spent more than $3 million on movie cameras, records show.
Not to be outdone, the U.S. Mint has spent more than $60 million on raw gold and silver. An estimated $66 million has
gone to debt collectors trying to claw back money spent on student loans, records show.
Can
we stop subsidizing beach houses now? "This is beyond just a fiscal problem," Jeb Hensarling said in 2017.
"This is a moral problem." The former Texas congressman and Financial Services chairman was specifically addressing the
federal National Flood Insurance Program. At the time, the program was about to be tapped to pay claims by residents
along the Texas Gulf Coast after Hurricane Harvey. It was already $25 billion in debt. Today, with new claims on
the way, it is only $21 billion in the red, but that's only because Congress forgave an additional $16 billion that the
program owed the U.S. Treasury — owed, that is, to taxpayers. But money is not and never has been the real
issue. The ongoing failure of this program to break even is merely a sign that it is only fixing the symptoms and not
the problem.
Court
Rules Idaho Must Pay for Trans Sex Offender's Transition Surgery. A federal appeals court has ruled that the
state of Idaho must pay for a transgender inmates' sex reassignment surgery. Inmate Adree Edmo, a convicted sex
offender, was diagnosed with gender dysmorphia in 2012. His attorney, Deborah Ferguson, argued in January that the state
was placing him at risk of suicide if they refused to fund his surgery.
The Editor says...
Someone who can't decide if he's a man or a woman is so fundamentally confused and miserable that he's likely to be
a suicide risk no matter what.
Idaho
Governor Criticizes 'Activist Court' for Ordering Gender Surgery for Convicted Child Molester. The Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that Idaho taxpayers must pay for a 31-year-old prison inmate to undergo "gender
confirmation surgery" — the opinion does not call it sex reassignment — allowing the inmate to remove
the bits that show the inmate was born a male. Mason Dean Edmo, now called Adree Edmo, pleaded guilty in 2012 to
sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at a party. Idaho Gov. Brad Little, frustrated by the "activist court," said
his state plans to appeal once again, this time to the U.S. Supreme Court: [Video clip]
New
Jersey Awarded $3.8 Million in Financial Aid to Illegal Aliens. A local news report revealed that the state of
New Jersey awarded $3.8 million in financial aid to illegal immigrants during the 2018-2019 school year. According to a
report from NJ.com, the state of New Jersey gave $3.8 million in financial aid to 749 illegal immigrant students in the last
academic year. More than a quarter of the funding went to 328 illegal immigrants that attend Rutgers University.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed a law last year that allowed illegal immigrants to apply for financial aid.
Far-Left
Blue State Gave Nearly $4 Million to Illegal Aliens In Financial Aid. When New Jersey debuted a new program
last year offering college aid to immigrants living in the country illegally, it was unclear how many undocumented students
would sign up. After a year, advocates and state official say the program has been a success. During the
2018-2019 academic year, 749 undocumented students were awarded $3.8 million in state financial aid to attend New Jersey
colleges, according to new statistics released by the state Higher Education Student Assistance Authority.
New
$53M Texas high school football stadium has state's largest video board. The latest cathedral to pigskin is the
new $50+ million Children's Health Stadium, which will host Prosper (Texas) High School. Prosper is a northern suburb
of Dallas. In total, the stadium will seat 12,000 fans and houses the largest video board in any Texas high school
stadium, football or otherwise.
U.S.
Spends $907 Million On Useless "Nutrition Education" For Food Stamp, WIC Recipients. Besides spending tens of
billions of dollars on fraud-infested programs to feed the poor, the U.S. government wastes an additional $907 million to
give recipients useless "nutrition education" courses with rates of effectiveness that cannot be assessed. It marks the
latest scandal to rock the government's famously bloated and corrupt food stamp program as well as a multi-billion-dollar
sister project that feeds millions of low-income women and their children. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
operates and funds both programs and spends a fortune on them annually. The grand master is food stamps, renamed Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by the Obama administration to eliminate the welfare stigma. Under Obama the food stamp
tab reached a ghastly $80.4 billion in one year to provide a record 46 million people with the welfare benefit.
HUD
official Lynne Patton says $16 billion [was] recently given to Baltimore. Department of Housing and Urban
Development regional administrator Lynne Patton appeared Monday [7/29/2019] on Fox News and took note of just how much federal
money has been steered into Cummings' district, which is nearly 53% percent black. "President Trump has given $16 billion
in 2018 alone to Elijah Cummings' district in federal grants," Patton explained. "We have given more money in homeless funds
to Baltimore than the last administration. We have given more money in 'community development grants.'" Patton then
asked, "What are you actually doing with the money so that it benefits residents in the community for once instead of deep-pocket,
crooked politicians?"
More
about Baltimore.
Climate
Trillions Frittered in the Wind. This year, the world will spend $162 billion (US) subsidising renewable
energy, propping up inefficient industries and supporting middle-class homeowners to erect solar panels, according to the
International Energy Agency. In addition, the Paris Agreement on climate change will cost theworld from $1 to
$2 trillion (US) a year by 2030. Astonishingly, neither of these hugely expensive policies will have any
measurable impact on temperatures by the end of the century.
Trump
Says Lawmakers Reach Bipartisan Deal to Suspend Debt Limit. President Donald Trump announced a bipartisan deal
to suspend the U.S. debt ceiling and boost spending levels for two years, capping weeks of frenzied negotiations that avert
the risk of a damaging payments default. Congressional leaders pledged to support the bipartisan compromise that left
all sides unsatisfied but focusing on the provisions they could count as a win.
New
Budget Deal Puts Final Nail in the Tea-Party Coffin. President Trump and congressional leaders are nearing a
deal that would raise the discretionary-spending caps by $320 billion over two years and offset less than one-quarter of
those costs (and even those offsets would take a decade to materialize). The budget deal would essentially repeal the final
two years of the 2011 Budget Control Act and raise the baseline for future discretionary spending by nearly $2 trillion over
the decade.
The Editor says...
Apparently spending cuts are out of the question.
9/11
Victims compensation fund and what you don't know about it. Inclusions in the Victims compensation fund bill you should
hear about. First, this bill compensates victims until 2092. It is not limited to First Responders and crash site workers,
"Passersby" now qualify. I am not a wizard at math but 9/11 occurred in 2001. We are talking 90 years. In an
unheard of action, there are simply no limitations placed on any amount of money to be paid. This boondoggle is not limited to
First responders and those who worked the clean up sites even now.
The Editor says...
Why is the government using taxpayer money to compensate victims of terrorist attacks? What part of the Constitution
authorizes payments of this sort? (I know — what difference at this point does it make?) Such compensation
could only be justified if the government caused the 9/11 attacks, and was proven to be at fault.
But the official story is that hijackers acting on behalf of the Religion of Peace crashed into the Twin Towers, both of which
collapsed (each one falling straight down onto its own footprint as if professionally imploded) within two hours of
being struck by the airplanes. This happened even though no concrete-and-steel building had ever collapsed before as the
result of a fire. Oh, and World Trade Center Building 7 collapsed, too, the same day, even though no plane had
hit it, and there were only minor fires in progress at the time. But you're not supposed to remember that — and how could
you remember anyway, since that even was barely mentioned in the news media — and if you speak in public about the collapse of
WTC-7, you'll be ostracized as a "9/11 Truther." In the very long term, it doesn't matter who was the mastermind behind the
9/11/2001 events. Those responsible will pay for their sins in a lake of fire — forever.
Democrats
2020: Trillions and Trillions and Trillions More. We're currently witnessing one of the greatest attempts at
mass bribery in history. With each passing week the Democrats running for the 2020 nomination offer yet another bribe
for winning more votes. [...] Consider the 10-year cost estimates for some of the major plans that most, if not all, of the
potential 2020 nominees have already embraced: Medicare for All, otherwise known as socialized medicine, is $32.6 trillion.
The Green New Deal, also known as coercive environmental socialism, is $93 trillion. Universal basic income, in which
people would become paid wards of the state, is $38 trillion. Slavery reparations would cost $14 trillion, but
once that Pandora's box is opened, where do you actually draw the line and decide who would get money and why? As for
erasing college debt and free college, that's about $2.4 trillion in the first decade — which counts as "modest"
in this context. The cost of all of those plans combined in the first 10 years is $180 trillion. That's
just one decade.
Public Servants Or The
Public's Masters? California's cities, counties, and public agencies have secured a record tax windfall in
recent years, as property tax collections soar, yet they continue to cry poor-mouth. There's not enough money, they
say, to provide adequate public services. Government officials and public-sector unions already have hatched a plan for
the 2020 ballot that would dramatically raise property tax on commercial property owners by undermining Proposition 13's tax
protections. But a new report from the Orange County Register's Teri Sforza hints at why these agencies never
have enough money to do their jobs. Based on data from the state controller's office, she found that "More than 100
city and county workers earned total compensation exceeding a half-million dollars in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and
Orange counties last year." One need only look at the Transparent California database to see that this is no aberration.
Corey
Johnson announces $19M in new LGBT programs as city celebrates World Pride weekend. City Council Speaker Corey
Johnson announced $19 million in funding for LGBT support programs in honor of Pride, including big boosts to help
transgender people. On World Pride weekend in the city, Johnson said the move to nearly double funding for the programs
marks a sea change in New York's approach to the gay community. "Acceptance is not enough," Johnson said. "Our
local government must fund programs that support the LBGTQ community, particularly transgender people."
Fake
women being offered Pap smears and breast screenings, but real women are not. Ordinarily, catering to people
who think or claim to be a gender other than the one nature assigned them is silly but harmless. But now Public
Health England (formerly the National Health Service) has implemented a practice that could prove deadly. It has begun
inviting men who identify as women to come in for annual Pap smears and breast screenings despite their lack of a cervix on
which to administer the first test. But PHE has also stopped inviting women who identify as men to come in for these
crucial screenings out of fear of offending them.
California's
3 top paid county workers all made $1 million last year — at 1 hospital. It pays to be a
doctor. It really pays to be a neurosurgeon. It really, really pays to be a neurosurgeon at San Joaquin General
Hospital. The eight highest-paid county employees in California last year were all physicians or physician managers for
San Joaquin County, with three of them making more than $1 million in 2018, according to wage data released Tuesday [6/25/2019]
by the state Controller's Office.
Florida
city agrees to pay nearly $600,000 after ransomware attack. A Florida city has agreed to pay hackers who
incapacitated their computer system nearly $600,000 in ransom. The Riviera Beach, Fla., City Council voted unanimously
Monday night to have its insurer pay a hacker's demand for 65 bitcoin, valued at $592,000. The city will pay an addition
$25,000 to cover its deductible, according to The Palm Beach Post. The attack began on May 29, when a police department
employee in Riviera Beach, a city of 35,000 people north of West Palm Beach, downloaded an infected email attachment, The
Palm Beach Post reported.
Can
California Be Saved, or Is It Too Late? Jerry Brown's imaginary high-speed rail that was to initially run from
Bakersfield to Merced in Central California is a bust. The cost was projected to be $77 [billion] but has forecast
to be $98 [billion]! It most likely will never be completed. Billions have been wasted.
Border
Agency Buying 2.2 Million Diapers to Help Migrants. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency is buying 2.2 million
diapers to help deliver economic migrants and their young children into Americans' worksites, schools, and neighborhoods, according to an
online contract request. The purchase implements the welcome policy set by a bipartisan panel in Congress, which in February directed
the Department of Homeland Security to help the migrants — despite the impact on Americans' wages, schools, and
neighborhoods — instead of helping Americans by giving the agency the legal authority needed to block the migration.
$586
Billion Later, Health Care Is Worse Than Before Obamacare — Thanks Obama. "I am not the first
President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last." That was how then-President Barack Obama
pitched Obamacare to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 9, 2009. He described a health care system in crisis and promised
that his reforms would "provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. It will provide insurance for
those who don't. And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government."
Nearly a decade after having his vision realized, how have his promises worked out? Based on polling data, Obamacare has been
a miserable failure, and Obama will be far from the last president to grapple with this issue.
Registered
sex offenders in NY got Medicaid money for erectile dysfunction. Registered sex offenders in New York received
$63,000 worth of erectile dysfunction drugs and other sexual treatments courtesy of the state's publicly funded Medicaid
program, according to an audit released Wednesday [6/5/2019].
A Government
Coup by NASA's Bureaucracy. Every single big space project since the founding of NASA has always been proposed
and approved by elected officials. NASA officials might have lobbied for one version or another, but always,
always, it was understood and accepted that the project did not exist without first getting an enthusiastic and very
public authorization from elected officials. What was understood without question was that the right to make these
fundamental policy decisions belonged only to the lawmakers, elected as they were by the citizenry under the Constitution.
NASA's new Lunar Gateway project, however, is something altogether different. It was conceived, designed, and proposed
by the big aerospace companies Lockheed Martin and Boeing as a justification for the continuing construction of SLS and
Orion. It was added as a budget line item by NASA bureaucrats who supported it, and it now exists as a growing major
space project comparable to Apollo, the Space Shuttle, ISS, and SLS/Orion. Yet no president has ever officially and
publicly proposed the Lunar Gateway. No Congress ever reviewed or endorsed the program.
Schools from New York to California shell out
money for illegals. Schools spanning the United States offer benefits to illegal alien applicants and
students. These range from scholarships and "creative workshops" to mental health counseling and free food.
NYC goes stone-age Green.
New York City politicians intend to "lead the way" to combat "climate change." Last week, the City Council voted almost
unanimously for a package of six bills that comprise the "Climate Mobilization Act" for the nation's largest city. Of
the 44 council members voting, only two opposed this legislation. What will happen that is predictable is the immediate
cost. The centerpiece of this legislation is the $4 billion energy efficiency mandate on the City's largest buildings,
on top of the already substantial property taxes and construction costs. But that is just the beginning of Mayor Bill
de Blasio's estimated $14 billion strategic plan — his own "Green New Deal" — unveiled on Earth Day
to reduce the City's "carbon footprint... before it's too late."
California
spends $178 million per fish to bring back salmon. Leftie greenies recently hailed the return of ... five ...
salmon, swimming upstream to the San Joaquin river to spawn. Paradise restored! In water-starved California, that
was quite an achievement, given that each salmon required 50,000 gallons of water to get the job done, coming at a price tag
of $890 million at the low end and $2 billion at the high. And that water came out of the hides of
California's farmers, who got very little of the water they were promised, and paid for, as a result. That's some use
of resources to get those five salmon to swim upstream.
Should
we shutter the Department of Education? Since its inception 40 years ago as a political payoff from President Jimmy
Carter to the National Education Association, the Department of Education has engaged in scores of dubious actions that have made millions
of Americans yearn for its expulsion. The most recent example of comes from a long string of audits showing the federal department is
doing a lousy job keeping tabs on the $38 billion it receives to administer federally funded K-12 programs. "Complex and
persistent" is how Congress' spending watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, described the agency's mismanagement of data,
oversight, and evaluation.
Denver
airport's $14.5M sign busted after less than 2 years in use: reports. Denver International Airport built a wall
of sorts — a 1,000-foot-long collection of illuminated poles interrupted by large television screens for
displaying ads — but now the wall doesn't work right. The $14.5 million Panasonic sign has broken down after
only 16 months in operation, leaving many questioning if the sign will ever rake in enough ad dollars to recoup the large
investment, according to a report.
Future of New
Orleans in peril as $14B flood protection starts sinking. The $14 billion upgrade to New Orleans' system of
levees to fortify the city is sinking, according to engineering experts. After investing an amount of money that is
five times greater than the gross domestic product of the island country of Aruba, the Army Corp of Engineers said levees may
not be adequate enough to protect New Orleans and the surrounding region from major flooding associated with a 100-year storm.
The
$14 billion system of levees and floodwalls built after Hurricane Katrina is already sinking. The $14 billion
system of levees and floodwalls built around New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is already sinking just 11 months after it
was completed, experts have said. The Army Corps of Engineers said in an impact study notice earlier this month that the
flood control system could loose its intended ability protect against a 100-year flood as soon as 2023.
Trump
Is Right: Puerto Rico Shouldn't Get More Hurricane Subsidies. While there is some disagreement over the
exact figure that Puerto Rico has received, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has reported $20 billion in
hurricane recovery funds, while the Federal Emergency Management Agency has funded an additional $8 billion and the Small
Business Administration has approved $2 billion in loans. Yet we are told Puerto Rico needs more of American taxpayers'
money. Democrats are insisting that American taxpayers continue to further fund Puerto Rican leaders' additional demands.
The fact of the matter is, not one more dime in funding should be sent to Puerto Rico until it gets its political house in order,
either of its own accord or by the Trump administration forcing systematic change. Putting more money into a broken system won't
fix anything. Most importantly, it will only continue to hurt our fellow citizens — the people of Puerto Rico.
Most
of the $33 Billion in Remittances to Mexico Flow Via U.S. Govt. Banking Program. Though President Trump
said he would block money transfers to Mexico to fund a much-needed border wall, Mexicans in the U.S. sent a record $33.48 billion
in remittances last year and a big chunk of it flowed through a government program operated by the Federal Reserve. This means
that, amid an onslaught of illegal immigration, the U.S. government is largely responsible for the billions in remittances flowing
south of the border from illegal aliens. Figures released by Mexico's central bank show that 104 million transactions
were executed in 2018, nearly six million more than the previous year. Uncle Sam facilitates the process with a program
called "Directo a Mexico" (Direct to Mexico), launched by the Federal Reserve, the government agency that serves as the nation's
central bank, more than a decade ago.
Florida
housing agency paid $3,650 to teach embattled boss to be nice, stop being abusive to staff. A Florida housing
agency paid $3,650 to a consultant to teach their boss to be nice and stop being abusive to his staff. St. Petersburg
Housing Authority CEO Tony Love came under fire amid revelations of complaints made by senior staffers who claim that he acted
inappropriately by shouting and demeaning them.
Money
in the Toilet — The Billion Dollar Cost of Public Bathrooms. The fastest rising item in the country
isn't gold or bitcoin, it's the cost of a public bathroom. In '08, a San Francisco Weekly article fumed that a park
restroom in Golden Gate Park was costing taxpayers $531,219. Fast forward, a decade later the cost of a park restroom in the
Golden Gate Boathouse had ballooned to $2 million or $4,700 per square foot. The modern bathroom had a third All-Gender
option that the '08 bathroom didn't. But adding a non-gender shouldn't have quadrupled the price. Inflation would
have kept the cost well below a million. Why did a 15-foot by 28-foot bathroom cost millions? Part of the answer
may be that San Fran privileges minority businesses and requires that 15% of work hours be carried out by "disadvantaged" workers.
The
government is now a check-writing, wealth-redistribution machine that costs trillions. Today, the one thing the
federal government does above all else is write checks. Lots of checks. Nearly $3.2 trillion worth of
checks. Each and every year. [...] In other words, 70 percent of everything the federal government will spend this year
will amount to writing checks to benefit individuals. That's up from 28 percent in 1968 and 50 percent in 1991.
The Editor says...
The writer of the USA Today article sees nothing wrong with the government taking money from the rich and giving it to the
poor. He only regrets that the poor aren't getting paid enough.
Duke
University to pay $112.5 million settlement for faked research. Duke University agreed to a deal Monday [3/25/2019]
that will require it to repay the federal government $112.5 million to settle claims it falsified scientific research at
taxpayers' expense. The prestigious private school in Durham, North Carolina, said it will take additional steps on "research
integrity" and says it already has implemented more monitoring of research in the wake of the scandal, which involved a health
researcher and her supervisors.
Duke
Whistleblower Gets More Than $33 Million In Research Fraud Settlement. Duke University is paying the U.S.
government $112.5 million to settle accusations that it submitted bogus data to win federal research grants. The
settlement will also bring a $33.75 million payment to Joseph Thomas, the whistleblower who drew attention to the fraud when
he worked for Duke. Thomas, a former Duke lab analyst, sued the university on behalf of the federal government, saying
that a Duke researcher fudged data to help the university win and keep lucrative grants from two agencies, the National
Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency.
De
Blasio's program spent $300M to create only 3,000 jobs. Mayor Bill de Blasio spent $300 million to create just
3,000 jobs, a top city official admitted Monday [3/18/2019]. Testifying at a City Council hearing, James Patchett,
president of the city's Economic Development Corp., defended the slow progress of the mayor's $1.35 billion "New York Works"
program, launched in 2017. The program is supposed to create 100,000 jobs each paying at least $50,000 by 2027.
Patchett said the city has spent $300 million so far investing in job training and infrastructure for companies
that expand or relocate to the city.
There
are just nine steps from freedom to socialism to societal breakdown. Step 1. Massive Government Spending.
Socialist states have government at the center of their economies and feature enormous spending programs. In early
1990s Sweden often cited as a socialist state, government spending exceeded 70 percent of its economy. Under President
Jefferson, government spending was approximately 2 to 3 percent of the economy. Today, we are at 36 percent.
Sweden, now walking away from socialism, has reduced its spending share to just over 50 percent. Government education,
retirement, and medical care — nearly cradle to grave spending — are three cornerstones of future socialist
states. Obama once said you can create a governing majority of those dependent on government. Elizabeth Warren is now
promoting "universal child care," which would extend that dependence.
Feds
Pay Millions for Lobster Tail, Booze, Toys in End of Year Spending Binge. Federal agencies billed taxpayers
millions for lobster tail, alcohol, standing desks, golf carts, and more frivolous expenditures before budgets ran out at the
end of the fiscal year. A new analysis released by OpenTheBooks.com found 66 agencies spent $97 billion last September,
the final month of fiscal year 2018. The end of the year taxpayer-funded spending spree included contracts with Coors, millions on
iPhones, furniture, and CrossFit equipment. "In the final month of the fiscal year, federal agencies scramble to spend what's left
in their annual budget," OpenTheBooks.com said. "Agencies worry spending less than their budget allows might prompt Congress to
appropriate less money in the next fiscal year. To avoid this, federal agencies choose to embark on an annual shopping spree
rather than admit they can operate on less."
De
Blasio wants to spend $10B to make Manhattan bigger. Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to spend $10 billion to
"climate proof" lower Manhattan by building out the coastline by two blocks into the East River from the Brooklyn Bridge to
the Battery. "It will be one of the most complex environmental and engineering challenges our city has ever undertaken
and it will, literally, alter the shape of the island of Manhattan," the mayor wrote in a New York Magazine op-ed. The
buildout will include a half-billion dollars for "grassy berms in parks and removable barriers that can be anchored in place
as storms approach," according to the mayor.
The Editor says...
[#1] Maybe you should wait until you actually have a problem before spending ten billion dollars of someone else's money.
[#2] It is not possible to "climate proof" Manhattan. The climate will still take its toll, even if the mean
sea level recedes.
Feds
splurge on lobster, pianos, golf carts in race to spend 'use it or lose it' budget. It turns out September, not
April, may be federal taxpayers' worst nightmare. The end of the government's fiscal year usually brings an orgy of
spending as agencies look at their budgets, see extra cash lying around, and figure they'd better use it all up or risk
getting cut in the future. The "use it or lose it" mentality explains why the Defense Department shelled out $9,241 on
a Wexford leather chair, $2.3 million on crab and another $2.3 million on lobster tails in September, according to a study
released Thursday by OpenTheBooks. All told, taxpayers shelled out $97 billion on contracts in September —
including a staggering $53 billion in the final week, or more than the entire month of August.
New
Jersey city agrees to pay $27M to lease property it sold for $1. The city of Newark, N.J. has agreed to pay $27 million
over 30 years to rent property that it previously sold in 2017 for just $1, leading some to question why the city didn't just hold on
to the land in the first place. "We're paying them for something that we gave them. This is basic math, it doesn't add up,"
Newark resident Debra Salters told NJ.com Wednesday during a City Council meeting, where the deal was narrowly approved in a 5-4 vote.
De
Blasio and 'co-mayor' wife have wasted $1.8B of taxpayer money. Who's got a billion to burn? Well, Bill
de Blasio for sure. But also mayoral spouse Chirlane McCray, who has just been revealed as a world-class boondoggler in
her own right. Hey, the family that preys together stays together, right? And it's only (your) money —
even if it is quite a lot of it. [...] Fast-forward to Wednesday, when the City Council was startled to discover that McCray
and Team Thrive are closing in on having spent an eye-popping $900 million since the program's inception — and
nobody seems to have a clue on what. That is, nobody appears to have kept receipts; the subways and street corners are
still overrun with crazy people, and nobody in charge knows what's to happen next.
Sugar
Subsidies Are Welfare for the Rich. America's biggest welfare recipients are often politically connected
corporations — like America's sugar producers. The industry gets billions of dollars in special deals while
deceitfully running ads that say, "American farmers don't get subsidy checks." That ad confused me. If they "don't
get subsidy checks," then what is America's multibillion-dollar sugar program? "It costs taxpayers nothing," claim ads
from the American Sugar Alliance. "We are a no-cost program, no cost to the taxpayer." "That's absolutely bogus,"
says Ross Marchand of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance in my newest video. Americans "pay as customers and they pay as
taxpayers." He's right.
Congress
Spends 40 Times More On Foreign Aid Than Border Security. While Democrats and Republicans battle over funding
for the border, there's one thing they can agree on — sending that money to other countries. One America's
Pearson Sharp explains how Congress has approved 40 times more on foreign aid than for protecting the U.S. border.
$1,973 LEDs and the Green New Deal. The Green New
Deal that Democrats unveiled last week has a grand ambition to eliminate fossil fuels in 10 years, retrofit every building in
America, and guarantee high-paying jobs in the bargain. If you want to see how that works in the real world, consider
the public housing projects near Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's New York office. The New York City Housing
Authority (Nycha) has a more modest goal of a 30% reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2027. As part of its plan,
Nycha is switching to LED lighting, which lasts longer than incandescent bulbs and consumes less energy. Sounds smart,
until you see how many union workers it takes to screw in a light bulb. One recent project focused on 23 housing
developments, and changing the light bulbs and fixtures there cost $33.2 million. Supplies account for a fraction
of that cost. Under Nycha's Project Labor Agreement, electricians make $81 in base pay and $54 in fringe per hour, and
overtime is usually time and a half. Add administrative and contracting expenses. All in, Nycha paid an average
of $1,973 per apartment to install LEDs.
Netflix
paid Nothing in federal or state taxes in 2018 despite posting record profits of $845 million, and even got a $22 million
rebate. Netflix didn't pay a cent in state or federal income taxes last year, despite posting its largest-ever
U.S. profit in 2018 of $845 million, according to a new report. In addition, the streaming giant reported a $22 million
federal tax rebate, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Senior fellow at ITEP Matthew Gardner
said corporations like Netflix, which has its headquarters in Los Gatos, California, are still 'exploiting loopholes' and called
the figures 'troubling'.
Billions
in TSA 9/11 Security Fees Diverted by Congress for Other Causes. Money to sustain the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) continuously flowed into the government's coffers via a special security fee collected from every
passenger, yet Congress didn't release the funds during the shutdown. Known as the September 11 Security Fee, air
carriers collect $5.60 per one-way trip and $11.20 round trip to help fund the TSA. The Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) reports an average daily air passenger flow of 2.6 million, which translates into $14.5 million per day in
TSA fees. That amounts to more than $507 million collected during the 35-day government shutdown yet the agency's
51,000 employees didn't get paid, igniting an onslaught of hardship stories in the media. What happened to the money?
Feds
Spending $1,489,703 Studying Sleep Habits at Mexico Border. The National Institutes of Health is spending roughly
$1.5 million on a study of the sleep habits of Mexican Americans living along the U.S. border. The "border health" study
began last year and is being conducted by the University of Arizona. The study is recruiting 1,100 people in the tiny
border town of Nogales, Ariz., to see how well they sleep. Researchers claim Mexican Americans do not sleep as well
as their peers, blaming "social" factors at the border.
Atlanta Spent $23
Million Building a Pedestrian Bridge for the Super Bowl That Pedestrians Can't Use. In anticipation of hosting
this year's Super Bowl at the brand new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the city of Atlanta spent more than $23 million to build a
pedestrian bridge linking the stadium to the nearby Vine City public transit station, allowing fans to cross a busy street
without needing a crosswalk. The bridge was originally supposed to cost about $13 million — already pretty
pricey for a simple pedestrian crossing over a four-lane road — but city officials approved an extra $10 million
in funding last year to ensure the project would be finished in time for the big game, which kicks off Sunday evening [2/3/2019].
The serpentine bridge — decked out with dazzling, customizable LED lights and wrapped with diamond-shaped aluminum
panels — did indeed get finished in time for the Super Bowl. But it won't be used by the vast majority of the
expected 80,000 people heading to the game on Sunday. Because of it's location adjacent to the stadium, the bridge has been
deemed a security risk and will be closed to everyone except credentialed staff and media, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
reported this week.
You
Paid For It: Vivaldi-listening Cats, Coked-up Quails, and Monkey Marriage Proposals. And the winner of
Senator Joni Ernst's (R-IA) January 2019 Squeal Award is... the National Institutes of Health (NIH)! As Sen. Ernst
explains in her press release: "The [NIH] supported ten different cat studies — funded from grants totaling
$1.3 million of your money — that concluded classical music has an effect on cat behaviors. For
example, a study found that after playing classical music for cats every day, they were less likely to poop outside of the
litter box or cough up hairballs." Kudos to Sen. Ernst for letting the cat out of the bag about this
boondoggle. Her report provides yet another a case study for why more transparency and accountability about federal
spending on animal experiments are so badly needed.
Feds
Spend $453,592 Giving Financial Support to Transgender Women. The National Institutes of Health is spending
over $450,000 to provide transgender women of color financial tips and "gender transition supports." Virginia
Commonwealth University began the project last year, which studies "economically disadvantaged male-to-female" transgender
individuals in Richmond, Va., and St. Louis, Mo. "Transgender women (TGW) face persistent discrimination and
structural disadvantages including high rates of unemployment, unstable housing, poverty, and dramatically elevated rates of
HIV," according to the grant for the study. "The proposed research, using a randomized experimental design, seeks to
develop and test an integrated microeconomic intervention, and to assess the feasibility and efficacy of the intervention to
improve the financial status of TGW and to reduce participation in high-risk income-generation strategies." The study
will recruit transgender women as "key informants" to assess their "current experiences and preferences."
What
you don't know about the lucrative travel our leaders enjoy on your dime. We have long noted Pelosi's abuse of
the perks of public office that granted her access to luxury military travel. This current expedition is hardly new for
her. In 2009, during Pelosi's first speakership, we uncovered documents from the Department of Defense detailing her
multiple requests for military air travel. The documents included internal DOD email correspondence detailing attempts
by DOD staff to accommodate Pelosi's numerous requests for military escorts and military aircraft as well as the speaker's
last-minute cancellations and changes. In response to a series of requests for military aircraft, one Defense
Department official wrote, "Any chance of politely querying [Pelosi's team] if they really intend to do all of these or are
they just picking every weekend? ... [T]here's no need to block every weekend 'just in case'..." The email also notes
that Pelosi's office had, "a history of canceling many of their past requests."
New York to spend
millions putting DREAMers through college. New York state lawmakers approved a measure that aims to dole out
millions in taxpayer-funded aid to Dreamers — who entered the country illegally — attending
college. The now-Democratic controlled New York state legislature on Wednesday passed the Dream Act, legislation that
would make thousands of Dreamers eligible for financial aid to attend public colleges in the state. The bill, which has
attracted praise from Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, would cost $27 million.
The Editor says...
From the Democrats' perspective, it makes perfect sense to send illegal aliens to college, because the colleges inject socialism into every class.
Taxpayers
Funded Shrinks Who Deem Masculinity Harmful to Health. Taxpayers helped finance research used by the American
Psychological Association to label traditional masculinity harmful. The APA's "First-Ever Guidelines for Practice with
Men and Boys" received input from dozens of psychoanalysts who believe masculinity is a social construct, are passionate
about social justice, and think there is a danger in a role model like John Wayne. Several contributors to the
guidelines have received federal funding from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Education,
totaling more than $4.4 million.
Congressional
Hispanic Caucus PAC Spent $300K at Luxury Resorts Last Cycle. The political action committee linked to the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) disbursed hundreds of thousands of dollars of its funds on luxury resorts, upscale
restaurants, nightclubs, and tickets to Vegas events throughout the last election cycle, Federal Election Commission filings
show. The CHC BOLD PAC, the fundraising arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, came under fire this week for a
delegation trip to a seaside resort in San Juan, Puerto Rico, during the government shutdown where its members mingled with
more than 100 lobbyists, attended a viewing of the Broadway show "Hamilton," and met with Puerto Rican officials. The
trip was met with condemnation from a number of Republican leaders.
The
War on Terror Has Cost $5,900,000,000,000 & Still Isn't Being Fought Properly. According to Brown University's Cost of War
Project, the war on terror has cost approximately $5.9 trillion since September 11, 2001, including $2 trillion for
operations in various foreign countries and $924 billion for security at home. And what do we have to show for it?
Not much. The jihadis haven't struck again in America on the scale they did on 9/11, but they have struck, in Boston, Fort Hood,
Chattanooga, Little Rock, San Bernardino, New York City, and elsewhere. The jihad threat is still very much with us.
The
War on Terror's Total Cost: $5,900,000,000,000 : Is America any safer? By any reasonable estimate, the monetary
and human costs of the U.S.-led war on terrorism has been considerable. To the political scientists at Brown
University, the numbers have been astronomical. The Ivy League university's Cost of War Project calculates that
Washington will spend approximately $5.9 trillion between FY2001-FY2019, a pot of money that includes over $2 trillion in
overseas contingency operations, $924 billion in homeland security spending, and $353 billion in medical and disability
care for U.S. troops serving in overseas conflict zones. Add the cost of interest to borrowed money into the equation, and
the American people will be paying back the debt for decades to come.
We Could
Build 2 Border Walls By Just By Eliminating 'Improper Payments,' Audit Shows. Trump's $5.7 billion would fund
234 miles of border. Eliminating just half of the government's "improper payments" would provide enough money to build
a wall across the entire U.S.-Mexico border, with $21 billion left over. The GAO has also found "tens of
billions of dollars" in savings simply by reducing overlapping and duplicative federal programs. For example, the
federal government spends almost $3 billion on 163 separate STEM education programs across 13 agencies.
"Nearly all of these programs overlapped with at least one other program," the GAO found. Citizens Against Government
Waste has identified 636 examples of wasteful government spending that, if eliminated, would save $430 billion in the
first year alone.
Border
Wall Is An Ineffective Waste, Democrats Say. Here's the Real Waste. Among the goodies the open-borders
Democrats want are $12 billion more for international affairs programs, or 29 percent more than the president wanted.
That includes $2.9 billion more for economic and development assistance to foreigners in the Middle East. Why funding
to Israel, Syria, and Pakistan is more important the security at the southern border of our own country is a mystery, as is
the "$700 million more than requested for the United Nations, including restoring funding for the United Nations Population
Fund." Of course, that funding contains money, OMB observed, that would "undermine the President's Mexico City Policy ...
which prohibits the funding of foreign nongovernmental organizations that promote or perform abortions." The House bill
also included "$2 billion in excessive Environmental Protection Agency funding, providing funds beyond the Agency's core
mission and including funding for programs that can and should be executed at the local level." More unnecessary —
and blatantly unconstitutional — spending includes $7.1 billion for "rental assistance programs" in the Housing and
Urban Development Department, itself a massive unconstitutional agency.
Things
Democrats Have Funded that Cost More than the Border Wall. [#1] "Rural Utility Service." This program
costs taxpayers $8.2 billion/year and has no actual purpose after its original intent — bringing electricity to rural
communities — was long ago achieved. It's now being used to bring broadband access to small communities (usually with
populations of less than 20,000). [...] [#4] The United Nations. As the United Nation's largest contributor, the
U.S. in 2016 donated $10 billion to the U.N. [...] [#8] Waste, Fraud, and Abuse. The Government
Accountability Office estimates taxpayers are spending more than $137 billion annually on "payment errors," which
covers all manner of waste, fraud, and abuse within Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The feds could
implement the same kind of fraud protections credit card companies used to ensure against abuse, but don't.
Missouri:
Entrepreneur Uses Gun Buy Back Program to Sell Junk Guns for Cash to Purchase New Ones. Yes, every time that
government seeks to overstep its bounds and do things it was never intended to do or ban certain items, they simply spark
human ingenuity and entrepreneurship to work around their pretended legislation. In this case, government decided to
engage in an unlawful "buy back" of guns with taxpayer money, something they are not authorized to do. One entrepreneur
in Missouri had his eye on new guns and decided that he could put together scrap metal as guns and sell them off to the "no
questions asked" buy back program for cash to purchase new ones. He succeeded.
Migrants'
Remittances to Mexico, Central America Jump to $53 Billion in 2018. Legal and illegal migrants sent
$53.4 billion in remittances back to Mexico and Central America in 2018, or more than double the cost of building a
border barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a World Bank report. Remittances to Mexico reached
$33.7 billion in 2018, up 21 percent from roughly $27.8 billion in 2016, the bank reported. Remittances
from the three Central Americans countries are being spiked by the growing inflow of asylum-seeking migrants into blue-collar
jobs throughout the U.S. economy, via the border's catch-and-release laws. The outflow to Central America rose to
$19.7 billion in 2018, up from $15.8 billion in 2016, according to the bank.
Congressional
day care center with miniature National Mall to open, with $12 million taxpayer-funded outlay. The
26,000-square foot facility, which an host up to 120 toddlers, services both members of Congress and their staff, in an
effort to make working on Capitol Hill more appealing. In early 2018, the waiting list for the House day care facility
reportedly topped 175 names, and newborns at both the House and Senate day care centers typically waited between two and
three years for a slot to open. The delays were so lengthy that many House employees signed up before they became pregnant.
Government
shutdown exposes redundancy in Washington. Back in 1979, when Jimmy Carter proposed spending about
$6 billion to fund a brand new Department of Education (F.Y. 2019 budget is $60 billion), one of the strongest
selling points was that education programs were scattered in every department and agency across the government. Just
think how much money we can save if we bring all those programs under the control of one, federal department! It didn't
work. Today, there are still education programs in many federal agencies, and the Education Department has become a
gigantic presence.
Illegal Aliens
Cost Taxpayers $100+ Billion Annually. [Scroll down] In fact, if all Americans paid taxes at the same
rate illegal aliens did, the budget deficit would be at least quadruple what it is now. According to prior estimates of
mine based off the size of the 2017 labor force, if we were to replace the entire labor force with illegal immigrants and
have them pay all their taxes (including state and local) to the feds, the federal government would've collected approximately
$240 billion in tax revenue in 2017, as opposed to the $3.3 trillion that the Federal government actually collected.
IRS
unable to recoup nearly $1 billion in Obamacare subsidies. The IRS overpaid nearly $4 billion to Obamacare
customers through tax credits last year, and because of the way the law is written it can't even try to collect on a quarter
of that, the Treasury Department's inspector general reported this week. All told, the Treasury Department paid out
roughly $27 billion in Obamacare subsidies in the 2018 tax-filing season, with overages accounting for $3.7 billion
of that. Only $2.7 billion was recaptured.
After Defense Flunks Audit, What Next?
The first-ever comprehensive audit of DOD and its $2.7 trillion in assets was a resounding failure, with officials saying it
should take years for the Pentagon to get its books in order. "We failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it,"
Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan told reporters. [...] Critics have slammed DOD for the audit, which showcases
substandard accounting practices that have resulted in transaction records that differ from those of the U.S. Treasury.
DOD also hasn't recorded all of its real estate and property assets. Its management of expenses led to $665 million
in waste last year.
Rand
Paul issues 'Festivus Edition' of The Waste Report. Every Christmas since he took office, Senator Rand Paul has
issued a "Waste Report" on government spending. This year, Senator Paul has outdone himself in finding the stupid,
inane, shocking, maddening, and depressing examples of how our federal government spends the hard-earned tax dollars of
citizens. [...]
[#1] Since 2009, the State Department has allocated more than $76 million to provide stipends to
the nearly non-existent Somali army.
[#2] The Agriculture Department spent more than $13 million to promote the
already overcrowded farmers' market industry.
[#3] The U.S. embassy in Rwanda spent more than $250,000 to teach
citizens how to lobby.
[#4] The National Endowment for the Arts spent $15,000 on "theatrical research" to combat
poverty.
[#5] NIH spent more than $800,000 to study the sex lives of quails high on cocaine.
On and on it
goes — thousands upon thousands of line items in the budget for useless programs that not only are questionable
expenditures on their face, but raise questions about whether the federal government should even be funding these things.
City
to pay $480G in medical costs for suspect injured after allegedly shooting police officer: reports. Taxpayers
in Omaha, Neb., will pay nearly $480,000 in medical bills for a suspect whom police wounded with gunfire after he allegedly
shot an officer on Sept. 11, city council members decided this week in a 6-1 vote. The officers struck suspect John
Ezell Jr., 36, multiple times after he fired at Omaha Police Gang Unit Officer Ken Fortune, 42, striking the officer in a
shoulder, during a traffic stop in the city, authorities said, according to Omaha's FOX 42.
Louis Farrakhan Is Getting Cash From
U.S. Government. Our federal government has been paying the Nation Of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan to teach
religious study programs in federal prisons. Per the Washington Examiner, "the Nation of Islam and its leaders have
received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the U.S. government since 2008. Its leaders have received at least $364,500
in contracts and awards from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice between fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2019.
Omaha
taxpayers hit with $250,000 medical bill of gang member who shot police officer. A man allegedly shot a police
officer — and now taxpayers have to help pay his medical bill. The city of Omaha has been hit with a
$239,670.63 bill after a 36-year-old gang member needed treatment while in police custody, according to The Omaha
World-Herald.
Overpaid
public-sector employees. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that state and local government employee
total compensation is now 47 percent higher than for private sector employees. Total compensation for federal, state,
and local government employees cost taxpayers $1.9 trillion in 2016, or about $15,176 per household.
From Your Table to Their Farm.
Forget all the tongue clucking about Washington being so divided and nasty that Democrats and Republicans cannot work
together. As the Senate and House proved this week in passing the $867 billion farm bill, when it comes to
spending money they don't have, party leaders really can reach across the aisle. With the national federal debt
approaching $22 trillion, President Donald Trump has praised the bill, which provides food stamps for the poor, but also
hands out subsidies to American farmers, even though it does not include needed reforms or even modest spending cuts.
Conservative think tanks dismiss the farm subsidies as corporate welfare. On the left, environmentalist groups have
opposed them as well. Fiscal hawks are appalled at the failure of Congress to do anything to ease the deficit.
And yet the farm bill lives.
Subsidies
For All! — The Farm Bill's Creeping Socialism. As the Washington Post noted, Congress passed the
$867 billion farm bill "with strong bipartisan support, spurred in part by pressure from farmers battered by President
Trump's trade war with China." Sorry, don't blame the trade war with China for this debacle. The Farm Bill is a
disaster on its own. It's filled with literally hundreds of billions of dollars of market-distorting subsidies to U.S.
farmers. But the bill that passed excluded the one good idea it originally contained: A work requirement for
able-bodied welfare recipients. How bad is the bill? Even Iowa Republican Sen. Charles E. Grassley, himself
a farmer, was outraged because the package granted federal subsidies even to distant relatives of farmers that don't farm.
Obama
Used 310 Million Taxpayer Dollars for Illegals' Legal Fees. An investigation by the Immigration Reform Law
Institute (IRLI) has revealed that the Obama-era U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in apparent violation of
federal immigration law, awarded multiple high-value contracts, worth over $310 million, to a single nonprofit group in 2015
and 2016. All of these contracts were awarded for the purpose of providing legal representation to unaccompanied alien
children (UACs). A significant number of the so-called youth were tied to MS-13. The money was sent to the Vera
Institute of Justice (Vera), a nonprofit group that provides immigrants with access to legal services. One of the
former directors, Christopher Stone, also served as president of George Soros' Open Society Foundations from 2012-2017.
Alabama
sheriff's office mistakenly orders 24,000 rolls of toilet paper. Officials in an Alabama county have a financial mess
to wipe up after the sheriff's department mistakenly ordered 24,000 extra rolls of toilet paper. WAFF-TV reports the Marshall
County Sheriff's Office mistakenly spent $22,000 on toilet paper and another $9,000 for 450 cases of trash bags. That's a big
problem, because its entire budget for janitorial supplies for next year is only $15,000.
$280
Million USAID Program Was To Help 75,000 Afghan Women - It Helped 60. Since 2015, The United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) has spent $280 million on a program intended to help tens of thousands of Afghan women
enter their country's work force and gain promotions. According to a report from the Special Inspector General for
Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the program has helped somewhere between no women and roughly 60.
SF
spends $300,000 to register noncitizen voters — a whopping 49 sign up. San Francisco's effort to get
noncitizen parents to the ballot box is pretty much a bust the first time out, with only 49 signing up to vote in the Nov. 6
election. Back in July, the city began registering noncitizens — including undocumented immigrants —
to vote in school board elections. The program is the first-of-its-kind in California and followed passage of a 2016 San
Francisco ballot measure opening school elections to noncitizens who are over the age of 18, city residents and have children
under age 19. The city spent about $310,000 setting up the new registration system and encouraging people to sign up.
California's
$77 billion bullet train will be one of the state's great embarrassments: Larry Ellison. Oracle
co-founder Larry Ellison and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are on the same page when it comes to California's $77 billion high-speed
rail project. "Trains leave when you don't want to leave, from a place you don't want to leave from, and take you to a
place you don't want to go to, at a time you don't want to get there, and then you have to get into a car and go wherever
you're going. It is a crazy system," said Ellison during an exclusive interview with Maria Bartiromo on "Mornings with
Maria" on Thursday [10/25/2018]. Ellison, who said he hasn't spoken to Musk about the train, noted that their views
are in-line.
Costly
path-to-citizenship program comes under fire. U.S. Customs and Immigration empowers 866 regional centers around
the country to oversee EB-5 investments. Recent years have seen numerous high-profile scandals at the centers.
One in Vermont was shut down this summer over allegations its principals misused over $200 million in a Ponzi-like
scheme. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a Florida center blew a large chunk of $43.9 million in
EB-5 investments. And last year in California, two fraudsters pled guilty to stealing millions from EB-5 investors and
trying to sell visas to people on China's "100 Most Wanted List."
Mogadishu, Minnesota.
When it was noted that the carry-on bags of multiple airline passengers traveling from Minneapolis to Somalia contained
millions of dollars in cash, on a regular basis, law enforcement was naturally curious to know where the money came from and
where it was going. It soon emerged that millions of taxpayer dollars, and possibly much more, had been stolen through
a massive scam of Minnesota's social-services sector, specifically through fraudulent daycare claims. To make matters
worse, the money appears to have wound up in areas of Somalia controlled by al-Shabab, the Islamic jihadist group responsible
for numerous terrorist outrages. Starting in the 1990s, the State Department directed thousands of refugees from
Somalia's civil war to Minnesota, which is now home to the largest population of Somalis outside Somalia itself.
Air
Force squadron spends $56,000 on metal coffee cups. An Air Force squadron spent almost $56,000 to replace
broken just dozens of metal coffee cups over the past three years, in the latest example Pentagon procurement pricing
irregularities. The cups are used by the 60th Aerial Port Squadron at Travis Air Force base in California because they
can reheat coffee and tea on air refueling tankers in flight. But, because of the container's design, the handle breaks
easily whenever the cups are dropped.
Since there's plenty of money available...
Gov. 'Moonbeam' says
California to launch climate satellite. California Gov. Jerry Brown said Friday [9/14/2018] that [...]
state officials will work with the San Francisco-based company Planet Labs to develop a satellite to track climate-change
causing pollutants.
Millions
Of Water Bottles Found Rotting In Puerto Rico As San Juan Mayor Continues To Bash Trump. San Juan Mayor Carmen
Yulín Cruz has repeatedly attacked President Donald Trump over the U.S. government's response in the aftermath of
Hurricane Maria, even as 12 million bottles of water were discovered this week rotting on an airport runway in Puerto
Rico. BuzzFeed News reports that "Justo Hernández, deputy federal coordinating officer of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA), told reporters that the 19,841 pallets of water were left on the runway at José Aponte de
la Torre Airport and that as a result, 'some of that water was spoiled.'"
Massive
stockpile of bottled water found in Puerto Rico a year after Maria. Hundreds of thousands of water bottles
meant for victims of Hurricane Maria are still sitting at a Puerto Rico airport — nearly a year after the deadly
storm, according to a report. A photo showing the bottles in boxes and covered in a blue tarp on a runway in Ceiba was
shared widely on social media Tuesday evening. "Although you don't believe it... almost a million boxes of water that
were never delivered to the villages," posted Abdiel Santana, a photographer working for a Puerto Rican state police agency
who took the pictures. "Is there anyone who can explain this?" FEMA acknowledged to CBS News on Wednesday [9/12/2018]
that the bottles were brought inland in 2017 in the wake of the hurricane and that they were turned over to "central government."
A
Portland-Area Effort To End Homelessness Shows How Not To Do It. The Seattle Times published an interesting
story today [8/27/2018] about the failure of an attempt by the city of Portland to offer shelter to everyone who needed
it. The so-called "no turn away" policy started, as these things often do, with a genuine desire to help families
living on the street and ended two years later with a blown budget.
The Editor says...
Unfortunately, a "blown budget" is not perceived as a problem by most Democrats. That's how we have accumulated a $21 trillion national debt.
Chicago
Plans to Take on $10 Billion More Debt to Make Up for $28 Billon Pension Hole. The Democrat-led city of Chicago has a
new plan to try and make up the difference of a $28 billion pension deficit: take on another $10 billion in
debt. As the pension for Chicago's municipal workers, including its police and firefighters, continues to spiral out of control,
Democrat Mayor and former Barack Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is launching a scheme to float an additional $10 billion
taxable bond offering, according to Fox Business Network.
A $2.2 million loss:
Failed VA wind turbine
to be torn down in 2019. A failed wind turbine at the St. Cloud VA Medical Center will be torn down.
[...] The turbine was built in 2011 and never produced any energy for the VA.
50
Wacky Ways The Government Spends Your Money. [#23] Fruit Of The Loons: The University of Tennessee used
$5 million of taxpayer money allowing student to dress up like fruits and veggies in an attempt to promote healthy eating
habits. "Students created the term 'fruved' to describe 'the process of eating FRUits and VEgetables.'"
Scott Pruitt
used that $43,000 phone booth to call the White House once. Remember earlier this year when the now-departed
Scott Pruitt spent about $43,000 in taxpayer money to construct a secure phone booth in his office as director of the
Environmental Protection Agency? That seemed a little excessive even for a government agency that deals with
sensitive — and controversial — environmental issues in an age of hacking. [...] When the initial
$20,000 phone booth purchase price and $23,000 installation costs came out, Pruitt likened it to a Sensitive Compartmented
Information Facility, a highly-secure location used by government officials for secure conversations and
document-reading. The EPA already has one of those SCIF rooms. But the director would have had to go to a
different floor from his office. [...] Now, we learn from newly-released agency records that Pruitt used the secure telephone
booth only once to call the White House, which has its own very secure phone system.
Obama
administration gave out $434 million in improper Obamacare payments: Watchdog. The Obama administration
improperly paid out $434 million to Obamacare customers to pay down the cost of insurance in 2014, the first year the law's
health insurance marketplaces went online, a federal watchdog reported Monday [8/13/2018]. Health and Human Services'
Office of the Inspector General released a report Monday that outlined the improper payments during Obamacare's first year.
No
justice for taxpaying Americans. There are two systems of justice, but it's not so much about race as it is
about immigration status. If you're an American, chances are you get hard time. If you're an illegal immigrant,
you get everything, and I do mean everything, including an EBT card, MassHealth and a Sect. 8 housing certificate.
First, when the "racist" cops say you have the right to remain silent, the illegal says "no habla" English. He gets
a translator. He claims he's "indigent," so he gets a public defender. If he's charged with OUI, the public
defender hires a psychologist (also on the taxpayers' dime) to say that the illegal immigrant "lacks the enzyme" to
metabolize alcohol and thus can't be held accountable for killing some gringo. But the real double standard kicks in
when the undocumented Democrat gets to the courtroom. A taxpaying American can only dream of the kid-gloves treatment
these Third World fiends get.
Smug
Seattle keeps throwing money after streetcar, bike lane fiasco that's totally off the rails. Seattle was one of
the first cities to get electric streetcars in the U.S., with the first electric car entering service in 1889. With over a
century of experience, you would think the city would know how to handle public transit. Not so. Taxpayers are
paying a big price for the incompetence of city officials. The public transportation system in Seattle is a mess.
Construction costs for new and upgraded streetcar and light rail lines are skyrocketing well above estimated costs. One
of the more unbelievable mistakes made was the purchase of 10 new streetcars last fall. Apparently, when the Seattle
Department of Transportation (SDOT) ordered the cars no one thought to check the measurements. The order was placed for
street cars that are likely too big for the tracks and the maintenance barn.
Seattle's
new streetcars may be too big to fit tracks, maintenance barn, mayor's office says. The Seattle Department of
Transportation (SDOT) ordered 10 new streetcars in the fall, at a cost of $52 million, as it planned to link the two existing
streetcar lines with a new line along First Avenue through downtown. But Durkan halted that work in March and ordered
an independent review of the project's finances, after a Seattle Times report said costs to operate the new system could be
50 percent higher than SDOT had publicly stated.
Seattle's
$52M streetcar fiasco. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) reportedly ordered 10 new streetcars
last year, to help expand the Seattle Streetcar system by linking the two existing streetcar lines. Questions [were]
raised as to whether 10 new streetcars ordered by Seattle will fit current tracks[.] But the new streetcars also are
reportedly heavier and longer than the ones currently in use, raising concerns about whether they'll be used at all.
Florida domestic
violence chief is paid $761,000 a year. Tiffany Carr runs the state's top domestic violence organization, a
nonprofit that uses public money — state and federal — to finance shelters and other essential
services. And she makes a good living. How good? In a June 30, 2017 report, the Florida Coalition
Against Domestic Violence disclosed she is paid $761,560 annually, a salary that is approved by its board. She hit that
mark after receiving pay raises totaling $313,475 over a two-year period.
Jeb
Bush's Florida do-gooder with a $761,000 salary. [Scroll down] So this woman, who runs this non-profit
group that supposedly helps battered women, is really, truly worth her $761,560 salary, and the state just has to cough up
for her because of all the value she brings, or else all is lost. The racket is perpetrated not by civil service
classifications, which are transparent to all, but by the contracting-out system, where less than transparent boards of
directors sign off on these outrages, and who knows, get something they want from it. The Herald reports that
$761,000-woman Carr's group gets nearly all its money from the government. She owns three houses, two of them expensive
vacation homes, as part of a program set up by, surprise, then-gov. Jeb Bush.
15
Former Chicago Aldermen Collect 6-Figure Pensions. Of the 38 former elected Chicago officials currently
receiving pensions, 15 former aldermen see yearly payouts exceeding $100,000, according to documents from the Municipal
Employees' Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, or MEABF. Two additional aldermen receive annual pension payouts just a few
thousand dollars shy of $100,000. On average, the 15 former aldermen collecting six-figure annual pensions have
accumulated $768,500 in total gross pension benefits. Four of those ex-aldermen have accumulated more than
$1 million in gross benefits.
More
about Chicago.
Wasteful
spending will sink our country. When government spends more money on projects to reduce global warming, for
example, it is at the expense of increased costs of other goods people buy. No one claims that it would prevent
global warming because climate is determined by natural forces, and man-made global warming is only part of it.
Moreover, since electricity produced by wind and solar power is more costly than electricity produced from fossil fuels,
businesses and consumers have to pay the higher utility costs, and consumers will have to pay higher prices for domestically
produced goods.
Wasteful
spending will sink our country. There can be little doubt that federal government spending is excessive on a
wide range of programs in nearly every department and agency. Depending on whom you use as the source, there are 78 to
137 independent federal government agencies, most of which you probably never heard of. How much it costs the federal
government to ignore the cost of overspending in the programs of these agencies and how much it costs the private sector
because too much is spent by the federal government is unknown, but it has to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
Unbelievable
Nerve: Illegal Detainee Complaints Cross The Line. Previous reports about illegal detainees haven't
discussed the topic of food. The detainees must be feeling more entitled to what they want. Complaints of food
not following "religious beliefs" are pretty shocking because these people are just lucky they survived crossing. In
other words, beggars shouldn't be choosers. That might sound harsh but we are keeping thousands and thousands of these
illegals at taxpayer expense. America is over 20 TRILLION dollars in debt so you have to ask yourself how long
we can be the world's babysitter.
Wasteful
spending will sink our country. The GAO reports that five federal agencies alone spent $3.1 billion on workers
placed on administrative leave in a two-year time span. The Heritage Foundation reported that Washington spends
$25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties; government auditors spent the past five years
examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them — costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion
annually — fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve. The Congressional Budget Office
published a "Budget Options" series identifying more than $100 billion in potential spending cuts. Sen. James
Lankford (R-Okla.) wrote in a recent report that there was over $473 billion in wasteful spending in one recent year.
Feds
order Georgia sheriff to return $69G spent on Hellcat muscle car. A Georgia police department is in hot water
over the purchase of a Hellcat muscle car. Fox 5 reports that the U.S. Department of Justice has asked the Gwinnett
County Sheriff's Office to pay back $69,258 that it received from a federal program that distributes seized drug money to law
enforcement agencies, which was used to buy the 707 hp Dodge Charger Hellcat in May.
Money laundering:
Inspector General: Obama
Paid $300 Million To 'People Who Don't Exist'. Barack Obama will always be remembered for a series of highly
irregular overseas payments to authoritarian regimes, however according to a report by the special inspector general for
Afghanistan reconstruction, those wasted millions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Obama's largesse.
According to special inspector general John Sopko, Obama wasted at least $300 million on the salaries of "people
who don't exist", who were supposedly operating in Afghanistan, far away from the prying eyes of U.S. oversight.
Atlanta
airport reveals it spent nearly $4M on dog bathrooms. Officials for the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
recently revealed that its seven new Service Animal Relief Areas, which were installed last year, cost a total of $3.9 million.
The airport installed the seven dog bathrooms, one in each concourse, last summer, but the cost to construct them was made public only this
week, Fox 5 Atlanta reports.
A
Mountain Of Surplus Cheese, Brought To You By The Federal Government. The amount of surplus cheese is growing
fast — up 6% in just the past year. According to news accounts, the reason is that dairy production is
climbing, while dairy consumption is falling. [...] In what other industry would you find producers continuing to ramp up
production while demand slides, and then stuffing the growing pile of surplus into warehouses, hoping the federal government
will buy some of it? What makes the dairy industry different is decades of government efforts to "support" dairy
farmers with various subsidy schemes. The 2014 farm bill did away with old federal price support programs, but replaced
them with heavily subsidized insurance that essentially guarantees margins for those who sign up. This year, the dairy
industry successfully lobbied Congress to expand this subsidy program.
How
$21 Trillion in U.S. Tax Money Disappeared: The following are highlights from the DOD IG "Summary of DOD Office of the
Inspector General Audits of Financial Management":
• The financial management systems DOD has put in place to control and monitor the money flow don't
facilitate but actually "prevent DOD from collecting and reporting financial information... that is accurate, reliable, and timely." (p. 4)
• DOD frequently enters "unsupported" (i.e. imaginary) amounts in its books (p. 13) and uses those figures to
make the books balance. (p. 14)
• Inventory records are not reviewed and adjusted; unreliable and inaccurate data are used to report inventories,
and purchases are made based on those distorted inventory reports. (p. 7)
• DOD managers do not know how much money is in their accounts at the Treasury, or when they spend more than
Congress appropriates to them. (p. 5)
• Nor does DOD "record, report, collect, and reconcile" funds received from other agencies or the public (p. 6),
• DOD tracks neither buyer nor seller amounts when conducting transactions with other agencies. (p. 12)
• "The cost and depreciation of the DOD general property, plant, and equipment are not reliably reported...." (p. 8);
• "...the value of DOD property and material in the possession of contractors is not reliably reported." (p. 9)
• DOD does not know who owes it money, nor how much. (p. 10.)
U.S.
Post Office to pay $3.5M for using wrong Statue of Liberty on stamp. The U.S. Postal Service was ordered last
week to pay $3.5 million for mistakenly featuring Las Vegas' Statue of Liberty replica on a "forever" stamp instead of the
original New York statue. In a copyright infringement lawsuit, Las Vegas sculptor Robert Davidson sued the Postal Service
five years ago over its 2011 forever stamp design. Davidson created the replica Lady Liberty in the façade at the
New-York-New-York casino-resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
USPS
must pay Statue of Liberty replica sculptor $3.5M. They knocked off a knockoff — and now the US
Postal Service must fork over $3.5 million to a sculptor who built the famously tacky Statue of Liberty replica in Las Vegas,
a judge has ruled. In an embarrassing and now costly move, the money-losing USPS used an image of Robert Davidson's
"sexier" and "more fresh faced" faux Lady Liberty — instead of the majestic original in New York Harbor —
on a popular patriotic stamp without permission, according to court records. "We are satisfied that plaintiff succeeded
in making the statue his own creation, particularly the face," Judge Eric G. Bruggink, of the US Court of Federal Claims,
said last week. "We find that defendant's use was infringing."
Handing them out like candy.
Seattle
authorities luring homeless off the streets with plane tickets, rent payments. Seattle is testing out other ideas, such as
using tax payer money to purchase airfare for homeless people looking to stay with family in other places. Last week, two people at the
camp accepted plane tickets to Kansas to stay with friends in a more stable housing situation using the taxpayers' money. Now [Mayor
Jenny] Durkan is willing to dig deeper than just covering homeless people's airfare. She is now proposing paying two months rent or even
paying car repairs in order to keep people off the city's streets or give them opportunities to relocate. Durken has described her plan
of action as a diversion service.
Sounds like a slush fund:
New
Jersey Funds the Media. In the liberal mind, the way to prove you value something is by funding it with taxpayer money.
So if you love journalism, you take taxpayer money and give it to journalists. It is a sacred mantra of the Left that corporate funding
of media inevitably results in a pro-corporate media bias. Consistency would dictate that government funding of media would lead to a
pro-government bias. Not in New Jersey. [...] Garden State legislators have approved a bill to use taxpayer money to support "grants to
strengthen local news coverage," starting with an opening $5 million kitty. The goal is to have $20 million allocated toward
the "civic information" fund every year for five years.
Report:
Taxpayers' Money Going To Islamic Charity Group With Ties To Terrorist Groups. One of the largest Islamic
charities in the world has financial ties to several terrorist organizations, according to a report obtained by The Daily
Caller News Foundation. Islamic Relief, the highly influential international nonprofit, receives funds from the
Charitable Society for Social Welfare, for example, which was founded by Al-Qaida terrorist and "Bin Laden loyalist" Abdul
Majeed Al-Zindani, the report says. Islamic Relief is also accused of financially supporting Hamas, the militant and
political Islamist organization regarded by much of the international community as a terrorist group.
French
Research Agency Churning Out Pseudoscience on America's Dime. Cancer research is big business, and with big
business comes big corruption. The embattled International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), based in Lyon, France,
is in Congress's crosshairs again. The U.S. House Science, Space and Technology (SST) Committee has been concerned
about IARC's scientific integrity — and the millions of dollars of funding it receives from American
taxpayers — since 2016.
US
anti-narcotic effort in Afghanistan is a costly failure, official report finds. Poppy cultivation in
Afghanistan hit a record high last year, a US government watchdog has said, describing American-funded counternarcotics
efforts in the war-torn country as a failure. Since the American-led invasion in late 2001, the US has spent about
$8.6bn on counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan, yet the country remains the world's largest producer of opium.
According to a new study by the office of the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (Sigar), opium
cultivation reached about 328,000 hectares (1,265 square miles) in 2017 — a 63% jump from the year before
and the greatest amount tallied since 2002.
The CIA studied
the impact of space storms on psychic powers. In late 2016 then-President Barack Obama signed an Executive
Order on geomagnetic storm preparedness. His plan, co-chaired by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the
Department of Homeland Security, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, focused exclusively on guiding
the country through damages to our power grid, which could cause an estimated $12 trillion in damages. Apparently the
Central Intelligence Agency took the issue with lack of concern over solar flare-induced psychic phenomena, however,
dedicating part of its 824 page risk report on it. The first part of the document, released to Michael Morisy,
is entitled "Geomagnetic Factors in Subjective Telepathic, Precognitive and Postmortem Experiences." It's just as
bizarre as one might expect.
Restatement
on Fozia Ali. [Scroll down] Fozia Ali served as the centerpiece of [Jeff] Baillon's story. She
stole $1.5 million from the Child Care Assistance Program over an 18-month period. The media can't quibble with the
facts of the Fozia Ali case. Her guilty plea in federal court earlier this year told its own story, although the media
somehow overlooked it. Reviewing the facts of Ali's case I called and wrote the Minnesota Department of Human Services
to ask one question: "CCAP seems to be a program that is relatively easy to defraud. How else to account for a
case like Fozia Ali's and the multiplicity of similar cases?" DHS responded: "Any amount of fraud is too much.
DHS created the Office of the Inspector General in 2011 to address fraud, waste and abuse in public programs. DHS has
added resources and made recommendations to the Legislature to increase our ability to ensure public funds are used for those
who need them." DHS also instructed me not to attribute this nonresponse response to the person who provided it.
Robert
Mueller Reveals The Price Tag For His Special Counsel Investigation. The special counsel investigation into
Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has cost nearly $17 million dollars so far, according to a new
report from the Justice Department. Robert Mueller's team of prosecutors and FBI special agents has spent by far the most
money on covering salaries, followed by rent and information technology services, the statement of expenditures says. The
office has been operating for just over a year — since May 17, 2017, when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein
appointed Mueller, the former FBI director.
Mueller
team spent $4.5 million in six months. Special counsel Robert Mueller has cost American taxpayers another
$4.5 million. According to a new statement of expenditures released on Thursday [5/31/2018] showing expenses
between Oct. 1, 2017 and March 31, 2018, most of the money — $2.78 million — was spent
on personnel compensation and benefits. Mueller also announced an additional $5.476 million had been spent
separately on the investigation by Justice Department officials not on Mueller's team. He stated those costs "would
have incurred" regardless of his own work and appointment by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Far
from cages: Feds pay $670 a day to make unaccompanied alien children 'comfortable'. The image of two
illegal immigrant children sleeping on the floor in a chain-link fence "cage" swept the internet last weekend, sparking
misdirected anger from activists who blamed President Trump for the conditions — which were actually from 2014,
when the photo was taken, under President Obama. Here is another image: illegal immigrant children set up in
comfy dormitories, coloring with "multicultural crayons," watching their favorite soccer teams from back home on the extensive
cable system, even kicking the ball around themselves on a beautiful new soccer field — all paid for by taxpayers.
There's "Spanish language yoga" for those that want it and trips to go bowling, to visit museums and even to hit up the amusement
park, at $49 a ticket, also on taxpayers' tab. The children chow on three meals a day plus snacks, since federal rules
say they must be fed "until they are full."
Andrew
McCabe Spent $70,000 On A Table. The FBI Hid It From Congress. Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe,
who was fired for lying under oath, spent $70,000 in taxpayer dollars on a conference table. The FBI also redacted the
conference table's steep price tag from documents that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee requested, in an apparent
attempt to hide it from Congress. In a letter sent to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Wednesday, Sen. Chuck
Grassley revealed that the FBI had redacted the cost of the table from a document he and his fellow members of the committee
requested to see. Grassley said many of the redactions within the documents made no sense, nor were they made to
protect national security secrets.
Feds
Spend $333,210 Studying Bars Along Mexico Border. The National Institutes of Health is spending over $300,000
to study bars along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation is heading the
project. Among the study's aims are to examine whether bars in border towns like Mexicali have "more dancing" and
"louder music." The study, "Mexican American Drinking Contexts On and Away From the U.S.-Mexico Border," involves
researchers going into bars for "unobtrusive systematic observations."
Mogadishu, Minnesota.
When it was noted that the carry-on bags of multiple airline passengers traveling from Minneapolis to Somalia contained
millions of dollars in cash, on a regular basis, law enforcement was naturally curious to know where the money came from and
where it was going. It soon emerged that millions of taxpayer dollars, and possibly much more, had been stolen through
a massive scam of Minnesota's social-services sector, specifically through fraudulent daycare claims. To make matters
worse, the money appears to have wound up in areas of Somalia controlled by al-Shabab, the Islamic jihadist group responsible
for numerous terrorist outrages.
Minnesota
Republicans call for crackdown on child care assistance fraud. Minnesota Republicans said Tuesday [5/15/2018] they want to
crack down on subsidized child-care providers who commit fraud, following a television news report that suggested illegally obtained funds
may be going overseas to finance terrorist groups. State and federal officials said Tuesday that they've seen no evidence of a link
between Minnesota day-care operators and overseas terrorist groups, but that they welcome any additional resources to investigate fraud
against the state's child-care subsidy program. The legislation introduced Tuesday would enable the Minnesota Department of Human
Services (DHS) to close child-care businesses that participate in the program but fail to fully cooperate with investigators. It
would also create new criminal and civil penalties for anyone who transferred fraudulently obtained money to countries on the U.S. State
Department's travel ban list.
The Great Somali
Welfare Rip-Off. At the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the carry-on bag bulged with $1 million
in cash from a welfare rip-off scheme. The loot was headed for Somalia, some of it to regions controlled by the al Shabaab
terrorist group, and this shipment was part of $100 million sent over the past year alone. This scheme was not uncovered
by the New York Times, CNN, "Frontline" or any "investigative" journalist in the old-line establishment media. It came to
light in [...] a story by Jeff Baillon of KMSP, a Fox News outlet in Minnesota and the subject of a Powerline blog by John Hinderaker
on Monday [5/14/2018]. Back on March 5, Fox 9 got a tip about a man leaving the country with $1 million in
cash, but this was only part of the story.
Millions
of dollars in suitcases fly out of MSP, but why? For five months, Fox 9 has been investigating what appears to
be rampant fraud in a massive state program. This fraud is suspected of costing Minnesota taxpayers as much as $100 million
a year. The Fox 9 Investigators reporting is based on public records and nearly a dozen government sources who have direct
knowledge of what is happening. These sources have a deep fear, and there is evidence to support their concerns, that some of
that public money is ending up in the hands of terrorists.
FBI 'won't touch it' for fear of offending Muslims.
Refugees
sending 'suitcases of welfare cash' home to Somalia. Men and women pulling "suitcases full of cash" started
showing up at Seattle's Sea-Tac Airport last year holding tickets for international flights bound for Africa.
Transporting large amounts of cash overseas is perfectly legal. But it was who was carrying the money ... and where it
was going that caught the attention of law enforcement, according to a report by KING 5, the local NBC affiliate for western
Washington. Those hauling the cash-laden cases were Somali-Americans who'd come to this country as refugees. They
routinely send money back to Somalia. And many of the greenbacks headed to the jihadist-infested East African country
come from welfare checks the refugees receive from the U.S. government, compliments of American taxpayers. Carrying
more than $10,000 while traveling out of the United States is legal as long as the traveler declares it by filling out a
one-page federal form. It was while looking at these slips of paper that terrorism expert Glenn Kerns found a
disturbing pattern.
Here are 1,366 well
sourced examples of Barack Obama's lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc.. [#36]
During one of Obama's "stimulus" projects, $205,075 of combined federal and local government funding was spent to relocate
and care for a single specimen of Arctostaphylos franciscana, a shrubbery which nurseries sell for $16. [...] [#37]
Obama's administration funded a study to see whether or not rats' enjoyment of the music of Miles Davis was increased when the
rats were high on cocaine. [...] [#49] During Obama's presidency, the federal government repeatedly purchased soda for a cost
of $3.40 per can. [...] [#50] Obama's "stimulus" paid to connect some households in Montana to the internet, at a cost
of $7 million per household.[...] [#111] In 2012, the Obama administration spent $516,000 on a video game called
"Prom Week." [...] [#115] Obama spent $27 million on pottery classes in Morocco. [...] [#122] In the summer
of 2011, the Obama administration spent $50,000 on a George S. Patton impersonator. [#123] The Obama
administration spent $75,000 of taxpayer money on a bicycle. [...] [#159] In March 2013, it was reported that Obama was
spending $277,050 of tax money per year for three professional calligraphists. It was also reported that cheap computer
software could produce the exact same calligraphy for a tiny fraction of that cost. [...] [#161] Obama spent $2.6 million
to teach Chinese prostitutes how to drink responsibly on the job. [...] [#171] In May 2013, it was reported that the Obama
administration had spent $402,721 on underwear that detects the presence of cigarette smoke. [...] [#204] In July 2013, it was
reported that Obama had spent $630,000 of taxpayers' money in order to get more Facebook "likes." [...] [#217] In July 2013,
it was reported that the Obama administration had spent $3 million to study the health risks of dating Mexican prostitutes.
[...] [#324] In September 2013, the Obama administration spent $98,670 to build an outhouse at the Swede Park Trail Head in
Alaska. [...] [#389] The Obamacare website was originally supposed to cost $94 million. However, when it went online
on October 1, 2013, it had already cost $634 million. [...] [#460] In August 2013, it was reported that the Obama
administration would be spending $1.5 million to help women in Brazil quit smoking. [...] [#502] In December
2013, it was reported that the Obama administration had spent $914,000 to study "romance as told in novels, films,
comics, advice books, songs, and internet fan fiction." [#503] In December 2013, it was reported that the Obama
administration had spent $65 million on television ads to promote tourism in New York and New Jersey. [#504] In
December 2013, it was reported that the Obama administration had spent $1.5 million each year to tell the movie
industry how to portray the FBI in movies. [...] [#542] In January 2014, it was reported that the Obama
administration had spent $2,797,979 so people in Veitnam could watch television. [...] [#522] In January
2013, it was reported that the Obama administration had spent $544,338 for an "Enhanced Company Profile" on LinkedIn.
[...] [#557] In February 2014, it was reported that the Obama administration had spent $464,272 to find out why gay men in
Peru get Syphilis. [...] [#690] In April 2014, the Obama administration spent $194,788 to study how transwomen use Facebook.
[...] [#715] In May 2014, it was reported that the Obama administration had spent $430,000 to renovate a house in Detroit,
and then sold it for $80,000. [...] [#720] In July 2014, it reported that the Obama administration was spending $252 per day
per child to house illegal aliens. [...] [#751] In June 2014, it was reported that the Phoenix VA Health Care System spent
$20 million on solar panels while as many as 40 of its patients died while waiting for care. [...] [#797] Between 2010
and 2014, the Obama administration spent a total of $34 million of taxpayers' money to try to convince the people of
Afghanistan to grow and eat soybeans. [...] [#865] In October 2014, it was reported that Obama had spent $466,642 of
taxpayers' money to find out why obese teenage girls have a hard time getting dates. [...] [#874] In October 2014, it was
reported that the Obama administration had spent $667,000 of taxpayers' money to study the health benefits of watching reruns
on television. [#875] In October 2014, it was reported that the Obama administration had spent $600,000 of taxpayers'
money to find out why chimpanzees throw their poop. [#876] In October 2014, it was reported that the Obama administration had
spent $350,000 of taxpayers' money to study the importance of imagination while golfing. [...] [#965] In December 2014, the
Obama administration spent $33,341 to find out if gay and lesbian couples lived near stores that sold cigarettes. [...]
[#1071] In 2014, the Obama administration spent $288,000 of taxpayers' money to relocate Diana Rubens, the director of the
Philadelphia VA regional benefits office, a distance of 140 miles. [...] [#1075] In April 2015, it was reported that the
Obama administration had spent $410,265 of taxpayers' money to study gay men's level of satisfaction from their first sexual
experience. [...] [#1087] In February 2015, the Obama administration spent $15,000 of taxpayers' money to have a comedian
speak to employes of the U.S. Census Bureau. [...] [#1142] In September 2015, it was reported that Obama had spent $236,517 of
taxpayers' money to create a video game to teach 11-year-old Kenyans how to use condoms. [...] [#1150] In October 2015, it was
reported that the Obama administration had spent $49,083 of taxpayers' money to create a network to support the gay, lesbian,
bigender, and transsexual community in India. [...] [#1182] In November 2015, it was reported that the Department of Defense had
spent $43 million of taxpayers' money to build a gas station in Sheberghan, Afghanistan, that was supposed to cost $500,000.
[...] [#1189] In April 2016, it was reported that the Obama administration had spent $336,413 of taxpayers' money to build a
randomizer app that chooses left or right. In the private sector, such an app can be built for $10. [Or you could
just flip a coin.] [...] [#1215] In March 2016, it was reported that the Obama administration had spent $412,930 of taxpayers'
money to study the "relationship between gender and glaciers." [...] [#1267] In August 2016, it was reported that the State
Department had spent $185,000 of taxpayers' money on a piece of artwork that was made from balls of thread, and was displayed
in Islamabad, Pakistan. [...] [#1275] In August 2016, it was reported that the Obama administration had spent taxpayers' money
to try to convince lesbians to become farmers.
Feds Spend $318,876
on Mindfulness for Drunks. The National Institutes of Health is spending over $300,000 getting drunks to practice
mindfulness meditation. The Wake Forest University study will seek to curb the cravings of "moderate to high" drinkers,
which the researchers define as low as just one drink per day for women, and two drinks for men. "The scientific premise
of the Wake Forest Translational Alcohol Research Center (WF-TARC) is that the neurobiological substrates that contribute to
alcohol use disorder (AUD) vulnerability and resilience are not fully understood," according to the grant for the study.
"Despite the fact that alcohol misuse contributes to 88,000 deaths in America each year, the effectiveness of currently available
interventions is less than desirable and is demonstrated by relapse occurring in up to 70 [percent] of treated patients."
Amazon
handling our national security: Worse than you think. The U.S. Department of Defense has more than 3,000
datacenters and countless applications. The DOD smartly want to consolidate to save money. In March, the DOD put
out a request for a proposal about a compute cloud infrastructure. Business Insider reports that Amazon is currently a
shoe-in for the $10-billion contract. One reason is because Amazon has already signed a $600M contract with the CIA to
run a more secure datacenter in Washington, D.C. Bryan Crabtree wrote an article talking about why it is a mistake for the
U.S. military to choose Amazon. Many don't realize there is already a free solution to this problem, called OpenStack.
Obama
State Dept. Gave Soros $9 Million To Support 'Socialist-Communist' Activities. The Obama State Dept. and
the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2016 sent $9 million in U.S. taxpayer funds to a Soros-backed group,
which used the money to fund far-left political activities in Albania, newly released documents show. According to the
watchdog website, Judicial Watch, which obtained the 32 pages of records through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit,
the American tax dollars were used to help the country's socialist government push for highly controversial judicial "reform."
The records also provide insight into how the Soros operation "helped the State Department review grant applications from other
groups for taxpayer funding."
DOJ
announces $1M grant to cover costs associated with Parkland shooting. The Justice Department has awarded a $1
million grant to Florida state and local law enforcement to cover expenses related to the Parkland high school shooting
earlier this year. The grant is intended to pay salary and overtime expenses for the first responders who arrived at
the scene, according to a Justice Department release shared by ABC News. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a
statement that the department "stands ready to help them in any way we can."
The Editor says...
By what authority does the Justice Department give away a million dollars to cover the costs of cleaning up after an
isolated criminal act?
Carving
Off The Extra Bits Of Government Spending To Reduce The Deficit. Ordinary Americans know what to do when they have
too much debt. They sit at the kitchen table and decide on what they can do without. Clever families search their
closets and sell items on eBay! While eBay is not an option for the disposal of federal property, the President should
follow Main Street's example and monetize excess property. Not only would it help pay down the debt, but it also would be
a clear demonstration to Main Street that President Trump is serious about changing an intrusive, wasteful federal government.
Now,
EPA's Scott Pruitt buys a $43,000 phone booth. President-elect Donald Trump promised the country he'd have the
best Cabinet in history. He didn't say when. There's been considerable turnover as he sorts folks out. David
Shulkin is gone. Rex Tillerson is gone. Tom Price is gone. Not to mention a battalion of White House aides.
Your
taxes are funding terrorists. U.S. economic aid to the Palestinian Authority — paid for by your tax
dollars — averages $400 million a year. The Palestinian Authority's 2018 budget includes approximately
$360 million to support imprisoned terrorists and the families of dead terrorists — including murderers of Israelis
and Americans. These payments make about as much sense as having American taxpayers send monthly support checks to the families
of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists or the family of the Las Vegas gunman who murdered 58 people last year.
A $76,000 Monthly
Pension: Why States and Cities Are Short on Cash. A public university president in Oregon gives new
meaning to the idea of a pensioner. Joseph Robertson, an eye surgeon who retired as head of the Oregon Health & Science
University last fall, receives the state's largest government pension. It is $76,111. Per month. That is
considerably more than the average Oregon family earns in a year. Oregon — like many other states and
cities, including New Jersey, Kentucky and Connecticut — is caught in a fiscal squeeze of its own making.
Its economy is growing, but the cost of its state-run pension system is growing faster. More government workers are
retiring, including more than 2,000, like Dr. Robertson, who get pensions exceeding $100,000 a year.
New Jersey Gov
Phil Murphy Spends $13,000 on a Door. New Jersey is already burdened by some of the highest property taxes in
the nation, with the typical household paying 8% of their income in property taxes, or $8,353. The State also charges an
additional 1.4% — 8.97% income tax rate, for approximately another $4,000 paid by the median household.
That's somehow not enough to cover even a doorway for the State's new governor, Phil Murphy.
Dem New Jersey Governor
Spends 13k In Taxpayer Funds On A Door For His Wife. New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy spent nearly
$13,000 of taxpayer money for his wife to have an office nearby. The purpose of the taxpayer fund project was to turn a
conference room down the hall from the governor's office into a private office for the first lady, New Jersey Advance Media
reported. The governor and first lady have spent $27,000 of taxpayer money refurbishing their respective work spaces
since taking office in January. The governor defended spending taxpayer money on a door Thursday [4/5/2018].
Obama
State Dept used taxpayer dollars to fund George Soros group's political activities in Albania, watchdog group
says. The Obama administration sent U.S. taxpayer funds to a group backed by billionaire George Soros to fund
left-wing activities in Albania, a conservative watchdog group says. The group, Judicial Watch, obtained 32 pages of
records from the Justice Department this week through a May 2017 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the State
Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID.) The new documents show USAID funds were sent through
the agency's Civil Society Project to back Soros' left-wing "East West Management Institute" through USAID's "Justice for
All" campaign. USAID provided $8.8 million in 2016 to that campaign.
These
13 California legislators are getting two government checks a month. Amid ongoing warnings about underfunded
public employee pension funds, more than a dozen California state lawmakers are augmenting their $107,242 salaries by collecting
retirement payments from previous government jobs, a practice that taxpayer activists condemn as "double dipping." A string
of reports in recent weeks have predicted greater financial challenges for state and local governments in meeting the financial
obligations of public pension systems. At the same time, taxpayer advocates are critical of policies that allow public
officials to receive a government pension check while taking a salary from a different agency. "The public never envisioned
that kind of thing can be done, where you pile one check on top of another," said Jack Dean, vice president of the group
California Pension Reform.
NASA
awards Lockheed Skunk Works $247.5M supersonic X-plane. Supersonic commercial air travel may once again become
a reality under a partnership between NASA and Lockheed Martin. The American space agency announced on Tuesday that it
awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works to design, build and flight test the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD),
an X-plane that will be used by NASA to find ways to bring supersonic jet travel back to the skies. The
cost-plus-incentive-fee contract is valued at $247.5 million.
The Editor says...
If supersonic commercial air travel is economically feasible, that is, if there is sufficient demand for such a service,
the airlines should pay for the development of the aircraft.
The Concorde proved there is insufficient demand.
Therefore this $247 million project is either a cover story or a white elephant.
Military
Recruiting Slogans: The Navy Sinks $457 Million. With great fanfare the United States Navy has unveiled a new
recruiting campaign built around the slogan, "Forged by the Sea." The Navy paid its PR/advertising consultant Young &
Rubicam $457 million to develop the new brand, which took 18 months to think up.
The Wall is National
Defense. What is defense? Is it not to make Americans safe from foreign attack? To prevent
foreigners from imposing their way of life upon us, through invasion or other means? To maintain the independence,
peace, and prosperity of the already-existing American people? Very little of what the government does in the name of
defense accomplishes these things. [...] America maintains hundreds of overseas bases, builds and develops increasingly
sophisticated conventional arms, continues to slog on inconclusively in Afghanistan, and, in spite of a smallish uniformed
military, still spends mountains of money. [...] The substantial defense budget does nothing to prevent foreigners —
whether mere economic migrants, violent drug gangs, or Islamic terrorists — from entering through our porous
southern border. Instead, it funds bases, multiple aircraft carriers, and super-weapons to protect us from ...
who exactly?
Palestinian
Government Still Paying Terrorists With U.S. Taxpayer Funds, Defying U.S. Law. The Palestinian Authority is
continuing to pay out salaries to convicted terrorists using funds provided by the American taxpayer, a policy that defies a
recent U.S. law mandating the PA stop these subsidies or face a cutoff in U.S. aid dollars, according to U.S. and Israeli
lawmakers who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon. Palestinian officials in recent days have rejected a new U.S.
law, known as the Taylor Force Act, or TFA, that bans the PA government from providing salaries to terrorists and their
families, a longstanding policy that had become the center of controversy after it was found U.S. taxpayer aid dollars to the
Palestinians had been used to subsidize this practice.
HUD
Gives Dicey Obama Plan to Transform Slums into Middle-Class Neighborhoods $5 Mil. A controversial Obama program
that's reaped enormous amounts of taxpayer money to transform slums into desirable middle-class neighborhoods just got a $5 million
infusion from the Trump administration. Known as Choice Neighborhoods, the costly experiment was the centerpiece of a broader Obama
initiative to convert poverty-stricken neighborhoods into sustainable, mixed-income areas with affordable housing, safe streets and good
schools. [...] During Obama's tenure Choice Neighborhoods received a breathtaking $375 million, according to HUD figures. A
substantial chunk of it — $120 million — was rewarded as a parting gift in 2016, the HUD numbers reveal and
the largest portion — $122.27 million — was allocated in 2010 when Obama launched the program. Like many of
the former president's initiatives, large sums of cash went to leftist nonprofits and community groups that aligned with his liberal agenda.
Here's
what Congress is stuffing into its $1.3 trillion spending bill. [Scroll down] Arts: Federal funding for the
arts goes up, despite GOP attempts to slash it. The National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities will see funding climb to
$152.8 million each, a $3 million increase over the last fiscal year. Trump proposed eliminating the endowments.
The National Gallery of Art gets $165.9 million, a $1.04 million jump in funding. The John F. Kennedy Center for
the Performing Arts will receive $40.5 million, which is $4 million more than the last fiscal year.
These
5 Horrible Bureaucrats Beat the Clock and Kept Their Pensions. [#1] John Beale: Beginning in 2000, eight years
before he was eligible for retirement, Beale, a senior official at the Environmental Protection Agency, began telling his boss he
was moonlighting as a secret agent to get out of work. He would leave his job for as long as 18 months at a time — adding
up to two and a half years in total — claiming to be on top-secret missions to Pakistan while actually heading off to his
vacation house in Massachusetts. When he did travel for his actual job, Beale ensured that he traveled in James Bond-esque style
by claiming to have lumbar problems that required him to be seated in first class. While Beale did time for his numerous crimes,
he retired in 2011 before he could be fired and, to this day, receives a full pension for his brave service.
FBI
Scandal Over Andrew McCabe's 'Lost' Pension Isn't What You Think. The outrage and self-righteous posturing over
the fact that fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe might lose his FBI pension is misplaced. What's truly
outrageous is how large and lavish government benefits have become.
Interior
spending $139K to upgrade doors in Zinke's office. The Interior Department is spending nearly $139,000 to upgrade three sets
of double doors in the office of Secretary Ryan Zinke.
Pass the Taylor Force Act to
Curb Terror. "It was just two years ago that Taylor Force, a 28-year-old American tourist and former U.S. Army
captain who had served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was stabbed to death in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian terrorist who
was then shot dead by Israeli police. While the Force family mourned, the terrorist's family on the West Bank
celebrated and pocketed cash from the Palestinian Authority, as do all terrorists' families. [...] The Taylor Force Act,
named after a good American murdered by radicals, would stop all U.S. aid to the PA — $300 million a
year — unless and until these sickening official rewards for terror cease.
Weeding
Out Waste and Fraud at Federal Agencies. [Scroll down] The I.G. report noted that under the terms of the
project, DOE was supposed to obtain invoices from [Summit Texas Clean Energy] prior to allowing expenses or reimbursing the
company, but the I.G. found that DOE had approved more than $38 million in reimbursements without receiving proper
documentation. Among the expenses the IG deemed "potentially unallowable" were bills sent by Summit to DOE for more
than $1.2 million in lobbying costs and $1.3 million in "questionable or prohibited" travel-related expenses. Under
federal law, companies partnering with the federal government are disallowed from charging the government for their lobbying
activities. The travel-related expenses included more than $650,000 paid to a consultant for Summit, which the
consultant spent on items such as a spa service, alcohol, first-class travel, limousine services, receipts in foreign
currency, and business meals.
America
Is Finally Catching Up on Clean Coal. That the Obama administration was out to severely curtail fossil fuel use is well known.
The former president's scorn for coal was abundantly obvious, and the Paris agreement was its embodiment. Despite proclaiming the U.S. the
"Saudi Arabia of coal," in May 2008, Obama soon back-flipped once in office and turned against the resource. Within a year, Obama unleashed
the war on coal when he proposed a nationwide cap-and-trade system targeting local plants, stifling coal companies with excessive regulation, and
cutting billions in funding for clean coal projects across the country. Worse, what remained of the federal grants for such
projects was allowed to be willfully misspent. In an example of the utter incompetence of the Obama White House, power firm Summit Power
Group squandered parts of a $450-million stimulus grant on absurd excesses rather than using the money to advance a long sought after clean coal
project in Texas.
California
bullet train costs soar to $77B; opening delayed. The projected cost of California's bullet train between San
Francisco and Los Angeles has jumped to $77 billion and the completion date has been pushed back four years to 2033,
according to a business plan released Friday [3/9/2018]. The plan by the California High-Speed Rail Authority presents
the latest setbacks for a project that's been beleaguered by delays and cost overruns since voters first gave it the
green[ ]light in 2008.
Understanding the
California Mind. A record of nearly $30 billion a year is forecast to be sent this year as remittances home to
Mexico. If the sum is assumed to be wired largely by the reported 11 million illegal aliens, then illegal immigrants
are sending per capita around $2,700 home per year. Again, in per capita terms, a household of five would average about
$1,100 sent home per month to Mexico — a generosity impossible without the subsidies of the American taxpayer.
America's Missing
Money. On September 10, 2001, then U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld disclosed that his department was
unable to account for roughly $2.3 trillion worth of transactions. The next day, the U.S. sustained the terrorist
attacks that changed the world, and this startling revelation was forgotten. When an account discrepancy occurs that
cannot be traced, it's customary to make what is called an "un-documentable adjustment." This is similar to when your
checkbook balance is off by, say, ten dollars; you add or subtract that amount to make everything balance with the bank.
In 1999, the amount that the Pentagon adjusted was eight times the Defense Department budget for that year; it was one-third
greater than the entire federal budget. By 2015, the amount reported missing by the Office of the Inspector General had
increased to $6.5 trillion — and that was just for the army. Using public data from federal databases,
Mark Skidmore, a professor of economics at Michigan State University, found that $21 trillion in unsupported adjustments
had been reported by the Defense and Housing and Urban Development departments between 1998 and 2015.
It's Not
Enough to Get Paid for Not Working: These L.A. Police and Firefighters Figured Out How to Double It. Take
a program that lets a public employee earn both a pension and a salary at the same time. Add an extremely generous
disability leave and workers' compensation program that allows public employees to be paid while not working for months or
even years on end. What do you get? Massive corruption, obviously. A new report from the Los Angeles
Times attempts to quantify the costs and consequences of a program allowing L.A. police and firefighters to collect both
salaries and pension returns in the years running up to retirement. But these same employees often spend massive chunks
of their final years on the payroll out on medical leave — so they're costing the city even more money without
actually working.
Welfare
for refugees — my, how the U.S. taxpayer does pay. Taxpayers in the United States are shelling out a
reported $867 million each year to support refugees who've been resettled in this country and make sure they have adequate
food and clothing and the like. In the overall federal budgeting scheme, that's maybe small potatoes. But at the
same time, if we're talking welfare — and we are — then it would seem the more American thing to pay
for those already in-country, already legal citizens, before paying for those who are simply visitors.
Study:
Welfare for Foreign Refugees Costs U.S. Taxpayers $870M Annually. Every year, American taxpayers pay nearly
$870 million on welfare for foreign refugees who are resettled across the United States by the State Department. A
new study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reveals that annually, foreign refugees are being given about
$867 million in welfare benefits that U.S. taxpayers pay for. Every year, taxpayers are billed about $1.8 billion
for the full cost of resettling foreign refugees, and after five years, American taxpayers will have spent about $8.8 billion
on resettling foreign refugees.
The House That Pocahantas Built.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau exists to spend consumers' finances like drunken sailors who just found out they've
been drinking fermented AIDS. [...] Socialist Opulence is, like government, what we all do together. It's just
that only a certain Elect get to benefit from it.
An Exclusive Peek Into Elizabeth
Warren's Luxurious CFPB Headquarters. The first thing that stands out is that the office space does not feel
like a government building at all. It could be an upscale hotel, a college campus or a corporate headquarters.
"There was interest to move this above a Class C Building," said a CFPB source familiar with the renovation and the operation
of the building. "Now it's a Class A building," he told TheDCNF. The Building Owners and Managers Association
International, which represents owners and managers of all commercial office buildings, describe Class A buildings as "the
most coveted buildings in the marketplace." The $124 million spent to date for the 303,000 square foot office building
is $409 per square foot, more than Trump World Tower, which cost $334 per square foot or Las Vegas' Bellagio Hotel and Casino,
priced at $330 per square foot.
FEMA Contract Called
for 30 Million Meals for Puerto Ricans. 50,000 Were Delivered. Two Democrats are calling for the Federal
Emergency Management Agency to be subpoenaed for documents relating to Hurricane Maria, suggesting the agency failed to
provide tens of millions of meals after the storm devastated Puerto Rico. US Rep. Elijah Cummings and Stacey
Plaskett, the congressional delegate from the US Virgin Islands, signed a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey
Gowdy on Tuesday morning [2/6/2018], calling into question a $156 million contract awarded to a small Atlanta-based
company, Tribute Contracting LLC.
This happened under Obama, not Trump:
Pentagon
Auditor Can't Account For $800 Million In Spending. The Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has
reportedly "lost track" of hundreds of millions of dollars it spent, said Ernst & Young, the accounting firm conducting the
first-ever Pentagon audit, according to Politico. E&Y discovered that DLA "failed to properly document more than
$800 million in construction projects," said Politico, which also reported this is just one of the many instances where
millions of dollars went missing as the accountability system inside the Pentagon is broken. Worse, according to Politico,
the first-ever audit, covering the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2016, signals complete incompetence about how the Pentagon
handles its $700 billion annual budget.
Obama's
Administration Miscalculated $500 Billion. [Scroll down] These mistakes amounted to $278.5 billion in
misstatements in financial notes altogether. This was basically a half billion dollar error in budgetary resources and
$19.5 billion in discrepancies of line items of the report that was not the same as those when the audit was first submitted.
All reports together suffered a $516 billion in corrections and additional $3.4 billion to the financial statement.
The Inspector General was aware of the HUD's corrections, but the difference in cost was substantial. As stated earlier, the
media didn't care for this story a lot, because it didn't fit them to care. Instead, they focused on what President Donald
Trump was doing, especially in the intensified last week of the elections.
An
Illegal Immigrant Almost Killed My Family. [Scroll down] Thankfully, nobody in my family was seriously
hurt, though my sister had braces and her mouth was bloodied. By providence, the younger kids sitting in the back had
been wearing their seat belts. A few people in our vehicle had back pain after the accident, and I still have a
herniated disk with the accompanying neck, shoulder, and arm issues, a result of the airbag blowing my arm back as my body
went forward (my right arm and hand ache as I write this today). The drunk driver was thrown from his car and almost
died. Bystanders who ran a bait shop on that road, along with arriving police officers, administered emergency care and
helped save the man's life. He was later airlifted to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The man was not only
drunk when he hit us, but had also snorted cocaine before heading down the road. If the man hadn't hit us, we were
told, it was likely he would have careened into a house or business on the other side of the road. We moved on with our
lives. The police officers told us the man had no insurance, and was in the United States illegally. Because of
this, we assumed he was deported.
The Editor says...
How many un-recoverable taxpayer dollars were spent to airlift this perpetrator to (and treat him in) the Mayo Clinic?
Cuomo
wants to let Dreamers go to college for free. Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to give another break to immigrant
Dreamers by extending free public college tuition to students who were brought into the United States illegally as
kids. Cuomo tucked a provision in his $168 billion budget plan that would amend state education law to make the
undocumented students eligible for the Excelsior Scholarship program, which covers tuition costs for students from families
with incomes of up to $125,000. On Tuesday [1/23/2018], he said the state would continue providing Medicaid to Dreamers
regardless of any federal changes to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
Convicted
Dems Corrine Brown and Chaka Fattah Still Receiving Taxpayer-Funded Pensions. Former Democratic representatives
Corrine Brown (Fla.) and Chaka Fattah (Pa.) are still receiving taxpayer-funded federal pensions despite being convicted and
sentenced to prison on corruption charges. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed to the Washington
Free Beacon that Brown is still receiving Federal Employees' Retirement System annuity benefits even though she was sentenced to
prison for wire fraud and tax evasion — actions that stemmed from a sham charity founded by the former congresswoman.
Leftist
Group that Blasted Trump Over DACA Gets Biggest Slice of $37 Mil HUD Grant. A leftist group that attacked
President Trump for terminating an Obama program that protects hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants living in the U.S.
is being rewarded with taxpayer dollars. The Washington D.C. nonprofit, National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), will get
the largest chunk — $999,962 — of a $37 million grant awarded this week to fight housing discrimination.
The cash is being distributed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), an agency long embroiled in a multitude
of scandals and well known for waste and abuse. The generous award comes on the heels of NFHA's Trump bashing over a contentious
policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that shields nearly 800,000 illegal aliens under the age of 31 from
deportation and lets them obtain work permits and drivers' licenses.
Some
Mentally Ill, Some Radical Refugee Men Rejected by Australia Arrive in the States. One is heading to New
Jersey, another to Tennessee to study human rights which is the trade of the hard-left. Others are going to North
Carolina, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, states the left wants to turn blue for the most part. This is one group of at
least forty. No American, Australian or U.N. official will tell us who they are and where they are going in the
States. They were rejected by Australia and many have been radical left protesters while stranded on an island.
Others will require a lot of therapy we are told. Hundreds of them are mentally ill. We have nothing against
these people and sure hope they succeed but the people behind it really are only being generous with your money and your
welfare. You have no idea how bad some of these refugees are. They take a fortune to educate and some can't be
educated well because of their intelligence and mental issues.
Overpriced
Afghanistan Helicopter Upgrades Are A US Taxpayer Handout For Contractors. [Scroll down] DoD returned to
Congress with improbable news that an Mi-17 cost $20 million, while a refurbished H-60 could be had for only $6 million.
The Pentagon also discounted the Hip's significant cargo capacity, its ability to carry substantial armaments while ferrying troops or
cargo, and its use for close air support. But $20 million for an Mi-17? You don't want to take those DoD guys with you
when you go new car shopping. You can order a new Mi-17 from the maker, Kazan Helicopters, for $14-15 million "depending on
extras and avionics."
Importing The [Bad Places]. Is
there any question Haiti is a [bad place]? Who's offended by that? If it wasn't a [bad place] it wouldn't be one
of the most prominent recipients of American charity aid on Planet Earth. And it isn't like this country has ignored
Haiti — we've been trying to lift it out of [bad place] status for more than a century, with absolutely no result whatever.
In 1910, President William Howard Taft granted Haiti a large loan in hopes that Haiti could pay off its staggering international
debt and therefore achieve a larger measure of independence from Europe. The result? Haiti defaulted and U.S. tax
dollars were poured into a bottomless pit. In 1915, following the assassination of Haitian president Jean Vilbrun Guillaume
Sam, President Woodrow Wilson sent in the U.S. Marines to help establish order there — and the American military presence in
Haiti didn't end until 1934.
A New CFPB Scandal —
Cost Overruns for Its New Luxury Headquarters. Renovation costs for the brand new Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau headquarters have skyrocketed, posting 25 percent in cost overruns — significantly above the original
budget set by the General Services Administration, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation. Original
cost estimates for the CFPB's renovation were estimated at $55 million, but the bureau ran up the proposed cost to
$216 million. The Federal Reserve Inspector General rejected the proposal in 2014, saying there was no "sound basis"
for the figure. As the CFPB renovation costs continued to escalate, renovation was taken out of the CFPB's hands and
transferred to the General Services Administration (GSA). GSA's budget, however, was nearly twice the original
$55 million, hitting $99 million.
A
New CFPB Scandal — Cost Overruns for It's [sic] New Lux Headquarters. Renovation costs for the brand
new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters have skyrocketed, posting 25 percent in cost overruns —
significantly above the original budget set by the General Services Administration, according to a Daily Caller News
Foundation investigation. Original cost estimates for the CFPB's renovation were estimated at $55 million, but the
bureau ran up the proposed cost to $216 million. The Federal Reserve Inspector General rejected the proposal in
2014, saying there was no "sound basis" for the figure. As the CFPB renovation costs continued to escalate, renovation was
taken out of the CFPB's hands and transferred to the General Services Administration (GSA). GSA's budget, however, was nearly
twice the original $55 million, hitting $99 million.
The Editor says...
Please note that the government is spending millions to refurbish the headquarters of an agency that shouldn't even exist.
'Mapping
the Swamp' report finds 30,000 feds earn more than any governor. The 40-page report, titled "Mapping the Swamp"
and released by government watchdog group OpenTheBooks, focused on the "size, scope and power" of the federal government —
and found salary spending for high-paid employees on the rise. "The number of highly compensated federal employees is growing,"
the report said, describing six-figure salaries as increasingly common. According to the report, the number of federal employees
making $200,000 or more increased by 165 percent between fiscal 2010 and 2016. Federal employees making $150,000 or more grew by
60 percent, with the number making more than $100,000 increasing by 37 percent in the same time period.
A
Tally of Iran Sanctions Relief Includes More Than $10 Billion in Cash, Gold. In the three years since a
preliminary nuclear deal was struck with Iran, Tehran has received more than $10 billion in sanctions relief from around the
world in the form of cash and gold, according to current and former U.S. officials. The large shipments of gold and cash,
from oil funds unfrozen in numerous countries, represent the kind of financial relief that made Iran's leaders eager to complete
the international nuclear accord.
New
York City subway construction 'is the most expensive in the world'. Construction projects for New York City
subways are the most expensive in the world thanks to overall mismanagement by transit officials, favoritism toward powerful
special interests like labor unions and building firms, inefficient staffing, and a bloated bureaucracy, according to a
report published on Friday [11/29/2017]. A lengthy expose by The New York Times reveals why New Yorkers are forced to foot
the highest costs for the maintenance and expansion of their transit system than those in other world class cities. The
report found that the agency in charge of the subways, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, wastes massive sums of money
by employing too many people to do work that can be performed in the same amount of time by half the number of personnel.
11
Outrageous Ways Government Wasted $473 Billion in 2017. All we hear from Democrats about the tax cuts or border
wall is that it will "blow a hole in the deficit" or something. Well maybe, if the government would stop wasting
billions of dollars on outrageous programs like these eleven, that money could be used for whatever shortfalls come from the
tax cuts and border wall. All of these programs are leftovers from the Obama regime.
Guess
where high school dropouts can make $400 an hour. It turns out I have just the job for you: performing largely
unskilled labor building subway tunnels in New York City! [...] But maybe the idea of working on subway tunnels, even at $400
an hour, doesn't appeal to you. If you're willing to consider a small pay cut, consider working for the New York transit
authority, where the average compensation is $140,000 a year.
New
York City subway construction 'is the most expensive in the world' thanks to bloated staffing, inflated wages of up to $1,000
a day, and favoritism to unions. Construction projects for New York City subways are the most expensive in the
world thanks to overall mismanagement by transit officials, favoritism toward powerful special interests like labor unions
and building firms, inefficient staffing, and a bloated bureaucracy, according to a report published on Friday [12/29/2017].
A lengthy expose by The New York Times reveals why New Yorkers are forced to foot the highest costs for the maintenance and
expansion of their transit system than those in other world class cities. The report found that the agency in charge of
the subways, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, wastes massive sums of money by employing too many people to do work
that can be performed in the same amount of time by half the number of personnel.
Propaganda costs money.
'Mapping
The Swamp' Report Shows It's Even Bigger, Costlier Than You Think. James P. Cochrane earns $250,335 annually as
chief marketing and sales officer for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), making him the highest paid public relations employee
of the federal government. The USPS lost $5.1 billion in 2016. Right behind Cochrane is Stephen Katsanos, who
pulls down $229,333 as a public affairs official for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). And the third
highest-paid federal public relations employee is Titus Simmons, also of the FDIC, at $215,248, according to "Mapping The
Swamp," a new report compiled by Open The Books, an independent nonprofit that tracks federal spending using the government's
own numbers. These three individuals are among the 3,618 federal workers who get an average of $101,827 annually to put
the best possible "spin" on government every day. That comes to $368.4 million a year.
Top
10 States That Rely Most on Federal Aid. A new report by the Tax Foundation shows what percentage of each
state's revenue comes from the federal government through federal grants-in-aid, a sum that in total has reached $600 billion
a year. Federal grants-in-aid to state and local governments include payments for Medicaid, education funding assistance,
infrastructure project support, housing grants, and other payments, according to the Tax Foundation. For fiscal year 2013,
which is the latest year for complete data, the Tax Foundation found that Mississippi got 42.9% of its general revenue from the
federal government, and Louisiana came in second with 41.9% of its revenue from the U.S. Treasury.
Why
Trump Should Stop Funding the U.N.'s Palestinian 'Refugee' Agency. Amid the Trump administration's threats
about cutting funding to the United Nations and member states, the White House should seriously consider entirely defunding
the scandalous U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which ministers to so-called Palestinian refugees. The U.S. is
UNRWA's single largest donor, and the Trump administration has reportedly been mulling whether to continue providing its
annual contribution of more than $300 million.
Has
Our Government Spent $21 Trillion Of Our Money Without Telling Us? On July 26, 2016, the Office of the
Inspector General (OIG) issued a report "Army General Fund Adjustments Not Adequately Documented or Supported". The report
indicates that for fiscal year 2015 the Army failed to provide adequate support for $6.5 trillion in journal voucher
adjustments. According to the GAO's Comptroller General, "Journal vouchers are summary-level accounting adjustments
made when balances between systems cannot be reconciled. Often these journal vouchers are unsupported, meaning they
lack supporting documentation to justify the adjustment or are not tied to specific accounting transactions. For an
auditor, journal vouchers are a red flag for transactions not being captured, reported, or summarized correctly." [...] Given
that the entire Army budget in fiscal year 2015 was $120 billion, unsupported adjustments were 54 times the level
of spending authorized by Congress.
House
GOP Agrees on $81 Billion in Disaster Spending. The Refugee Act of 1980 created the official United States
Refugee Admissions Program, and like any other government-funded industry, their original mission has long been
forgotten. Resettlement policies have devolved into another bureaucracy, where government and non-profit agencies work
to protect their jobs and expand "services." Currently, legitimate refugees must prove that they are persecuted for one
of several reasons: political persuasion, religion, race, etc., but efforts are underway by the refugee industry to expand
the definition to anyone moving anywhere for any reason. The latest designation is the "climate refugee:" people
escaping changing weather patterns where they live are now "refugees" too.
Senate
Dems Blew $20 Mil Studying UFOs as Kickback to Donor. 'Uniparty' talk is fashionable these days. Yes
there's a lot wrong with the GOP. But nobody matches the sheer level of crazy corruption of the Dems. [...] These are people
who believe UFOs are real, but Islamic terrorists are imaginary.
$22
Million Spent on UFO Program Benefitting Friend of Harry Reid. The Department of Defense spent $22 million on a
program involving unidentified flying objects, with most of the funds going to a friend of then-Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid (D., Nev.). The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, which for years investigated reports of UFOs, was
initially largely funded at the request of Reid, who has long held an interest in space phenomena, the New York Times
reports. The majority of designated funds went to an aerospace research company run by Reid's longterm friend Robert
Bigelow. The billionaire entrepreneur said in May he was "absolutely convinced" aliens exist and UFOs have visited Earth.
EPA
spent millions in taxpayer dollars to push climate change propaganda via social media. Under the Obama
administration, the Environmental Protection Agency was one of the most tyrannical, lawless institutions in the entire
country, spitting out tens of thousands of unconstitutional regulations each year and compelling businesses to abide by the
left's radical climate change agenda. Mind you, these are regulations that the American people did not vote for, nor do
they necessarily support; rather, the EPA's agenda under the Obama regime was wholly undemocratic and against the principles
that America was founded upon.
Let's Kill the CDBG.
Nothing in President Donald Trump's first federal budget, issued earlier this year, produced more howls of indignation than
the proposal to kill off a remnant of the War on Poverty known as the Community Development Block Grant program, or CDBG.
Politicians, advocates, the liberal media, and executives of nonprofits that receive these often-sizable grants denounced
Trump's plan as devastating. [...] The overheated rhetoric came in defense of one of the nation's most wasteful and ineffective
domestic-spending programs. Conceived in the early 1970s as a way to give local officials a say in how federal poverty
aid gets doled out, the CDBG has sent some $150 billion to impoverished neighborhoods in Baltimore, Buffalo, Newark, and
other struggling cities, with little or nothing positive to show for it. Worse, the CDBG has created a local patronage
racket, funding politically connected nonprofits that do little to spur economic development. And to build further
support, Congress extended CDBG funding to wealthier areas, so that grants now help build tennis courts and swimming pools
in neighborhoods with above-average incomes.
While Pleading For Help And Mired
In Debt Puerto Rico Pays Out Christmas Bonuses. It has actually been an annual tradition; a US territory sunk
deep in a debt crisis doles out bonuses to federal employees at Christmastime, coming due in the coming week. What
makes this year's Yuletide largesse more pronounced is that the debt has not only worsened, but currently the country is
pleading for Congress to shell out billions in hurricane relief aid dollars. The bonuses themselves really are not the
issue. The island will pay out roughly $100 million in Christmas checks this year while facing tens of billions of
dollars in the red. At the same time as these payouts the Governor, Ricardo Rossello, is asking for just shy of
$100 BILLION in relief aid for the island. While the bonuses are not central to the island's financials they
do typify some of the underlying issues leading to the debt crisis.
Puerto
Rico gives out $100 million in bonuses after pleading for $94 billion in hurricane relief. Puerto Rico
Gov. Ricardo Rossello Nevares last month asked federal taxpayers to shell out $94 billion to pay for the territory's
recovery from Hurricane Maria — then turned around and paid out about $100 million in Christmas bonuses to island
government employees. The governor's aides say the bonuses are a longstanding tradition and part of the law, and were
planned for in the budget approved last summer. But that budget came well before Hurricanes Irma and Maria slammed into
Puerto Rico, leaving much of the territory in ruin and leaving the government begging for federal assistance.
How
Much Should Taxpayers Invest in Elon Musk? Few people realize that [Elon] Musk played an important part in the
creation of PayPal. More familiar is Musk's role as the CEO of Tesla, an innovative and increasingly successful auto
manufacturer that produces stylish electric cars. He also helped found SolarCity, one of the leading companies in the
United States that manufactures solar panels. [...] Like all celebrated inventors/entrepreneurs, however, Musk has had his
share of failures and detractors, and more importantly his successes have always come at a price. Increasingly, that
price is borne by taxpayers, in the form of costly subsidies, tax breaks, and government contracts. According to the Los
Angeles Times, Musk's companies have received, or will receive, government subsidies and tax breaks totaling $4.9 billion!
It is thus reasonable to ask: is Elon Musk worthy of such a giant investment of taxpayer dollars?
Washington
Post inadvertently unmasks climate change scam. Wait a second. If carbon dioxide really were a threat to
the planet, other countries would dig deeper in their pockets to pay for this. [...] So basically this is another foreign aid
scam, which usually becomes a welfare program for dictators.
Pentagon
pays for service member's gender reassignment surgery. An active-duty service member has undergone gender
reassignment surgery, the Pentagon said Tuesday [11/14/2017]. Defense Department spokesman Dana White said in a statement
that the military's health coverage paid for the surgery because the doctor who performed the operation deemed it to be
medically necessary. "Military hospitals do not have the surgical expertise to perform this type of surgery, therefore
it was conducted in a private hospital," said White, who added that that because the service member "had already begun a
sex-reassignment course of treatment ... a waiver was approved by the director of the Defense Health Agency."
Pentagon
Approves Gender-Reassignment Surgery for Service Member. The Pentagon approved a gender-reassignment surgery
for an active-duty military member, defense officials said on Tuesday, four months after President Trump abruptly announced a
ban on transgender people serving in the military. The surgery is the latest setback to Mr. Trump's effort to put
a ban in place. Two weeks ago, a federal judge temporarily blocked the ban, ruling that the justification for it was
suspect and most likely unconstitutional. Even before the ruling, officials at the Defense Department had been
slow-walking Mr. Trump's orders, telling transgender members of the military that they could continue to serve openly
while the Pentagon decided how to handle the ban.
That
Teenage Illegal Immigrant That Got An Abortion? Now She's Seeking Mental Health Treatment. Remember in
late October when a teenage illegal immigrant girl in Texas who was pregnant with a 16-week-old baby decided she wanted an
abortion, and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Trump Administration, which was trying to save the baby?
The girl said through the ACLU, "People I don't even know are trying to make me change my mind. I made my decision and that
is between me and God." Guess what? According to the government, after killing her baby, the girl is seeking mental
health treatment.
Should the American taxpayer
be required to subsidize an industry that could not survive on its own? Following news that President Trump's
draft budget repeals the $7,500-per-vehicle federal tax credit for electric cars, Tesla's share price took more than a 7%
dip. Electric vehicles are the only kind Tesla makes, and it receives other subsidies as well. At the state
level, it receives carbon credits, which it can sell to companies that don't exclusively sell electric cars. These
credits have the effect of raising the price that consumers pay for non-electric cars. So the middle class Deplorable
in his Ford Explorer has been subsidizing the much richer guy in his Tesla. Additionally, several states offer rebates
to buyers of electric cars. To the extent that state taxes are deductible from federal taxes, Americans in other states
are subsidizing the "green" state cars. This is not even to mention the various subsidies states and municipalities offer
to induce green companies to build plants in their area, which also ultimately get passed via the state tax pass-through.
Congresswoman:
Transgender 'Medical Condition' Disqualifies Someone from Military Service. Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.)
said the U.S. military should be able to deny transgender individuals from serving for the same reasons it prohibits people
with asthma, flat feet or diabetes from serving. She told a story about a constituent who wanted to serve in the armed
forces but was rejected entry due to asthma. "The health risks outweighed the benefits to the military and precluded
his service," she said during a "Keeping Our Military Ready" event at the Family Research Council last week. "Having
gender reassignment surgery prevents military members from deploying for up to 267 days for surgery alone and it costs
the taxpayers billions. Certainly, to be consistent and fair, this medical condition should be precluded as well."
IRS
gives illegals welfare, forces Obamacare tax on Americans. In 2011, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Collection released a shocking report detailing how illegal aliens are able to utilize a filing loophole to obtain $4.2 billion
every year in Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) funds. The ACTC, much like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), is
refundable, meaning it's essentially a welfare payment through the tax code. While the IRS requires tax filers to
supply a valid Social Security number in order to receive the EITC, they purposely allow illegal aliens to get the ACTC
by simply providing an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) supplied to them by the IRS itself. It's
yet another classic case of the fox guarding the hen house. The IRS could easily check with DHS and the Social Security
Administration to verify one's legal status and hold up any tax credits for illegal aliens, yet they concocted a scheme to
ensure they get welfare.
"Germany's
entire submarine fleet is now out of action". The Associated Press reported all German submarines are out of
commission. All six of them. Germany commissioned some 1,250 U-boats into the Kriegsmarine, according to
Wikipedia. Face it, Germany plays America for a fool. We are its military. It laughs at us and mocks our
president. We're the suckers for covering for them.
Per
Capita Federal Spending Up Sevenfold Since 1941. In fiscal 1941, real per capita federal spending was approximately
$1,718. In fiscal 2017, which concluded at the end of September, it was about $12,239. Back in 1941, at the beginning
of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's unprecedented third presidential term, the federal government spent $13,653,000,000, according to
the White House Office of Management and Budget. Although that was a massive increase from the $4,598,000,000 the federal
government had spent in 1933, when Roosevelt first took office, it was a pittance compared to what it would spend in the years
to come.
Feds
Spend $246,785 on 'Facebook Intervention' for Young Gay Smokers. The National Institutes of Health is spending
over $200,000 on a "Facebook intervention" targeting young gay people who smoke. The University of California, San
Francisco received the funding for the project, which began in August. The goal of the study is to create a "culturally-tailored
intervention" on social media for LGBTQ teens. [...] The university received $246,785, and research will continue through February 2019.
One
in four government workers makes $100K thanks to overtime. One out of every four New York City government
workers pulled in pay of more than $100,000 last year — thanks largely to overtime, according to a new
study. "New York City can be a hub of opportunity, and not just for aspiring Broadway stars. All sorts of city
workers earn big bucks," said Adam Andrzejewski, CEO of the government watchdog OpenTheBooks.com, which conducted the
study. About 37,000 of 295,455 full-time city workers receive a salary that tops $100,000.
Why
is rebuilding after storms the federal government's responsibility? The hurricane devastation is severe.
What should the federal government do? Give us lots of money, say many in the wounded states. Rep. Sheila
Jackson Lee (D-Texas) demanded "about $150 billion" — just for Texas. So far, Congress has agreed to
$15 billion in hurricane relief. But more will come. Few Americans will object. The House vote for the
first $7.9 billion was 419-3. But let's take a breath. Why is rebuilding the federal government's responsibility?
Fannie
Mae Charged Taxpayers $250,000 for a Chandelier. Fannie Mae is charging taxpayers millions for upgrades to its
new headquarters, including $250,000 for a chandelier. The inspector general for the Federal Housing Finance Agency
(FHFA), which acts as a conservator for the mortgage lender, recently noted $32 million in questionable costs in an audit for
Fannie Mae's new headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C. Fannie Mae will be the flagship of Midtown Center, which is
scheduled to complete construction in June 2018. The inspector general reported that costs for the new headquarters have
"risen dramatically," to $171 million, up from $115 million when the consolidated headquarters was announced in 2015.
Record
$135 billion a year for illegal immigration, average $8,075 each, $25,000 in NY. The swelling population of
illegal immigrants and their kids is costing American taxpayers $135 billion a year, the highest ever, driven by free medical
care, education and a huge law enforcement bill, according to the the most authoritative report on the issue yet. And despite
claims from pro-illegal immigration advocates that the aliens pay significant off-setting taxes back to federal, state and local
treasuries, the Federation for American Immigration Reform report tallied just $19 billion, making the final hit to taxpayers
about $116 billion. State and local governments are getting ravaged by the costs, at over $88 billion. The
federal government, by comparison, is getting off easy at $45 billion in costs for illegals.
Super-rich
ex-presidents and the law that supports them. Sen. Joni Ernst is taking a swing at the money we pay
ex-presidents. She's written a bill that caps what we pay them, but it doesn't go far enough. With ex-presidents
making tens of millions of dollars upon leaving office, why are we still paying multimillionaire ex-presidents obscene
amounts of money every year? We have politicians who have grown monumentally rich on the perks that come after our
having hired them. Speaking engagements, book deals, board memberships, you name it, they do it and the millions
roll in.
Berkeley
receives $100K to 'honor the legacy' of the Black Panther Party. The radical Marxist revolutionary organization
from the 1960s, the Black Panthers, will be the subject of an academic study conducted by the University of California-Berkeley
to discover and honor the group's legacy. The study is being funded by the American taxpayer via a grant for about
$100,000 from, curiously, the National Park Service.
Goodbye, four billion dollars.
Cassini:
NASA's £3 billion spacecraft explodes in Saturn's atmosphere after a historic 20-year mission. In its
thirteen years at Saturn and two decades in space, the $4 billion (£3 billion) Cassini probe has transformed our
understanding of the ringed planet and its moons. It has watched giant storms on the gas giant, recorded its ring system
in stunning detail, and revealed incredible new insights on the potential habitability of Saturn's moons.
The Editor says...
We the taxpayers spent $4 billion to study "the potential habitability of Saturn's moons?"
How will that improve the lives of anyone outside of NASA?
Hurricane
Harvey Relief Comes With an Extra-Large Side of Pork. [Scroll down] On the Harvey side, it included
$7.4 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant program —
which had been on the president's budget chopping block because its "allocation formula poorly targets funds to the areas of
greatest need" and because "many aspects of the program have become outdated." But because Harvey relief was linked
to the continuing resolution, voting for money for Texas also meant, among other things, agreeing to extend the authority for
the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, a project begun in 1999 and described by columnist George Will as a "saga of arrogance
and celebrity worship." He added, "Sixteen years later, and eight years after the project's 2007 scheduled completion,
scores of millions have been squandered, and there is no memorial and no immediate prospect of building one." It also
meant a vote to extend the problematic Head Start base grants and allows for an increase in former presidents' pension.
Joni
Ernst, GOP senator, demands cap on ex-presidents' payments. A Republican senator introduced legislation Tuesday
[9/12/2017] to cut down on the amount of money ex-presidents siphon from taxpayers, looking to limit their pensions and
office expenses. Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican, said that while presidents should keep getting taxpayer-funded
security details, they don't need the more than $1 million in pensions and office equipment that former Presidents Obama and
George W. Bush are each expected to cost in 2018. Her bill would cap the annual pension payment at $200,000 per
president, and would impose a cap on how much an ex-president's office can cost.
Feds
Spend $138,000 Asking Four-Year-Olds About Their 'Internal Sense of Gender Identity'. The National Science
Foundation is spending over $130,000 on a study that asks four-year-olds about their "internal sense of gender identity."
A grant for a two-year study was awarded to the University of Washington this summer. The project will interview 250
children aged four to six, and their parents, asking a series of questions about "gendered behavior." "Prominent
theories of gender development have discussed the degree to which gender identity results from an internal sense of gender
and socialization processes," according to the grant.
Social
Security pays millions to people VA says are dead. The Department of Veterans Affairs knew they were dead, but
the Social Security Administration kept paying benefits to hundreds of people anyway, according to a new agency audit
released Friday [9/1/2017] that says at least $37 million in bogus payments were made. Investigators compared the VA's
record to Social Security rolls and found nearly 4,000 people who were listed as dead by the VA, but were still getting
checks. Some of those people listed as dead were in fact still alive, but others were deceased — and their
checks never should have been paid, the Social Security inspector general said.
NYPD needs
to replace 36K useless smartphones. The NYPD has to scrap the 36,000 smartphones it gave cops over the past two
years because they're already obsolete and can't be upgraded, The [New York] Post has learned. The city bought
Microsoft-based Nokia smartphones as part of a $160 million NYPD Mobility Initiative that Mayor Bill de Blasio touted as "a
huge step into the 21st century." But just months after the last phone was handed out, officials plan to begin replacing
them all with brand-new iPhones by the end of the year, sources said.
Feds Spend
$174,932 on 'Implicit Bias' Conference. The National Science Foundation is spending nearly $200,000 on an
"implicit bias" conference. The conference will gather "leading experts on racism and prejudice" to write a report on how
to make unconscious bias training, which assumes that "everyone is a little bit racist or sexist," more effective. "This
project brings together experts on prejudice and discrimination to have a deep discussion and write up a report to understand
what various measures of bias represent and best ways to measure implicit bias," according to the grant for the project.
San Antonio
Drops ShotSpotter, System not Cost Effective. One of the technological fixes that has been attempted is the use
of sensors to pinpoint gunshots inside of cities. The theory of the technology is fairly simple. Spread audio
sensors throughout the city. Feed the input into a computer system, looking for gunshots. With sophisticated
programs, isolate the gunshots from the other noise, and pinpoint their location and time. Ideally, this happens in
near real time, to allow police response to gunshots.
ShotSpotter
program stripped from proposed city budget. A program intended to help police officers identify where a
shooting happens, get there quicker and ultimately cut down on crime has been stripped from the proposed city budget because
city leaders said it's not effective. It cost the city $270,000 to put ShotSpotters on the city's crime-ridden east and
west sides, but police Chief William McManus said the program's results don't match up with its hefty price tag.
Don't
buy the spin on CPS. It's still a dumpster fire. As all the world knows by now, Springfield is getting close to
another fiscal crisis, this time over school funding. At the center of the crisis is how much more to give to CPS. The
district and Mayor Rahm Emanuel make a good case for added money, particularly to help fund teacher pensions, which everywhere
else in Illinois outside of Chicago are fully financed by the state. But CPS admits that, even if it gets every penny of
the roughly $300 million in net new aid it wants from the state, City Hall will have to come up with another
$269 million — and that's just for this school year. The truth is, CPS has been fiscally mismanaged for decades.
Feds
Spend $438,699 Studying If 'Gender Norms' Make LGBTQ People Get Drunk. The National Institutes of Health is
spending over $400,000 studying whether gender norms of masculinity and femininity lead LGBTQ individuals to drink too
much. Trying to find the "meanings of intoxication" of sexual and gender minorities is the central question of a study
that was awarded in late July. The project will "examine the extent to which gendered norms shape risky drinking
practices for sexual and gender minority (SGM) young adults," according to the grant for the study. The grant states
that alcohol is an "integral component of bars and clubs."
Our Government
Spends Billions Promoting Itself. Of course they do so under the cover of "public service." In fact, the
most recent data I could find was from Breitbart in 2015. The report, obtained from OpentheBooks.com, states that the
government spends, or wastes, $4.34 billion on public relations. That was two years ago. [...] Much of that money spent
promoting itself is via the Ad Council. We've all heard and seen those wonderfully inspiring & heartfelt radio & TV ads.
They promote ways to help us manage our lives — because we can't manage on our own.
Tacoma Looks To Spend $440,000 a
Year To Protect Trespassing Immigrants. [C]itizens of Tacoma, just like most cities, have problems that should come before protecting people who
are unlawfully present in the U.S., who are, at a minimum, trespassing.
SSA
gave $1.3 million in benefits to criminals. The Social Security Administration gave $1.3 million in benefits to
criminals, including individuals who had already defrauded the government, according to a new audit. The inspector general for
the agency found that just over 50 representative payees who were felons received benefits even though they should have been barred
from receiving payments. Representative payees are individuals who are responsible for administering benefits for someone who
cannot manage payments themselves, such as their children or a disabled family member.
Obama
EPA Employees Earned Overtime Pay Without Justification. Environmental Protection Agency employees under the
Obama administration earned emergency overtime pay without justification, in violation of agency policy. The inspector
general for the agency released an audit last week finding "numerous instances of noncompliance" of the emergency overtime
pay system for employees in Seattle, Wash. Employees must receive a waiver from biweekly pay caps if they are to
receive extra pay for working during a natural disaster, or for conducting "mission-critical" work. The inspector
general found just a fraction of employees in the final three years of the Obama administration who received overtime pay
had requested a waiver.
Illinois
Has 63,000 Government Workers Making Over $100K. Illinoisans are struggling under the highest property taxes in
the nation, a declining population and the nation's worst income growth, but one group is still doing pretty well —
government workers. According to OpenTheBooks.com, Illinois has 63,000 public employees making more than $100,000, costing
taxpayers $10 billion. These government workers range from auto pound supervisors to corrections nurses to junior
college presidents and more. One of the most lucrative government fields is that of village and city managers, many of
whom out-earn every U.S. governor.
L.A.
County hands $1.3 billion to illegals for welfare. Los Angeles County is a massive draw for illegals, with more
than a million flocking there and setting up home — and now we know why. Not only is it hallowed sanctuary
ground; it's also, apparently, taxpayer-dole-out central. Look at this, from Robert Rector with the Heritage
Foundation: "They get $3 in benefits for every $1 they spend," he said, speaking of the costs of education, police,
fire, medical and housing that illegals get, compared to what they pay back by way of taxes. This isn't conjecture.
It's based on analysis of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services database. Among the findings:
In 2015, more than 58,000 families received $602 million in benefits. In 2016, more than 64,000 families received
$675 million.
L.A.
County Paid Out $1.3 Billion In Welfare To Illegal Aliens. On the bright side, it's expected that the Los Angeles County will
spend $200 million less in 2017, as fewer illegal aliens arrive and more have left, mostly due to allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) to do their job, to enforce the laws that are on the books, unfettered by politicians and political appointees. We keep being told that
illegal aliens are a boon for our economy. Well, the illegals are getting $3 in benefits for every $1 they spend. It sure seems that
they are more of a drain on taxpayer money that giving more back.
Chicago
Public Schools To Pay $850 Million in Interest on $500 Million Loan. In July, Chicago Public Schools borrowed
$500 million in long-term, high-interest loans. These loans, taken out at interest rates between 7.25-7.65 percent,
will cost the district more than $850 million in interest costs alone for a total cost of $1.35 billion, according to a
Chicago Tribune analysis. CPS will pay off the loans over 25 years, paying roughly $35 million a year in interest.
Adjusted for inflation, the total value of the interest on the loan is roughly $405 million. As the Tribune notes, by the
time the loan is paid off, CPS students entering kindergarten this fall will be in their mid-30s. The district plans to use
$229 million from the $500 million loan to recoup losses on bonds from previous years.
Why is it up to us to pay for this?
$10
Million to Fund English Classes, Legal Services for Foreigners Seeking Citizenship. The U.S. government
announced on July 27 that it will continue to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to fund English, history, and civics
courses, as well as naturalization legal services to foreigners seeking legal American citizenship, according to Judicial
Watch. According to a Homeland Security grant obtained by Judicial Watch, the $10 million will be allocated to the
Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Program, operated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The
program, which will distribute the money across 36 organizations, aims to provide hopeful immigrants with classes in U.S.
history and government in preparation for the citizenship test, as well for activities that promote civic and linguistic
assimilation. "Naturalization requirements, such as knowledge of English and of U.S. history and civics, encourage
civic learning and build a strong foundation upon which immigrants can fully assimilate into society," the Homeland Security
grant states.
Why do we have
an EPA museum? [Scroll down] The Trump administration is at odds with the EPA? Half the country
is! This is the agency that destroyed the Animas River by allowing 3.5 million gallons of toxins and heavy metals to
flood it while "cleaning up" an abandoned mine. No one went to jail for that either. But the EPA did spend more
than $300,000 on this museum outside the EPA Credit Union, and opened it three days before President Trump took office.
$2
Million Bathroom. No park bathroom needs to cost $2 million. An entire six-bedroom house nearby was for
sale for $539,000. Everything costs more when government builds it. "Government always pays above-average prices for
below-average work," says my friend who makes a living privatizing government activities.
•
Obamacare's website was supposed to cost $464 million. It cost $834 million and still crashed.
•
Washington, D.C.'s Visitor Center rose in cost from $265 million to $621 million.
• The
Veterans Affairs medical center being built near Denver was projected to cost $590 million. Now they estimate
$1.7 billion.
Government spends more because every decision is tied up in endless rules. Rigid specs.
Affirmative action. Minority outreach. Wheelchair access.
US
military blows millions a year on Viagra for its troops. The US military blows $41.6 million a year on Viagra
for its troops — about five times more than the estimated medical costs for transgender servicepeople, according
to a new report. Spending on the little blue pills is part of $84 million total the military plunks down annually for
erectile dysfunction medicines, according to the Washington Post, which cited a 2015 report by the Military Times. The
eye-popping stats resurfaced Wednesday, the same day President Trump announced a ban on transgender people serving in the
military because of "the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."
Obama's
IRS doled out more than $24 billion in potentially bogus refunds. The IRS doled out more than $24 billion in
potentially bogus refunds claimed under several controversial tax credits in 2016, according to a new audit that said $118 million
was even paid to people who weren't authorized to work in the U.S. in the first place. Some $16.8 billion in payments were
made on improper claims under the Earned Income Tax Credit, signifying a 24 percent error rate. Investigators also
estimated $7.2 billion in improper payments for the Additional Child Tax Credit, representing 25 percent of the total,
and $1.1 billion in improper payments, or 24 percent, for a higher education tax credit.
NYC Government
Spends $2 Million on a Park Bathroom. Did you see the $2 million dollar bathroom? That's what New York
City government spent to build a "comfort station" in a park. I went to look at it. There were no gold-plated
fixtures. It's just a little building with four toilets and four sinks.
The Editor says...
The facility was built in New York City, so it is safe to assume that it was built by unionized craftsmen (at their pace and by their rules),
and it must also have been built to accommodate wheelchair access and include any other feature required by federal law. But even in
the most expensive city in the country, two million dollars sounds high, doesn't it?
Feds Subsidized
Housing for 'Nonexistent Tenants'. The Department of Housing and Urban Development spent over $500,000 on
apartments for people who "did not exist," according to the agency's inspector general. An audit released last month
found that managers of Section 8 housing in Jefferson County, Texas, defrauded the government by stealing the identities
of former tenants and falsifying incomes. The government subsidizes the rent of 99 units at Beverly Place Apartments
in Groves, Texas, and paid the complex $1.8 million between January 2013 and December 2015.
Brilliant business strategy:
The
U.S. Postal Service has helped turn Amazon into a giant by undercharging them by $1.46 a package on postage.
There's a reason Amazon packages have become a common sight on front steps around the country, and that's because the U.S.
Postal Service practically subsidizes postage for the internet giant. As Josh Sandbulte, co-president of money
management firm Greenhaven Associates, pointed out in the Wall Street Journal, the Postal Service has a legal monopoly to
deliver first-class mail in the U.S. — in other words, non-urgent letters. In exchange, the Postal Service is required
to deliver, if needed, mail to every address in America, six days a week. Since the invention of email, the amount of
physical mail being sent has dramatically declined, so the Postal Service has supplemented that business with package delivery.
Pentagon
to keep paying for sex-change surgeries. Two-dozen House Republicans broke with their pro-defense brethren
Thursday and helped Democrats kill an amendment that would have barred the military from funding transgender sex reassignment
surgeries and hormone therapies. The amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which sets out
policies on America's $696 billion military budget, failed 214-209, with all Democrats and 24 Republicans opposing. It
means the military health care system will be called on to provide such surgeries as routine treatments for the first time,
unless the Trump administration changes Obama-era policies that allow transgender troops to remain on duty.
Trump
Admin Continues Obama-Era Tradition Of Giving Millions To Soros-Linked Groups. The Trump administration gave
$6.3 million to a group linked to liberal mega-donor George Soros as part of an effort to to develop "independent,
professional media" in Moldova, The Daily Caller has learned. The Agency for International Development (USAID) doles
out millions of dollars to groups around the world, and frequently this money ends up in the hands of organizations supported
by Soros. The Daily Caller has previously reported that USAID during the Obama administration gave at least $15.8 million
in Macedonia to groups ran by Soros and to organizations tied to his Open Society Foundations.
Feds
Use Arts Funding to Subsidize Billion-Dollar Nonprofits. The National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities is
giving millions of taxpayer dollars to nonprofits with assets of over $1 billion. OpenTheBooks.com, a transparency
watchdog group, released a report this week highlighting egregious examples of arts funding going towards museums, universities,
and nonprofit organizations that hardly need federal funding. The National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities issued
$20.5 million in grants to "asset-rich" nonprofit groups with assets of $1 billion or more in 2016 alone.
[Fighting]
Climate Change has cost you at least $166 Billion so far. The U.S. government spent nearly as much fighting "climate
change" between 1993 and 2014 as was spent on the entire Apollo program between 1962 and 1973, according to a new report.
A May 2017 report from the Capital Research Center (CRS) states that "from FY 1993 to FY 2014 total U.S. expenditures
on climate change amount to more than $166 billion." The total includes more than $26.1 billion from President
Obama's 2009 stimulus bill, as well as regular annual budget amounts and federal tax credits distributed over a period of
21 years.
Surprise! You're
still paying for Obama's vacations. Former President Barack Obama's family may be out of office, but taxpayers
are still footing the bill for their vacations, and you will be for life. The Obamas began a nine-day vacation in Indonesia
on June 30 by rafting along a river in a luxurious resort in Bali. It was a homecoming for Obama, who grew up
attending school there. But taxpayers are footing the bill for this family trip down Memory Lane. Under the
Former Presidents Act, the president and his wife are allowed $1.5 million a year in travel expenses, not including their
security detail and lavish, lifelong pension.
Taxpayers
Have Now Spent $3.5 Million to Find Out Why Lesbians Are Obese. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has now
spent over $3.5 million to determine why the majority of lesbians are obese. The project, now entering its fifth year,
received another grant worth $658,485 this summer. The total funding for the research is now $3,531,925. Funding has
more than doubled since the study was first revealed in 2013. Since, the study that is examining why three-quarters of
lesbians are obese, but gay men are not, has survived sequester cuts, and continues to produce results such as the discovery
that gay men have a "greater desire for toned muscles" than straight men. Another scientific paper associated with the
research concluded that lesbians have lower "athletic-self esteem" that may lead to higher rates of obesity.
Flint's
Water Crisis Has Law Firms Swimming in Cash. Michigan's legal bills for the man-made water crisis in Flint are
piling up. At least $14 million has been spent hiring lawyers from at least 33 law firms, according to an Associated
Press analysis of state records. Costs are only expected to balloon as Attorney General Bill Schuette's outside team of
two-dozen attorneys and investigators turns toward prosecuting a dozen current or former state employees or appointees whose
criminal defenses are being covered by taxpayers.
Salary
hikes, bonuses abound at taxpayer-funded WGBH. Boston public broadcasting behemoth WGBH, facing potentially severe budget cuts by
the Trump administration, awarded big pay hikes and bonuses to executives and staffers last year while reporting a $38 million loss, new reports
show. The taxpayer-funded nonprofit's CEO, Jonathan Abbott, got an $85,000 bonus in the 2016 fiscal year, boosting his annual compensation to
$624,930, according to tax reports filed with the state attorney general's office. WGBH gave out a total of nearly $300,000 in bonuses to 10
employees, including Abbott, according to their financial reports. New on-air host Jim Braude earned nearly $364,000 in the 2016 fiscal year,
reports show, while seven other high-ranking staffers and executives also topped the $300,000-a-year mark.
EPA
Ends $1 Million Taxpayer-Funded Gym Membership Program. The Environmental Protection Agency has ended a nearly
$1 million program that provided gym memberships for employees. The new administration under EPA administrator Scott
Pruitt identified the gym memberships as an abuse of taxpayer dollars. Examples of the program's misuse included
$15,000 for gym memberships for 37 EPA scientists in Las Vegas last year.
New
York City Has Taken 7½ Years and $2 Million to Build a 400-Square-Foot Public Bathroom. Urban development is
one of those areas where a perfect shit storm of fiscal mismanagement can quickly appear while the politicians responsible
just shrug their shoulders and say, "Well, that's just the way things work." That was basically the reaction of New York
City Councilman David Greenfield after he mentioned the $2 million price tag for a new 400-square-foot public bathroom
in a park in his district.
Obama
Program Erroneously Paid $729 Million To Doctors Including Dead Doctors. An Obama program made over $729
million in erroneous payments to doctors, and as if that isn't bad enough, this includes payments made to dead doctors.
The inspector general stated that there was "minimal oversight" of the program and payments and that it was "vulnerable to
fraud and abuse."
Taxpayers
Give $30 Million so NYC's Shakespeare Festival can Assassinate Trump Onstage. After learning that an actor
dressed to look just like his father gets brutally murdered on stage in a production of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar,
Donald Trump, Jr. asked, "I wonder how much of this 'art' is funded by taxpayers?" Well, thanks to some digging by Adam
Andrzejewski, founder of the federal watchdog OpenTheBooks.com, we now know the answer: [...]
D.C.
Spending $20,000 to Paint LGBTQ Murals on Storm Drains. The District of Columbia is spending $20,000 to pay
artists to paint environmentally friendly, pro-LGBTQ murals on storm drains. Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled a
"rainbow-colored crosswalk" on Friday [6/9/2017] to promote gay pride parades that are taking place in the city this weekend.
Bowser announced storm drains would also be painted by local artists to "celebrate the LGBTQ identity" and the environment.
Obama
Program Made $729 Million in Erroneous Payments to Doctors. An Obama administration program to encourage the
use of electronic health records made over $729 million in erroneous payments, according to a new audit. The Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services also paid dead doctors for enrolling in its program, the audit, released by the agency's
inspector general Monday [6/12/2017], revealed. "From May 2011 through June 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services paid an estimated $729 million in Medicare electronic health record incentive payments to eligible professionals
who did not comply with Federal requirements," the inspector general said. "In addition, it paid $2.3 million in
inappropriate electronic health record incentive payments to eligible professionals who switched incentive programs."
Tax
Money Shouldn't Shore Up Blatantly Biased TV and Radio. A government $20 trillion in debt has just extended — not
eliminated, as promised — funding for a public broadcaster that regularly infuriates and offends half the country. The
recently enacted Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 not only gave the Corporation for Public Broadcasting its regular $495 million
sweetsop, Congress also threw in another $50 million to upgrade its "interconnection system." Yet again, it was a two-year
"advance appropriation" for the CPB — a special arrangement designed "to provide a firewall of independence" from the government
accountability that usually goes hand in hand with government funding.
U.S.
Paid $1 Billion To Paris Agreement Green Fund — All Other Nations Combined $0. The Paris Treaty
was/is always about distribution of economic wealth; and the convenient use of "climate phrases" as branding instruments used
to create political policy favorable to multinational corporate interests who control the shifting of economic wealth.
Listen to the responses from participating EU corporate comptrollers discussing climate and the entire purpose of the Paris
Treaty becomes self-evident.
Education
Official Got Secret Cash Bonuses as Office Lost Billions to Fraud, Corruption. The senior Obama Education
Department official who resigned this month to avoid testifying before Congress got hundreds of thousands of dollars in
bonuses despite his well-documented failures, sources inside the agency tell Judicial Watch. The extra cash was kept
off the books, away from the public, and doesn't appear on his official government salary record but Judicial Watch has
obtained the figures with yearly breakdowns. The official, James Runcie, ran the scandal-plagued Federal Student Aid
(FSA) office, the government's $1.4 trillion financial aid program.
Obama's
regulations in 2016 to drain economy by $2 trillion. The Obama administration issued a record number of new
regulations on its way out the door in 2016, leaving an administrative state that saps the economy of nearly $2 trillion a
year, according to a new report being released Wednesday [5/31/2017]. The government itself spent $63 billion in 2016
to administer and enforce all of its own regulations, the Competitive Enterprise Institute said.
Social Security
Administration Spent $32 Million on Conferences. The Social Security Administration billed taxpayers $32 million for work
conferences, according to a new audit. The inspector general for the agency reported that just over 300 conferences cost taxpayers
roughly $100,000 each in travel, meals, and lodging expenses during a three-year period. The audit found that the agency mostly
complied with federal reporting requirements to disclose conferences that cost $20,000 or more.
Forest
Service Owns 'National Junkyard' of Thousands of Unused Buildings. The Forest Service oversees thousands of
buildings that are unused, many that are falling apart, full of mold, and pose safety hazards, according to a new audit.
The inspector general for the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that the Forest Service has compiled over $5 billion
worth of repairs to buildings, roads, dams, and trails it operates. Officials admit they are becoming a "national
junkyard" by overseeing thousands of decrepit buildings the government does not need.
Planned
Parenthood closes clinics but continues to collect $500 million a year in taxpayer funding. Pro-lifers say declining patient
numbers, the promotion of abortion at the expense of health care services and the shuttering of several facilities show that Planned Parenthood's
business model is failing and its taxpayer funding could be better spent elsewhere. The nation's largest abortion provider announced last
week that it would close four clinics in Iowa, three in New Mexico, two in Colorado and its last remaining facility in Wyoming, despite
continuing to receive more than $500 million in annual taxpayer funding.
How
Much Does the U.S. Government Subsidize Electricity Generating Technologies? Over the period 2010 to 2019, we
identified 76 programs worth US $11 billion to $18 billion per year that met our criteria for intentionality,
selectivity/preferentiality, and the potential for wealth transfer. Bottom line? In total dollars, the fossil fuel
industry receives benefits comparable to that for the renewables industry, but when considering only the portion of fossil fuel
support that relates to electric power, renewables receive far more support.
Chelsea
Manning to Remain in Army, Receive Health Care Benefits After Prison Release. Manning will be an unpaid soldier and will be eligible for health
care and other benefits, USA Today reported. Army spokesman Dave Foster told the paper that she will remain a private in the Army. "Pvt. Manning
is statutorily entitled to medical care while on excess leave in an active duty status, pending final appellate review," Foster said.
Should
Toledo Taxpayers Pay for Aspen Art? Here in the billionaires' playground of Aspen, the politicians waived the
zoning laws a few years ago for a monstrosity they call an art museum. It's a huge square wicker basket dominating a
city block, with zero setback and zero architecture. This place that is supposed to display visual beauty is itself an
eyesore. Almost everyone hates it. But not the director Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson. In an artistic burst, she
created for herself a $900,000 salary. Her salary is about the only permanent or valuable piece in the collection.
The real 1 percent:
The federal workforce. The non-defense, non-postal service part of the federal government comprises about 2
million employees — about 1.37 percent of the total U.S. workforce. Since 2004, federal government average
hourly earnings have increased from $28.57 to $39.19 in 2016, while private sector average hourly earnings have only increased
from $20.91 to $25.67, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. On average, private sector workers
only make about 65.5 percent of their federal government counterparts.
IG:
'IRS Overpaid More Than 600 Employees Approximately $4.2 Million'. The Internal Revenue Service, which is
responsible for collecting federal taxes and enforcing federal tax law, was unable to accurately deal with its own complex
rules governing the payment of its own employees and ended up overpaying more than 600 IRS workers about $4,200,000,
according to an audit report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The IRS also underpaid more than
900 employees about $2,700,000, according to TIGTA's estimate. The inspector general found that the IRS's rules for how
it determines the correct pay for one of its own employees when he or she is promoted to a management position are "confusing."
More
than $100M in taxpayer money spent on public worker lawsuits each year. The legal settlements and jury awards
have come rapid-fire, month after month, year after year: $400,000 to the public works employee who claimed a hostile work
environment; $2.1 million to the fire inspector whom a jury found had been harassed; $200,000 to the former police dispatcher
who said she was improperly fired; $3.65 million to the NJ Transit workers who said they faced racial discrimination.
New Jersey, a state where property taxes and the cost of living rank among the highest in the nation, is increasingly hemorrhaging
taxpayer cash as more and more public workers file lawsuits against the government agencies that employ them. By one conservative
estimate, the costs associated with such suits, including the legal fees to fight them, now top $100 million annually, a
threefold increase over the past 15 years.
Veterans
Affairs has 346 workers who do only union work. An estimated 346 employees in the Department of Veterans
Affairs do no actual work for taxpayers. Instead, they spend all of their time doing work on behalf of their union
while drawing a federal salary, a practice known as "official time." That's according to a report by the nonpartisan
Government Accountability Office. But exactly what those VA workers are doing and why so many are doing it is not
clear. The VA doesn't track that, and the GAO report offers no clue.
Trump
Ends Obama's African Ebola Amnesty. In a refreshing move, the Trump administration is eliminating one of Barack
Obama's many outrageous amnesty initiatives, this one involving illegal immigrants from African countries affected by the Ebola
virus a few years ago. The Ebola amnesty scandal got buried in the hoopla of the administration's broad executive order
protecting millions of illegal alien Mexicans and Central Americans, but it was just as alarming. Launched in 2014, the
Ebola reprieve was issued separately — and quietly — via a Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a humanitarian
program that's supposed to be short-term. Under the plan, the administration designated Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone for
TPS for 18 months. That's how it always starts — for a short period of time then it grows into years.
Before you know it, illegal aliens who benefit from TPS for humanitarian reasons are legal residents enjoying all the generous
perks — free education, food stamps, medical care etc. — that Uncle Sam has to offer.
The NEH Can't Be Mended, So
End It. Partisans of the Endowments, from the Right as well as the Left, oscillate between telling us what a
derisory sum of money they command — hardly worth paying attention to, don't you know — and insisting
that the work of the arts and the humanities is absolutely essential to the future of civilization as we know it.
Important it may be. But there is a pragmatic and a principled reason to favor the abolition of federal funding
for the Endowments.
Should
Tax Dollars Finance Broadway Shows? Apparently one argument in favor of continuing taxpayer funding for the
National Endowment for the Arts is that it frequently gives grants to Broadway productions. Some have argued that
without the NEA, there wouldn't be Hamilton, even though as CNBC's Jake Novak pointed out, "this successful
private-sector project was backed and funded for real by private investors all the way." [...] This is the blockbuster
Hamilton, where tickets began at $175 per ticket and then went to $850 per ticket. Please stop telling me that
this show would not exist without a check from the taxpayers. By last year, it was making $600,000 a week in profit and
depending on how long it runs, it could be the first Broadway production to make $1 billion.
The
Magic Disappearing $100 Billion Climate Fund. Shocking news — the magic $100 billion climate fund appears
not to be taking shape! Even optimistic estimates say the fund is $40 billion short, and developing countries say that
understates the problem.
Pruitt
ends EPA gym memberships. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Thursday [4/13/2017] that the
days of gym memberships being paid for by the American taxpayer are over. Pruitt was on "Fox and Friends," where he was asked
about documents released Wednesday that show EPA employees spent more than $15,000 on gym memberships outside of the free services
they were already being given. "Well, the gym memberships ended yesterday, it was quite something to hear about that," Pruitt
said. He said the agency is investigating the matter, saying "it was the previous administration that granted those gym
memberships," which "were rather expensive."
EPA
Staffer Uses Government Credit Card To Buy $15K Gym Membership. A Las Vegas-based Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official
used his government credit card to purchase a $14,799 in gym memberships. A conservative advocacy group released documents purporting to
show EPA contracting officer Kevin Broadnax bought 37 year-long memberships at Super Sport gym on April 11, 2017. Broadnax used his
government charge card to pay for these memberships. The sheer amount of paperwork related to the transaction suggests that multiple EPA
officials were aware of the purchase.
Judicial
Watch Sues EPA for Records about Controversial Obama Environmental Justice Grants. Judicial Watch today
[3/27/2017] announced it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia against the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking copies of grant awards and associated
proposals for "environmental justice" grants in 2014 and 2015. The EPA's controversial "environmental justice" programs
provide taxpayer funding for environmental and other left-wing interest groups. The EPA awards more than $4 billion
annually in funding for grants and other assistance agreements. Shortly after President Trump assumed the presidency,
the Trump administration instructed officials at the EPA to freeze its grants and contracts.
The
Federal Government's Student-Loan Fraud. All told, the federal government's portfolio of student loans now
stands at a whopping $1.3 trillion. As the Washington Post notes, "What's striking about the findings is that Americans
have a variety of repayment options to avoid default. The Obama administration expanded programs that cap monthly payments
to a percentage of earnings, but even though millions of people are enrolled in those income-driven plans, there is still a
disconnect." Actually, there is no disconnect at all. As we noted earlier, just under one-half of millennials
today believe their student debts will be forgiven, and an increasing number even use their loans for exotic spring break
vacations, booze, and partying. So, by that logic, you'd be a fool to pay.
Donald
Trump budget blueprint targets the do-nothings. [Scroll down] According to the Cato Institute, federal
workers average $123,160 a year in pay and benefits, compared to $69,901 in the dreaded private sector. That's a 76 percent
income gap between the two sectors, up from 39 percent two decades ago. Not to mention, it's almost impossible to fire any
of these sloths for just cause — look at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Public sector employees take 38 percent
more time off than people with real jobs. And now they're increasingly avoiding their own offices. They "telecommute," and
what a joke that is, at least for federal employees. Thanks to direct deposit, they no longer even have to appear twice a
month to pick up their paychecks. How overpaid are these slugs? Seven of the 10 U.S. counties with the highest per-capita
income are inside the D.C. Beltway. Those who produce nothing are the most richly compensated.
Ten
Good Reasons to Eliminate Funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. Reason #2: The NEA is welfare for cultural
elitists. Despite Endowment claims that federal funding permits underpriviledged individuals to gain access to the arts, NEA grants
offer little more than a subsidy to the well-to-do. One-fifth of direct NEA grants go to multimillion-dollar arts organizations.
Harvard University Political Scientist Edward C. Banfield has noted that the "art public is now, as it has always been, overwhelmingly
middle and upper middle class and above average in income-relatively prosperous people who would probably enjoy art about as much in the
absence of subsidies."
Trump's
Budget Chief Says Climate Research 'A Waste Of Your Money'. President Donald Trump's budget director told reporters Thursday [3/16/2017]
the White House was no longer spending money on climate change research because it's a "waste of your money." "We're not spending money on that
anymore," Mick Mulvaney, the Office of Management and Budget director, said at a press briefing while discussing the president's decision to dial back
climate science research. "We consider that to be a waste of your money," he added. Trump released his congressional budget request Thursday,
which contained several contentious reductions, including dramatic cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy.
Obama's
$77 Billion climate funds stash found — will be gutted. President Donald Trump will find the job of reining in spending
on climate initiatives made harder by an Obama-era policy of dispersing billions of dollars in programs across dozens of agencies —
in part so they couldn't easily be cut. There is no single list of those programs or their cost, because President Barack Obama sought to
integrate climate programs into everything the federal government did. The goal was to get all agencies to take climate into account, and
also make those programs hard to disentangle, according to former members of the administration.
How
Would You Like Big Bird Served? [Scroll down] Politico asks, "Can Big Bird Survive Trump?"
Yes, Big Bird can, because Big Bird is Big Business! Big Bird makes money! Investor's Business Daily reports:
["]Last year, Sesame Workshop had $121.6 million in revenues. Of that, $49.6 million came in distribution fees
and royalties and $36.6 million in licensing of toys, games, clothing, food and such. In 2014, only 4% of its revenue came
from government grants. Despite being a taxpayer-supported nonprofit, however, Sesame Workshop pays its top executives fabulously
well. According to tax filings — the most recent of which covers 2014 — then-president and CEO Melvin Ming was paid more than
$586,000 in salary and benefits in the nine months before retiring, which included a $37,500 bonus and $18,700 in benefits. The
year before that, Ming cleared $672,391 in salary, bonuses and benefits.["]
Why am I paying
for this junk? President Trump's efforts to balance a federal budget that is $443 billion out of
whack — the deficit grows by more than a billion a day — is meeting resistance in Philadelphia, where
the National Park Service is threatening to close all the exhibits at the "Independence National Historical Park." [...] But
really, why is this a national park? The Liberty Bell is important, and we should display and protect it. But
surely the good people of Philadelphia should cover the cost of preserving it, in exchange for the honor of being its home.
Obama
Spent Record $36 Million Fighting FOIA Suits. Former President Obama's administration spent a record-shattering
$36.2 million on legal costs beating back Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, according to an analysis from the
Associated Press. Obama, who once hailed his administration as "the most transparent administration in history,"
fielded a record-breaking influx of 788,769 FOIA requests last year alone and spent $478 million answering those
requests. A whopping $36.2 million was spent fighting to keep federal records from the public eye.
Your
Welfare Dollars Feed State Budgets, Not Needy Families. Prior to the TANF Act, families in need received cash
assistance through the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, where federal funds matched half or more of
every dollar of cash assistance that a state provided to a needy family. The AFDC funding method didn't provide states
with enough flexibility for the use of federal funds, thus the implementation of the TANF Act. Proponents argued that
states could shift the funds freed up when families left welfare to work or child-care programs, where the need would likely
increase. But that didn't happen. Instead, states redirected a substantial portion of their state and federal
TANF funds to fill state budget holes or to substitute for existing state spending. Even when need increased during the
Great Recession, states were often unable to bring the funds back to core welfare reform services and instead made cuts in
basic assistance and work programs.
Congressional
Black Caucus Foundation Received Over $500K in Taxpayer-Funded Gov't Grants. The Congressional Black Caucus
Foundation was awarded more than $500,000 in taxpayer-funded government grants since 2010, records show. Seven of its
leaders additionally paid themselves six-figure salaries, according to the group's most recent tax filings. The CBC
Foundation, a nonprofit that is separate from the Congressional Black Caucus, carries a mission of advancing "the global
black community by developing leaders, informing policy, and educating the public."
Axing
Wasteful EPA Program that Gave Leftist Groups Millions "Racist". The cash flowed freely through the EPA's special environmental
justice office, which the Trump administration plans to get rid of as part of a broader budget cut for the famously bloated agency. This
is great news for American taxpayers who were forced to fund this nonsense. Judicial Watch has reported extensively on the EPA's
environmental justice boondoggle and exposed the atrocities that occurred under the reckless initiative. Here are some examples of how
the money was used[:] to teach residents of public housing about recycling, seniors to reduce their "carbon footprint," inner city
neighborhoods about "climate-change readiness" and middle school students with a "disparate economic and racial/ethnic composition" how
to "identify and mitigate air pollution and solid waste disposal issues."
U.S.
Gives Soros Groups Millions to Destabilize Macedonia's Conservative Govt. The U.S. government has quietly
spent millions of taxpayer dollars to destabilize the democratically elected, center-right government in Macedonia by
colluding with leftwing billionaire philanthropist George Soros, records obtained by Judicial Watch show. Barack
Obama's U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia, Jess L. Baily, has worked behind the scenes with Soros' Open Society Foundation
to funnel large sums of American dollars for the cause, constituting an interference of the U.S. Ambassador in domestic
political affairs in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Nearly
100 bureaucrats caught viewing 'copious' porn at work. NBC 4 in Washington, D.C. decided to investigate
bureaucrats who spend their time on the clock looking at pornography. The news station sent FOIA requests to 12 federal
agencies, among them the departments of Justice, Transportation, Labor, Commerce, Energy, HHS, Social Security and the EPA.
They asked for information on the most egregious cases. What they received was evidence on nearly 100 individuals who
had been found spending "copious" amounts of time looking at porn while on the taxpayer's dime.
Hundreds of Feds
Caught Watching Porn at Work. Hundreds of federal workers have been caught watching porn on the job, including
viewing child pornography, according to a new investigation. NBC News 4 in Washington, D.C., identified over 100
"egregious" cases during the past five years where federal employees watched porn for hours during the day or required an
inspector general investigation into their porn habits at work. The report relied on records obtained through Freedom
of Information Act from 12 separate government agencies. "The cases include workers who admitted spending six hours a day
surfing illicit images and videos and maintaining tens of thousands of adult images on their office desktops," the report said.
These
Government Agencies Receive the Most Money. The Office of Management and Budget provides government outlay data
from 1962 to 2021. If an agency was established after 1962, the office lists spending attributable to predecessor
agencies. Note that all figures are inflation adjusted to the 2009 value of the dollar, the year the Office of
Management and Budget uses as its framework. Remarkably, approximately half of all government outlays go to just two
agencies: the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services.
EPA Employees Used
Gov't Purchase Card to Spend $14,985 on Fitness Memberships. Environmental Protection Agency employees used
their government purchase cards to spend $14,985 on fitness memberships, according to an audit by the inspector general of
the agency. With the goal of assessing the risk of illegal, improper, and erroneous purchases made on the EPA's
purchase card, the auditors evaluated 18 transactions totaling $48,345 and found that none of them complied with any of the
internal controls that were tested. Some of these controls require that officials give approval, that records be
properly placed in the vendor's banking system, and that transactions be reviewed by the card holder within 10 days
of posting.
Infuriating
List of Ridiculous Spending Items By Obama Administration. The FBI spent $1.5 million to help Hollywood
accurately depict the agency. The State Department spent $630,000 to buy "likes" on Facebook. The National
Endowment for the Arts spent $10,000 on a pole-dancing performance art project in Austin. Arlington, Va., used federal
money to build a $1 million bus stop that does not actually shield passengers from the weather. The National Guard
spent $10 million on tie-ins for the latest Superman movie to support recruiting efforts. The National Science
Foundation approved a $251,525 grant to study the Senate filibuster.
Feds
Paid $1 Billion in Social Security Benefits to Individuals Without a SSN. The Social Security Administration
paid $1 billion in benefits to individuals who did not have a Social Security Number (SSN), according to a new audit.
The agency's inspector general found errors in the government's documentation for representative payees, otherwise known as
individuals who receive retirement or disability payments on behalf of another person who is incapable of managing the
benefits themselves. The audit released Friday found thousands of cases where there was no SSN on file. Over the
last decade, the agency paid $1 billion to 22,426 representative payees who "did not have an SSN, and SSA had not
followed its policy to retain the paper application."
State
worker racks up nearly $180K in overtime pay. A state technology worker more than tripled her salary last year
by running up $179,930 in overtime, records show. Deborah Casais walked off with total earnings of $247,757 working for
the Office of Information Technology Services despite a base salary of $67,827. That made the Albany-area woman the
state overtime champ for 2016.
Dem
Leader Chuck Schumer Given 'Porker of the Year' Award from Gov Waste Watchdog. Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer (D., N.Y.) was awarded the title of 2016 Porker of the Year after he pulled away from five fellow wasteful
congressman in a poll conducted by Citizens Against Government Waste, a government spending watchdog group. Schumer was
highlighted by the group for his work on supporting the policy of making "debt free" college for all college students.
IG
report reveals Army general used gov't charge card to pay for strip club tabs. A former three-star U.S. Army
general and aide to Defense Secretary Ash Carter was demoted and will retire as a one-star general after an investigation
revealed he used a government credit card to pay bar tabs at strip clubs in Rome and Seoul. The move against
Maj. General Ronald Lewis, who was formerly a three-star general, was made by former Army Secretary Eric Fanning, the
Army said in a statement Thursday [2/9/2017], according to the Army Times. A Defense Department probe discovered that
Lewis used his government charge card for lavish spending at two strips clubs — one in Rome and another in Seoul.
Federal
Agency Eased Sanctions for Plagiarism, Data Fabrication in Taxpayer-Funded Research. A federal agency that
funds scientific research nixed punishments recommended by its own ethics watchdog for some academics who plagiarized and
manipulated data in grant proposals and taxpayer-funded research, public records show. The inspector general for the
National Science Foundation identified at least 23 instances of plagiarism in proposals, NSF-funded research, and agency
publications in 2015 and 2016. It found at least eight instances of data manipulation and fabrication in those years.
NSF officials disregarded recommended sanctions against some of the scientists and academics implicated in those findings.
Though many were temporarily barred from receiving additional federal funding, nearly all will be eligible for taxpayer support
and official roles in NSF-funded research in the future.
$8.5
Billion U.S. Counter Narcotics Effort in Afghanistan Boosts Opium Production. The U.S. government's multi-billion-dollar effort to counter
narcotics in Afghanistan is a humiliating failure that's resulted in a huge increase in poppy cultivation and opium production. Despite the free-flow
of American tax dollars to combat the crisis, opium production rose 43% in the Islamic nation, to an estimated 4,800 tons, and approximately 201,000
hectares of land are under poppy cultivation, representing a 10% increase in one year alone. Uncle Sam's embarrassing counter narcotics effort is
part of a broader and costly failure involving the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
Cameras
catch BART janitor who made $270,000 in a year spending hours in Powell St. closet. Last November, a nonprofit
called Transparent California reported that a BART janitor named Liang Zhao Zhang made $271,000 in a single year —
over $162,000 of that in the form of overtime. Now, a KTVU investigation into Zhang's hours and pay revealed that he
disappears into a storage closet at the Powell St. station, sometimes for hours a day.
Gravy
Train Flows Wide And Deep At Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Agency. Pay is flowing so generously at the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that hundreds of bureaucrats there receive more than most members of Congress. [...]
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan of Wisconsin receives $223,000 per year, but that's less than what 54 CFPB employees are
paid. Another 170 CFPB employees earn more than the secretaries of defense and state, the attorney general and the
director of national intelligence. All cabinet salaries are capped at $199,700, but not at the bureau.
Obama's
last money shower for the UN: some $9.2 billion. In its last year in office, the Obama Administration showered
at least some $9.2 billion on the United Nations and its sprawling array of organizations, according to a document recently
posted on the State Department website. The total is gleaned from a document that summarizes U.S. government spending
for international organizations, and is about 20 percent higher than the $7.7 billion figure given out by State
for 2010, before the Obama Administration abruptly quit providing any overall tally for its U.N. support.
Mexico's
remittances reach almost $27 billion. Mexicans living abroad sent home almost $27 billion in 2016, the highest
yearly figure on record, the central bank reported on Wednesday [2/1/2017]. The remittances rose 8.8 percent, from
$24.78 billion in 2015 to 26.97 billion last year.
The Editor says...
The money that is sent by wire transfer to Mexico — from workers who, in many cases, are not supposed to be in this country at all — is money
that leaves the U.S. economy and no longer benefits the citizens of the neighborhoods and cities where the money was earned.
This is assuming that the money was earned and not stolen. The money is therefore out of circulation in this country and, as it stands now,
leaves the U.S. without even being taxed. A hefty tax on these wire transfers wouldn't raise enough to build a wall on the Mexican
border, and perhaps this tax revenue would be given away to people who are too lazy to work, or spent on a useless pork barrel project, but
at least somebody on this side of the border would benefit.
The
$7 billion school improvement grant program: Greatest failure in the history of the US Department of Education?
The final IES report on the School Improvement Grant program is devastating to Arne Duncan's and the Obama administration's education
legacy. A major evaluation commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education and conducted by two highly respected research
institutions delivered a crushing verdict: The program failed and failed badly. (The Washington Post's article by
Emma Brown does an exceptional job recounting the administration's $7 billion folly.)
Education
Department report finds billions spent under Obama had 'no impact' on achievement. The Obama administration
pumped more than $7 billion into an education program, first authorized under President George W. Bush, that had no impact on
student achievement — according to a report released by the Department of Education in the final days of the 44th president's
term. The Department of Education's findings were contained in its "School Improvement Grants: Implementation and
Effectiveness" report. The study could energize the debate over national education policy just as the Senate considers President
Trump's controversial pick to lead the department, Betsy DeVos, an outspoken school choice advocate who has questioned the way federal
education dollars are spent.
IRS
Sent $46,378,040 in Refunds to 23,994 'Unauthorized' Aliens at One Atlanta Address. The Internal Revenue
Service sent 23,994 tax refunds worth a combined $46,378,040 to "unauthorized" alien workers who all used the same address in
Atlanta, Ga., in 2011, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). That was not the only
Atlanta address theoretically used by thousands of "unauthorized" alien workers receiving millions in federal tax refunds in
2011. In fact, according to a TIGTA audit report published last year, four of the top ten addresses to which the IRS sent
thousands of tax refunds to "unauthorized" aliens were in Atlanta. The IRS sent 11,284 refunds worth a combined
$2,164,976 to unauthorized alien workers at a second Atlanta address; 3,608 worth $2,691,448 to a third; and 2,386 worth
$1,232,943 to a fourth.
NASA Gets
Religion About Extraterrestrials. [Scroll down to page 58] "How might the world's religions respond to the discovery of life on other
planets?" NASA is enlisting theologians to answer that question to prepare for if and when human contact is made with extraterrestrials. The
NASA Astrobiology Program awarded more than $1.1 million to the Center of Theological Inquiry (CTI) to examine "the societal implications of the
search for life in the universe."
Wastebook
Exposes More than $5 Billion in Questionable Federal Spending. Arizona senator Jeff Flake released his annual
200-page catalogue of egregious government spending today, shedding light on 50 unnecessary taxpayer-funded projects from 2016.
Obama
Wastes Another $500 Million for UN Climate Fund. Of course, this money will go to dictators and bad guys in
many areas. Well, the money that makes it out of the hands of the United Nations, which doesn't exactly have a great
track record of competence and fiscal responsibility. And, what money makes it beyond the greedy hands of
3rd world developing nation leaders, will be position as being from the UN, rather than the
United States. Obama's just throwing money that taxpayers earned with hard work away, and all for nothing.
Barack
Obama transfers $500m to Green Climate Fund in attempt to protect Paris deal. Barack Obama has heeded calls to
help secure the future of the historic Paris agreement by transferring a second $500m instalment to the Green Climate Fund,
just three days before he leaves office. The fund was a key aspect of the Paris agreement signed in 2015, which aims to
keep global warming "well below" 2[°]C and aspires to keep warming to 1.5[°]C. Established in 2010, it is
financed by wealthy countries and used to assist developing countries with adaptation and mitigation. It was widely
seen as a key measure to bring both rich and poor countries to the negotiating table. The US committed to transferring
$3bn to the fund. The new instalment leaves $2bn owing, with the incoming president, Donald Trump, expected to cease
any further payments.
Air
Force general uses $387G in taxpayer funds to renovate foyer. A foyer leading to a three-star general's office
has been renovated at a cost to taxpayers of $387,000.
D.C.
Just Unveiled a Taxpayer-Funded, Anti-Street Harassment Walkway. The Washington D.C. government justified
spending taxpayer dollars on an anti-catcalling display by claiming women run into the street to avoid whistling and
catcalls. WAMU reports Washington D.C. unveiled "The Walkway" as part of the District Department of Transportation's
and Mayor Muriel Bowser's "Vision Zero" project to reduce traffic fatalities in the city. WAMU describes the tunnel as
"hot pink ramp with bright, color-changing lights" that includes audio of people whistling and catcalling. The display
also includes photos of people who have allegedly been forced to endure the trauma of being catcalled, as well as quotes
about their experiences.
HUD
Spent Almost $1M To Cover Up Accusation Against Top Exec. Taxpayers wrote a $900,000 settlement check to a
federal employee to compensate her for once being likened to a "Little Rascals" character by her boss, The Daily Caller News
Foundation's Investigative Group has learned. The secret settlement appears to be one of the largest-ever
discrimination settlement payouts to an individual federal employee. The payment came after an Equal Opportunity
Employment office ruled that the remark was racist and accepted without challenge the claim that it caused nearly a million
dollars worth of emotional harm. The offending boss was Mary K. Kinney, then-executive vice president of Ginnie
Mae, which is part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Obama
Has Little To Show For His Lavish Spending On Roads, Green Energy And E-Cars. Obama came into office like a starry-eyed
dreamer. He promised a vast network of high-speed rail, a "smart" electric grid, a million electric cars on the roads, a "clean
energy economy" creating millions of new green jobs. And he spent lavishly to realize this dream. [...] Obama has spent billions
of taxpayer dollars subsidizing windmills and solar plants as part of his vision of a "clean energy" future. But despite his
repeated claims about a huge increase in renewable energy production, renewables today make up just 11% of the nation's total energy
production, according to the Energy Information Administration. In mid-1983, the share of energy production comprised of renewables
was... 11%.
Stop
Wasting Our Money! Have you ever read your morning paper and thought to yourself, "Why did it cost $17 million
to plant some flowers in the town square?" Perhaps they had to pay a union crew to survey the land (drink coffee and talk
about baseball) for a few months before starting the project. Then they had to pay a master electrician thousands of
dollars to be on-call because of the underground power line 300 yards away. Then they heard that a family of pygmy
turtles may be living in the area, so the project was delayed for six months. But payments continued. Or perhaps
the town supervisor's brother-in-law is a florist, a very wealthy florist. Whatever the reason, when the government
gets involved, the price tag never seems to match the project at hand. Is it incompetence, carelessness, corruption or
a combination of all three? Or just human nature?
Medicare
failed to recover up to $125 million in overpayments, records show. Six years ago, federal health officials
were confident they could save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually by auditing private Medicare Advantage
insurance plans that allegedly overcharged the government for medical services. An initial round of audits found that
Medicare had potentially overpaid five of the health plans $128 million in 2007 alone, according to confidential government
documents released recently in response to a public records request and lawsuit. But officials never recovered most of
that money. Under intense pressure from the health insurance industry, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
quietly backed off their repayment demands and settled the audits in 2012 for just under $3.4 million —
shortchanging taxpayers by up to $125 million in possible overcharges just for 2007. The centers are part of
the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Hunt for
Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Should Start in the Executive Branch. [Scroll down] For example, Open the Books found that the
Environmental Protection Agency under both President George W. Bush and President Obama (the study covered the years 2000 to 2014) spent
over $15.1 million on outside public-relations consultants, despite having nearly 200 public-affairs employees in-house. Between
2007 and 2014, the EPA spent $141.496 million on salaries for its dedicated public-affairs officers. It surely didn't need to
spend millions more on hired guns to do the same job.
The cost of Obama. Obama
isn't exactly new to spending like a second wife on Rodeo Drive. When he wasn't taking two planes on five-star family
vacations and hoisting Cristal with bubble-dwelling super-celebrities like Mr. and Mrs. Beyonce, he was sending planes
on secret missions to hand hundreds of billions of dollars to fun guys like Iran. Eight years of Obama spent the
Democrats into a hole deep enough to hide every "green energy" boondoggle and auto industry bailout.
America's
Most Wasted. [This report describes] more than $13 billion in wasteful defense spending across the Department, including:
• $12 billion for 26 Littoral Combat Ships with no proven combat capability
• $458 million paid out inappropriately for travel expense reimbursements
• $375 million for Missile Defense Agency (MDA) targets that weren't used or didn't work
• $58 million for the Navy's experiments with alternative fuel sources for its Great Green Fleet
• $12 million for defective spare parts that will need to be replaced or refunded
• $1 million for travel claim reimbursements for unauthorized expenses at casinos and strip clubs
Abolish
the Department of Energy. Why would anyone want to abolish the DOE? According to one liberal commentator, it
was because the department "was established during Jimmy Carter's administration and it perhaps sounds like it might have
something to do with solar panels." Jimmy Carter created it, all right, but solar panels were only a symptom of the real
problem. The DOE was conceived in dark and pessimistic beliefs and forecasts that have proven totally wrong. As Obama
might say, the DOE is on the wrong side of history. As it stands the department needs to either be rethought or retired.
The Costly DEA Drug Fighting Airplane that
Never Flew. In 2008, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) paid $8.6 million for an airplane. By March 2016,
that airplane — though still unable to fly — had cost taxpayers over $86 million, according to a
federal government watchdog. In September 2008, the DEA bought an ATR 500 series aircraft for nearly $8.6 million
to be used in its illegal drug fighting efforts in Afghanistan. [...] The combined ATR purchase and modification project, eventually
dubbed the Global Discovery program, was projected by the DEA and DOD to cost no more than $22 million. So far,
so good, but the only thing the Global Discovery program discovered was another way to waste a lot of the taxpayers' money.
Last
Obama 'climate change' spending frenzy: $90M. Before leaving office, President Barack Obama is sneaking in one
last attempt to fund his "global warming" agenda — a move that could cost American taxpayers another $90 million
if he successfully persuades Asian cities to adopt his plan when he travels there during the last month of his second and
final term. The outgoing president's push to throw millions into his exorbitant climate change initiative is a
last-ditch effort to fund and keep his clean energy legacy before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration in
January. However, Obama's final spending frenzy is nothing new.
Pentagon
Spent Over $1 Million Studying Rat Personalities. Sen. John McCain is calling out the ridiculous,
frivolous ways the Pentagon spends taxpayer dollars in a his semi-annual "America's Most Wasted" report released Monday
[12/19/2016].
'Luxury'
living: Senate report finds IRS workers racked up huge travel tab. The IRS spent more than $1.4 million
on long-term travel for just 27 employees in fiscal 2015, including on high-end car services and luxury apartment and hotel
stays, a Senate report has found — with one lawmaker blasting "woefully insufficient efforts" to reduce expenses at
the agency. The Senate Finance Committee report, obtained by FoxNews.com, found that while federal guidelines say employees
must exercise the same care in incurring expenses as a "prudent person" traveling on personal business, IRS employees who
traveled 125 business days or more racked up an average cost of over $52,000 a year.
Go Big:
Eliminate the Energy Department. When created in 1977, DOE was given the responsibility for "the design,
constructing, and testing of nuclear weapons, and ... a loosely knit amalgamation of energy-related programs scattered
throughout the Federal Government." Prior to DOE, the federal government played a very limited role in energy policy and
development. Presumed scarcity, excessive dependence on OPEC nations, distrust in markets, and the search for energy
independence became the foundation for what is now a $32.5 billion bureaucracy in search for relevance. A series of
energy policies have done little to contribute to the abundance of affordable energy that fuels a growing economy. What
DOE has done is squander money on the search for alternative energy sources. In the process, it enabled Bootlegger and
Baptist schemes that enriched crony capitalists who are all too willing to support the flawed notion that government can pick
winners and losers. For 2017, a large chunk of DOE spending — $12.6 billion, or 39 percent —
is earmarked to "support the President's strategy to combat climate change."
ICE
spends $100 million ferrying illegal immigrant children around U.S., watchdog says. Government figures obtained
by the Immigration Reform Law Institute through an open records request show Immigration and Customs Enforcement spent an
average of $665 per juvenile in 2014, with most of that going to the cost of airplane flights to shuttle the children among
government agencies, to relatives here in the U.S. or back to their home countries — if they're deported. At
that rate, ICE will spend about $4.5 million flying just the children nabbed at the border in October, and somewhere north
of $100 million since the surge began in earnest in 2014.
Pentagon
Documents Prove Trump is Right — Boeing Air-Force-One Over $4 Billion. Immediately the Trump
opposition, which is essentially the entire MSM apparatus, went into apoplectic rage and attack mode because, according to
them, there was no basis for the price assertion at $4 billion. However, Pentagon contract documents obtained by
The Daily Mail show Donald Trump was precisely correct, and all the moonbat antagonists were precisely wrong.
Trump
was right about Air Force One: Pentagon budget documents show Boeing program is slated to cost more than $4.2 billion. The
Pentagon program that will replace the pair of aging 'Air Force One' planes is already slated to cost $4.265 billion through the year 2021,
according to federal budget and procurement documents obtained by DailyMail.com. That number supports what President-elect Donald Trump said
two days ago when he claimed the U.S. Air Force should cancel its order with Boeing because the project's cost had spiraled above $4 billion.
Pentagon
wastes $125 billion; Obama missing in action. The Pentagon has buried an internal study that exposed $125 billion
in administrative waste in its business operations amid fears Congress would use the findings as an excuse to slash the defense budget,
according to interviews and confidential memos obtained by The Washington Post. The report recommended that the bureaucracy be
trimmed because it is overstaffed and overfunded. It describes the infighting at the Pentagon, with everyone shifting the blame
to others. But the missing name in the story is the name of President Obama. If you read the story, you could conclude
that we do not have a president to make the decision to save $125 billion. It is all the fault of Congress, or the
generals or the system or defense secretaries.
Pentagon
reportedly buried study exposing $125 billion in waste. Senior defense officials suppressed a study documenting
$125 billion worth of administrative waste at the Pentagon out of fears that Congress would use its findings to cut the
defense budget, the Washington Post reported late Monday [12/5/2016]. The report, which was issued in January 2015 by
the advisory Defense Business Board, called for a series of reforms that would have saved the department $125 billion
over the next five years. Among its other findings, the report showed that the Defense Department was paying just over
1 million contractors, civilian employees and uniformed personnel to fill back-office jobs. That number nearly
matches the amount of active duty troops — 1.3 million, the lowest since 1940.
Trump:
Boeing 'doing a little bit of a number' on taxpayers for new Air Force One. President-elect Trump said Tuesday [12/6/2016]
that Boeing is "doing a little bit of a number" on the American taxpayer with its deal to build the new fleet of Air Force
Ones, and threatened to cancel the government's order. The cost of building a new Air Force One will be about $4 billion,
Trump tweeted Tuesday. He later took a question from reporters at Trump Tower about the tweet and said it's going to cost
too much. "The plane is totally out of control, it's going to be over $4 billion for the Air Force One program, and
I think it's ridiculous," Trump said.
Pentagon
buries evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste. The Pentagon has buried an internal study that exposed
$125 billion in administrative waste in its business operations amid fears Congress would use the findings as an excuse to
slash the defense budget, according to interviews and confidential memos obtained by The Washington Post. Pentagon leaders
had requested the study to help make their enormous back-office bureaucracy more efficient and reinvest any savings in combat
power. But after the project documented far more wasteful spending than expected, senior defense officials moved swiftly
to kill it by discrediting and suppressing the results.
U.S.
Spends Millions to Give Africa "Clean" Energy. As part of a broad mission to end extreme poverty worldwide the
Obama administration is giving unproven startups millions of dollars to create solar power in Africa. [...] It appears to be
the international version of the president's disastrous — and costly — plan to create innovative clean
technologies domestically by filling the coffers of fly-by-night companies that never delivered. Instead, they went
bankrupt after getting billions of dollars from American taxpayers under a Department of Energy (DOE) initiative that doled
out $16.1 billion for more than two dozen projects. Among the recipients was a now-defunct northern California solar
panel firm named Solyndra that abruptly folded after getting $535 million from the DOE to promote green energy.
Gov't
Spends $750,000 On A Wooden Sculpture And It Made Everyone Sick. Several employees at the FBI became seriously
ill after the agency spent $750,000 on a 15,000 pound, two-story tall wooden statue that was placed in the lobby of its
Miami, Fl. office. A dozen people were ultimately hospitalized because of the dust the sculpture created, according to
Politico. The statue, which is made of red cedar imported from Vancouver, Canada and supposed to resemble a tornado,
was purchased by the General Services Administration (GSA), an independent government agency. It was installed early
last year, but has already been removed due to its almost toxic-like qualities.
15,000
lb cedar sculpture at the FBI makes more than a dozen employees seriously ill including the office nurse. An
enormous sculpture in the FBI's Miami field office is being blamed for sickening a number of the bureau's workers including
the office nurse who had an extreme allergic reaction. The 17-feet tall red cedar wood sculpture known as 'Cedrus' was
installed early last year in the lobby, but soon after the unveiling employees began to feel ill. Politico reports at
least a dozen workers had to go to hospital with most suffering allergic reactions to the cedar dust from the sculpture.
Report:
Federal Government Blows $247 Billion on 'Wasteful and Inefficient Spending'. The federal government has wasted
at least $247 billion in domestic and overseas spending, says a new report. In his second annual "Federal Fumbles"
report, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) highlighted 100 examples of "wasteful and inefficient spending" and the threat of an
almost $20 trillion national debt. The federal government, which announced a deficit of over $500 billion in
the 2016 fiscal year, spent $223 billion on interest payments alone in 2015. Even if the nation had a $50 billion
budget surplus, "it would still take 460 years to pay off our national debt," according to Lankford's report. In
tracking down examples of federal wastefulness, "we are really dealing with four different main areas," the senator explained in
the press conference releasing the report. The areas are "grants that need oversight, regulations and regulators that need
oversight, agency bureaucracy and inefficiency, and then a lack of coordination between agencies."
Federal Fumbles:
100 Ways the Government Dropped the Ball. The State Department spent one million dollars to bring movie
producers and others from Jordan, Turkey and other nations to study American filmmakers and then use their new skills to
benefit other countries. More than $500,000 went to digging up graves and religious sites to study the transition of
churches in the late seventh through 12th centuries. In Iceland. In Afghanistan, a $48.7 million contract
from the U.S. Air Force was meant to build a new headquarters for the Afghan Ministry of Defense. Due for completion in
2010, the project ran five years late and $106 million over-budget.
Snuggies,
Shakespeare top annual government wasteful-spending list. If Shakespeare is performed without the bard's
immortal words, is it really Shakespeare? The National Endowment for the Arts has committed $10,000 of taxpayers' money
to test that question — one of dozens of projects to make the wasteful spending list of Sen. James Lankford,
an Oklahoma Republican who's continuing the tradition of former Sen. Tom Coburn's annual Wastebook. The National
Science Foundation again comes in for an outsized share of criticism for its research spending, including a $1.8 million
grant to a university that spent some of the money on embroidered Snuggies, the robe-style blankets that are a staple of
As-Seen-On-TV trinket advertising.
The
Navy's New Stealth Destroyer Broke Down in the Panama Canal. The US Navy's newest destroyer broke down while
transiting the Panama Canal, colliding with the Canal lock walls and forcing the $4 billion dollar ship to resort to a tow
from a tugboat. The USS Zumwalt was towed to a former U.S. naval station in Panama where it will undergo emergency
repairs. This is just months after a similar incident in September.
Government
Doesn't Know How To Stop Wasting $137 Billion On Improper Payments. The Do Not Pay (DNP) system, created by the
Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, combines several federal databases that agencies can
use as a tool to check whether the recipient of a contract, grant, loan or other government payment was truly eligible to
receive the money. Without the DNP system working properly, the government is trapped in an expensive "pay and chase"
process, where agencies have to catch overpayments or wrongful payments and recover the funds later. Ideally, agencies
would reduce improper payments by checking contract and grant recipients in the database, but for a variety of reasons,
agencies rarely, if ever, use the system.
Federal
Pell Grant Waste Quadrupled Last Year. The amount of improper Pell Grant payments by the federal government
more than quadrupled in the past year, wasting more than $2 billion taxpayer dollars, a new report reveals. The 2016
fiscal year report by the Department of Education breaks down the department's spending in a variety of areas, including the
distribution of Pell Grants, the primary form of federal financial aid to low-income college students. The report
touted that the government had substantially expanded overall Pell awards compared to when President Barack Obama took
office. But buried near the end of the report was a notable admission: The number of improper payments exploded
between the 2015 and 2016 fiscal years.
It's
Time to Stop Spending Taxpayer Dollars on Elon Musk and Cronyism. The Senate Finance Committee and the House
Ways and Means Committee have launched a probe into tax incentives paid to solar companies, according to The Wall Street
Journal. The committee probes, led by their respective Republican chairmen, Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas and
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, have found an appropriate and disturbing target to begin this work. SolarCity, a solar
installation company set to be purchased by Tesla Motors Inc., is one of the seven companies named in the initial
investigation. Already grossly subsidized, Musk's SolarCity has become an albatross of waste, fraud, and abuse
of tax payer dollars.
President
Obama's UniParty Slush Fund. [Scroll down] The shovel ready jobs program was a ruse, as Obama later
admitted there were no "shovel ready" jobs created. Instead the reality was the $1 trillion ["Stimulus"] entered the
various cabinet offices at the discretion of the President. Initially Obama gave a big chuck to the Dept of Education
to use as a subsidy for economic drops in state education funds. In essence Obama subsidized the teachers payrolls, and
kept the teachers union happy. Other notable large expenditures went into crony capitalistic endeavors with the Dept of
Energy and EPA (Solyndra etc.), along with the State Dept. The key point is the $1 trillion 2009 "stimulus" funds,
became a tool for President Obama to use in whatever cabinet office need he saw.
Spending
a $100 Million a Year to Pay Teachers to Do Nothing. The New York Post ran a story Sunday [11/6/2016]
about a man who was suing New York City. He wasn't after money (he's making $94,000 a year). He was suing to be
allowed to earn his money. David Suker, 48, is one of hundreds of teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve. He gets
paid to show up. "I come to work every day, sit down and do nothing," Suker told the Post. I'd heard of such
instances before, but I was unaware just how large the program is. The Post says there are currently 1,304
people in the ATR.
The
USS Zumwalt Can't Fire Its Guns Because the Ammo Is Too Expensive. Just three weeks after commissioning the USS
Zumwalt, the U.S. Navy has admitted it is canceling ammunition specially developed for the ship's high-tech gun systems
because the rounds are too expensive. The guns, tailor made for the destroyer, will be unable to fire until the Navy
chooses a cheaper replacement round. The Zumwalt-class destroyers were conceived in the late 1990s as the first of a
new generation of stealthy warships. The radar signature of the 610 foot long warship is that of a 50-foot fishing
boat, making the Zumwalts great for getting in close to an enemy coastline and then using the 155-millimeter Advanced Gun
Systems mounted on the front of the hull. The guns were designed to fire the advanced Long Range Land Attack Projectile,
a GPS guided shell with a range of 60 miles.
U.S.
Illegally Dispensed $60 Mil to Combat African Ebola Crisis, Money Keeps Flowing. In its crusade to tackle the
Ebola crisis in Africa the Obama administration violated its own laws by frantically doling out tens of millions of dollars
to leftist groups that claimed they could help control the virus from spreading in the continent's western region. Congress
dedicated a breathtaking $2.5 billion to deal with Africa's Ebola crisis but the funds came with rules to keep the allocation
process in check and they were repeatedly violated, according to a federal audit made public this month. At least
$60 million was fraudulently dispersed to nongovernmental organizations and other efforts without the proper steps to
assure the American taxpayer funds were going to valid groups and causes.
NASA in talks with Russian
space agency over joint mission to Venus - report. The US and Russia may join efforts in exploring the second
planet from the Sun, as NASA and Russian space agency Roscosmos are discussing a joint mission to Venus, Russian media
reports. NASA has already drawn up a number of scenarios for the joint mission with their Russian counterparts to
Venus, director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lev Zeleny told the Izvestiya daily.
The Editor says...
Like everything NASA now undertakes, this mission to Venus is pointless.
How will this benefit anyone without connections to NASA?
Another government hospital runs over
budget, repeating a wasteful pattern. Construction of the new Army medical center at Fort Bliss in El Paso is
almost two years behind schedule and could be more than $100 million over budget before it's completed. Two years is an
awfully long time for our nation's heroes to wait for new hospital beds. And Donald Trump's tax returns notwithstanding,
$100 million is still an awful lot of taxpayer cabbage. One might argue that at least the William Beaumont Army Medical
Center is no Aurora, Colorado, Veterans Affairs hospital, still unfinished, with the meter running on more than $1 billion in
cost overruns and years past its estimated original completion date. Still, the troubles at Fort Bliss should come as no
surprise. A check on the past two military hospital projects — in Killeen and San Antonio — shows
the same budget bloat and dilatory scheduling.
Clinton's
State Department spent $5.4 million on 'crystal stemware'. Hillary Clinton's State Department spent millions of
taxpayer dollars on lavish goods and frivolous initiatives, such as a $5.4 million "no-bid contract for crystal stemware" and
$630,000 to "increase Facebook likes on four State Department pages." [...] While wasteful spending is a familiar find at most
federal agencies, Clinton presided over particularly expensive unsuccessful reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Her agency spent more than $600 million on failed projects in those two countries alone, according to the RNC memo.
Clinton's
Lavish State Department Spending. Now, in another new report, we are learning that Hillary
Clinton's State Department wasted hundreds of millions of your hard-earned taxpayer dollars on a wild spending binge. [...]
These are all State Department expenditures during her tenure:
• $5.4 million on a no-bid
contract for Crystal Stemware
• $167.5 million on cost overruns at the Embassy in Kabul,
Afghanistan
• Over $200 million on mostly unused police training facilities in Iraq
• $79,000 to buy copies of President Obama's books
• $53,000 to polish marble at the
Brazilian Embassy
• $630,000 to try to make State Department Facebook pages more popular
• $216,000 to hire an event planner for a 4th of July party in Madrid
• $88,000 to send
three comedians to India
• More than $250,000 to purchase art in Mexico
•
$410,000 to purchase art in China
Exclusive:
American Tax Dollars Going To Sports Programs For Refugees. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services'
Office of Refugee Resettlement (OOR) informed governors' offices of its intent to provide sports programs, mental health
counseling and job placement services for refugees during a conference call Thursday [10/27/2016]. On the quarterly call
on refugee issues, participants were told the sports programs are necessary to help them acclimate to American culture.
The cost of the sports programs has not yet been disclosed.
The
$6 Billion Clinton's State Dept LOST Was Not 'Debunked'. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's claim that the $6 billion
the Department of State lost was "debunked" contradicts multiple investigations and audits by the agency's watchdog. "When you ran
the State Department, $6 billion was missing," Republican nominee Trump said during Wednesday's [10/19/2016] final presidential
debate. "How do you miss $6 billion? Six billion dollars was either stolen, they don't know. It's gone."
Clinton replied: "Well, first of all, what he just said about the State Department is not only untrue, it's been debunked numerous
times." But it was the State Department's Inspector General (IG) who found in three investigations and two audits that an
estimated $6 billion was lost to contract mismanagement, fraud and incompetence during Clinton's tenure as secretary of state.
N.J.
took $1.4B from your phone bill for new 911 system but never delivered. [F]or more than a decade, every person
in New Jersey with a phone has paid a tax on their monthly bill to make it happen, handing over a whopping $1.37 billion to
Trenton. Then came the classic Jersey bait-and-switch. Rather than using the money for 911, lawmakers and governors
have instead raided it time and again to balance the budget, leaving critical upgrades to the state's most important public safety
system on hold. An NJ Advance Media analysis found that of the $1.37 billion the state has collected in 911 fees since
2004, only 15 percent, about $211 million, has been used to help pay for the 911 system.
Investment in the upgrade, known as NextGen 911, has trickled to a halt.
Barack
Obama Spent BILLIONS Of Taxpayer Dollars Trying To Convince You He's Smart. It has been eight years of the most
ego-driven presidency in the history of the Republic. And if the devil is to be found in the details, those details
have now revealed the extent of Barack Obama's yearning to convince others of his own magnificence — an endeavor
he spent a half-BILLION dollars per year of taxpayer dollars on. And beyond that direct $500 million per year federal
employee public relations army, is another ONE BILLION dollars the administration is utilizing for outside the administration
PR firms to spin his policies in a favorable light. That is a one billion dollar advertising campaign to combat reports
on administration-related scandals, the still-tepid economy, unemployment, the rise of ISIS, etc. In short, it is the
pay-to-play scheme that Team Obama has utilized to control the Mainstream Media.
Obama's
army of public relations staffers cost U.S. taxpayers $500M per year. President Obama has swelled the ranks of
government PR, adding hundreds of new public relations specialists to the federal payroll during his time in office, costing
taxpayers a half-billion dollars a year, the government's chief watchdog said Wednesday [10/5/2016]. That doesn't include
the more than $100 million the administration spends annually for help from private sector spinmeisters, nor does it account
for the $800 million spent on contracts for advertising in 2015, according to the Government Accountability Office.
"Spending $1.5 billion on government PR activities is a huge waste of money. That sort of spending should be drastically
scaled back," said Chris Edwards, a federal budget scholar at the Cato Institute.
WH
defends $1.5 billion in PR expenses. The White House on Thursday defended its decision to significantly expand
the ranks of public relations specialists on the executive payroll during President Obama's time in office, and cast it as a
transparency exercise that's needed to ensure officials are communicating "effectively" to the public. The Obama
administration has spent more than $1.5 billion on government public relations staffers a year, as well as additional
private-sector communications specialists, since the president took office, according to a Government Accountability Office
report released Wednesday [10/65/2016]. The White House's chief spokesman, Josh Earnest, defended the move and called it
money well spent.
The
Unstoppable PR Machine Fed By Your Taxes. A new report commissioned by Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. (F, 58%),
who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, found that government agencies spend about $1.5 billion every year on advertising and
public relations. It may take a minute for the absurdity of that to sink in.
US
taxpayers made millionaires out of Afghan gangsters, warlords and connected class. American taxpayers have spent more than $100 billion
rebuilding Afghanistan, creating schools, hospitals and roads while making millionaires out of a rogue's gallery of warlords, gangsters and corrupt
officials. A total of $114 billion, which does not include even more spent on the military effort to oust the Taliban and stabilize the
impoverished country, has been appropriated since 2002. While it has likely improved conditions in the country, corrupt builders, security
providers, mercenaries and even local bankers have all taken their cuts — and gotten rich in the process.
EpiPens and Government
Cheese. At the end of August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture bought 11 million pounds of cheese —
that's a cheese cube for every man, woman, and child in America — in order to bail out the nation's feckless
cheesemongers. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack touted the aid package, worth $20 million, as a win-win:
"This commodity purchase is part of a robust, comprehensive safety net that will help reduce a cheese surplus that is at a
30-year high while, at the same time, moving a high-protein food to the tables of those most in need." (Most of the
federal government's new stockpile will go to food banks.)
Taxpayers
pay rent for Somalis who feel the need to visit Somalia (for months!) You cannot make this up! Virtually all Somalis who live in the US came here (we are told) as
poor refugees (there are going on 200,000 of them). So how persecuted and fearful of returning home are they if many travel back and forth to Africa and the taxpayers of
Minneapolis cover most of their rent while they are gone! By the way, Somalis are not the only (fake) persecuted and impoverished 'refugees' who go 'home' for visits from
time to time.
Obama
Spends $770M Dollars In Tax Payer Money To Renovate Mosques Over Seas. CBS exposing Obama paying for the
renovation of mosques is actually a story from 2015. But it got little media attention then and he's still doing it.
He's diverting hundreds of millions of US dollars to overseas mosques to renovate them. Tell me again how he is not a
Muslim. This just screams it. And people wonder why he grovels before the Mullahs of Iran[,] why he gives ISIS a
pass[,] why he is terraforming the US into a Muslim nation.
BART
tax could quadruple original claim. It turns out that the average property tax bill required to support BART's
proposed $3.5 billion bond measure on the November ballot could be as much as four times what the transit agency
claimed. Two months ago, I reported that the taxes needed to pay off that bond borrowing would be about double BART's
public estimate. Well, it could be even twice that. That's because legal language in Measure RR allows BART to
issue bonds at up to the state limit of 12 percent interest, far higher than assumed for the previous estimates.
U.S.
State Department to allocate $2.65 million for North Korea human rights. The U.S. State Department is allocating
$2.65 million to improving human rights in North Korea. The funds will go to human rights organizations and research
institutions to support work on North Korea-related issues, Voice of America reported Thursday.
Feds
to Spend $4.6 Million to Give 'Emotional Wellness' to Refugees. The Obama administration plans to spend $4.6 million
next year on health promotion and "emotional wellness" for refugees as President Obama plans a 30 percent increase in the
number of refugees admitted into the country. The Department of Health and Human Services issued a grant forecast last
month detailing its plans to issue health care grants for refugees on top of government programs that are already available,
such as Medicaid. "The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
invites States to submit applications for Refugee Health Promotion (RHP) discretionary grant funds," the grant forecast
says. "The purpose of the RHP grant is to support health and emotional wellness among refugees. The program
is designed to coordinate and promote local health and mental health services and education."
$2.3
Million Taxpayer Dollars Goes to Help Students Cope With Freddie Gray Trauma. The U.S. Department of Education
awarded the city of Baltimore more than $2.3 million in grant money to help students deal with "significant trauma related to
episodes of civil unrest." The announcement said that the money is part of a new Promoting Student Resilience (PSR) program
geared "to promote student resilience." The federal government gave Baltimore $2,374,000, which will go towards counseling
and behavioral programs to improve the mental health of students who may have been traumatized by civil unrest. After Freddie
Gray's death as a result of injuries suffered while in police custody, protests and rioting broke out in the city. Tension
increased again after the officers involved were either acquitted at trial or had their charges dropped by prosecutors.
DOD
Is Leasing Land To Green Energy Companies For Free. The Department of Defense (DOD) allowed private companies
to build green energy projects on federal lands for little or no compensation, according to an audit of the Pentagon's green
energy efforts. Government Accountability Office (GAO) auditors reviewed 17 green energy projects on DOD land and found
14 of those projects were, "not always clear about the value of the land used and the compensation DOD received for granting
such use." "Specifically, for 8 projects, DOD received little or no financial compensation for the use of its land, but
the documentation did not clearly compare the value for granting use of DOD land to the value of what DOD received for it,"
GAO found. "As a result, DOD contributed potentially valuable land — in some cases, over 100 acres —
for the development of a project without including this as a cost in project documentation."
Feds
Spend Millions Fighting FOIA Lawsuits, GAO Finds. Federal agencies spend millions of tax dollars opposing
Americans' successful lawsuits seeking public records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), but can't say exactly how
much, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials
responsible for tracking agencies' FOIA compliance don't know how much agencies spent fighting 112 cases from 2009 to 2014 in
which the plaintiff "substantially" prevailed, according to GAO. Of the 57 lawsuits agencies could track, agencies spent
$1.8 million. But that's just a drop in the bucket compared to the $144 million agencies estimated they spent
fighting 3,350 FOIA lawsuits from 2009 to 2014, according to GAO.
More
Than 28,000 Mexican Citizens [are] Housed in U.S. Federal Prisons. There are 28,683 Mexican citizens being
housed in U.S. federal prisons as of the most recent statistics, PJM has learned. The figure represents the total
number of inmates with Mexican citizenship in the custody of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons as of July 30, 2016, out
of the total 193,391 inmates. Mexican inmates are currently the second largest group of inmates based on citizenship of
the total federal prison population at 14.8 percent, behind U.S. citizens at 77.8 percent. In May, the number of
Mexican citizens housed in federal prisons was higher at 29,371 out of 194,991 total inmates. The bureau could not
provide the specific number of inmates in their custody who are illegal immigrants.
DoD Officials Did Not Take Appropriate
Action When Notified of Potential Travel Card Misuse at Casinos and Adult Entertainment Establishments. DoD had
less money available for legitimate travel expenses because of the travel overpayments[.] DoD experienced potential
national security vulnerabilities due to the untimely reporting or non-reporting of derogatory information regarding misuse
of Government travel cards to the DoD Consolidated Adjudications Facility, resulting in the delay or lack of adjudication
(decision on security clearance eligibility) for cleared DoD cardholders with financial concerns or personal conduct issues[.]
DOD
Lets Workers Use Govt. Plastic at Strip Clubs, Casinos — "Potential National Security Vulnerabilities". More
than a year after a federal audit revealed that Department of Defense (DOD) employees made millions of dollars in personal charges —
including at casinos and strip clubs — on their government-issued credit cards, no action has been taken to stop the criminal
behavior. Pentagon officials have done nothing to crack down on the abuse, instead allowing cardholders to keep sticking it to taxpayers
by continuing to use the government credit cards at gambling and adult entertainment establishments.
Tens
Of Millions In 'Consumer Relief' Funds Going To Liberal Activists. The Obama administration has quietly
funneled millions (and potentially billions) of dollars to leftist organizations and politicians that promote liberal
policies and win political elections at the entry-level of government, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Pentagon Officials Permitted
Government Spending at Strip Clubs and Casinos: Report. Department of Defense workers spent nearly
$100,000 at strip clubs and "adult entertainment establishments," and almost $1 million at casinos, according to the report,
which cited a May 2015 audit. At the request of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, the inspector general further
investigated the matter. According to the report, out of a sample of 30 government cardholders, 22 sought and received
reimbursements on 131 vouchers totaling $8,544. Furthermore, officials did not consider the "security implications
of improper personal use of the travel card," the report found.
Feds
spend $911,056 studying the drinking habits of lesbian couples. The National Institutes of Health is spending
nearly $1 million on a study of lesbian couples to see if stress makes them drink too much. The grant awarded to Old
Dominion University will involve lesbians filling out daily diaries about their romantic relationships to determine what
causes them to drink.
Leftist
Latino Group Crowns USDA "Federal Agency of the Year" for Cultural Transformation. Under Obama the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has
shattered records for spending mammoth amounts to give an unprecedented number of people — including illegal aliens — food stamps, make fresh
fruits and vegetables available in inner-city "food deserts" and expand farm loans for underserved communities. The agency has also conducted a minority
cash giveaway for "discriminated" farmers that initially targeted blacks but then expanded dramatically to benefit Hispanics. The idea behind that was
to make amends to those who suffered discrimination when seeking farm loans from the USDA. Black farmers got a $1.25 billion settlement and women
and Hispanics received $195 million "to ensure inclusivity for all who seek justice." All Hispanics who felt they were victims of USDA
discrimination got up to $50,000 for their suffering after filling out a form.
Fed
Housing Dept Has $43 Billion Worth Of Indecipherable Records. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
officials have ignored 63 financial management recommendations from Congress' investigative arm since 2012 and only
half-heartedly followed many more, resulting in the $43 billion agency's books to be all but useless. Things have
gotten so bad at HUD so rapidly, that auditors who found only one "material weakness" in the department's accounting in 2012
found nine in 2015, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published Monday [8/22/2016].
Clinton's
State Department Blew $6 Billion In Contracts, And We're About To Learn Why. Democratic presidential nominee
Hillary Clinton may soon have to answer questions about an estimated $6 billion in contract mismanagement, fraud and
incompetence that happened under her watch at the Department of State. Non-profit government watchdog Cause of Action
Institute (CofA) filed a Freedom of Information Act request Friday [8/19/2016] for records related to a March 2014 management
alert issued by the department's Inspector General.
More
than 100,000 defective combat helmets made by federal inmates put soldiers' lives at risk — and cost the
government $19 Million. Defective combat helmets made by federal inmates in Texas put soldiers' lives at
risk. The poorly-manufactured helmets were produced for the US military using prison labor and later failed ballistics
tests, the Justice Department's Inspector General said Wednesday [8/17/2016] in a report. Nearly 150,000 of the helmets
were manufactured between 2006 and 2009, when the White House ordered 'surges' in combat troop levels in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Poorly supervised inmates also used dangerous, improvised tools such as makeshift hatchets, which could
easily have become weapons.
USDA teams up with Iowa law school and Cyndi
Lauper to celebrate lesbian farmers. It's tough being gay and living in rural areas — or so says the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). That's why the agency known for grading your beef is teaming up with LGBT groups
and Drake University's law school to host an "LGBT Rural Summit" on Thursday [8/18/2016]. [...] It is unclear how much the
program is costing U.S. taxpayers, although USDA's Office of Civil Rights, which is coordinating the summits, requested
$24.4 million in funding in its fiscal-year 2016 budget request.
1,300
Fugitives Were Living In Federally-Funded Housing, Now Grassley Demands To Know Why. Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Charles Grassley thinks it's time for a federal watchdog to cough up some answers about a disturbing report it
withheld from Congress and taxpayers on an estimated 1,300 wanted criminal fugitives living in subsidized public housing.
The Iowa Republican also wants to know why the Department of Housing and Urban Development apparently isn't enforcing the law
against criminals living in federally subsidized housing.
VA
Hospital Bought $300,000 Worth Of TVs, Then Stored Them. Detroit's Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital
spent $311,000 on TVs that were never used and remain in storage. The federal agency's facility ordered the 300 TVs
"because they had funds available," which "may have violated the bona fide needs rule," according to a new report from the
department's inspector general (IG). Now, the TVs have sat "in storage for about 2½ years. Further,
warranties for the TVs expired."
VA Drops
Millions on Delayed Solar Power Projects. The Department of Veterans Affairs has spent more than $408 million
to install solar panels on its medical facilities in recent years, despite many of the projects experiencing significant
delays and some of the systems not becoming operational at all. The VA has failed to effectively plan and manage these
solar panel projects, resulting in significant delays and additional costs, according to a report released by the agency's
inspector general last week. The watchdog conducted an audit of 11 of the 15 solar projects awarded between
fiscal years 2010 and 2013 that were still in progress as of May last year. The investigation, which was completed in March,
found that only two of the 11 solar panel projects were fully completed.
Here's
$49,577,386 That Could Have Gone to Zika Relief. The National Institutes of Health has spent more on exercise
programs for refugees, anti-tobacco video games, weight-loss programs for truckers, and studies on gay hook up apps than it
has to fight the Zika virus. The Department of Health and Human Services is warning that its funding to fight the Zika
virus in the United States will be exhausted by September, sending a letter to Congress this week saying "additional funding
is needed." HHS has so far received $374 million for domestic Zika relief, including $47 million specifically
for the NIH. However, the Washington Free Beacon has uncovered $49,577,386 worth of questionable NIH studies since the
Zika epidemic began in the beginning of 2015.
Watchdog
calls for work by veteran artists after report shows VA spent $20M on high-end art. A taxpayer watchdog group is calling on the Veterans Affairs
Administration to showcase work by veteran artists, after it was revealed the VA spent some $20 million on lavish art at facilities around the country.
[...] The $19.7 million tab included a $700,000 sculpture to adorn a California facility for blind veterans. The VA also spent $21,000 for a
27-foot fake Christmas tree; $32,000 for 62 "local image" pictures for the San Francisco VA; and $115,600 for "art consultants" for the Palo Alto facility.
IG:
Obama sends hundreds of millions to 'sanctuary cities'. President Obama's Justice Department has coughed up
hundreds of millions of dollars to so-called "sanctuary cities" that refuse federal demands for criminal illegal immigrants
sought for deportation, according to a new inspector general memo. In just 10 of 155 jurisdictions reviewed, taxpayers
handed over $342.1 million in Justice grants to the law-breaking cities and states that have policies barring jails and
police from cooperating with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The IG said that is 63 percent
of the funds available to all American cities.
Government
Agency Spent Millions on Public Relations Campaign to Improve Image. Top officials at the Government National
Mortgage Association spent $3.9 million on a public relations campaign designed to create positive images for themselves,
including a magazine piece on how one of them avoided obesity. Spending tax dollars to polish an individual employee's
image isn't allowed under Federal Acquisition Regulations, the Department of Housing and Urban Development inspector general
said in a report released Tuesday [7/26/2016]. The association — which is popularly known as "Ginnie Mae" —
is part of HUD. "The majority of the charges related to Ginnie Mae's president, Theodore W. Tozer, and its former
executive vice president, Mary K. Kinney," the inspector general said. "This activity did not clearly meet the [rules]
for allowable public relations and advertising costs."
VA Spent
$20 Million on Art Amidst Scandal. The taxpayer watchdog group Open the Books teamed up with COX Media
Washington, D.C., for an oversight report on spending at the VA, finding numerous frivolous expenditures on artwork,
including six-figure dollar sculptures at facilities for the blind. "In the now-infamous VA scandal of 2012-2015, the
nation was appalled to learn that 1,000 veterans died while waiting to see a doctor," wrote Adam Andrzejewski, the founder
and CEO of Open the Books, in an editorial for Forbes. "Tragically, many calls to the suicide assistance hotline were
answered by voicemail. The health claim appeals process was known as 'the hamster wheel' and the appointment books were
cooked in seven of every ten clinics." "Yet, in the midst of these horrific failings the VA managed to spend $20 million
on high-end art over the last ten years — with $16 million spent during the Obama years," Andrzejewski said.
$3.1
billion — at least — lost in bogus tax refunds to ID thieves in 2014. The IRS has a
Taxpayer Protection Program (TPP) that sounds like it should provide security. It does, but not enough to prevent IRS
from paying $30 million to identity theft fraudsters in 2014, based on the 1.6 million screened by the program.
That's just one of the ways Uncle Sam fights identity theft fraud. About 7,200 of them were bogus. In total, IRS
processed more than 150 million individual tax returns in 2015. Overall, the GAO report indicates the IRS does a decent
job of detecting and stopping ID fraud, which is a big business. Crooks attempted to get $25.6 billion from bogus refunds
in 2014. The IRS beat them most of the time, stopping or recovering the theft of $22.5 billion, 88 percent of the
attempted pillage. But in the remaining cases, crooks got the $3.1 billion.
US
Navy's newest $12.9bn supercarrier doesn't work. The most expensive warship ever built has been delayed from
hitting the front line because it is reportedly not ready for battle. The $12.9 billion USS Gerald R. Ford Navy
supercarrier — the first of three in its class with a total cost of $43 billion — could potentially struggle with planes
landing and taking off, moving military weapons and being able to successfully defend itself, a memo obtained by Bloomberg News
reads. The memo allegedly states 'poor or unknown reliability issues' were identified in a letter dated June 28.
'Bribery
and Kickback Schemes' Plague Syrian Relief Program Funded With Tax Dollars. U.S. tax dollars are going to
relief agencies in Syria that are engaging in "bid-rigging and multiple bribery and kickback schemes" and the federal
government has taken inadequate steps to prevent it, according to a recent audit.
Trump
Gets It Right On Reforming the VA. [Donald] Trump is absolutely right in his diagnosis of what ails the program:
"Politicians in Washington have tried to fix the VA by holding hearings and blindly throwing money at the problem. None of it
has worked." It is a classic example of a single-payer health care system — wasteful, inefficient and impervious to
change. A case in point is the $10 billion "reform" passed two years ago that was supposed to relieve chronic, and at times
deadly, delays that veterans had to endure to get treatment. An Associated Press investigation found that wait times had not
improved at all last year.
Navy's
$12.9 Billion Carrier Falls Further Behind Schedule. The USS Gerald R. Ford — the Navy's newest
aircraft carrier and the costliest U.S. warship at $12.9 billion — won't be delivered until at least November,
more than two years late.
IRS
"Security" Program Unable to Stop $3.1 Billion Fraud. While it's absorbed persecuting law-abiding conservative
groups the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can't seem to stop crooks from scamming it to the tune of several billion dollars
in one year alone via bogus tax refunds. It's the latest of many transgressions at the agency that's doubled as an
Obama administration tool to crack down on political adversaries. A special IRS security feature called Taxpayer
Protection Program (TPP) couldn't prevent criminals from scamming the agency out of an eye-popping $3.1 billion in one
year, according to a federal audit. TPP was implemented to curb an epidemic of identity theft that allows criminals to
fraudulently get tax refunds. Supposedly, identity theft fraud is reduced through a verification process but the federal
probe, conducted by the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), found serious loopholes.
ObamaCare
Is Destroying The Co-Ops It Spent Billions Creating. After providing $2.4 billion in loans to get them started, ObamaCare is now
driving several nonprofit insurance co-ops out of business. That, in turn, will leave tens of thousands of people scrambling to find other
insurance, while making it unlikely that those taxpayer-subsidized loans will ever be repaid.
Obama
Gives $500 Mil. to U.N. Climate Fund. In a March 8 Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) hearing, the U.S. State Department
announced it had delivered $500 million to the United Nations' Green Climate Fund (GCF), a program intended to help developing countries adapt
to and mitigate climate changes. Heather Higginbottom, deputy secretary of state for management and resources, announced the Obama administration
had given money to GCF, which drew much criticism from SFRC members because Congress had not approved funding for GCF. While being questioned by
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Higginbottom told the committee the funds were diverted from the department's Economic Support Fund, which provides economic
funding to foreign countries. "Did Congress authorize the Green Climate Fund? No ... We've reviewed the authority and the process under
which we can do it, and our lawyers and we have determined that we have the ability to do it," Higginbottom testified.
Seattle
City Council Votes to Destroy $30,000 of Police Guns Each Year. Sometimes, reality approximates buffoonery.
The Seattle City Council has unanimously decided to waste $30,000 a year. It is not exactly clear why. The easiest
way to describe it might be a sacrifice to the gods of political correctness.
State
Department Paid College Students $12,000 To Make Hashtags. Students are fighting terrorism with hashtags, and
many are receiving cash awards from the Department of State for their work. The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)
took home $5,000 prize for their social media campaign "It's Time: #ExOut Violent Extremism." Two other schools won a $3,000
reward, and one school received a $1,000 prize as part of State's program to counter Islamic State propaganda online, according to
FedScoop. A total of 47 schools participated in the program this spring, each receiving a $2,000 grant and $400 in Facebook
ad credits to implement their plan.
Michelle
Obama to announce nearly $100 million for education in Morocco. First lady Michelle Obama is relying heavily on
social media to tout an overseas trip tied to the Let Girls Learn campaign, which is aiming to get an estimated 62 million
uneducated girls into school. Obama started a Snapchat account with help from celebrities including James Corden of "The
Late Late Show," with whom she recently taped a "Carpool Karaoke" that will run at a future date.
Feds
Spend $1.25 Million on Superhero Cartoon in Pakistan. The State Department is spending over $1 million to
create a cartoon superhero who teaches the importance of "living a healthy, drug-free lifestyle" and "women's empowerment"
for kids in Pakistan. The agency's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, or INL, division issued a grant
solicitation for two seasons of an animated series to "promote security and stability" in Pakistan. "INL would like to
develop a superhero animated cartoon series aimed at an older target audience (ages 14-25)," according to the grant
announcement. "This series would inform, educate, and positively influence Pakistani youth in an entertaining and
engaging manner."
Angry Man
Who Resents Your Choices of Deodorant and Sneakers Doesn't Mind $38,000 a Day in Security. While Hillary
Clinton has effectively clinched the nomination, Bernie Sanders remains the race. There are no more primaries or
caucuses scheduled between now and the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in August. Even if super delegates from
those states Bernie Sanders won switched their allegiance to him from Hillary Clinton he would not have enough delegates to
win. Barring an event that incapacitates Clinton or disqualifies her from the nomination, Sanders doesn't have a
chance. Someone waiting in the wings in case of worst case scenario isn't really a candidate anymore. But he's
still wasting taxpayer money. The Washington Post reports that while Sanders is no longer actively campaigning, his
campaign remains active because he has not "suspended" it, and thus Sanders continues to receive up to $38,000 a day in
secret service protection.
Milwaukee schools: Almost half a million bucks
for Black Lives Matter curriculum. The Milwaukee Public Schools have set aside $471,073 in next year's budget
"to create a 'cultural studies curriculum'" and to enhance overall school performance via "facilitation of meaningful
dialogue and support on issues surrounding race and trauma faced in communities and schools." This amount almost equals
that allocated for College Access Centers, Universal Driver Education, and Advanced Studies of World Languages combined.
Milwaukee
Public Schools Will Spend Almost $500,000 Pushing Black Lives Matter. Public schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
are planning to spend nearly $500,000 of taxpayer money implementing a program that furthers the goals of Black Lives
Matter. The $471,073 outlay in the proposed 2016-17 budget for Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) is included as one of
many partnerships the district is pursuing with outside organizations. The partnership with Black Lives Matter is
described as an effort to create a "cultural studies curriculum" and improve school performance through the "facilitation of
meaningful dialogue and support on issues surrounding race and trauma faced in communities and schools."
Flying
High on the Taxpayer Dime: These Three Senators Bust the Budget on Air Travel. Sen. Charles Schumer
spent $292,000 in public money flying private airplanes last year. His protégé Sen. Kristen
Gillibrand spent more than $150,000 on charter travel. The two New York Democrats were the top spenders on private air
travel between October 2014 and September 2015, an analysis of Senate office-account records shows. Third place is held
by a lawmaker from the other side of the political aisle and the other side of the country: Republican Sen. John
Barrasso of Wyoming spent more than $75,000 in the last fiscal year flying charters.
U.S.
Doesn't Track if Millions in Biz "Loans" to Refugees on Public Assistance Are Repaid. The U.S. government gives
refugees on public assistance special "loans" of up to $15,000 to start a business but fails to keep track of defaults that
could translate into huge losses for American taxpayers, records obtained by Judicial Watch reveal. The cash is
distributed through a program called Microenterprise Development run by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Office of Refugee Resettlement. Since 2010 the program has granted thousands of loans to refugees that lack the
financial resources, credit history or personal assets to qualify for business loans from commercial banks. Most if not
all the recipients already get assistance or subsidies from the government, according to the qualification guidelines set by
the Microenterprise Development Program. It's a risky operation that blindly gives public funds to poor foreign
nationals with no roots in the U.S. and there's no follow up to assure the cash is paid back. The idea behind it is to
"equip refugees with the skills they need to become successful entrepreneurs" by helping them expand or maintain their own
business and become financially independent.
Feds
Spend Eight Years And $300M To Develop Useless Software. But Feds have no money to improve waiting time for
vets' medical care?
Commissioner
says fraud from Obamaphone program approaching $500 million. The federal subsidy known as the "Obamaphone" or
"Obamanet" program could be losing nearly $500 million to fraud annually, according to a top Republican on the Federal
Communications Commission. Commissioner Ajit Pai made the accusation Wednesday in letter to the Universal Service
Administrative Company, referring to the FCC's Universal Service Fund, which provides a monthly $9.95 subsidy for telecom
service to low-income consumers. The subsidy is limited to one per "independent economic household," or IEH, but
telecom companies have the ability to override that restriction if applicants check a box stating they represent a separate
household, even if they have the same address.
Keyword: Cloward-Piven strategy.
Feds
spend nearly $20,000 to settle every refugee. Federal taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $20,000 just to
settle each refugee and asylum seeker, who are then immediately eligible for cash welfare, food stamps, housing and medical
aid, according to a new report on the "refugee industry." The report provided federal budget figures showing that the
government spends $19,884 on each refugee the U.S. takes in. And that number is set to jump if President Obama gets his
way and brings in an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees in this year.
It's the liberal way of life: Take a bad situation and make it worse.
NYC
spends $265G to urge people to use restroom of their choice. New York City has spent $265,000 in taxpayer funds to make sure everyone knows they
can use the bathroom of their choice, with a massive ad campaign urging residents, commuters and tourists to "Look past pink and blue." The ads, which
urge readers to "Use the restroom consistent with who you are," feature transgender models and are set to be featured in subway cars, bus shelters, phone
booths, local newspapers, digital ads and social media promotions. Most will be printed in either English or Spanish, though some community newspaper
ads will be written in Korean, Chinese, Russian and Bengali.
U.S.
government spent $1 million to determine if cheerleaders are more attractive in a squad. The U.S. government spent more
than $1 million in taxpayer dollars to study the question of whether cheerleaders appear more attractive when they are grouped
together in a squad. That's just one of "Twenty Questions Government Studies That Will Leave You Scratching Your Head," according
to a recent report from the office of Sen. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican. Another head-scratching study, Mr. Flake's
office noted, was one by the Department of Defense which asked, "Why does walking with coffee cause it to spill?" The price tag
was $172,000, just a couple thousand shy of the base salary for a U.S. senator.
Twenty
Questions Government Studies That Will Leave You Scratching Your Head. [For example, the National Institutes of
Health spent a million dollars to find out what kind of music is preferred by monkeys and chimpanzees.] The National
Institutes of Health (NIH) has conducted numerous studies over the past decade to determine the musical preferences of
non-human primates, even going so far as to have music composed specifically to suit the taste of tamarins. The studies
found that most primates do not like popular Western music, with one exception — the heavy metal sounds of the
rock band Metallica. When given the option to listen to different types of music or opt for silence, chimpanzees chose
Indian and African music — and even silence — over Western or Japanese music, but the monkeys went ape
for the sounds composed specifically for their ears.
Technology
That Hasn't Been Used. The aerospike engine was to be used first on the x33 Venture Star, an attempt to gather
information leading to a true reusable Single Stage To Orbit(SSTO) vehicle. Unfortunately the X33 died because of
mission creep and cost overruns. Essentially the mission planner forgot what the X projects were for and tried for a
fully flight ready vehicle when what was needed was an engine test bed. They truly forgot the KISS principle in design
and development.
ICE
spends millions flying illegal immigrant children across US. The Obama administration has spent at least $18.5 million to
fly "unaccompanied children" caught crossing into the country illegally to locations inside the United States, according to newly obtained
figures. The numbers, shared with FoxNews.com by the Senate subcommittee on immigration, were provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement
in response to questions from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. The numbers shed light on the extent of a program that has drawn scrutiny not
just from lawmakers but the federal courts, amid concerns the U.S. government is effectively aiding smugglers.
EPA
Conducts Two Secret Meetings A Year To Decide How To Dole Out Billions In Slush Fund Money. Congress
appropriates about $1 billion annually for EPA's Superfund program, and the agency has accumulated nearly $6.8 billion
in more than 1,300 slush fund-like accounts since 1990. Two committees consisting entirely of EPA officials meet behind
closed doors twice annually to decide how the agency spends those funds on highly polluted — and often
dangerous — Superfund sites. All reports to and from the groups, as well as the minutes of their meetings
and all other details, are kept behind closed doors.
The High Price of
Security Theater. Since 2001, the U.S. government has laid out mind-boggling sums to keep the homeland safe
from violent extremists. There was the $30 billion raise for the FBI that didn't see 9/11 coming and $70 billion
for the bureaucrats who have consistently failed to keep our airports safe. Add in more than $200 billion for a new
Cabinet-level department to coordinate all of this activity and half a trillion for mass surveillance, plus the incredible costs
of a decade and a half of military action abroad, and the total comes to a whopping $4 trillion. Where did all that
money go?
IRS
improperly paid $15.6 billion through Earned Income Tax Credit program. The IRS erroneously paid out an
estimated $15.6 billion in Earned Income Tax Credit payments in fiscal year 2015, according to a Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration report. A low-income worker can receive refundable tax credits from the Earned Income Tax Credit
program when they meet certain requirements for income and age. The $15.6 billion in improper payments identified
by the inspector general represented 23.8 percent of total earned income credits paid out in that fiscal year.
According to the Office of Management and Budget, an improper payment is a transfer that should not have been made, was made
in the incorrect amount, or was made to an ineligible recipient.
NYC's
putting bums and junkies up at this swanky boutique hotel. Dozens of homeless men are bunking in a new,
boutique hotel in Brooklyn — despite Mayor de Blasio's pledge to end the practice following a triple slaying in a
Staten Island hotel that was doubling as a shelter. The BKLYN House in Bushwick — which offers "loft-style"
lodging and "street-art-inspired" decorations — is renting out 44 of its 113 rooms to the Department of Homeless
Services, officials said Friday [5/20/2016]. Taxpayers have been shelling out $168 a night per room to "temporarily"
house 80 employed or job-hunting single men since late November, DHS said.
Shocker:
Government Throws Billions at Problem — Doesn't Solve it. The latest example of government making
worse the problem they created is the V.A. healthcare system. Feel free to also call it a vision of the future of
Obamacare. And why is it that America's heroes are always the ones getting the shaft? We never seem to hear about
the sorry state of the welfare system, or any of the other hundreds of government giveaway programs. They seem to get
their checks and benefits on time. It's always our veterans, the men and women who put it all on the line for our
country, who get the government short-shrift. Reports have been consistently bad on the state of the V.A. system for
years — decades even, yet it can't seem to get fixed.
Obama-Backed
Solar Plant Literally Incinerates Itself. The world's largest solar energy plant known for incinerating birds
just got a taste of its own medicine. A fire at the plant Thursday morning [5/19/2016], which may have been caused by "misaligned"
mirrors used to reflect sunlight at boiler towers, broke out in the facility's interior — literally scorching parts of the
plant. NRG Energy, the company operating the Ivanpah solar plant in southern California, was forced to shut down one of its
generating towers and is investigating if mirrors, or heliostats, failed and torched a boiling tower. Now, the plant, which got
$1.6 billion from the Obama administration, will only be able to generate electricity from one of its three towers.
Federal
Government Waste Exploded Under Obama, Data Show. A federal website called Payment Accuracy tracks in great
detail what it calls "improper payments" made by the federal government through Medicare, Medicaid, farm programs, school
lunch programs and others to contractors, doctors, students, and so on. Last year, the government made $126 billion
in overpayments, nearly double the amount of made in President Bush's last year. Improper payments in Medicare, for example,
went from $10 billion in 2008 to $43 billion last year; and for Medicaid, the figured jumped from $19 billion to
$29 billion.
U.S.
has 'overpaid' $1.2 billion for U.N. peacekeeping troops. Despite a Clinton-era law capping U.S. subsidies to
the United Nations peacekeeping force, President Obama and a willing Congress have spent over $1.2 billion more than allowed,
handing Republican Donald Trump a new issue to hit Hillary Rodham Clinton with. A spending analysis from the Heritage
Foundation's U.N. specialist showed that from 2010-15, the difference between the cap and the money sent to U.N. peacekeepers
is approximately $1.26 billion.
Another
$37.3 Mil to Combat Housing Discrimination. Throughout his two terms Obama has allocated colossal sums of
taxpayer dollars to combat what he believes is an epidemic of discrimination against minorities in everything from the
criminal justice system to education, housing and the workforce. This has been a government wide effort in which a
number of federal agencies have doled out hundreds of millions of dollars to fund a multitude of controversial initiatives.
Among the biggest spenders has been the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Judicial Watch has reported
on this waste over the years, including the results of a probe that revealed HUD violated a ban on federal funding for the
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) by giving the famously corrupt group tens of thousands of dollars
in grants to "combat housing and lending discrimination."
Waste,
Violations in $25 Mil Program to Fight Climate Change in Guatemala. A $25 million project to help Guatemala combat the ills of
climate change is rife with problems that include data errors and discrepancies, no sustainability plan as required by the government and security
and funding violations. Though it constitutes an egregious waste of taxpayer dollars, this is par for the course with virtually all of the Obama
administration's "green" ventures, which have largely failed after getting hundreds of millions in federal funds. Among them is a fly-by-night
solar panel company (Solyndra) that went under after getting $535 million from the feds and an electric car company (Fisker) that also folded
after the government gave it $200 million.
The Editor says...
To what extent has the climate changed exclusively and specifically in Guatemala, and how much of a remedy can be bought for $25 million?
Waste,
Violations in $25 Mil Program to Fight Climate Change in Guatemala. This one is officially known as Climate Nature and Communities in Guatemala
(CNCG) and it's a tiny slice of the president's broad and costly initiative to conquer global warming in developing nations. The goal is to conserve
Guatemala's wealth of natural resources and support the country's efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Since the U.S. launched CNCG in
2013, nearly half of the money allocated has been disbursed to a New York-based nonprofit called Rainforest Alliance that oversees a consortium of
environmental, academic and business institutions. This group gets a lot of money from Uncle Sam for its various biodiversity conservation causes
and, not surprisingly, there's lots of waste and mismanagement.
ICE
Just Blew $100K On Office Redo, Bathroom Renovations For Director. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
spent $100,000 renovating the suite not only of director Sarah Saldaña, but also her assistant's office, according to an
internal document obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. In response to a query submitted by a Senate Committee
on Appropriations staffer regarding the cost of office renovation, ICE confirmed that it had modified the director's suite
"to improve the workflow and usable desk space." The original question from the staffer included a humorous quip about
the state of the director's suite, which implied redoing the space would constitute waste.
Tale
of Two Tribes: 'Climate Refugees' vs. EPA Victims. The New York Times splashed a viral story on its pages
this week spotlighting the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's $48 million grant to Native-Americans who live
in the flood-ravaged coastal community of Isle de Jean Charles. About 60 residents, the majority of whom belong to the
Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe, will be resettled to drier land. That's a whopping $800,000 per "climate refugee!"
Never mind that the Times' propagandists themselves admit that erosion on the island began in 1955 as a result of land-use and
land-management factors that had nothing to do with climate change. [...] Never mind that enviro-alarmists have conveniently
changed their tune from blaming global warming for causing sea level rises to blaming global warming for causing sea level drops.
These
Expensive DOJ Offices, Rented With Your Money, Are Empty! PJ Media has obtained video taken inside Justice
Department offices which show empty, unused office space within leased commercial space. The offices are intended for
at least twenty federal employees according to DOJ sources — but only two are using them. The Justice
Department Community Relations Service offices in Dallas are on the 20th floor of the Harwood Center, a luxury downtown
high rise. Justice Department sources provided PJ Media with a video taken inside the Dallas DOJ offices which documents
the brazen waste of taxpayer dollars.
FAIL:
Busted Wind Turbines Give College Whopping Negative 99.14% Return On Investment. Lake Land College recently
announced plans to tear down broken wind turbines on campus, after the school got $987,697.20 in taxpayer support for wind
power. The turbines were funded by a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, but the turbines lasted for
less than four years and were incredibly costly to maintain. "Since the installation in 2012, the college has spent
$240,000 in parts and labor to maintain the turbines," Kelly Allee, Director of Public Relations at Lake Land College, told
The Daily Caller News Foundation. The college estimates it would take another $100,000 in repairs to make the turbines
function again after one of them was struck by lightning and likely suffered electrical damage last summer.
Barack Obama is really good at solving problems that don't exist, by spending other people's money.
Obama
administration warns of 'climate refugees' due to rapid Arctic warming. The Obama administration has warned the
US will need to deal with a wave of "climate refugees" as the Arctic continues to warm, joining with the Canadian government
to express alarm over how climate change is affecting indigenous communities. Sally Jewell, US secretary of the
interior, painted a stark picture of communities relocating and lives disrupted in her first official visit to Canada. [...]
"We will have climate refugees," Jewell said. "We have to figure out how to deal with potentially relocating
villages. There's real tangible support we need to do from a government basis, working alongside indigenous communities
as they make very difficult choices about what is right for them. "We can't turn this around. We can stem the
increase in temperature, we can stem some of the effect, perhaps, if we act on climate. But the changes are under way
and they are very rapid."
Most
expensive weapon ever built limps toward finish line. With a $110-million price-tag, the F-35 fighter jet is
the most expensive weapon ever built for America's arsenal — but nine years into development, it's also a weapon
still "not acceptable for combat," and plagued by huge cost overruns that one lawmaker is calling a "scandal." Those
were the troubling messages exchanged Tuesday [4/26/2016] during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing into the $379-billion
weapons program — along with an acknowledgement that the U.S. can't afford to see the program fail.
Exposing
Waste and Mismanagement at the Department of Homeland Security. Since its inception, DHS has faced significant
obstacles, including consolidating 22 pre-existing agencies and reporting to approximately 100 congressional oversight
committees, all while trying to strike a balance between national security and protecting privacy. However, with this
country more than $19 trillion in debt, our taxpayers can't afford to support failing management. Through hearings,
site visits, legislation, and watchdog reports, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency, which I chair, has
identified areas of cost-savings, provided transparency to the American people, and highlighted numerous deficiencies within
the department that are ripe for improvement.
Gov't
Employee Steals From Feds, Uses Taxpayer-Funded Lawyers To Fight Eviction After Getting Caught. Markquonda
Mathis rented one of the two subsidized units she obtained to her sister, Markquasha, who used it as a second home and to
park her Lexus. Mathis faced no criminal or civil penalties even though she lied to federal investigators about the
units, one of which was in the District of Columbia and the other in Alexandria, Virginia. A 2014 HUD Inspector General
report made public by The Daily Caller News Foundation earlier this month said housing authorities were moving to evict
Mathis. That's when Mathis turned to attorneys from the Neighborhood Legal Services Program, which is supported by the
federally funded Legal Services Corporation. In other words, Mathis was using one government agency to fight another
government agency to preserve her right to defraud a third, all while drawing a paycheck from HUD.
It's
all your money: US aiding business start-ups — for illegal aliens. Read the fine print on the
Small Business Administration's website, and you'll find that the agency does not provide the funds to "start or grow" a
small business — the engine of the American economy, providing roughly three-quarters of all new jobs.
Rather, the SBA provides offers loan guarantees to the banks and lenders that do provide seed money. So it might come
as a surprise to American entrepreneurs that there is at least one group to whom the federal government is providing direct
assistance for business start-ups: illegal aliens. In fact, these recipients of your taxpayer funds fall into an
even more restricted category: illegal aliens who have been deported back to their native land.
Climate
Change: The Greatest Conspiracy Against the Taxpayer, Ever! Climate change is the biggest scam in the
history of the world — a $1.5 trillion-a-year conspiracy against the taxpayer, every cent, penny and centime of
which ends in the pockets of the wrong kind of people, none of which goes towards a cause remotely worth funding, all of it a
complete and utter waste.
Gov't
Spends Nearly $3M Encouraging Gen Y to Eat Fruit. The federal government has spent nearly $3 million on a
web-based intervention study that aims to have young adults increase their intake of fruits and vegetables. The 5-year
"MENU (Making Effective Nutritional Choices) Gen Y Study" has received $2,834,393 in taxpayer money since 2012. The goal of
the effort "is to increase daily intake of fruits and vegetables for young adults born in or after 1980, known as "Generation Y,"
according to the project description on the National Institute of Health (NIH) website.
The Editor says...
The NIH, like every other government agency, works daily to find new ways to justify its continued existence.
Illegal
immigrants are being deported on private jets — $300,000 every day to fly aliens back home. American
taxpayers are forking out more than $300,000 every day to deport illegal immigrants on commercial flights and even on private
jets, Daily Mail Online can exclusively reveal. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spent $116m in 2015 to
transport 235,413 people in the United States illegally back to their home countries. More than 40 percent of those
who had violated visa restrictions were convicted criminals while more than 1,000 were identified as gang members.
Corruption,
Incompetence Scandal at DOJ's Ferguson Unit Widens. On April 12, PJ Media Legal Editor J. Christian Adams
reported that DOJ sources had revealed how two top employees in the Justice Department's Community Relations Service (CRS) used
taxpayer money for personal travel. The DOJ sources also revealed how these two top employees were responsible for a culture
of incompetence, political decision-making, and gross mismanagement. Here, we reveal that those same sources told Adams and
me about corruption by other CRS managers, and about a hostile work environment that includes bullying and discrimination —
particularly against anyone who complains about the waste, fraud, and abuse.
DOJ
Employees in Ferguson and Trayvon Unit Used Taxpayer Cash for Airfare, Dentist Visits, and Dinners at Emeril's.
Justice Department employees in the DOJ Community Relations Service have reported gross mismanagement and corruption to
Attorney General Loretta Lynch — but she has taken no action to investigate the problems. The Community
Relations Service has been at the center of high-profile, racially charged controversies involving the Justice Department,
including the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore and the Trayvon Martin shooting in Sanford, Florida. Multiple DOJ sources
report to PJ Media a culture of incompetence and political decision-making by managers in the Justice Department component.
The complaints also allege the use of federal money for personal travel, including one Atlanta manager flying to see a dentist
in his hometown of Miami, and a Dallas manager flying to New Orleans on tax dollars to dine at Emeril Lagasse's restaurant in
New Orleans.
The
U.S. paid for NATO: $30 trillion and counting. As the firestorm ignited by Donald Trump regarding the structure
and utility of NATO burns on, the freeloaders in the alliance continue to whine and ask for even greater levels of
subsidization. Take Lithuania, whose defense minister recently claimed that "the harassment of an American warship [by
Russian fighter jets] shows why the US should help build the region's missile defenses. A correct translation of "help
build" is "have the Americans pay for. While Lithuania is apparently now on-target to reach the preferred NATO
defense-spending target of just 2% of GDP within a few years, the Lithuanians have done nothing for the common defense since
the small country on the alliance's volatile periphery joined in 2004. In fact, between 2004 and 2013, its military spending
dropped from a puny 1.2% of GDP down to an irrelevant 0.8% of GDP.
'Mr. Social
Security' Indicted in $600 Million Disability Fraud Scheme. Eric C. Conn, a flashy Kentucky lawyer who called
himself "Mr. Social Security," was arrested for his alleged role in a $600 million federal disability fraud scheme,
according to an indictment that was unsealed Tuesday [4/5/2016]. Conn, David Daugherty, and Alfred Adkins, a clinical
psychologist who performed medical evaluations for Conn seven years, were charged in an 18-count indictment on Friday in the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Conn was arrested on Tuesday, and the indictment was
unsealed. Conn's law firm was the centerpiece of a two-year investigation that concluded in 2013 led by former
Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), who found the lawyer was working with discredited doctors who provided phony medical
evidence for thousands of disability claims, which were then signed off on by Administrative Law Judge David B. Daugherty.
White
House: $589 million to go to fight Zika virus. Most of the $589 million would be devoted to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention for research on the virus and Zika-related birth defects, as well as the creation of response teams to limit its spread.
The Editor says...
It would be far less expensive and more effective to remove the ban on DDT and/or
temporarily prohibit two-way travel to Central and South America.
U.S.
Govt. Banking Program Facilitates Remittances to Mexico. The program is called "Directo a Mexico" and the Federal Reserve,
the government agency that serves as the nation's central bank, launched it nearly a decade ago. Judicial Watch investigated the outrageous
taxpayer-subsidized initiative and obtained government records back in 2006. It was created by President George W. Bush following the
2001 U.S.-Mexico Partnership for Prosperity, undermines our nation's immigration laws and is a potential national security nightmare. The
goal was to provide low-cost banking services to illegal immigrants and facilitate the process for those sending money home. Remittances
are transferred through the Federal Reserve's own automated clearinghouse linked directly to Mexico's central bank (Banco de Mexico). At
the time Federal Reserve officials acknowledged that most of the Mexicans who send money home are illegal immigrants so a Mexican-issued
identification is the only requirement to use the government banking service.
State
Dept. hiring interior designers, salaries up to $141,000. The State Department has put out an
advertisement that says it wants to hire three interior designers, jobs that pay anywhere from $92,000 to $141,000 per
year. Applicants for the interior designer positions must be able to obtain and maintain a "Top Secret" security
clearance, and if they get the job, they'll work on designing U.S. diplomatic missions abroad. State is looking
for designers to hire at the GS-13 and 14 levels — the GS-14 position will be paid the most. All the jobs
are full-time.
Administration's
efforts to reduce red tape results in $16-billion increase in costs. The American Action Forum has released a
scathing report taking the Obama administration to task for its paperwork reduction efforts. While the president
directed the agencies to repeal, modify, or remove rules that contributed unnecessarily to the red tape burden of businesses,
government bureaucrats responded by expanding some regs while failing to remove or modify other burdensome rules. [...] The
paperwork burden on business is an astronomical $1.9 trillion. Under Obama, we've seen six straight years of
escalating red tape.
"Deeply
Troubled" DHS System Blows Millions, Feds Want Extra $1 Bil. Years after the U.S. launched an automated
Homeland Security system essential to keeping the nation safe, it's a malfunctioning flop that's so far swallowed a
mind-boggling $1.7 billion and needs an additional billion and several more years to perhaps get it to work. That's not
even the best part. A number of federal audits have documented the serious problems with this costly failure in the
last few years and officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have simply ignored the government investigators'
findings and recommendations.
US
agencies have spent $86m on grounded surveillance plane, audit says. An $86m Drug Enforcement Administration plane
purchased seven years ago to fly surveillance and counter-narcotics missions in Afghanistan remains grounded in the US and will
probably never fly in Asia, according to a scathing audit released on Wednesday by the Justice Department's inspector general.
Congress
Should Flip the Switch and End Unauthorized Federal Spending. The federal government is scheduled to spend $310 billion of your tax
dollars this year on federal programs that are not authorized by law according to the Congressional Budget Office. That's about a quarter of all
so-called discretionary spending, so one of every four taxpayer dollars Congress spends is going to a program that is legally expired. It is a
total breakdown of accountability and oversight and, unfortunately, it is business as usual in Washington. The good news is an innovative
legislative solution has been proposed by Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers: automatic reductions in spending via sequestration
for programs that remain unauthorized, and ultimately phasing them out completely unless Congress acts to reauthorize them.
Houston Community College loses $40k on rodeo parking.
Houston Community College managed to lose $39,475 selling parking spots at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this year.
This was no meager accomplishment, given that the Houston Rodeo draws more than 1.3 million in paid attendance and generates
roughly a half-billion dollars in sales when it takes over South Houston for three weeks every March.
Taxpayers
Are Footing Bill for Solar Project That Doesn't Work. As every ten-year-old who ever got a sweater for a
birthday present has been told, "It's the thought that counts." That seems to be the guiding principle at the Department of
Energy and the California Public Utilities Commission when it comes to solar power. The latest example is the $2.2 billion
Ivanpah solar thermal plant in California. [...] Brightsource, which is privately held, is owned by a virtual who's who of
those that don't need subsidies from taxpayers and ratepayers.
Kerry:
Let's Fight ISIS With A Soap Opera. They're not an existential threat to us." That was President Obama,
defending his seeming indifference to the latest ISIS terrorist attack in Europe. "Groups like (ISIS) can't destroy us,
they can't defeat us. They don't produce anything," he said. So what should the U.S. do to fight this non-existential
threat that doesn't produce anything? Let's put on a show! It's almost too ridiculous to believe, but the day after
the attacks in Brussels, the State Department posted a $1.5 million grant proposal to develop "a television drama series that
addresses the issue of countering violent extremism among young people in contemporary Afghan society."
Marines
to spend $50 million moving 1,100 turtles. The U.S. Marine Corps plans to spend $50 million moving some 1,100
turtles from its training base at Twentynine Palms, Calif., or about $45,454 each. The program includes a 30-year assessment
of their efforts to monitor the desert tortoises that are listed as threatened under federal law. According to Marine Corps
Times, the tortoises live on a section of the base that is to be used for training.
'Slush
Fund': Senator Slams State Dept. for $500M Payment to Green Climate Fund. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) on
Tuesday [3/8/2016] slammed the administration's handover of $500 million to the U.N. Green Climate Fund, asking a State
Department official how the "handout to foreign bureaucrats" could be justified at a time when there were "real problems"
that need to be addressed at home. Barrasso told Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources Heather Higginbottom he
viewed the payment to the "new international climate change slush fund" — the first installment of a $3 billion
pledge — as both a misuse of taxpayer dollars and a violation of legislation that prohibits federal agencies from
spending federal funds in advance or in excess of an appropriation. "It appears to be latest example of the administration
going around Congress because the American people don't really support what the president is doing with this initiative," he said.
No
longer speaker, but two Boehner aides being paid over $10,000 a month. Two aides to former House Speaker John
Boehner are earning over $10,000 a month in his taxpayer-funded "Office of the Former Speaker," according to congressional
records. Both longtime aides, Amy Lozupone received $26,414 for work done in November and December as Boehner's
administrative assistant, and Michael Sommers was paid $22,185 during the same period.
House
Probe Reveals Audit Detailing Climate Change Researcher's 'Double Dipping' With Taxpayer Funds. Congressional
investigators have obtained an internal audit from George Mason University that suggests one of its professors — a
major proponent of man-made climate change — mismanaged millions of dollars in taxpayer money by "double dipping"
in violation of university policy. The professor, Jagadish Shukla, received $511,410 in combined compensation from George
Mason University and his own taxpayer-funded climate change research center in 2014 alone, without receiving required permission
from university officials, the audit found.
$2
Billion In ObamaCare Subsidies Might Have Been In Error, Audit Finds. A stinging audit of ObamaCare released on Wednesday [2/24/2016] finds
that the agency in charge of the health care program could have paid out more than $2 billion in subsidies in 2014 that it shouldn't have.
The Government Accountability Office report found that hundreds of thousands of applications contained unresolved "inconsistencies" —
meaning the information provided by applicants about their income, Social Security numbers, citizenship status, or whether they were in jail or
not, didn't match existing government records.
Treasury
Dept. Spends Another $2B On Housing Recovery. The U.S. Department of Treasury announced Friday [2/19/2016] that it will
spend an additional $2 billion on neighborhoods and homeowners to help them "recover from the finacial crisis." "Today's
announcement is the next step in the Administration's effort to help struggling homeowners recover from the financial crisis, and
strengthen the housing recovery," Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said. According to MLive, the announcement comes less
than two months after five Michigan cities finished about $133 million in work to demolish vacant homes.
These
8 federal agencies are the worst. Here's how to fix them. From the historic breach of 22 million personnel records to the systemic
failure to take care of veterans to outrageous shenanigans among Secret Service agents, federal agencies are acquitting themselves poorly these days.
What follows is a rundown of the eight worst agencies. But this list is by no means comprehensive. Others could join, but this is a magazine,
not a phonebook. The list also includes the number of employees deemed essential during the 2013 shutdown.
Six
Fed-Funded Non-Profits Are 'Scandals Waiting To Happen'. Six obscure nonprofits funded almost entirely by federal
taxpayers in an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program that recruits technically skilled seniors for cheap labor are "scandals
waiting to happen," according to an expert on advocacy groups. "The idea of government funding charitable works ought to be
something conservatives and libertarians are concerned about," Capital Research Center's (CRC) Senior Vice President Matthew Vadum
told The Daily Caller News Foundation. "The government's been doing this a long time, but it rarely gets discussed."
Carrier
Received $5.1 Million in Obama-Stimulus Cash Before Move To Mexico. Heating and air-conditioning company Carrier, which has announced
it will move 1,400 Americans' jobs to Mexico, received $5.1 million from the Obama administration. Local media reported the "Department of
Energy awarded Carrier $5.1 million in clean energy tax credits in December 2013" for its Indianapolis facility. They planned to use the
money to "expand production at its Indianapolis facility to meet increasing demand for its eco-friendly condensing gas furnace product line."
Illegals
leave Texas detention with free Samsung Galaxy 4 phone — for safety!. The government is giving
immigrant families released from Texas detention facilities free cell phones. The criteria used to determine who will be
offered the phones are those who are considered low flight risks and unlikely to pose a danger to the community, according to
Fox News. So far, 25 families have been offered the phones, which aren't your run-of-the-mill phones —
they're Samsung Galaxy 4 smartphones — and the program is understandably coming under fire.
Millionaires
Are Qualifying for Medicaid Under Obamacare. In states that expanded Medicaid, people with high net worths and low monthly
incomes qualify for Medicaid because of loosened eligibility requirements implemented under Obamacare. And in rural states like Iowa,
Americans whom many would consider wealthy are taking advantage of this "loophole" and enrolling in coverage paid for by taxpayers.
Jesse Patton, an insurance broker living in Iowa, has had clients with net worths ranging from $2 million to $5 million, which
often stem from farmland or assets from divorce settlements. And those clients, he said, are enrolled in Medicaid in expansion states
like Iowa.
U.S.
Blows $5.7 Bil on Cyber Defense System That Doesn't Work. Reckless government spending is at full throttle with
the example du jour a $5.7 billion cyber defense system created to protect computers at federal agencies against hackers.
Despite its mind-boggling price tag the system is seriously flawed and uses features already available in much cheaper commercial-grade
products, according to a federal probe made public recently. The problem, besides sticking it to taxpayers for the exorbitant
cost, is that the multibillion-dollar system simply doesn't work. Nevertheless, the bloated agency handling this particular
boondoggle, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), insists the program, National Cybersecurity Protection System (NCPS), is
effective despite its documented failures. This is par for the course at the monstrous agency created after the 9/11 terrorist
attacks to keep the nation safe.
Welfare
moms unhappy with free lodging, prepared meals, WiFi, maid service. D.C. welfare moms are having to put up with lodging in hotels that give
them prepared meals, cable TV, internet WiFi access, and maid service that don't meet their standards: [...] Isn't this shocking, how taxpayers are paying to
prepare such low-class meals for welfare moms? What kind of country is this that doesn't cook better meals for people on welfare? By the way, if
you're wondering why Tiera has four children and no daddies, here is that part of the story: [...]
Senate
report: Illegal immigrants benefited from up to $750M in ObamaCare subsidies. Illegal immigrants and individuals with unclear legal status wrongly benefited
from up to $750 million in ObamaCare subsidies and the government is struggling to recoup the money, according to a new Senate report obtained by Fox News.
The report, produced by Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, examined Affordable Care Act tax credits meant to defray the cost
of insurance premiums. It found that as of June 2015, "the Administration awarded approximately $750 million in tax credits on behalf of individuals who were
later determined to be ineligible because they failed to verify their citizenship, status as a national, or legal presence."
Labor
Dep't Spending $20M on Summer Jobs, 'Career Pathways' for Urban Youth. The Labor Department on Thursday [2/4/2016] announced it will spend
$20 million on an effort to create summer jobs and "career pathways" for young people. Up to $2 million will go to each of 10 local workforce
development boards to expand existing summer jobs programs into year-round employment, career pathways and work experience programs for young people, 16 to
24, who have limited or no work experience. "Too many young people are sitting on the sidelines," the news release noted. On Friday [2/5/2016],
the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the unemployment rate for both sexes, ages 16-19, was 16 percent.
The Editor says...
When the government announces a program to create jobs for "young people," that almost always means "young minority people" exclusively.
The term "urban youth" is the government's way of saying, "black kids." This type of spending does not promote the general welfare,
unless the kids in your family are generally black.
Failed
Dept. of Education Cyber-Security Chief Ran Car Detailing, Home Theater Businesses On the Side. Hundreds of millions
of Americans are at risk of identity theft because the Department of Education's cyber chief spent his time detailing cars and
allowing his office's morale to crumble. The Department of Education's inspector general has repeatedly reported the agency
is "vulnerable to security threats." The watchdog simultaneously investigated Chief Information Officer (CIO) Danny
Harris — who received more than $200,000 in federal bonuses — for side businesses that involved his
subordinates, according to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz.
Also posted
under Welfare state waste.
Public
Housing Units Getting Free Internet at Speeds Higher Than Most Homes. Google Fiber and the Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) have partnered to bring "ultra-high speed" 1 gigabit Internet to public housing units in many cities — a connection speed much
faster than the average household in the United States. West Bluff Townhomes in Kansas City, Mo., has become the first public housing development
with a 1 gigabit or 1,000 mbps Internet connection through the ConnectHome Initiative. Google Fiber said the speed has been provided
free of charge and at no cost to HUD. According to the most recent State of the Internet report, the average U.S. Internet connection speed was
11.9 mbps.
Propaganda isn't cheap.
Feds Spend $156,340 to Talk About 'Food
Deserts'. The National Endowment for the Humanities is spending more than $300,000 to talk about "food deserts" in Pennsylvania and sea
level rise in Miami. The projects are part of the federal agency's "Humanities in the Public Square" initiative, which awarded $3.6 million
worth of grants in December.
Billions
in Taxpayer Money Blown on Fraudulent "Research". National Science Foundation officials award $7 billion in
grants annually based on funding proposals the agency's watchdog estimates have hundreds of examples of plagiarism and "falsified
or fabricated data." The federal science research agency awards 11,000 grants to 2,000 research institutions annually, but
Allison Lerner, the agency's inspector general, only oversees about 1 percent of those recipients. Researcher misconduct
has drastically increased over the past decade, meaning millions of tax dollars go to fraudsters, according to Lerner. The
watchdog estimated that around 1,200 proposals for funding could contain plagiarism and another 800 proposals or results include
"falsified or fabricated data," according the IG's semiannual report.
US pledges $97M to combat Ethiopia's drought.
The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development has announced $97 million dollars in emergency assistance to Ethiopia to combat the
devastating effects of a drought brought on by the El Nino climate phenomenon.
The Editor says...
Why is Ethiopia's weather our problem? How is fighting the weather (in any part of the world) anything other than futility?
El Nino is not a permanent weather condition, nor is it anything new. And above all, what part of the Constitution authorizes this expenditure?
U.S.
Commits $9.5 Mil to Migrant Education. The money will flow through the Office of Migrant Education which
operates under the bloated U.S. Department of Education, Jimmy Carter's brilliant creation. The funds will be divided between
the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), which will receive $5,407,472 and the High School Equivalency Program (HEP) for
migrants, which will get $4,082,415, according to an announcement in the federal register. CAMP helps migrant and seasonal
farmworkers and members of their immediate family pay for college. HEP assists them in obtaining a general education diploma
that meets guidelines for high school equivalency. The government will then help those folks gain employment or be placed in
an institution of higher education, compliments of Uncle Sam.
L.A.'s
Mass Transit Fiasco Shows Limits of Government 'Investments'. Los Angeles has spent $9 billion over the past
three decades to build light rail and subway lines designed to entice people off of the car-choked highways and onto buses and
trains. The system boasts six lines, 80 stations and more than 90 miles of track. So how is this investment
paying off? There are fewer people using public transit than in the mid-1980s, when the only public transit option
was the bus. That's according to a terrific bit of reporting by the Los Angeles Times, which found that ridership is down
10% over the past decade and that the decline "appears to be accelerating."
Gov't
Builds $75 Million Facility Federal Cops Can't Use. General Services Administration (GSA) officials designed a $75 million
federal law enforcement facility so unsuited to what the intended occupants needed that they couldn't use the building when it was completed,
according to the Government Accountability Office.
US
navy launches first biofuel-powered aircraft carriers. The US navy on Wednesday launched its first carrier
strike group powered partly by biofuel a mix made from beef fat, calling it a milestone toward easing the military's reliance
on foreign oil.
The Editor says...
The Navy wouldn't have to rely on foreign oil if the government would step out of the way and remove the restrictions
on fracking
and ANWR.
Congress
spending $310 billion on non-authorized programs. A majority of the federal government's non-defense discretionary spending in fiscal
2016, a total of $310 billion, will go to programs whose authorization has expired and hasn't been renewed by Congress, the Congressional Budget
Office reported Friday [1/15/2016]. Congress appropriated the funds even though the authorization for the programs, originally granted through
256 separate laws, has expired. Sen. Mike Enzi, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, drew attention to the report as an example of the
budget process breaking apart.
Obama
pledges nearly $4 billion for self-driving cars. President Obama is calling for lawmakers to spend $4 billion on the
development of self-driving cars. The Obama administration said Thursday [1/14/2016] the money would be used "to accelerate the
development and adoption of safe vehicle automation through real-world pilot projects." Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said
in a speech at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit that getting automated cars on U.S. roads more quickly would pay
dividends in safety improvements.
New
Navy Ships Have Trouble Surviving the High Seas. The U.S. Navy is spending millions of dollars to repair new high-speed transport ships
built by Austal Ltd. because their weak bows can't stand buffeting from high seas, according to the Pentagon's chief weapons tester. "The entire
ship class requires reinforcing structure" to bridge the twin hulls of the all-aluminum catamarans because of a design change that the Navy adopted at
Austal's recommendation for the $2.1 billion fleet of Expeditionary Fast Transports, Michael Gilmore, the Defense Department's director of
operational test and evaluation, said in a report to Congress.
How
do you buy $7 billion of stuff you don't need? [Robert] McNamara's creation, known as the Defense Logistics Agency,
has grown into a global, $44 billion operation that, were it a private enterprise, would rank in the Fortune 50. Its
25,000 employees process roughly 100,000 orders a day for everything from poultry to pharmaceuticals, precious metals to aircraft
parts. In terms of Pentagon contracts, it is nearly as large as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's largest contractors,
combined. Led by military officials with little or no private-sector experience, DLA lacks the redeeming features of the lean
and efficient business McNamara envisioned. A trail of inspector general reports shows how DLA is systemically overcharged for
parts. It buys things the military doesn't need — like 80 years worth of aircraft frames for a plane that will
likely be out of use long before then. The Government Accountability Office in 2010 estimated that about half of the agency's
inventory — said to be worth nearly $14 billion at the time — was just taking up space.
IRS
sent out $46 million in tax refunds flagged as potentially fraudulent, watchdog says. The Internal Revenue
Service erroneously released more than $46 million in tax refunds in 2013 that had been flagged as potentially fraudulent,
the result of poor monitoring and a computer programming error, the agency's watchdog found. The returns had been identified
as questionable by two internal teams and should have been set aside for further review. But the IRS software system did the
opposite, accidentally setting things in motion so that refunds were released to taxpayers, an audit by the Treasury Inspector
General for Tax Administration disclosed this week.
IRS
loses $27 million to computer glitch. A pattern of "ineffective monitoring," identified by the IRS' watchdog,
caused the IRS to hand out an additional $19 million before the agency verified that the recipients had provided accurate
income information. "We forecast that over five years the IRS could issue $135 million in potentially erroneous refunds
due to this programming error," wrote the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which oversees the IRS, in a report
made public Monday [12/21/2015].
IRS Issued $46 Million in
Erroneous Tax Refunds. The Internal Revenue Service issued more than $46 million in erroneous tax refunds due to a
computer glitch and ineffective monitoring, issues that left uncorrected could cost taxpayers up to $230 million over the next
five years. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) released an audit Monday [12/21/2015] faulting the
IRS for approving thousands of potentially fraudulent tax refunds in 2013. "TIGTA identified that because of a programming error,
over $27 million of refunds were erroneously issued for 13,043 Tax Year 2013 tax returns," the audit said. "The programming
error is overriding the IRS's two-week processing delay on some refund tax returns that are identified by the IRS as potentially fraudulent."
Obama's
liberal agenda gets federally funded ride through the arts. Taxpayers are forking over $27 million next year
for federally funded arts projects that include a performance by a San Francisco drag queen, art installations with climate
change themes and theater plays that showcase food stamps, President Obama's immigration amnesty, lesbianism and gun rights
opposition. The National Endowment for the Arts, the federal agency that provides government assistance for artistic
endeavors across the country, announced its latest round of grants for fiscal year 2016 last week, leaving some spending
critics in disbelief.
Report:
Govt. Wastes Billions as National Debt Approaches $19 Trillion. It's been well documented that government
wastes enormous amounts of money on all sorts of outrageous things and now some of the enraging details are available in a
lengthy report that reveals how the cash is being spent, like studying bugs' reactions to artificial light, a weight-loss
program for truck drivers and a federal agency's multi-million-dollar social media account. Dozens of examples are
included in the 145-page document, which was made public this month by a U.S. Senator that reminds us in the introduction
that "our national debt is careening toward $19 trillion (yes, that is a 19 followed by 12 zeros)." Yet
Uncle Sam keeps blowing hundreds of millions of dollars on ridiculous things that lawmakers can't possibly justify.
Here's one of the many examples included in the report; the government actually spent $300,000 to study how previously married
seniors handle dating later in life. The weight-loss program for truck drivers cost an astounding $2.7 million and
$406,419 was dedicated to determine whether the media polarizes people politically.
Federal Fumbles 2015. It takes countless months, days,
and hours to go through agency budgets, GAO reports, and Inspectors General reviews to identify, research, and fact-check government waste. It should
not be this difficult to find out how exactly our government spends money. Federal spending information should not be limited to Members of Congress
and their staffs. So here is one solution: the Taxpayer's Right to Know Act.
Feds
shelling out billions to public relations firms. The federal government has spent more than $4 billion on
public relations services since 2007, according to a watchdog group, with more than half of the money going to the world's
largest firms. A review conducted by Open the Books found that there are now 3,092 public affairs professionals working in
the government, an increase of 15 percent — or about 400 people — over the past seven years.
Taxpayers
Billed $27 Million for Hoveround Wheelchairs That Weren't Medically Necessary. Taxpayers were billed $27 million for
thousands of power wheelchairs that were not medically necessary for their users. Hoveround was the subject of an audit released
last week by the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general, which faulted the company for failing to meet Medicare
requirements before it charged the government for its electric wheelchairs. In 2010, Hoveround provided 13,025 power wheelchairs
to Medicare beneficiaries. Eighty-five percent of those who received the wheelchairs did not meet the necessary medical
requirements, according to the audit. The findings were based on a sample of 200 individuals who received a power wheelchair
from Hoveround.
Pentagon
spent millions for luxurious private villas. The same Defense Department office that spent $43 million on a gas station in
Afghanistan also spent 20 percent of the rest of its budget to house workers and visitors at luxurious private villas, rather than have
them stay on military bases for free to save "tens of millions of dollars," investigators have concluded. The Task Force for Business
and Stability Operations defended the villas as a way to entice investors into the fragile country, and said they were needed to prove that
foreigners could live and operate in Afghanistan without being dependent on the U.S. military.
Justice's
Liberal Slush Fund. Republicans talk often about using the "power of the purse" to rein in a lawless Obama
administration. If they mean it, they ought to use their year-end spending bill to stop a textbook case of outrageous
executive overreach. This scandal comes courtesy of the Justice Department, which for 16 months has engaged in a
scheme to undermine Congress's spending authority by independently transferring dollars to President Obama's political allies.
The department is in the process of funneling more than half-a-billion dollars to liberal activist groups, at least some of which
will actively support Democrats in the coming election.
EPA
Gives $9,000 Bonus For Less Than Three Months Work. A new hire at the Environmental Protection Agency hit the
jackpot when the employee's new bosses awarded her $9,000 in performance bonuses for less than three months of work.
The EPA's inspector general said the newly hired director of the environmental agency's RTP Finance Center in Raleigh was
paid two separate performance bonuses of $4,500 shortly after beginning work.
The
Department of Agriculture Is a Welfare Scam. I may have to change my mind. When asked a few years ago to pick which department
in Washington most deserved to be eliminated, I chose the Department of Housing and Urban Development. And HUD unquestionably is a
cesspool of waste, so it certainly should be shuttered. But the more I read about the bizarre handouts and subsidies showered on big
agribusiness producers by the Department of Agriculture, the more I think there's a very compelling argument that it should be at top of my list.
Last
Call for Ethanol. A federal program, once launched, is impossible to kill. It doesn't matter if the scheme wastes
money. It doesn't matter if the program doesn't work. It doesn't even matter if the program does the very opposite of what it
is supposed to do. Every government program enters the world with an army of fairy godmothers prepared to fend off any effort
to cut the cord. Hence, the staying power of ethanol.
Obama's EPA Spending Millions
Overseas. President Barack Obama's Environmental Protection Agency has doled out nearly $25 million to foreign nations
and entities — including many countries with terrible environmental track records through 135 separate grants. Officials
at the EPA defend the awards to international organizations and foreign governments since 2009.
Conservative
Group 'Empower Texans' Faces Political Persecution. According to a lawsuit filed in Travis County, Texas,
Empower Texans is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that was organized in 2006 to build support for strong fiscal stewardship by the
state government, and to inform Texas voters and taxpayers about how their government officials are acting in relation to
that objective. In 2007, for example, Empower Texans mounted a direct mail campaign asking voters to call on their state
legislators to return a $13 billion tax surplus instead of spending it on more government programs. This kind of activity,
along with its legislative scorecard, apparently angered not just state legislators, but lobbyists who make their living convincing
the state government to spend money on their clients' pet projects.
State
Department spent $36.5 million polling foreigners' opinions. Would you spend money to find out what people in Spain think about
their medical insurance or what people in Austria think about their government? That's exactly what the federal government has been
doing, using millions of Americans' tax dollars. Since 2007 the U.S. State Department has spent over $36.5 million to survey
citizens in foreign countries on a wide range of topics, including general public opinion polling on how their own governments —
many of them U.S. allies — are performing. And the biggest spike in that spending occurred on Hillary Rodham Clinton's
watch as secretary of state.
Should the State Department Be
Disbanded? In recent years, Republican presidential candidates — notably Rick Perry and Ted Cruz —
have called for numerous government departments — Education, Energy, Commerce, HUD and, of course, the IRS — to
be disbanded. Almost all candidates have urged that the bureaucracies be significantly curtailed. But in this orgy of cost
and regulation cutting, one monumental, all-important agency (with a budget approaching $50 billion) curiously has been
ignored — the State Department. [...] The last few years have shown us that prying information out of the State Department
(Benghazi, Clinton emails, etc.) is [impossible]. Their lineup of spokespeople are about as forthcoming as dead bats.
The primary purpose of the organization seems to be self-preservation, but self-preservation for what?
Report:
Social Security paying millions to dead people. The [Social Security Administration] managed to recover $3.4 billion
in overpayments, but spent $0.07 chasing every dollar it got back and ended the year with $18.5 billion in uncollected payments.
That included $46.8 million that was paid to Social Security recipients who had already died.
How to Get a No-Show Job. What's
the best place to get a no-show job? The federal government. Uncle Sam pays corrupt or incompetent employees not to come to work, because
it's easier than firing them, never mind the cost to taxpayers. Congress is trying to get to the bottom of this outrageous waste.
So far, the Obama administration is stonewalling. [...] Right now, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R.-Iowa, is pressing
for answers about the $3.1 billion spent on no-show jobs in the last three years.
Why
is the FBI Spending $80 Million on a New Gun? When conservatives complain about profligate federal spending, part of the problem
is the sheer magnitude of the federal budget, where mere tens of millions seem hardly worth talking about in a flood of dollars, both taxed and
borrowed, that is in the trillions. That of course, allows all sorts of waste in which a few million here and there hardly seems worth
fighting over. Take for example, the FBI's recent decision to reequip their agents with an entirely new and entirely unnecessary handgun,
which will cost American taxpayers something like $80,000,000.
A
decade into a project to digitize U.S. immigration forms, just 1 is online. Heaving under mountains of
paperwork, the government has spent more than $1 billion trying to replace its antiquated approach to managing immigration
with a system of digitized records, online applications and a full suite of nearly 100 electronic forms. A decade in, all
that officials have to show for the effort is a single form that's now available for online applications and a single type of
fee that immigrants pay electronically. The 94 other forms can be filed only with paper.
DHS
Spent $1 Billion For An Immigration Upgrade That Never Arrived. According to the Washington Post, the Department of
Homeland Security had planned to have a digitized system in place in 2013, at a cost of $500 million. But here it is,
the end of 2015, and after pouring more than $1 billion, DHS now says it needs another four years and $2.1 billion to
get it finished. At stake is more than just wasted taxpayer money. The existing immigration system is ancient and
deeply flawed, causing agonizing delays for those who should be granted legal status, while making it harder for DHS to screen out
security threats.
EPA
Gave Paid Leave to Drug and Child Sex Offenders. Drug and child sex offenders received paid administrative
leave from the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a new audit. The agency's inspector general found the EPA
rehired a child sex offender after they were put on leave for violating probation, in one example of misuse of administrative
leave that cost taxpayers over $1 million.
After
Closing One Welcome Center — R.I. Gets $9M From Feds to Open Another. The U.S. Department of Transportation has
approved a $9 million federal grant of taxpayer dollars to build a new welcome center in Rhode Island. Sen. Jack Reed
(D-R.I.) has announced the federal approval of the state's application for a competitive Transportation Investment Generating
Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant if state officials decide to move forward with the welcome center project.
The Editor says...
What part of the Constitution authorizes this expenditure? Does that no longer matter?
Dozens
of feds on paid leave for over a year, senator wants end to costly practice. The alleged abuse of administrative leave
policy has been most egregious at the Department of Veterans Affairs where two of the officials whose actions touched off the VA scandal
last year have been on paid leave for the last 18 months. They're not alone — of the nearly 6,000 VA employees
put on administrative leave between 2011 and 2013, 46 individuals have been paid not to work for more than a year. Senate Judiciary
Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is pressing for answers.
Pentagon
offers no answers on $43 million price tag for Afghan gas station. The Defense Department spent $43 million on
a compressed natural gas fueling station in Afghanistan, while a similar project in Pakistan cost just $300,000 — and now
the Pentagon can't even account for who made the decisions behind the waste, according to an inspector general's report being released
Monday [11/1/2015]. John F. Sopko, the inspector general who oversees U.S. spending on Afghanistan reconstruction, called
the cost for the green energy project exorbitant and deemed the project ill-conceived.
Poverty
Pentagon: Nobody Watching As Feds Fund $429M Of 'Noble Intentions'. More than $429 million worth of noble intentions has been funded
with the Section 4 program since its approval as part of the HUD Demonstration Act of 1993. President Bill Clinton and a
Democratically-controlled Congress intended for Section 4 to help local groups combat poverty through a bureaucratically pliable
process of "capacity building."
Non-Profit
Got Federal Anti-Poverty Millions, But Paid Execs Lavish Salaries. A Maryland-based nonprofit got more than
$305 million in five years that it was supposed to channel to urban anti-poverty groups, but instead pocketed most of the
money, including large sums to pay its top executives lavish salaries and benefits. Enterprise Community Partners —
which once spent millions of tax dollars in a failed effort to revitalize Freddie Gray's Baltimore neighborhood —
is one of only three groups made eligible by Congress for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's little-known
Section 4 grants "to develop the capacity and ability of community development corporations" to combat poverty.
Enabling
fraud by the billions. Ever heard of the Government Accountability Office? The Obama administration wishes you
never hear from the folks there after the truly astounding figures they just released. The GAO is a key watchdog group and
their numbers show the government is on track to waste an absolutely massive amount of money this year. So what does the
Obama's administration do? Actively take steps to enable more fraud. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. Here are the
facts — the cold, hard numbers, because math is nonpartisan. Numbers and cents don't lie and it doesn't take a
Common Core math education to know that $125 billion wasted on fraud and improper payments is horrendous. [...] One billion
is 1,000 million. We lost 125 of those, most of which came from Medicare, Medicaid and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Feds
may pay for soundproofing homes around 2 N.J. airports. New noise level maps around Newark Liberty
International and Teterboro airports are being developed to determine whether surrounding homes and businesses qualify for
federal soundproofing aid. Houses, apartments, office buildings and other workplaces within areas with a noise level of
at least 65 decibels attributable to airport operations would be eligible for soundproof aid, said Norm Dotti, a member of
the New Jersey Noise Control Council, which is participating in the noise mapping process.
The Editor says...
Since when is this the federal government's problem? If you don't like the noise, you should move —
especially if the airport is older than your house.
Now
Federal Employees Make 78 Percent More Than Private Sector Workers. A new report show once again that government
workers — all of them — are leeches, most of whom we should fire. Now we find the outrageous statistics
showing that federal workers earned on average 78 percent more in total compensation than private sector workers in 2014.
78 percent! This is intolerable. The stats were found in a new report from Government Magazine
that assembled the numbers for us.
An Incoherent Syria War Strategy.
The Obama administration's $500 million initiative to train and arm so-called moderate rebels to take on the Islamic State never seemed
promising when it was rolled out last year. Having acknowledged that this plan has failed — largely because Syrian opposition
groups are more interested in taking on President Bashar al-Assad — the White House on Friday [10/9/2015] unveiled a plan that is
even more incoherent and fraught with risk.
Obama Administration
Ends Pentagon Program to Train Syrian Rebels. After struggling for years to identify groups in Syria that it can
confidently support, the Obama administration on Friday abandoned its effort to build a rebel force inside Syria to combat the
Islamic State. It acknowledged the failure of its $500 million campaign to train thousands of fighters and said whatever
money remained would be used to provide lethal aid for groups already engaged in the battle. Senior officials at the White
House and the Pentagon said the strategy to pull fighters out of Syria, teach them advanced skills and return them to face the Islamic
State had failed, in part because many of the rebel groups were more focused on fighting the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
GAO: Safety net programs account for billions in
improper payments. Three health and safety net programs for the poor and elderly accounted for most of the federal government's
$124.7 billion in improper payments in fiscal 2014, the Government Accountability Office reported Thursday [10/1/2015]. The
figure, which represents improper payments across 124 federal programs, is up roughly 20 percent from $105.8 billion in fiscal 2013,
according to a new GAO report. Most of the $19 billion increase resulted from erroneous payments under the Medicare, Medicaid and
Earned Income Tax Credit programs. They account for more than 75 percent of the GAO's government-wide improper payment estimate.
GAO:
Feds made nearly $1 trillion in overpayments since fiscal 2003. Government waste took a significant turn for
the worse in fiscal 2014, rising dramatically to $124.7 billion from $105.8 billion in fiscal 2013. That's a striking
increase of nearly 20 percent in improper federal payments. As the White House and Congress continues to blow out the federal
deficit to $18 trillion in their Miracle-Gro, "Supersize Me" approach to government, little is being done to stop federal
overpayments. Since fiscal 2003, "cumulative improper payment estimates have totaled almost $1 trillion," the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report.
Mystery ambulance rides cost Medicare
$30M: auditors. Medicare paid $30 million for ambulance rides for which no record exists that patients got medical
care at their destination, the place where they were picked up or other critical information.
EPA's
fondness for high-end furniture costs taxpayers $92 million. The federal agency that has the job of protecting
the environment doesn't seem to have too much concern for trees, at least the ones cut down to make furniture. The
Environmental Protection Agency over the past decade has spent a whopping $92.4 million to purchase, rent, install and store
office furniture ranging from fancy hickory chairs and a hexagonal wooden table, worth thousands of dollars each, to a simple
drawer to store pencils that cost $813.57.
How a $2.7 billion air-defense system became a 'zombie' program.
Unknown to most Americans, the Pentagon has spent $2.7 billion developing a system of giant radar-equipped blimps to provide an early warning
if the country were ever attacked with cruise missiles, drones or other low-flying weapons. [...] Seventeen years after its birth, JLENS is a
stark example of what defense specialists call a "zombie" program: costly, ineffectual and seemingly impossible to kill.
Speaking of JLENS...
Report:
Army's runaway blimp flew for hours due to missing batteries. An Army blimp that broke loose in Maryland in October stayed airborne for hours
because someone failed to put batteries in its automatic-deflation device, The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday [2/14/2016]. The blimp escaped from
Aberdeen Proving Ground and its dangling tether caused power outages in Pennsylvania. The mishap led to widespread ridicule of the Pentagon's blimp
surveillance program, known as JLENS for Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, which has cost taxpayers $2.7 billion
since 1998.
Missing batteries among
issues that caused Army's runaway blimp. The blimp that broke loose from an Army facility in Maryland last fall, wreaking havoc
with its milelong tether, flew uncontrolled for hours because someone neglected to put batteries in its automatic-deflation device, Pentagon
investigators have found. The pilotless, radar-carrying blimp was part of the troubled JLENS missile-defense system, which has failed to
perform as promised while costing taxpayers more than $2.7 billion since 1998.
White
House targets crime and climate change in one fell swoop. The White House started a new initiative Monday [9/14/2015] to
help cities tackle everything from crime to climate change. The new $160 million Smart Cities Initiative seeks to leverage
25 new federal technology programs to help cities do everything from improving congested roads and reducing crime to "fostering economic
growth, managing the effects of a changing climate, and improving the delivery of city services."
The Editor says...
Write to me in September, 2025, and see if you can report one good thing that resulted from this $160 million expenditure.
Obama's
revamped college evaluation site ripped as 'misleading,' unnecessary. President Obama has launched a scaled-back college
evaluation website that does not include what some in the higher-ed world had feared — a government rating system of America's
roughly 7,000 colleges and universities. But the site still has Washington asking questions about why the Department of Education is
doing it in the first place. Among the concerns is why spend taxpayer dollars when such for-profit operations as Barron's, The
Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report have for years been providing similar information and rankings.
U.S.
Federal Government Program: Pay Minnesota Muslims Not To Kill People. If you thought Secretary Kerry's 2013
"Jobs for Jihadists" program was goofy, wait until you read about this one. The U.S. federal government is announcing a
new program called CVE (Counter Violent Extremism) in Minneapolis Minnesota. Under the U.S. program, authorized by President
Obama, Somali Muslims living in Minnesota will be paid not to go on terror rampages, or blow themselves up.
Obama
Admin to Spend Hundreds of Thousands to Bribe Minnesota Somali Immigrants Not To Become Terrorists. Now the
Obama administration is attempting to throw tax dollars at would-be Somali terrorists in Minnesota to bribe them into staying
away from terrorism. Think that'll work?
Freddie Gray's family settles with city for
$6.4M. The parents of Freddie Gray reached a tentative $6.4 million settlement [9/7/2015] with the city of Baltimore,
nearly five months after their 25-year-old son was critically injured in police custody, sparking days of protests and rioting.
Update:
Details of Pay Out. Keep in mind: [#1] no wrongdoing has ever been found; [#2] Marilyn Mosby's private
attorney is the same attorney as Freddie Gray's family; [#3] The Gray family never filed a lawsuit, so this is not a
"settlement" per se'; [#4] The possibility of any police wrongful conduct being found during trial is quite probably
nil; [#5] The maximum payout under Maryland state law, if lawsuit filed — and if police misconduct could be
identified, would have been $400k.
Social Security spent
$300M on 'IT boondoggle'. "The program has invested $288 million over six years, delivered limited
functionality, and faced schedule delays as well as increasing stakeholder concerns," the report said.
Green energy company fights for life after getting billions from
feds. Abengoa, a renewable energy multinational company headquartered in Spain, has been a favorite of the Obama
administration in getting federal tax money for clean energy projects. Since 2009, Abengoa and its subsidiaries, according
to estimates, have received $2.9 billion in grants and loan guarantees through the Department of Energy to undertake solar
projects in California and Arizona — as well as the construction of a cellulosic ethanol plant in Kansas.
But in the space of less than a year, Abengoa's financial health has become critical, leading investors to worry whether
the company can survive.
Obama
to offer aid to Alaskans affected by climate change. During the first trip north of the Arctic Circle by a
sitting president [9/2/2015], Obama is expected to observe first-hand the effects of warming temperatures and their effect on
shorelines and community infrastructures. The White House said he will announce federal grants to deal with coastal
erosion in areas such as northwestern Alaska, which could include relocation in extreme cases.
The Editor says...
Every dollar spent on compensation for the effects of global warming is a dollar down the drain,
simply because there is no global warming.
Social
Security spent $300M on 'IT boondoggle'. "The program has invested $288 million over six years, delivered
limited functionality, and faced schedule delays as well as increasing stakeholder concerns," the report said.
DHS Spent $20 Million on Conferences
Last Fiscal Year. The Department of Homeland Security ran up more than $20 million in conference-related
expenses in 2014, according to a recently released government audit. The Office of Inspector General report, which looked
at conferences either hosted or attended by the department or its employees from October 1, 2013, to December 31,
2014, found that the the department — which handles issues related to terrorism, border security, and
cybersecurity — was involved with a total of 1,883 conferences in fiscal year 2014 that amounted to $20.3 million
in expenses. According to the General Services Administration, training, meetings, or events that include employee travel
are considered conferences. In total last year, the department hosted 490 conferences that cost $13.14 million and
attended an additional 1,393 conferences at an expense of $7.16 million.
Obama:
$12 billion new federal loan guarantees for renewables. The Obama administration has just announced $12 billion
in new Federal loan guarantees for renewables businesses. [...] Federal renewable loan guarantee schemes have attracted significant
criticism in the past, for example when Solyndra went spectacularly bust in 2012, a bankruptcy which cost US taxpayers $535 million
in lost federal loan guarantees.
Amid
Security Failures DHS Spends $20.3 Mil on Conferences. While it let Islamic terrorists enter the country,
wasted huge sums on faulty equipment and failed miserably to remove criminal illegal aliens, the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) was busy blowing $20.3 million to host 1,883 conferences last year. [...] A $110,993 "outreach" summit in
Washington D.C. brought Customs and Border Patrol senior managers, transportation executives and foreign government partners
together to discuss "securing and managing our borders" and a $108,617 Ft. Worth Texas conference provided a "platform for
conveying information regarding relevant issues in immigration enforcement." DHS also doled out $131,868 on the Afghanistan
Pakistan Illicit Procurement Network Symposium in Tampa, Florida where discussions focused on preventing hostile nations and
illicit procurement networks from illegally obtaining U.S. military products or sensitive technology that could be used
against the U.S.
TSA
Spent $160 Mil For Scanners With A 96% Failure Rate. When Congress decided to let the federal government take over airport
security in the wake of 9/11, critics said it would only make matters worse. Fourteen years later, it looks like the critics had
it exactly right. On Monday [8/17/2015], Politico broke the news that the federally run TSA has spent $160 million —
or more than $150,000 per unit — on body scanners meant to prevent fliers from bringing contraband onto planes. And
what did taxpayers get for their money? A recent security audit found that TSA scanners failed to stop explosives and weapons
96% of the time.
A
family in public housing makes $498,000 a year. And HUD wants tenants like this to stay. A family of four in New York City
makes $497,911 a year but pays $1,574 a month to live in public housing in a three-bedroom apartment subsidized by taxpayers. In Los
Angeles, a family of five that's lived in public housing since 1974 made $204,784 last year but paid $1,091 for a four-bedroom apartment.
And a tenant with assets worth $1.6 million — including stocks, real estate and retirement accounts — last year paid
$300 for a one-bedroom apartment in public housing in Oxford, Neb. In a new report, the watchdog for the Department of Housing and Urban
Development describes these and more than 25,000 other "over income" families earning more than the maximum income for government-subsidized
housing as an "egregious" abuse of the system.
$22 million in
taxpayer funds flushed away on Detroit cruise ship lure. Before squandering $22 million in taxpayer
dollar, perhaps the bureaucrats should have asked cruise ship operators if they really wanted to dock in Detroit.
American
Kids Pay Heavy Price For Obama's Border Failure. Remember, heroin is not produced in the United States and is
an illegal substance. Therefore every gram of heroin in the United States provides graphic evidence of a failure of border
security. As noted on the official DHS website, the budget for the DHS for Fiscal Year 2015 included 23,871 Customs and
Border Protection (CBP) officers and the overall budget for CBP was for 12.8 billion dollars. This raises the very
reasonable question: "What are we getting for all of the money?"
USDA putting solar panels on chicken
coops. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is spending millions on green energy projects for farms, including
putting solar panels on the tops of chicken coops. The federal agency announced Friday [8/7/2015] that its Rural Energy for
America Program (REAP) will spend $63 million on solar panels and wind turbines for the farming industry.
Taxpayer
money being used to teach 'transgendered' men to talk like girls. The University of Connecticut, which received
state and federal funding, has a program to teach men who want to be pretend to be women how to talk like girls (and vice
versa, of course — no discrimination there!). You would think this would be something easily accomplished
without classes, but I guess, like thespians, they want to learn from professionals.
Solyndra
II: ObamaCare's $3 Billion Co-Op Program Is Failing. When government-supported solar
cell manufacturer Solyndra failed in 2011, it was headline news for weeks — a prime
example of the dangers of crony capitalism. But Solyndra's demise cost taxpayers just
$500 million. The ObamaCare co-ops could wind up costing close to $3 billion.
ObamaCare created these nonprofit, "consumer directed" co-ops to provide stiff price competition in the
ObamaCare exchanges. And to get them off the ground, the Obama administration handed out
$2.6 billion in low-interest loans and startup funding. Administration officials claimed
that the resulting 23 co-ops were carefully selected because they showed a "high probability of
financial viability" and an ability to repay those loans. Did they mean that as a joke?
No
words can describe the folly in these federally funded projects. Recent reports about
two federally funded projects may leave you speechless. Literally. The first: a $125,000 study
funded by the National Science Foundation to determine if various adjectives are sexist or racist.
Example? The word "good." We're not kidding. "In a masculine work domain ... 'good' for a woman
may mean something objectively less good than 'good' for a man," says the tax-funded foundation. Got that?
(If so, you may be the only one.) Even if there is something to this gibberish, it's not clear why
hardworking US taxpayers should have to pay to have it "studied."
The F-35: Throwing
Good Money after Bad. The F-35 program could cripple U.S. defense for decades to come.
"You could argue it [the F-35] was already one of the biggest white elephants in history a long time
ago," stated former U.K. defense chief Nick Harvey in a May interview. Harvey then doubled down,
saying there is "not a cat in hell's chance" the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) would be combat-ready by
2018. While it is noteworthy that a person of Harvey's stature would level such harsh criticisms,
his statement merely reflects the conclusions of reports by the U.S. Defense Department's Director
of Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E), the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Congressional
Research Service, and various independent air-power analysts: The F-35 program is a mess; it is
unaffordable and will not be able to fulfill its mission.
DHS
Spends $360 Million On Border Drones With No Positive Results. Drones used by the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) to "guard" the U.S. border for nearly a decade are ineffective even though the
agency has blown hundreds of millions of dollars on the failed program and wants Congress to keep funding
it. It's yet another example of what government does best; waste money. In this case the
frontline DHS agency — U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) — that operates the
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAC) is actually requesting more money from Congress to keep the futile drone
experiment going. Imagine a private business that for years blew huge sums on a failed enterprise
asking investors to pour more cash into the same useless project.
Bayonne
losing $25K a month with windmill generator on the fritz, officials say. The wind
turbine used to power the city's Oak Street and Fifth Street pumping stations has gone motionless,
costing the city roughly $25,000 a month in energy costs, officials confirmed. And there's more
possible bad news — Bayonne may be on the hook for roughly $350,000 to replace the broken
generator. The 260-foot structure, off East Fifth Street, went into operation in June 2012, with
city officials touting energy savings of up to $300,000 a year. But the wind turbine stopped
working in June.
More
about wind energy.
Corporate
welfare flop: Mitsubishi expected to close Illinois car plant. Despite $29 million in
tax breaks handed out by failed Illinois Governor Pat Quinn just four years ago — Mitsubushi
appears to ready to say sayonora [sic] to the Prairie State. When the giveaway was announced
by the Chicago Democrat — he claimed it would save 1,200 jobs.
The
Federal Government's 100 Billion Dollar Mistake. As the bureaucracy dithers, our ship
of state keeps leaking money. The Government Accountability Office in a March, 2015 report found
that the problem of improper payments is massive. As the Washington Post reported, "the U.S.
government forked over an estimated $124.7 billion to ineligible recipients in 2014, representing
the first jump in four years. The highest amount for the Obama administration occurred in 2010,
with an estimated $125.6 million in losses. Medicare reported the highest number of improper
payments last year, with the program accounting for nearly $60 billion in incorrect disbursements.
Rounding out the top three were the Earned Income Tax Credit with $17.7 billion in lost revenue and
Medicaid at $17.5 billion." This is real money that is being wasted on an epic scale by federal
bureaucrats as our nation sinks deeper into a debt that is over $18 trillion.
How
housing an illegal immigrant for a night in the United States' biggest detention center costs more
than a stay at the nearest four-star Hilton Hotel. The government shells out $231
every 24 hours to house just one of the 2,105 foreign detainees at The South Texas Family Residential Center
in Dilley, a small town 200 miles from the Mexican border. That is more than a double room at the
four-star Hilton Palacio del Rio 70 miles away in San Antonio, which costs $169.
Taxpayers
Have Now Spent $3.5 Million to Find Out Why Lesbians Are Obese. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has
now spent over $3.5 million to determine why the majority of lesbians are obese. The project, now entering its fifth
year, received another grant worth $658,485 this summer. The total funding for the research is now $3,531,925.
Funding has more than doubled since the study was first revealed in 2013. Since, the study that is examining why
three-quarters of lesbians are obese, but gay men are not, has survived sequester cuts, and continues to produce results
such as the discovery that gay men have a "greater desire for toned muscles" than straight men.
Feds
spent $2 million to have wives nag men about chewing tobacco. Since 2012 the government has spent nearly
$2 million on a campaign to get women to nag the men in their lives to quit using smokeless tobacco. The
National Institutes of Health has sponsored a continuing grant for the Oregon Research Institute to "evaluate an
innovative approach that encourages male smokeless tobacco users to quit by enlisting the support of their wives/partners,
both to lead smokeless tobacco users to engage in treatment and to help them sustain abstinence."
You
Will Never Guess What The EPA Might Regulate Next. It's obvious the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has way too much money to play with. Following yesterday's [3/17/2015]
news that the EPA was funding research to reduce air pollution emissions from cooking on propane
fired barbecue grills, the latest research grant is aimed at hotel showers. Researchers at the
University of Tulsa were awarded $15,000 to develop a wireless device that will allow water use from
showers to be measured and reported to both the hotel guest via a smartphone and to hotel management.
According to the grant, hotel guests waste millions of gallons of water each year and it's hoped that
guests will reduce their water use when they realize the amount of water they are using. The
research on propane gas grills involves modifying the barbecue grill design to reduce particulate
matter that's emitted during cooking especially when the fire hits the grease from the food.
Watchdog:
Agency spends more than it makes to collect wrongful payments. The Social Security
Administration (SSA) spends more money than it collects when trying to recover payments to
individuals who received benefits for which they were not eligible. According to the Office of
Inspector General (OIG), the SSA issued $128.3 million in "low-dollar" overpayments between
2008 and 2013, and then spent $323 million to collect them. The agency ultimately
recovered only $109.4 million. "This resulted in SSA spending over $213.6 million
more than it collected," the OIG said, in an audit released Wednesday [7/1/2015].
Obama
Is Spending $500 Million On Training Fewer Than 100 Syrian Rebels To fight ISIS. We
don't have the money to do this first off. And training rebels has never worked. This is not going
to work and they know it. It strikes me that someone is getting rich once again over a faux military
program. Someone might want to check where the bulk of that $500 million is actually going.
Probably to terrorists. The military has trained less than 100 and 0 have graduated from the program.
Their goal is 3,000 by the year's end. That's laughable.
'Cash
Strapped' VA Forgot It Had $43.1 Million Stashed Away. When not pleading poverty, the
Department of Veterans Affairs can be awfully careless with its money. The latest example: In 2011,
the VA set $43.1 million aside to produce brochures informing veterans about their benefits, then
forgot about it. The money went unspent for three years and now might be lost for good. An
internal audit released earlier this month said, "A breakdown of VA fiscal controls and a lack of
oversight led to the parking of funds ... and the failure to detect and properly use and manage these
funds." That breakdown in fiscal controls seems to be endemic at the VA.
GAO
hits Obama administration on renewable energy projects: audit. Lawmakers on Wednesday [6/24/2015] demanded
accountability from the Bureau of Land Management following an investigation that found the government routinely fails to
secure proper bonding from wind and solar project developers, potentially leaving taxpayers on the hook for millions of
dollars. The Government Accountability Office report — which gives more fuel to critics who say President
Obama will push "green" power at all costs — also said that the administration has kept shoddy records, may have
shredded bond documents and blatantly treats renewable power differently than it treats fossil fuel projects.
SSA Paid the Dead $46.8
Million. The Social Security Administration (SSA) paid individuals acting as representatives
for disabled beneficiaries nearly $50 million even though they were dead. An audit from the
Office of Inspector General (OIG) is just the latest example of the SSA's inability to figure out
who on their rolls is still alive. The audit focused on "representative payees," or a person who
manages another's finances due to mental or physical limitations. The OIG found that many payees
acting on behalf of disability beneficiaries had died.
Navy
pays millions to keep using Windows XP. The Navy will pay more than $9 million to keep
using Windows XP under a contract signed this month, Computerworld reported Tuesday [6/23/2015].
The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) will pay Microsoft $9,149,000 through the contract,
which was approved earlier this month. It could eventually grow to be as large as $30,842,980 by 2017.
Pay $1.22 million to save $500,000. Morons
run the country. In New Hampshire, they are paying $1.22 million to save $500,000.
ObamaCare
Can't Account for Almost $3 Billion In Subsidy Payments. Now we learn that the Obama administration doesn't know whether
billions in subsidies it paid out to insurers were appropriate. Yeah, this law is working just great.
Obama
Admin Making Billions In Obamacare Subsidy Payments Without Verifying Amounts. The
Obama administration is making billions in payments to health insurers under Obamacare without
calculating the exact amount companies are owed, according to a federal audit released Tuesday
[6/16/2015]. Obamacare's premium subsidies are paid each month directly to insurance companies, to
ease the burden of health coverage to eligible customers in the health law's government exchanges.
The payments add up: the federal government doled out almost $2.8 billion to insurers in just the
first four months of 2014, when Obamacare launched.
If you ran a business this way, you'd probably go to prison.
Feds
Can't Verify $2.8 Billion in Obamacare Subsidies. The federal government cannot verify
nearly $3 billion in subsidies distributed through Obamacare, putting significant taxpayer funding
"at risk," according to a new audit report. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Office of Inspector General (OIG) released an audit Tuesday [6/16/2015] finding that the agency did not
have an internal system to ensure that subsidies went to the right enrollees, or in the correct amounts.
On
The Brink Of Bankruptcy, Federal Disability Program Wastes Billions. A government audit finds that the Social
Security Disability Insurance program paid out $16.8 billion in disability benefits over the past decade to about four
million people who either were working, made too much money, were in prison, were dead, weren't eligible or were no longer
physically or mentally disabled. [...] Between 2003 and 2014, SSDI rolls climbed 44% — even though the Census
Bureau reports that the number of actual working-age disabled has been climbing at a far lower rate.
Social
Security overpaid nearly half on disability, watchdog says. In all, Social Security overpaid
beneficiaries by nearly $17 billion, according to a 10-year study by the agency's inspector general.
Stop
paying federal workers to sit home, personnel chief tells agencies. The government is
taking action to curb the long-maligned practice of putting federal employees on paid leave for
months — and even years — while they wait to be punished for misbehavior or
cleared and allowed to return to the office. In a memo last week, Office of Personnel Management
director Katherine Archuleta told agency heads that the extensive use of administrative leave
throughout government should be just the opposite: a "temporary solution," only for problem
employees who pose a danger to themselves or their colleagues. In other words, if someone poses a
threat to his own safety or the safety of others, send him home. If the situation could take a long
time to resolve, like most misconduct cases, keep them on the job.
How the
government wasted tobacco's $200B windfall. Back in 1998, the tobacco industry reached
an agreement with 48 states. Cigarette makers were to pay a guaranteed minimum of $206 billion
over 25 years to cover the cost of health care for people who got sick smoking — along with
other anti-smoking, public health-related programs. As happens when politicians are involved, most of
the money really didn't go to health programs. It mostly went to special interest projects throughout
the states. That's bad enough, but the real disaster occurred when states like New York decided to
take the money up front and run.
Feds
pour $32 million more into beleaguered solar industry. This latest funding is
dedicated to training a workforce of solar technicians, developing new technology and implementing a
database to share performance data, the DOE announced in a press release last week. The training
goal is 75,000 workers by 2020 and an undisclosed amount of "other professionals" in other fields
such as real estate, finance, insurance and fire and safety. What the release didn't say was that
the Obama Administration has spent $150 billion on green initiatives between 2009 and 2014, yet the
industry cannot survive without government giveaways, a Brookings Institution study found.
Probe:
PA Paid $2.2 Billion in Fraudulent Unemployment Insurance. Conservatives have been trying for years to
investigate fraud in welfare programs at the national and state levels. Repeatedly, we are told by the Left that
such attempts are unnecessary and endanger the ability of those programs to help those in need. However, time and
again, we see that there are examples of fraud in welfare programs across the country. The recent probe into
fraudulent unemployment insurance claims proves this yet again. As the Washington Examiner reports, unemployment
programs as a whole handed out $5.6 billion in improper benefits between the years of 2009 and 2013.
Astoundingly, $2.2 billion of that came from Pennsylvania.
Elon Musk's
growing empire is fueled by $4.9 billion in government subsidies. Los Angeles entrepreneur
Elon Musk has built a multibillion-dollar fortune running companies that make electric cars, sell solar
panels and launch rockets into space. And he's built those companies with the help of billions in
government subsidies. Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp.,
known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support,
according to data compiled by The [Los Angeles] Times. The figure underscores a common theme running
through his emerging empire: a public-private financing model underpinning long-shot start-ups.
IRS
Admits Refunding Billions On Fake Tax Returns. Just hours after being force to admit
that they were hacked (by Russians apparently), an inspector general's report shows that The IRS has
rather remarkably continued to pay refunds on hundreds of thousands of fraudulent tax returns in
recent years, and sent dozens of checks to the same addresses, including in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
While some progress has been made, $2.3 billion of real US taxpayer's money was wrongfully refunded to
fake US taxpayers... but with this new cyber-attack, we suspect that number will soar.
DOD
rings up more than $3M in credit card charges at casinos, strip clubs in one year.
There was a time when a story such as this would have resulted in shock and outrage around the
nation. These days, sadly, it barely causes a ripple on the national media pond. Judicial
Watch has concluded yet another investigation into government spending, this time at the Department of
Defense, and found that government credit cards are being used in all sorts of interesting places.
Watchdog:
IRS issued $5.6B in potentially bogus education credits. The IRS issued $5.6 billion
in potentially bogus education tax credits in a single year — more than a quarter of all
education credits claimed by taxpayers, a government watchdog said Tuesday [5/12/2015].
Latest Scott Walker 'John Doe' probe
cost Wisconsin taxpayers $1 million. An effort to investigate Republican Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker's political fundraising during his 2012 recall election cost Badger State voters
$1.1 million, recently released court documents show. The investigation was halted last
year after a judge determined that the activities alleged in the probe were not in fact illegal.
The Government Did
WHAT With $300 Million? In the last fiscal year, the federal government spent
$3.5 trillion. That's the sum total of the total lifetime incomes of 3.5 million
working Americans, give or take. How much of that was that was misspent? Ten percent?
Fifteen? Twenty? More? Do we really want to know? Most elected Republicans pay
lip service to the waste of government but ultimately do not care to do anything about it.
Democrats want to spend even more money and don't want to be bothered with arguments about how that
might not be the greatest idea. A country that can readily wave off such waste is courting
not renaissance but ruin.
Report:
Defense Dept. paid NFL millions of taxpayer dollars to salute troops. The United
States Department of Defense paid the National Football League more than $5 million in taxpayer
money between 2011 to 2014 to honor U.S. soldiers and veterans at games, an investigation revealed
this week. [...] But instead of purely heartfelt salutes to soldiers from hometown football teams,
the halftime segments were reportedly part of paid promotions under federal advertising contracts
for the military.
John
McCain: Gov't wasting $294 billion on expired programs. The federal government is set
to spend at least $294 billion of taxpayer money on hundreds of expired programs this year alone,
according to a report released Thursday [5/7/2015]. The 19-page "America's Most Wasted" report
from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is the first in a series of oversight studies meant to shed a light
on wasteful and duplicative government spending.
Pentagon
credit cards used for gambling, escorts. A Defense Department audit has found that a
number of Pentagon employees used their government credit cards to gamble and pay for "adult
entertainment" — findings that are expected to lead department officials to issue stern
new warnings. The audit of "Government Travel Charge Transactions" by the Department of Defense
Office of Inspector General, which is to be made public in coming weeks, found that both civilian
and military employees used the credit cards at casinos and for escort services and other adult
activities — in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
The Editor says...
Warnings are cheap. Firing somebody (like all air traffic controllers, en masse) shows
you're serious about curtailing behavioral problems. Unfortunately, it appears that the termination of
a federal employee is nearly impossible.
IRS
Doled Out $5.6 Billion in Erroneous Stimulus Education Credits. A report released
Tuesday from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reveals that the IRS
doled out more than $5.6 billion in education credits in 2012 for more than 3.8 million
students. The tax credits in question, the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC), were
instituted with the 2009 Stimulus, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
They are intended to help offset the cost of higher education.
IRS
wasted $5.6B on bogus Obama stimulus tax credits: Audit. The IRS doled out more than
$5 billion in potentially bogus college aid payments under an Obama stimulus tax credit in 2012,
according to a new report Tuesday [5/5/2015] from the agency's inspector general that said the
administration still doesn't have a good handle on how to root out erroneous claims. More
than 3.8 million students received more than $5.6 billion in questionable tax credits,
the audit found — more than half of those never filed their tuition statement, while
others were paid tax credits even though the schools they attended weren't acceptable institutions.
Still other students claimed the credit for more than four years.
Not
enough money? Baltimore got $1.8 billion from Obama Stimulus. Last Tuesday [4/28/2015], President
Obama blamed the GOP-controlled Congress for its failure to fund the "massive investment in urban communities"
that could "make a difference." Well, how does $1.8 billion for the 622,000 people of Baltimore sound?
Pretty massive — actually, just about $2900 for every man, woman, child, and baby of the entire City of
Baltimore. But that's the total amount of Obama Stimulus money sent to Charm City, according to an analysis
by The [Washington] Free Beacon.
Baltimore
Received $1.8 Billion from Obama's Stimulus Law. The city of Baltimore received over
$1.8 billion from President Barack Obama's stimulus law, including $467.1 million to invest in
education and $26.5 million for crime prevention. President Obama claimed last Tuesday
[4/28/2015] that if the Republican-controlled Congress would implement his policies to make "massive
investments in urban communities," they could "make a difference right now" in the city, currently
in upheaval following the death of Freddie Gray. However, a Washington Free Beacon analysis found
that the Obama administration and Democratically-controlled Congress did make a "massive" investment
into Baltimore, appropriating $1,831,768,487 though the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
(ARRA), commonly known as the stimulus.
War
on Poverty? How about war against insanity! Just in case I was wrong, I checked and
found out that the federal government has "invested" $22 trillion fighting the War on Poverty in the
50 years since it was declared by President Lyndon Johnson (Source: Heritage Foundation). According
to my calculation, that's $440 billion per year on average. Considering that spending on welfare
and food stamps has steadily increased in recent years, not to mention the costs of Obamacare, I am
confident we are spending well over half a trillion per year to rescue our impoverished members of
society. [...] That's right, our $22 trillion investment went right down the rabbit hole, or more
accurately the black hole, and we are left with inner cities in decay like Detroit, turmoil like
Baltimore, and abject poverty like Watts.
Community
Investment? Oh, Please. These communities are not an "investment"; they're an expense!
The biggest money hole in the history of the human race. Since Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty
program was enacted, we have spent over fifteen trillion — with a t — on
welfare (AFDC and other programs), Food Stamps, WIC stamps, free pre-school, free primary and
secondary education, free medical care, free cell phones, Section 8 housing assistance, food
pantries, free transportation to the Social Services Office and your medical appointments, free
legal services, and I don't know what else because I haven't the stomach to look any further.
And what has the nation gotten back? Zip, nada, zero. Indeed, less than zero, because
while in the 1960s the propaganda was that there were only "obstacles to overcome," now there is
"hopelessness" — a word bandied about not just by white liberals, but also by right-of-center
personalities who attribute the terrible schools in these communities, the lack of fathers in the home,
the unemployment, poverty, and crime to I don't know — residual racism, more money not being
spent on education, something, anything but the actual behavior of the people concerned.
Tsarnaev
Family Flown to U.S., Housed in Boston at Taxpayer Expense. The family of convicted
Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have been flown to the U.S. from their home in Chechnya,
are being housed at a Hampton Inn outside of Boston, and are being guarded 24 hours a day by at
least three federal agencies. The taxpayer-funded junket to the U.S. for the family of a Muslim
terrorist is costing well over $100,000, according to a former U.S. attorney.
ICE
could have saved millions on detainee flights, watchdog says. An internal watchdog
report says millions of dollars may have been saved through better management and by filling empty
seats on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement charter flights carrying detained immigrants to
their home countries. The Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General said
flights — which returned detainees mainly to Central America, South America and the
Caribbean — flew partially empty more than a third of the time. Filling seats
could have saved $41.1 million, the report says.
Congresswoman
questions $730K repairs to Arizona border fence. U.S. Rep. Martha McSally (R-Arizona)
[...] wrote a letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske on Thursday
after an Associated Press report found the repairs to about 60 feet of fencing cost $730,000.
Unwanted
tanks and other government waste detailed in reports. If the Republican majority in
Congress really wants to cut back on government waste, it can find some inspiration from a pair of
reports recently released, detailing examples of egregious spending and programs that could arguably
go on the chopping block.
Waste
Watch. [For example,] An Afghan Contractor Builds Walls that Melt in the Rain
[$456,669]: In 2012, U.S. military authorities paid an Afghan construction firm nearly half a
million dollars to build a "dry fire range" (DFR) for the Afghan Special Police to use in training
exercises. "The DFR replicates a typical Afghan village and is used to conduct simulated police
search and clearance exercises," according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan
Reconstruction (SIGAR). The range is "dry fire," meaning it is not designed for use with live
ammunition. Only four months after completion, however, the walls of the DFR began to disintegrate.
Russell
follows Coburn's footsteps, identifies $117M in first 'Waste Watch'. Rep. Steve
Russell featured more than $117 million worth of failed government efforts in the first of a "Waste
Watch" series dedicated to exposing the squandering of taxpayer money. The freshman Republican
from Oklahoma took up the mantle of another Oklahoman, retired Sen. Tom Coburn, whose annual "Wastebook"
publication also chronicled flagrant examples of frivolous, illegal and wasteful government spending.
Los
Federales To Fly In Children From Central America For Illegals. Is it any wonder that
"57% of Likely U.S. Voters think the policies and practices of the federal government encourage
people to enter the United States illegally"? [...] I'm not surprised in the least by this action. I
wouldn't even have been surprised had this occurred under President Bush, much less under Mr. Obama.
The kids would be considered "refugees", hence, eligible for all sorts of government benefits, including
food stamps and living expenses.
Gov't
program would fly in Central American children to join parents in US. Images of
unaccompanied children flooding across the U.S.-Mexico border defined the immigration crisis last
summer. Now, the federal government is intervening so these children won't have to make that
trek — they'll get to fly into the U.S. instead. For free. A new State Department
and Department of Homeland Security program seeks to stop the surge of immigrant children from Honduras,
Guatemala, and El Salvador at the southern border by giving their U.S.-based parents the option to apply
to have their kids picked up and put on a plane, without paying a penny.
The Editor says...
Exactly the opposite should be done: The parents should be flown out of the country to rejoin
the children. This is the "anchor baby" problem in reverse: It's the Obama way of
generating DREAMer kids who can then say (20 years from now) that they had no choice in the
matter, they were brought here as children and now deserve to be given citizenship.
Furthermore, why is this nameless program limited to children in Mexico and Central America?
Why is it limited to children with relatives living in this country?
The Pentagon's $10-billion bet gone bad.
It was the most powerful radar of its kind in the world, they told Congress. So powerful it could
detect a baseball over San Francisco from the other side of the country. If North Korea launched
a sneak attack, the Sea-Based X-Band Radar — SBX for short — would spot the
incoming missiles, track them through space and guide U.S. rocket-interceptors to destroy them.
Crucially, the system would be able to distinguish between actual missiles and decoys. [...] In
reality, the giant floating radar has been a $2.2-billion flop, a Los Angeles Times investigation found.
USDA
Employees Used Government Credit Cards at Bowling Alleys, Barbershops. The OIG found
$192.2 million in potentially "questionable transactions" by employees using agency purchase cards
and convenience checks. The audit, released Tuesday [3/24/2015], blamed the improper purchases on
poor training. From a pool of 169,054 questionable transactions, the OIG selected 230 for closer
review. The audit found that 174 were questionable, totaling $163,160, because transactions were
"prohibited by [the Office of Procurement and Property Management] OPPM's policy, were not properly
approved, or lacked supporting documentation." "Some of the questionable transactions involved
retailers identified as beauty and barber shops, bowling alleys, and amusement parks," the OIG audit said.
The
Other Army Green. When you think about those hundreds of trillions of dollars in
unfunded entitlement liabilities, you might be tempted to roll your eyes at relatively picayune
examples of government waste, but consider that the perks that go along with being an admiral or
general — the private jets, the chefs, the entourages — cost taxpayers around $1 million
a year per flag officer, which is no small thing when you have about a thousand of them. We have an
army of generals and more admirals than battleships. Does the Pentagon spend its money wisely? Nobody
knows — especially not the Pentagon.
Secret
Service chief asks for $8 million to build scale replica of the White House for training. The new
head of the Secret Service has admitted he has agents with a drinking problem after two were accused of crashing
their car while drunk at the White House. Joseph Clancy, newly-installed director of the agency, made the
admission in a stormy session in front of Congress as he tried to get their approval to build a replica White
House for agents to practice protecting the president.
The Editor says...
They may also need a full-size replica of Camp David and a full-size mockup of Hawaii, but that can wait til next year.
Secret
Service Wants a Fake White House to Help Protect the Real One. Stung by accusations
that it cannot adequately protect the White House, the Secret Service wants to spend $8 million to
build another White House in Beltsville, Md. In prepared testimony before the House
Appropriations Committee, Joseph P. Clancy, the director of the Secret Service, on Tuesday
[3/17/2015] will urge lawmakers to give him money to build a detailed replica of the White House to
aid in training officers and agents to protect the real thing. Beltsville, about 20 miles from the
real White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is the site of a 500-acre Secret Service training site
in the verdant terrain of Southern Maryland.
Feds
shelled out $125B in bogus payments last year. The government paid out $124.7 billion
in potentially bogus payments last year, the government's chief watchdog said Monday [3/16/2015], blaming a
controversial tax credit for the poor as well as increased bad payments in Medicare and Medicaid.
One major problem is tracking when Americans die — the Social Security Administration
admitted last week that its rolls are filled with names of more than 6 million folks who are
listed as 112 years of age or older.
Clinton
has received $16 million in post-presidency benefits. Former President Bill Clinton
has received nearly $16 million in taxpayer funds since leaving the White House, covering everything
from his pension to personnel to benefits — and renewing questions over how much
taxpayers really should spend on ex-presidents who make millions after leaving office. A new
Politico report and analysis examined the payments since he left office in 2001, and claimed it
amounts to more than any other ex-president has received. Meanwhile, Politico points out,
Clinton has a personal annual income that beats all the other living former presidents.
Taxpayer
tab for Clinton Inc.: $16 million. By Election Day 2016, taxpayers will have paid out
more than $16 million to fund Bill Clinton's pension, travel, office expenses and even the
salaries and benefits of staff at his family's foundation, federal records show. Since he left
the White House in 2001, Clinton and his office have received more money through the Former
Presidents Act than any other ex-president, according to a POLITICO analysis of budget documents.
Feds
spend $42,676 studying sexting by college girls. A nearly $50,000 federal study is
examining the sext messages of college girls to determine whether sending racy pictures makes them
more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior. "This project will address how sexting (the
exchange of sexually suggestive texts or pictures via mobile phone) and problematic alcohol use
together increase the risk for risky sexual behavior and sexual assault among college women," read a
grant issued last year.
State
Department Spends $2.15 Million on Drapes for Diplomats in Moscow. The State Department is spending over
$2 million on drapes for the U.S. Embassy and U.S. diplomatic residences in Moscow, according to a government
contract awarded Tuesday [3/10/2015]. The award brings an end to a four-month search for a suitable contractor
to replace the draperies, which will come in either "silk or faux silk."
It would be far better to spend a billion dollars on a massive border wall.
VP
Joe Biden Renews Calls For $1 Billion For Central America, Following Illegal Immigration
Surge. Vice President Joe Biden is reiterating his call for Congress to agree to the
administration's requested $1 billion for Central America, as a response to the surge in illegal
immigration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras that reached a fever pitch last summer.
CFPB
Director Swats Down Congressional Question About $215 Million Spent On New HQ: 'Why Does That Matter
to You?'. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray told
Representative Ann Wagner (R-MO) that it was none of her business how much the agency spent to
renovate its lavish new headquarters. During a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, an angry Wagner
asked him to explain who authorized a $215 million expenditure on the "untouchable" agency's new
headquarters, Cordray sounded eerily like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who offered a
similar response to questions posed in Congressional hearings last year about the 2012 murders of
four Americans at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
What does soil moisture have to do with aeronautics and space?
NASA
launches $916 million soil moisture satellite. A United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket
boosted an innovative NASA satellite into orbit Saturday [1/31/2015], kicking off a three-year,
$916 million mission to measure the moisture, frozen and liquid, in the top few inches of
Earth's soil to improve forecasting, to better understand the causes and impact of droughts,
floods and other natural disasters and to improve long-range climate change projections.
Feds Spent
$432,000 Studying Gay Hookup Apps. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has spent
nearly a half a million dollars studying gay hookup apps such as Grindr. The government awarded
$432,000 to Columbia University to interview gay men who use GPS dating apps and determine whether
it increases their likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behavior.
Obamaites
Behaving Badly. An inspector general's report last fall, which somehow escaped
publicity, found that political appointees at the Department of Labor violated contracting rules on
one project and spent what many would consider an absurd amount of money on another. An earlier IG
letter indicated the same officials were involved in misusing department resources on yet a third project.
[...] Elliot P. Lewis, the assistant inspector general for audit, wrote to T. Michael Kerr,
assistant secretary for administration and management, about the allegation in my article that "the
Department of Labor (DOL) awarded a $100,000 no-bid contract to an outside public relations firm ... to
promote a book club." (Yes, a book club.) As it turned out, there were two contracts
involved, to the tune of $208,970.
17,000
Federal Employees Earned More Than $200K Last Year. More than 16,900 federal employees
took home in excess of $200,000 in base salary in 2014, according to a partial database of federal
salary data. The information, compiled by FedSmith.com using data from the Office of Personnel
Management and other agencies, shows the annual compensation for every civilian federal worker, save
those at the Defense Department. The number of workers earning more than $200,000 represented about
1.6 percent of employees on the list and is up from about 15,000 who cleared that salary in 2013. It
also makes up a slightly higher percentage of the employees on this list.
Obama's
DHS Spent Nearly $150M on Office Furniture and Makeovers. Funding for the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) — which is due to expire at the end of this week unless an
agreement in Washington is reached — has continued to rise under President Barack Obama.
His administration claims the agency's increased funding is necessary to protect the homeland, but
records show that the DHS has continued to increase its spending on furniture and office makeovers
as its budget has been increased. A review of records on the official government spending website
by the Washington Free Beacon shows the agency has spent nearly $150 million on office furniture
and makeovers since Obama took office.
HUD Paid $37
Million in Rent for Deadbeats. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) subsidized over 100,000 apartments for tenants who do not meet work or community service
requirements, costing taxpayers at least $37 million. According to an audit released by the
Office of Inspector General (OIG) on Wednesday, the federal government is at risk of losing an
additional $448 million worth of subsidies this year on "noncompliant tenants."
U.S.
sends China millions in foreign aid despite $1.3 trillion debt. China has become one
of the world's largest two economies, and is wealthy enough to buy up at least $1.3 trillion of the
U.S. debt. But that hasn't stopped Uncle Sam from continuing to send foreign aid to Beijing.
In 2014 the U.S. State Department and its USAID program provided nearly all of the $12.3 million in
taxpayer-funded aid set aside for China. And another $6.8 million is on tap for Beijing this
year, according to ForeignAssistance.gov.
Pentagon
spent $504,000 on Viagra last year alone. The Department of Defense has spent about
$1.2 million on impotence medications since they first went on its insurance plan's formulary,
including more than a half-million dollars last year alone.
Less than
half [of] $2.9 [billion in] Ebola money reached affected countries — UN study.
Almost $2.9 [billion] (£1.92 [billion]) was pledged by the end of 2014 in donations to
fight west Africa's Ebola epidemic, yet only about 40% had actually reached affected countries, researchers
have said. A study by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that tracked
international donations showed barely $1.09 [billion] had reached the worst affected countries by
the end of last year, they said.
Robin in Deadwood
Forest. Chris Edwards at the Cato Institute believes there should be a National Museum
of Government Failure. He argues that the displays at the Smithsonian would pale into insignificance
if set beside the awe-inspiring sight of such things as the "$349 million on a rocket test facility
that is completely unused", the Superconducting Collider whose ruins include nearly 15 miles of
tunnel and the ex-future Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site. Yet these artifacts, whose scale would
surpass many a Lost City, are far from the worst failures. The biggest fiascos by dollar value are
the various government programs designed to win the war on drugs or poverty which after having spent
trillions of dollars fruitlessly, lie somewhere in an unmarked bureaucratic grave.
Anti-terror
cops are still chauffeuring around bureaucrats. Anti-terror cops are still chauffeuring around
New York City bureaucrats, even on the heels of terror attacks in France. The offices of Public Advocate
Letitia James and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito could not come up with a defense for the
ongoing practice, first exposed by The [New York] Post two months ago, and passed the buck to the NYPD.
Comptroller Scott Stringer's office said he was doing what the NYPD recommended.
The
reasons why Guantanamo is so expensive. Even though the Gitmo detainee population has
shrunk from 779 to 122 detainees over a decade, the size of the military units and contractors
guarding them, providing health care, cooking and cleaning for them, staffing a library and
recreational activities haven't downsized accordingly.
How
is it that no one is ever held accountable for the failures of government? Homeland
Security spent $50 billion over the past 11 years on counterterrorism programs, but the Department
cannot demonstrate if the nation is more secure as a result.
HHS
execs doing good and living large, flying first class around the world. Helping
America's poor, aged and sick is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' reason for being,
but hundreds of its top officials are traveling in style and luxury at taxpayer expense. Records
obtained by the Washington Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act show that HHS executives
spent $31 million taking 7,000 first class and business class flights between 2009 and 2013,
including 253 trips for which a one-way ticket cost more than $15,000.
U.S.
Official: America Paying Salaries of Afghan Cops That Don't Exist. The United States
continues to pay more than $300 million annually to the Afghan National Police (ANP), and some of
that money is going to officers who do not actually exist, according to government officials who warn
that fraud and a lack of oversight are causing U.S. taxpayer dollars to be wasted on the force. The
United States continues to pay the salaries of ANP officers despite a lack of supervision over the funds
and the fact that fraud is rampant among the force, according to a new report by the Special Investigator
General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).
Feds
find border drones don't actually make border more secure. The Department of Homeland
Security's (DHS) own watchdog says that drones deployed at the United States-Mexico border do not
achieve their objective of protecting the country. In a 37-page report issued on December 24,
2014 but published for the first time on Tuesday, DHS' Office of the Inspector General (OIG) concluded
that "after 8 years, [Customs and Border Protection, or CBP] cannot prove that the program is
effective because it has not developed performance measures." In a statement, the agency had a
damning conclusion for the CBP drone program, which anticipates spending an additional $443 million
to acquire and operate 14 more drones.
Audit:
DHS Drone Program Ineffective at Border Security. Custom and Border Protection's (CBP)
drone program is ineffective and surveys less than 200 miles of the southwest border, according to
an audit by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Inspector General. The program
operates 10 Predator B drones at a cost of more than $12,000 for every hour a drone spends in the
air, funding which could be put to better use elsewhere, according to the OIG. The program costs
$10,000 more per flight hour than what DHS claims, according to the OIG. "We estimate that, in
fiscal year 2013, it cost at least $62.5 million to operate the program, or about $12,255 per
[flight] hour," the audit said. "The Office of Air and Marine's calculation of $2,468 per flight
hour does not include operating costs, such as the costs of pilots, equipment, and overhead."
Social
Security spent $300M on 'IT boondoggle. "The program has invested $288 million over
six years, delivered limited functionality, and faced schedule delays as well as increasing stakeholder
concerns," the report said.
Oversight
report finds major problems with DHS. U.S. Senator Tom Coburn released his final
oversight report on the Department of Homeland Security, which has found major problems in the
branch. The report finds that Homeland Security is not successfully executing any of its five
main missions. "Ten years of oversight of the Department of Homeland Security finds that the
Department still has a lot of work to do to strengthen our nation's security," Coburn explained.
"Congress needs to review the Department's mission and programs and refocus DHS on national priorities
where DHS has a lead responsibility."
The CDC At A Glance. The
Ebola crisis shined the spotlight on the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The
agency is being criticized for mishandling the Ebola crisis but the CDC has been plagued with problems
for years and its incompetence has been tied to its expanding mission. [...] For example, the CDC has
programs addressing, chronic diseases such as obesity, environmental health, occupational health and of
course infectious disease. The CDC is also involved in behavioral issues including domestic violence,
teen dating and bulling. The agency also conducted studies on gun violence and alcohol.
DOD
workers ring up $5 million in improper charge card purchases. More than $5 million in
unauthorized "micro-purchases" were made with government charge cards by employees of the U.S. Southern
Command from April 2012 to March 2013. Government purchase cards are intended to be used only for
purchases of approved merchandise under $3,000. Southern Command employees used the cards improperly
nearly 6,000 times at a cost of $5.1 million, according to a Department of Defense inspector general
report. Another $160,000 was spent on an estimated 3,500 unnecessary gifts in the years since 2010,
often just days before the government's fiscal years ended. The items remained in storage at least
three years.
NIH
Had No $$$ for Ebola Vaccine, Spent $100 Mil on Meditation. [T]he ACLU was nowhere in
sight when [Rep. Tim] Ryan decided to propagandize his creed to pre-schoolers, but if a conventionally
religious politician tried to promote Christian or Jewish practices in school using a government grant,
all hell would break loose.
NIH
Has Spent $100.2 Million on Mindfulness Meditation. "The advantage of this is that it
actually doesn't cost anything," said Karen May, a vice president at Google, explaining how her
company offers "mindfulness" classes to its employees. Mindfulness is a New Age kind of
meditation that focuses on the present moment "non-judgmentally," tracing its origins to Buddhism.
NIH
Blows $1.3 Billion On Failed Children's Health Study. Congress mandated the National
Children's Study as part of the Children's Health Act of 2000. The idea was to follow 100,000
newborns across the nation — in places ranging from urban California to the Florida
swamps — until they turned 21, and measure how environmental and other factors affected
their health. Yet for the past 14 years, all the NIH managed to do was spend $1.3 billion
figuring out how to conduct the massive effort and running some pilot experiments. The actual study
wasn't scheduled to start officially until some time next year.
Obama
Unveils $1B Boost for Preschools, Including $55 Million From Disney. It's a year-end present for tens of
thousands of kids and early childhood education programs. President Obama today [12/10/2014] is set to unveil a
$1 billion package of new public and private funding for U.S. preschool programs during a White House summit to promote
one of his favored domestic initiatives.
The Editor says...
Pre-school "education" or nanny-state daycare has been proven
to be ineffective, therefore any money spent on programs like this are completely wasted.
51
Examples of Government Waste. [#11] The Department of Defense spent nearly $500 million to
purchase military transport planes for the Afghan Air Force, which have since been scrapped. The planes
did not meet operational requirements, and the maintenance of the planes was too expensive for the Afghan Air
Force. [#12] The Defense Department overpaid by $3.3 million for radios for the Afghan Army
because the Defense Department did not follow contracting procedures, which would have prevented overpayment.
Watchdog
Report: IRS Paid Out More Than $20 Billion in Erroneous Low-Income Tax Credits. The
Internal Revenue Service paid out $14.5 billion in erroneous Earned Income Tax Credit payments and
between $5.9 billion and $7.1 billion in improper Additional Child Tax Credit payments in Fiscal
Year 2013, according to a new government watchdog report. The EITC and ACTC are refundable tax
credits intended for lower-income Americans. In Tax Year 2012, the IRS paid out $63 billion
in EITCs and $26.6 billion in ACTC payments.
6 Years Later, Stimulus Funds
Still Being Spent on Manure. Almost six years after the passage of the stimulus package, taxpayer dollars have finally
found their way into a shovel ready project: $60,000 to haul horse manure. Sold as an opportunity to bring America into
the "21st century," the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the stimulus, is now being used to remove wild horse manure
off of public lands. According to a contract awarded last week, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will pay $58,650 to load,
haul, and dispose manure from a corral in Burns, Oregon.
$466,642
Federal Study: Why Do Fat Girls Date Less and Risk More? The National Institutes of
Health has awarded $466,642 in taxpayer dollars to Magee-Women's Research Institute and Foundation
in Pittsburgh, Pa., to study and compare the intimate relationships of obese and non-obese girls.
"Mounting evidence demonstrates that weight influences intimate (i.e., dating and sexual) relationship
formation and sexual negotiations among adolescent girls. Obese girls consistently report having
fewer dating and sexual experiences, but more sexual risk behaviors (i.e., condom nonuse) once they are
sexually active," the grant abstract said. "No studies have actually examined whether the interpersonal
skills and intimate relationships of obese and non-obese girls differ," it said.
Global
climate aid up to $650 billion. As much as $650 billion is being spent globally to aid
countries in adjusting to climate change, according to a new United Nations report. The report,
released Wednesday at a climate change conference in Lima, Peru, said the low end of the amount being spent
was $350 billion. The report covered aid during 2011 and 2012 and noted that, due to the complexity
of determining where climate funding comes from, the actual amount spent could be higher. Climate finance
is one of the major components of a deal nations hope to strike next year in Paris that would govern emissions
beyond 2020. The Lima conference is meant to set up those negotiations a year from now.
The Editor says...
The item immediately above is categorized (by me) as wasted taxpayer revenue because [#1] all the money in the world
cannot change the weather, and [#2] global warming stopped, all by itself,
in 1998.
Documents
Reveal Obama HHS Paid Baptist Children and Family Services $182,129,786 for Four Months Housing of
Illegal Alien Children. According to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch, the
cost to the American taxpayer was $86,846.34 per illegal alien child at Ft. Sill, for a total to
$104,215,608 for 1,200 UACs from June 12 to October 18. The bill also included $2,648,800 in
compensation for 30 members of the BCFS "Incident Management Team" (IMT), for a total to $88,293 per
IMT member for the four-month period. The $77,914,178 to care for 1,200 children at Lackland AFB
amounted to a cost to the taxpayer of $64,928 per illegal alien child from May 18 to September 18.
The Lackland bill included $20,000 for a "cable television screen/projector set up" and 20 shower
stalls at $1,000 each.
Somehow
the separation of church and state people are all silent about this.
Audit:
Taxpayer dollars paid for eco group's $25G Christmas party, and more. $25,000 for a
Christmas party. $11,000 for premium coffee services. Millions more for questionable
construction costs. All this was billed to taxpayers by an obscure federally funded science group,
according to a scathing new inspector general report. The audit, conducted by the National
Science Foundation inspector general and the Defense Contract Audit Agency, detailed spending by the
Colorado-based National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). The nonprofit, designed to operate a
network of ecological observatories across the continent, is solely funded by the National Science Foundation.
Fiscal
responsibility is 'anti-science' now. The media framing for stories about fiscal responsibility now
involves portraying Republicans as "anti-science" when they object to handing out fat research grants for stupid
projects. For example, Politico's big article on the subject is entitled, "Next Battle In the War on Science."
Got that? Shutting down wasteful, and sometimes downright harmful, monkey-gambling studies and robot-squirrel
construction projects is now a "war on science." You don't want to spend a million bucks studying how ideas
spread across Twitter, producing a study that might prove useful for anti-free-speech activists? Why do you
hate science, wingnut?
Obama
plan to 'Power Africa' gets off to a dim start. Barack Obama last year told a cheering crowd in Cape Town
that a $7 billion plan to "Power Africa" would double electricity output on the world's poorest continent and bring
"light where currently there is darkness". [...] But the five-year plan has not yet delivered the power. Power Africa
has not measured its progress by counting actual megawatts added to the grid but promises of additional power made in deals
it says it helped negotiate, according to sources inside the project and documents seen by Reuters.
Feds
have sunk $65M into stalled Eisenhower memorial never built. [Scroll down] Fifteen years later the
project has already cost American taxpayers more than $65 million. And quarrels between the
Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission on the one hand and Congress and the Eisenhower family on the
other hand mean that there's a real possibility that no memorial will ever be built and the money will have
gone for naught. The commission, the body in charge of the memorial's "nature, design, construction and
location," previously devoured $41 million of the funds and is on pace to spend the rest of the
$65 million allotment from Congress without ever building a monument.
White
House, Congress Raided Hundreds of Millions from Anti-Bioterrorism Fund. Congress and
the Obama White House looked for billions of dollars a few years ago to offset the costs of a legal
settlement with black farmers and American Indians, to increase education aid to the states and to
develop a vaccine for swine flu. To get those billions, they looked to the same coffer: Project
BioShield, a $5.6 billion fund created specifically to prepare America for a bioterrorist attack and
develop treatments for deadly viruses such as Ebola. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., warned that the
BioShield fund was not supposed to be raided as a source of "Monopoly money for politicians."
Prisoners
file $1 billion in bogus tax returns. Inmates and their accomplices filed $1 billion
in fraudulent tax returns in 2012, a six-fold increase from 2007, according to a report released Tuesday
[11/25/2014] by the Internal Revenue Service's auditor. The audit by the Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration discovered the IRS has yet to comply with previous recommendations to shore up
fraudulent activities so costly to taxpayers.
Labor
union work by federal employees on 'official time' costs taxpayers millions. Unionized
federal employees spent 2.48 million hours working for their labor unions while getting paid by
taxpayers during 2013, and more than 360 workers who are on the federal payroll spent 100 percent of
their time working for their union. Under federal rules, employees who are members of a labor
union are entitled to so-called "official time," where they are dismissed from their duties as a
government employee to engage in labor union organizing activities.
Jay
Nixon To Spend $100k To Study How They Messed Up STL. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon,
appointed members voted to give themselves $100k through the Governor's newly-created Ferguson
Commission. Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, the only elected official on the board, was the only "no"
vote. That's what happens when you're accountable to the public.
Ten
Years Later, the Question Remains: How on Earth Do You 'Lose' $5.5 Billion? Despite a
full decade of audits and investigations, Pentagon officials still cannot say what happened to
$6.6 billion in cash that was intended for the Development Fund for Iraq. Apparently, it just
"disappeared." Was it just misplaced in an accounting error, or was it "stolen"? Who knows?
Apparently, the Pentagon has no idea.
$20 Mil to Boost Reading Skills in
the Dominican Republic. While America's failing public schools remain on a perpetual
downward spiral, the U.S. government is spending tens of millions of dollars to help struggling
students and improve academics in the Dominican Republic. It may seem crazy, but unfortunately
it's simply one of a myriad of real-life stories illustrating how government wastes our tax dollars.
To be fair, state governments and the feds — mostly via the U.S. Department of Education —
spend boatloads of cash on public schools in this country, though it's done little over the years to
improve performance in the nation's inner cities.
Prosecutors
Troubled by Extent of Military Fraud. Fabian Barrera found a way to make fast cash in the Texas National Guard,
earning roughly $181,000 for claiming to have steered 119 potential recruits to join the military. But the bonuses were
ill-gotten because the former captain never actually referred any of them.
Feds
Spent $10 Million on a Video Game About Escaping a Fat Town. The federal government
has invested over $10 million developing and promoting a video game about a young teen that must
escape a town full of fat people, as a method to fight obesity. The National Institutes of Health
(NIH) paid for the development of two video games that promote healthier eating, including "Escape
from Diab," a "nightmare" fictional city where people are only allowed to eat junk food. "The
story centers around five children who must get healthy enough to escape the evil King Etes,"
explains Archimage, Inc., a computer game company that received $9,091,409 to develop the games.
King Etes is a fat ruler who forces his people to eat out of vending machines.
$40G
per bird? California cormorants refuse to budge from bridge being demolished. Now that
a crucial section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge has been replaced by a new $6.4 billion
span, nobody needs it anymore — nobody except about 800 birds who call the decrepit,
78-year-old segment home. [...] "They're spending $33 million to get rid of these 800 birds — that
comes out to about $40,000 a bird — that's more money than most people in the United States make in a
given year!" said Brian Sussman, a conservative radio talk show host in San Francisco.
World's
largest solar plant applying for federal grant to pay off federal loan. After already
receiving a controversial $1.6 billion construction loan from U.S. taxpayers, the wealthy investors
of a California solar power plant now want a $539 million federal grant to pay off their federal
loan. [...] The Ivanpah solar electric generating plant is owned by Google and renewable energy
giant NRG, which are responsible for paying off their federal loan.
The Editor says...
I suspect Google has plenty of cash on hand. If this unwise investment results in a catastrophic loss (of $539 million), it
will serve as an example to the next investor: Don't get too excited about investing
in solar panels, and don't expect the
government to bail you out when you default on a government loan.
Discrimination in other countries is not our problem!
U.S.
Allots $1.4 Mil to Fight Work Discrimination in Mexico. As if it weren't bad enough
that the U.S. spends exorbitant amounts of taxpayer funds to support illegal immigrants in this
country, it's allocating north of a million dollars to help the Mexican government combat employment
discrimination in Mexico. Is there no end to the madness? Each year Americans are forced to
pay tens of billions of dollars to educate, feed, house, incarcerate and medically treat illegal
aliens — most of them from Mexico — in the U.S. and now we're sending cash
south of the border for a cause that's hardly ours to fund.
Illegal
immigrant children treated to guitar lessons, miniature ponies, tilapia farm. One of
the contractors housing some of the surge of illegal immigrant children from this summer offers them
a petting zoo with miniature ponies, a tilapia fish farm operation and guitar lessons, according to
documents released Thursday [10/30/2014] by a senator who questioned whether the plush accommodations
were a good use of taxpayers' money. Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, said it
seemed excessive to pay the $329 that Southwest Key Programs, the contractor, charged per child per
day at one of its California facilities in Lemon Grove, California. Another facility in
El Cajon cost taxpayers $316 per child per day.
Medicare
Bought Meds For Dead People. A report released Friday [10/31/2014] by the Health and
Human Services Department's inspector general said the Medicare rule allows payment for prescriptions
filled up to 32 days after a patient's death — at odds with the program's basic
principles, not to mention common sense.
Tom
Coburn highlights ridiculous government spending in final Wastebook. This year's
Wastebook does not show the $5,210 that the State Department tried to spend on a blowup, human-size
foosball field for an embassy in Belize. But the fact that the project isn't in Sen. Tom Coburn's
annual report on ridiculous spending choices is probably one of the biggest victories of the report,
because it means the State Department canceled the project after the senator's staffers asked about it.
Coburn's
2014 Wastebook: A $25 Billion Taxpayer Loss. Over the last five years, Sen. Tom
Coburn, the retiring senior Republican Senator from Oklahoma and notorious deficit hawk, has
released a massive annual report ripping into the federal government's spending habits. The
much-anticipated "Wastebook" outlines what Coburn deems the top 100 "wasteful" federal projects that
collectively cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year. The annual report is known for
scrutinizing programs run by every major department. From the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs
Department, to tiny obscure agencies like the National Technical Information Service —
no one is immune to a feared mention in Coburn's "Wastebook."
$10G
to watch grass grow: Coburn report details worst examples of gov't waste. As American
taxpayers worried about the terror threat from the Islamic State, the crisis at the border and the
economy, the U.S. government spent their money to give rabbits massages, to teach sea monkeys to
synchronize swim and to literally watch grass grow. [...] The first example cited in the report is
the millions spent on what one attorney called the government's "dirty little secret": paid
administrative leave for troublesome employees.
Thousands
of federal workers on extended paid leave. Tens of thousands of federal workers are being kept on paid leave for at
least a month — and often for longer stretches that can reach a year or more — while they wait to be punished
for misbehavior or cleared and allowed to return to work, government records show. During a three-year period that ended last
fall, more than 57,000 employees were sent home for a month or longer. The tab for these workers exceeded $775 million in
salary alone.
Milking
the State Department's cash cow. The liberal media is ignoring the developing story
detailing the fiduciary incompetence of the Department of State (DOS) during Hillary Clinton's
tenure as Secretary of State. Meanwhile, the Inspector General (IG) of the DOS, Steve A.
Linick, appears to be taking his job quite seriously.
Feds
Spend $2.1 Million to Develop Weight-Tracking Insoles, Buttons. The federal government
is spending more than $2 million to develop wearable insoles and buttons that can track a person's
weight in order to fight obesity. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded grants for
two projects that will monitor "lifestyle behavior" through technologies that will encourage people
to exercise more. The first project, awarded to SmartMove, Inc., a company that provides physical
activity "coaching solutions," is creating insoles that will track a person's weight.
CDC
Spent 3 Times as Much on "Community Transformation" Than On Disease Control. While the
nurses in Texas were dealing with an Ebola patient without protocols and proper equipment, the CDC
continued to claim the protocols were in place and the hospitals in the U.S. were ready. You have
to understand. Ebola takes them away from their real mission which is to build bike lanes, get rid
of guns, tell you what to eat, and harass anyone who builds a playground.
Feds
have 'gone wild' with taxpayer-funded credit cards. A congressional hearing on how
federal agencies have "gone wild" with government credit cards found that personal use of
taxpayer-funded cards is significant despite tighter controls passed in 2012. Auditors revealed
more than half of the $153,000 in credit-card purchases sampled at the Environmental Protection
Agency were prohibited under the guidelines. They included multi-course meals at an employee award
ceremony, gift cards and family gym memberships.
U.S.
Destroys $500M Planes, Sells for 6 Cent Scrap. Sixteen military transport planes
bought by the United States government for the Afghan Air Force (AAF) at a cost of nearly $500 million
were recently destroyed by the Afghan military and sold for scrap parts at around six cents per pound,
prompting a government inquiry to determine why millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted on the ill-fated
program. The Department of Defense purchased for the AAF a total of 20 Italian-made G222 military
transport planes at a cost of $486 million. However, the fleet was grounded in March 2013
"after sustained, serious performance, maintenance, and spare parts problems" were discovered,
according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).
Who's
tending State Department's cash cow? The U.S. State Department has been handing over
billions of dollars in grants for foreign projects — ranging from cultural exchanges to
"climate change" activities — without adequate oversight or adequate assessment of the
risks involved, and sometimes without knowing whether the money was actually spent, according to the
department's Inspector General. Moreover, these money-management problems have been going on for
years, despite specific warnings, according to the watchdog IG's office.
Pentagon
Wastes More Than $100M On Unnecessary Vehicles In Just One Year. Over just a one-year period, the Army and Marine
Corps may have wasted more than $100 million returning vehicles from Afghanistan they do not need, according to a Government
Accountability Office report released Tuesday [9/30/2014]. [...] The Pentagon also spent $620 million on late fees for shipping
containers it did not return on time.
California
Gives $3 Million to Groups Providing Free Legal Aid to Illegal Aliens. California Gov.
Jerry Brown is channeling the "progressive spirit" of California in his latest act as governor.
Turns out he just signed a bill that would give $3 million in grants to non-profits that would offer
unaccompanied alien minors legal counsel- which is $1 million more than what the federal government
planned to give in grants nationwide.
Stage
Production for 18-Minute Obama Speech Cost $94,360. The stage, drapes, and sound
system for an 18-minute speech by President Barack Obama cost taxpayers nearly $100,000. "Elite
Productions," the go-to company for prominent Democratic politicians such as Bill and Hillary
Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, put on the set for Obama's speech to troops at MacDill Air Force Base in
Tampa, Fla., on Sept. 17. The company provided "stage, drapery, and audio/visual equipment,"
according to a contract document made public by the Air Force last week. The government paid the
company $94,360 for a speech that lasted from 12:04 p.m. to 12:22 p.m., at a cost of approximately
$5,242.22 per minute.
Zombie Spending.
Aficionados of horror movies know that the monster is never really dead when you think it is. It may be down, but it
will inevitably climb back from the dead at least one more time before the final credits. So it is with government
programs. No matter how outdated, useless, wasteful, or redundant programs may be, they come as close to immortality
as possible. [...] [T]he Rural Electrification Administration was created in 1935 to bring electricity to farm country.
There aren't many farms without electricity anymore, but the REA, now called the Rural Utilities Service, is still with us,
spending almost $800 million last year.
51
Cents of Every Dollar: How Much Americans Think the Government Wastes. The timing could not have been more
appropriate. The poll was released just days before Congress and the president agreed on a stopgap spending measure
to fund federal government programs and agencies indiscriminately at the annualized rate of $1.1 trillion. This
year's figure is tied for the highest since Gallup began asking the question in 1979.
Taxpayer-Funded
Climate Change Musical Closes Early. A Broadway-styled musical play has gone down to disastrous failure both critically and from
audiences, despite having been funded by tax dollars to push global warming. "The Great Immensity," was just as advertised; immense.
Not just an immense bomb, but according to one Congressman an immense waste of the $700,000 in tax dollars spent to float the production.
The Show Won't Go On.
After a series of lackluster reviews, the traveling global warming musical that was financed by the
U.S. taxpayers is ending its run early. The Great Immensity, a musical described as "painfully
long" and "awkward," was made possible by a $697,177 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
UN
climate change: Obama gives cash to developing nations without any strings attached. American and European liberals see the
climate change debate, as well as the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) discussion, as an altruistic response to their global public
policy concerns. United Nations officials and leaders from developing nations, however, see the climate change discussion and the
fight over MDGs as their future revenue source.
Get
ready! NASA's MAVEN mission is about to reach Mars. The spacecraft, the first mission to examine the planet's upper
atmosphere, was 218 million kilometers away from Earth on Wednesday [9/17/2014] and a mere 1.2 million kilometers from Mars.
MAVEN takes off: what you need to
know about NASA's new mission to Mars. Today [11/18/2013], NASA will launch a new mission — one that cost
$671 million and has been in development for 10 years — to determine what happened to the water on Mars.
The Editor says...
How will your life improve if and when NASA reaches an indisputable conclusion about what happened to the water on Mars — assuming
they can tell if there ever was any water? Such a discovery won't make any difference to anybody. The entire project
is a complete waste of taxpayers' money.
Afghan
Government Asks U.S. for $537 Million Bailout. Afghanistan's government recently asked
the US for a $537 million bailout to pay its bills, and they'd like it within the next "five to six"
days. "We hope they will pay for us, and we are asking at once," Alhaj M. Aqa, the director
general of the treasury at the Ministry of Finance, told The Washington Post. "They are asking me
when I need it, and I told them this week or we will have a problem."
Millions
in taxpayer money used to study drunken monkeys. The federal government reportedly has spent more than $3 million to
get monkeys drunk in order to study the effect the alcohol has on body tissue. The Washington Times reported Friday [9/12/2014]
on a host of questionable grant programs administered by the National Institutes of Health, including a multi-year project to study if
over-drinking causes gamblers to lose more money.
Patent
office whistleblower: 'Managers have no idea when their employees are working'. With
top Commerce Department officials headed to Capitol Hill Friday [9/12/2014] to answer allegations about
fraudulent practices by patent examiners, the Washington Post this week obtained copies of the
whistleblower complaints that set in motion a series of investigations of the patent office. Four
whistleblowers, at least two of them managers, submitted lengthy, detailed accounts to an anonymous
hotline set up by the Commerce inspector general's office in 2012. The accounts described widespread
time and attendance fraud by examiners at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Emails:
IRS worker got $138,000 to do 'nothing' — and union saved her job.
Underperforming IRS workers are being protected from firing by the National Treasury Employees Union
in the tax agency that let workers devote 500,000 hours — worth over $20 million in
salary — on labor activities last year, according to internal emails revealed Wednesday
[9/10/2014]. The House Ways and Means Committee said that emails from former IRS executive Lois
Lerner, being probed for her involvement in the agency's targeting of conservatives, show she vented
at being blocked from firing one worker who did "nothing," yet still received up to $138,136 a year.
Army
can't track spending on $4.3b system to track spending, IG finds. More than $725 million was spent by the Army on a
high-tech network for tracking supplies and expenses that failed to comply with federal financial reporting rules meant to allow auditors
to track spending, according to an inspector general's report issued Wednesday [9/3/2014]. The Global Combat Support System-Army, a
logistical support system meant to track supplies, spare parts and other equipment, was launched in 1997. In 2003, the program
switched from custom software to a web-based commercial software system. About $95 million was spent before the switch was
made, according to the report from the Department of Defense IG.
Feds Still
Studying Why Lesbians Are Obese. The federal government is still seeking answers as to
why the majority of lesbians are obese and U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill, which now totals
$2.87 million. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) study is now in its fourth year, receiving
an additional $670,567 for fiscal year 2014. The project seeks to determine why "nearly three-quarters
of adult lesbians overweight or obese," and why gay males are not. In just two years the project's
budget has nearly doubled, growing from $1.5 million to nearly $3 million today, despite fears
that sequestration could jeopardize the project and other NIH funding.
Federal
study on lesbian obesity costs $3 million. A federal study to determine why 75 percent
of lesbian women are obese and gay men are not has totaled nearly $3 million. The National
Institutes of Health study is now in its fourth year, receiving an additional $670,567 for fiscal
year 2014, for a total cost of $2.87 million, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
How many tax dollars are being spent for the FBI to promote itself?
FBI Radio:
Public Service or Self-Serving? Listen to the radio and you might run across a segment
that sounds something like a news report. A newsy music introduction plays as woman's
officious-sounding voice begins narrating a story. In a stilted delivery that appears to mimic that
of a news anchor, the woman states, "In a move demonstrating the FBI's valuable role of protecting
national security, Director James Comey creates a separate Intelligence Branch..." It turns out
this isn't a news report at all. And the "news anchor" is actually a public affairs specialist.
You might call the radio spot a faux news report brought to you by the FBI.
Labor
Department spends $100K on a book club. House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee Chairman Darrell Issa wants Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez to account for that expense
and others that the California Republican views as frivolous. Documents released Tuesday [8/26/2014]
[8/26/2014] by the committee described Labor Department spending between 2009 and the present that,
besides the book club, included nearly $25,000 in entry fees for public relations contests.
Medicare
Star Ratings Allow Nursing Homes to Game the System. The lobby of Rosewood Post-Acute
Rehab, a nursing home in this Sacramento suburb, bears all the touches of a luxury hotel, including
high ceilings, leather club chairs and paintings of bucolic landscapes. What really sets Rosewood
apart, however, is its five-star rating from Medicare, which has been assigning hotel-style ratings
to nearly every nursing home in the country for the last five years.
Social Security
spent $300M on 'IT boondoggle'. Six years ago the Social Security Administration embarked on an aggressive plan to
replace outdated computer systems overwhelmed by a growing flood of disability claims. Nearly $300 million later, the
new system is nowhere near ready and agency officials are struggling to salvage a project racked by delays and mismanagement,
according to an internal report commissioned by the agency.
Medicare fraud: $97 million
for mentally ill patients to watch movies, play games. While taxpayers were picking up
the tab for intensive, outpatient care for mentally ill patients, those patients were playing games
and watching movies. It was part of a Medicare scam run by two Houston doctors who defrauded the
system out of $97 million over five years.
Feds Buy
Border Fence ... for Ukraine. As part of the U.S. Crisis Support Package for Ukraine
announced by the White House in April, the State Department awarded a $435,000 contract to B.K.
Engineering System in Kyiv for razor wire to help "defend the newly imposed borders between
Ukraine's mainland and the Crimean peninsula." The contract was awarded on June 12,
but was just posted online this week.
6
Years, $1.7 Bil Later DHS Visa System Deemed Failure. While stories abound of
government wasting our tax dollars, here is one that never the less sticks out; an automated
Homeland Security system that cost a mind-boggling $1.7 billion and took nearly six years to develop
has turned out to be a malfunctioning boondoggle. Unfortunately, the government regularly fleeces
American taxpayers in this manner. The failed system was supposed to speed up the way immigration
forms are processed, but instead it takes twice as long with the multi-billion-dollar, state-of-the-art flop.
U.S.
Gov't Loans $64.5M for Wind Farm — in Uruguay. The Export-Import Bank of
the United States is giving a $64.5 million direct loan to a company in Uruguay for the purchase of
wind turbines made by a Spanish company at one of its plants in Pennsylvania, according to the bank.
The $64.5 million direct loan to Astidey S.A., in Montevideo, Uruguay" is for "the purchase of
U.S.-manufactured wind-turbine generators being exported by Gamesa Technology Corporation Inc.,
headquartered in Feasterville-Trevose, Penn.," reads the July 10 press release from the Ex-Im Bank.
Patent
office filters out worst telework abuses in report to its watchdog. Prompted by
multiple whistleblower complaints, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office began an internal
investigation two years ago of an award-winning program that's been praised in and outside
government: Employees are allowed to work from home. What the inquiry uncovered was alarming.
Some of the 8,300 patent examiners, about half of whom work from home full time, repeatedly lied
about the hours they were putting in, and many were receiving bonuses for work they didn't do.
While
Border Agents' Morale Is At An 'All Time Low,' DHS Spends $450K For Luxurious DC Gym Memberships. In an
interview with Fox News, border agent Chris Cabrera said that the lawlessness and influx of illegal immigrants has left
border agents wiped out and demoralized. As National Review Online reports, Cabrera says he's never seen it this
bad among the border force.
Homeland
Security spends $450K on'state of the art' gym memberships. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is
spending more than $450,000 on gym memberships for TSA agents and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees
who work desk jobs at a procurement office in Washington, D.C. Last month, DHS bought gym memberships for ICE
workers in its Office of Acquisition to boost their morale and "improve working conditions."
Federal agencies spend millions on
union business. The Internal Revenue Service isn't the only federal agency where
hundreds of employees do union business full-time on the public's dime. "Taxpayers spent around
$156 million on federal employees who did no federal work at all," said Nathan Mehrens, president of
Americans for Limited Government. Watchdog.org reported last week that union business —
oxymoronically classified as "official time" — is subsidized by the IRS. Mehrens
uncovered similar behavior at other agencies.
Feds
Will Spend $450K to Help Native Americans Adapt to 'Climate Change'. The Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) plans to spend up to $450,000 in taxpayer dollars to teach Native American
tribes in the Great Basin region "climate adaptation plans" for their hunting, fishing and gathering
activities. "Due to climate change, the natural landscapes are becoming impacted," and the
"traditional practices for hunting, fishing, and gathering for ceremonial purposes" can potentially
create further impacts," according to BLM's Cooperative Agreement announcement.
Obama
announces $33B in commitments for Africa. President Barack Obama on Tuesday [8/5/2014] promised
more than $33 billion in public and private investments in Africa, pledging that the United States
wants to deliver business and development to the rapidly booming continent, where China already has
a massive presence. Obama made the remarks as he addressed the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, the
first of its kind and the largest event any American president has held with African heads of state
and government. Countries including China have held similar events for years as they've sought
access to African markets for oil and other natural resources.
Obama
to announce $14 billion in U.S. corporate investments in Africa. President Barack
Obama will announce on Tuesday [8/5/2014] that U.S. businesses have committed to investing $14 billion
in construction, clean energy, banking, and information technology projects across Africa, a White House
official said.
Assigned
no work, federal employees entertain themselves with online pornography. At the
Environmental Protection Agency, a senior official spent so much time watching
pornography while on the federal clock that the Office of the Inspector General
dispatched a special agent to look into it — and the official continued watching
porn while the OIG agent was in his office. At the Federal Communications Commission —
which, among other things, polices pornography — employees routinely spend the equivalent
of a full workday each week watching porn. At the General Services Administration —
which, like the FCC, has a lot of fingers in a lot of pies, being charged with minimizing federal
operating costs — employees spend up to six hours a day watching porn on the taxpayers'
dime. At Commerce, paralegals were paid upward of $4 million to do no work —
any guesses how they filled their days?
Feds
Fly Unaccompanied Minors to Alaska. As unaccompanied minors continue to illegally
cross the Texas-Mexico border, President Obama's Health and Human Services (HHS) has been quietly
releasing them onto U.S. soil. A total of 30,340 unaccompanied minors have already been released
from federal custody and placed into foster homes, according to HHS' Office of Refugee and Resettlement
(ORR). While many migrants have been released in border states like Texas and California, others
have been set free in Alaska.
The
Government Will Pay for Your Flight to Hawaii! The Catch: Only Illegal Immigrants May
Apply. Our government is so desperate to help illegal aliens settle in America that
it's footing the bill for a few to fly to beautiful Hawaii! No citizens allowed.
Union
teams up with Interior for 'win-win' $3M plan to combat global warming. The U.S.
Department of the Interior announced that it will join forces with the Union Sportsmen Alliance on
projects to rebuild, renew and restore national parks across the country. The Department will
grant $3 million to "Boots on the Ground" volunteer projects in several states including, Illinois,
Ohio, Virginia, Minnesota, Maryland, Nevada, Texas and Wisconsin. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell
called the merger a "win-win."
The Editor says...
This is money down the drain because global warming stopped almost 18 years ago.
Immigrants to be Housed in 'Suites' Near
San Antonio. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday [8/1/2014] will open a remodeled detention center three hours
north of the Rio Grande Valley. The Karnes City center will house women and children who entered the country illegally through the
Valley. The 532-bed facility underwent a massive renovation to house women and children. The center housed only adult
immigrants in the past. Immigrants will be at the facility for an average of 23 days.
It's
the suite life for our little friends from South of the Border. Come to America for the safety, but stay for the
amenities. That's the message being sent to the children of Central America by the new detention center resident center just
unveiled in Karnes City, Texas by ICE, which seems to be bursting with pride over the amenities being offered our guests.
Federal
paralegals had no work, so they surfed the Internet. Dozens of federal employees at an
obscure agency that handles appeals of patent applications went years with so little work to do that
they collected salaries — and even bonuses — while they surfed the Internet,
did laundry, exercised and watched television, an investigation has found. The employees,
paralegals making $60,000 to $80,000 a year, were idle with full knowledge of their immediate bosses
and multiple layers of managers and judges who "sat on their hands" waiting for work to give them, a
year-long probe by the Commerce Department inspector general's office uncovered.
Government
Paying $140,368 to Take 10 Students on a 'Climate Change Journey'. The National Park
Service (NPS) is spending $140,368 to fly 10 students to Sydney, Australia so they can experience a
"climate change journey." The government announced last week they are paying for the group to
attend the International Union for Conservation of Nature's World Parks Congress (WPC), a global
conference on conservation this Fall.
Social
Security's 300M IT Project Doesn't Work. After spending nearly $300 million on a new
computer system to handle disability claims, the Social Security Administration still can't get it to work.
And officials can't say when it will.
Why
the U.S. Is Building a Fantastical Aquarium in Brazil. Soon enough, Brazil will be
able to boast the largest aquarium in South America. When it is completed in 2015, Acquario
Ceará, a new public aquarium planned for the northeastern Brazilian city of Fortaleza, will
easily be the world's most recognizable aquarium — an architectural statement piece if
there ever was one. It may also be the most truly American project in the Western Hemisphere.
While the backers of Acquario Ceará are aiming to create a new design symbol for South America, it
will be almost entirely a product of North America.
Feds
Spending $10 Million to Build Robot Companions for Children. The National Science
Foundation has committed $10 million to build robots that will act as "personal trainers" for
children, in an effort to influence their behavior and eating habits. The government has spent
$2.15 million so far for the five-year project, which is being led by Yale University. The project,
"Robots Helping Kids," will ultimately "deploy" robots into homes and schools to teach English as a second
language, and encourage kids to exercise.
Biden's
6-Figure Hotel Bill for One Wild Brazilian Night Brings 'Cost-Cutting Mission' to Abrupt
End. Last month it was reported that every weekend he gets a lift from D.C. to his
home in Wilmington, Delaware, via Air Force Two — the V.P.'s airplane — and
Marine Two — the V.P.'s helicopter. And he often gets a mid-weekend lift back to the
Andrews Air Force Base for a round of golf with the President. Based upon the $22,000 an hour
cost for the airtime, that works out to about $1 million per year in shuttling costs. That doesn't
count the cost of the 20 condominiums that the Secret Service rents in Wilmington nor the cost of
Air Force Two sitting and waiting for him while he plays 18 holes of golf.
Unfathomable
billions in government waste. Improper payments result when people collect money from
government programs for which they are ineligible. For example, paying unemployment insurance to
people who are secretly working is an improper payment, and needlessly adds to the already
out-of-control deficit. The GAO thinks it's likely the amount of improper payments is even higher
than the $105.8 billion reported. In its own words, "the federal government's inability to determine
the full extent to which improper payments occur" represents a serious limitation on their estimates.
Some programs, such as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families welfare program, do not bother reporting
estimates of improper payments at all.
Gutter
politics: Bush already fixed bowling lanes Obama wants to renovate with 'green' materials. When
Obama administration officials revealed plans this week to rebuild the White House's bowling lanes, they failed to
mention that the George W. Bush administration paid for a renovation of the facility just before President
Obama took office. A former official in the Bush White House, John Dorff, said the bowling lanes in the
basement of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building were rebuilt in 2007-08 in a project that took several
months to complete. The renovations were needed to repair water damage caused by an unrelated construction
project in the building.
The wrong folks get
billions in tax dollars. The federal government is continuing to dole out billions of
dollars to people who shouldn't get them. A government watchdog agency said an estimated $106 billion
in payments were made in error last year: meaning they were the wrong amount, went to the
wrong person or lacked sufficient documentation. These payments include tax refunds, unemployment
benefits, Social Security benefits, and Medicare and Medicaid coverage. The improper payments
could be even higher since not all agencies reported to the Government Accountability Office.
Government
Made 100B in Improper Payments. Federal agencies reported making $100 billion in payments last year
to people who may not have been entitled to receive them.
What
did $7 billion spent on opium eradication in Afghanistan buy? More opium. With the outcome of Afghanistan's controversial
presidential election still in doubt, and uncertainty over Afghan forces' ability to stand against the Taliban after most US forces
withdraw, it's hard to say with certainty what the US-led war there has accomplished, or failed to accomplish. But one thing
is clear, as shown by latest quarterly report from the US Special Inspector General on Afghanistan Reconstruction: The $7 billion
US program to eradicate poppy cultivation there over the past decade has been a flop.
Potential
Presidential Candidate Elizabeth Warren at Center of CFPB Scandal. Possible
presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who came up with the idea and led the
start-up of the "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau" as a federal watchdog to prevent financial
institutions from abusing U.S. consumers, is now at the center of the a scandal regarding the
vanished authorization to spend $215.8 million on a luxurious remodel that included a new
penthouse floor and indoor waterfall for the bureau's rented Washington, D.C. office space.
The Office of Inspector General of the United States Federal Reserve (OIG) was requested by the
House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Committee on January 29, 2014, to
evaluate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) headquarters renovation costs that rose
from $55 million to at least $215.8 million.
The
U.S. State Department has its own air force. And it's surprisingly big. The U.S. State Department possesses just
under 100 helicopters and more than 30 fixed-wing aircraft and deploys them all over the world, mostly as part of the America's
international drug war. The Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs' Office of Aviation — a.k.a.,
the INL Air Wing — employs contractors and foreign government aviators to fly these aircraft in seven countries:
Afghanistan, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Iraq, Pakistan, and Peru. The main mission of the Air Wing is to assist friendly
states in their own fights against illegal drugs and narco-terrorism. However, with its large fleet — larger than
the air forces of some NATO members — the Air Wing also trains allied governments and provides general aviation support,
including transportation for diplomatic missions.
Billions
In Taxpayer Dollars Spent On 'Lyrical, Poetic' Embassy Architecture Overseas. Under
the Obama administration, embassy construction costs have exploded even while security —
a major issue in the Benghazi scandal — has grown worse. Now we know why. A video
released by the State Department in 2012 shows exhibits the philosophy behind a campaign begun under
former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to build fancy buildings overseas to enhance the nation's
reputation.
State
of Colorado's $58 million computer upgrade 'a train wreck'. "A disaster in the
making." That's just one way Secretary of State Scott Gessler describes Colorado's new $58 million
computerized accounting system. The computer endeavor is called CORE (Colorado Operations and
Resource Engine). State agencies have been told to start using it Tuesday, July 1. However, internal
documents obtained by FOX31 Denver show the system isn't even close to ready and won't work as planned.
Federal
Headquarters Costing More To Renovate Than Trump Tower Cost To Build. A federal
consumer protection agency is spending more money per square foot to renovate its Washington D.C.
headquarters than it cost to build the Trump World Tower or Las Vegas's Bellagio Hotel —
and the project's budget continues to grow. That's the House Financial Services Committee
interpretation of a Federal Reserve's Office of the Inspector General report that found that the
cost to renovate the headquarters for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is now
estimated to be $215.8 million.
Nothing
but the best for Consumer Financial Protection Bureau HQ. It's another case of
bureaucrats gone wild, DC mandarins lavishing money on their own offices, and spending more per
square foot on renovations to existing, perfectly usable office space than it cost to build lavish
buildings like Trump World Tower and the Bellagio Hotel and Casino from scratch. But hey, four
story glass staircases and two story waterfalls and sunken gardens aren't cheap.
18,709
VA Employees Make $180,000 or More. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has
59,297 employees — 17.3 percent out of 342,089 workers total — that make
$100,000 or more in yearly salary, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Among those employees, 18,709 of them earn a salary of $180,000 or more.
More
about VA hospitals.
EPA
spends $1.6 million on hotel for 'Environmental Justice' conference. The
Environmental Protection Agency will spend more than $1 million on hotel accommodations for an
"Environmental Justice" conference this fall. The agency posted its intention to contract with
the Renaissance Arlington Local Capital View Hotel for its upcoming public meeting, for which it
will need to book 195 rooms for 24 days.
House
Leaders Question $461 Million Training Center. The Foreign Affairs Security Training
Center, years in the making, would consolidate similar training operations in one place. To be
built on 1,500 acres of public land that was home to the Fort Pickett Army National Guard in
Blackstone, Va., the security training center will look and feel like a real U.S. embassy
surrounded by urban-style streets, buildings, and facades, State Department officials announced in
April. Some 10,000 students per year will practice shooting on firing ranges, driving at high
speeds on race tracks, and detecting improvised explosive devices.
The Editor says...
I suspect they're training for house-to-house urban combat against us!
Vets:
VA's Care of Veterans Impeded by Filming of TV Series, Conference. Dr. Roy Marokus,
who currently serves in private practice, told the Free Beacon that veterans were denied
care because of a mandatory conference he attended last March. Marokus said veterans'
appointments were cancelled so VA medical providers could attend the two-day conference. Medical
providers at the VA Medical Center in Oklahoma City, where Marokus briefly worked, and providers at
all other VA medical centers in the Veterans Integrated Services Network, attended the conference.
A review of the paperwork handed out during the conference showed topics included advice on how
to plan a party and asked the medical staff to explore, "What Color is Your Personality?"
'Scrap this broken
agency': Audit finds Broadcasting Board of Governors wasted $5M. A new State Department Office of the Inspector General
audit finds that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the agency that oversees U.S. international broadcasting, has wasted almost
$5 million in taxpayer dollars on questionable and unapproved purchases. The State Department's watchdog coined the BBGs
mishap as a "systematic failure" of acquisitions. Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
said that the BBG's "wasteful spending, non-competitive contracting practices, and violations of current law point to an organization
without accountable leadership."
Rick
Perry: Feds gobble up available rooms for illegal children — nothing left for Texans.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry said that the federal government has taken up every bit of spare available space in his
state to house the tens of thousands of illegal children flooding over the U.S. border, leaving him with no
rooms for Texans who might be left homeless in a natural disaster like a hurricane. "Were we to have a
major event, I literally would not have places to house our citizens because of this influx from Mexico," he
warned at a media luncheon hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "I am greatly concerned about the
huge catastrophe that could occur with those two events happening simultaneously," he said of the potential
for a hurricane hitting as the federal government continues to embrace illegal youths instead of sending them home.
Military
Blows $3 Million on Boats for Afghanistan, then Secretly Cancels Shipment. The U.S.
military spent more than $3 million on patrol boats for Afghanistan in 2010 and then quietly
canceled the shipment several months later with no explanation, leaving costly patrol boats unused
in a Virginia warehouse for the past several years, according to new information released by a
government watchdog group. It has come to light that the military and Defense Department cannot
explain why the money was wasted due to "lapses in record keeping" that have resulted in files
detailing the purchase being lost, according to an investigation by the Special Investigator for
Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). "The military has been unable to provide records that would
answer the most basic questions surrounding this $3 million purchase," SIGAR revealed Thursday [6/12/2014].
NIH Spent $480,500
to Text Message Drunks. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has spent nearly half
a million dollars text messaging alcoholics to encourage them to stop drinking. Dr. Frederick
Muench, an assistant professor in Columbia University's psychiatry department, is leading the
$480,500 study aimed to reduce "problem drinking."
The
U.S. spent $3 million on boats for landlocked Afghanistan. The United States spent
more than $3 million on eight patrol boats for the Afghan police, according to an internal audit
released Thursday [6/12/2014]. That sentence is surprising for a few reasons:
[#1] Afghanistan is landlocked. [#2] Not a single boat has arrived in Afghanistan,
even though the purchase was made in 2010. [#3] That works out to be more than $375,000
per boat. Similar boats in the United States are typically sold for about $50,000.
VA
Spent Tens of Millions on Ad Campaigns, Audits, Green Energy. An analysis of more
than $1 billion dollars in spending by the Department of Veterans Affairs on "professional
services" finds several instances of questionable spending, including millions for a national ad
campaign and energy programs to make VA facilities more sustainable. The spending comes in light
of the ongoing allegations of misconduct and an audit that revealed potentially fraudulent
practices at 90 VA centers.
Military Back Pay & Special
Compensation for Bergdahl May Lead to Big Sum. Alleged deserter Bowe Bergdahl may
receive compensation by the U.S. military for being held in captivity by the Taliban for five
years, depending on how his status is classified. If Bergdahl is deemed to have been a "POW" and
receives military backpay for his time of service, he could claim more than $300,000 from U.S. taxpayers.
European Reassurance Initiative: Obama
announces $1bn fund. President Barack Obama has announced plans for a $1bn
(£600m) fund to increase US military deployments to Europe, during a visit to Poland. Mr
Obama, who will meet Nato leaders amid concerns over the Ukraine crisis, said the security of
America's European allies was "sacrosanct". In April, 150 US soldiers were sent to Poland for
military exercises amid growing tensions with Russia. Mr Obama will also visit Belgium and France
during his tour.
The Editor says...
This is just another slush fund: Money created by Barack Obama just by announcing it. Where did he get a billion dollars?
The
State Department's Wasteful, Dangerous Plan for More Beautiful, More Energy-Efficient
Embassies. A new State Department initiative to build unique, energy-efficient
embassies across the globe is drawing criticism for both its excessive costs and the security
concerns posed by the time it's taking to build new embassies. As part of the initiative, called
"Design Excellence," a new U.S. embassy in London is scheduled to open in 2017. Six months into construction,
according to a new report from CBS News, the $1 billion project is already $100 million over budget.
Sgt. Bowe
Bergdahl May Be Getting A Huge Amount Of Money After His Release. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
could be entitled to about $300,000 in back pay and special compensation following his release as a
Taliban prisoner, experts say. Service members designated by the Defense Department as "captive,
missing or missing in action" are entitled to receive back pay and allowances, officials said. Any
additional pay and allowances earned such as promotions or special entitlements are not issued
until they are officially recovered or classified as deceased.
USDA
Creating $1.9 Million Research Center Devoted to Changing American's Food Choices.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is creating a $2 million research center to study how the
government can "nudge" Americans toward making healthier eating habits. The agency is currently
accepting grant applications to establish a "Center for Behavioral Economics and Healthy Food
Choice Research," which will facilitate studies such as how breaking up combo meals at fast food
restaurants would influence customers.
Audit:
State paid $12 million in health costs — for dead people. Cook County has
long been ridiculed for allowing dead people cast votes, but the state may have just garnered a new
distinction. It paid $12 million in health care for people who were already dead —
including in one case, for a person who had died in 1989. A new financial audit released by
Auditor General Bill Holland's office on Thursday found that the Illinois Department of Health and
Family Services had 8,232 people still on Medicaid rolls qualifying for benefits, even though
they were dead.
Report
shows $6.7 billion in improper Medicare payments. Medicare paid out $6.7 billion in
2010 for health care visits that were improperly coded or lacked documentation, a report released
Thursday [5/29/2014] found. That's 21% of Medicare's total budget for diagnostic and assessment
visits, according to the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general. They found
that 42% of diagnostic and assessment claims were improperly coded and 19% were improperly
documented. This comes after a 2010 report found that 1,669 physicians consistently billed for
the two highest-paying codes. In the new report, 56% of claims for those high-coding physicians
physicians were incorrect, with 99% being up-coded in the provider's favor, and with 1% of the
"errors" being down-coded. Those providers cost $26 million in 2010 in incorrect coding.
Feds
Paid $4.9 Million to Create Hypothetical Utopian Climate Change Future. The National
Science Foundation (NSF) gave nearly $5 million to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to create
scenarios based on America's actions on climate change, including a utopian future where everyone
rides a bike and courts forcibly take property from the wealthy. The government has awarded
$4,911,961 for the project, which is slated to run until March 2016 and for which the school has
created a website suggesting different possibilities of what Yahara, a Wisconsin watershed, will be
like in 2070. In the scenario where Americans "shift our values," people live in hippie-like
communes after "youth culture" convinces the world to give up their cars and eat vegetarian.
Government
Agency Scraps Employee Ratings To Avoid 'Discrimination'. One government agency has
decided that the results of employee ratings are too discriminatory, and eliminated the process
entirely. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced on Monday [5/26/2014] that it will now award all
employees the highest rating regardless of performance reviews. The CFPB, which oversees
transactions in the financial sector for the federal government, decided to no longer conduct
employee reviews because there were just too many apparent "significant disparities" between the
races, ages, and locations of its employees. According to American Banker, this new policy is set
to cost over $5 million dollars, as it will now pay employees as if they received the highest
evaluation score.
The Editor says...
In other words, this is five million dollars that will be spent to appease the perpetually
offended ("I didn't get a raise because I'm black!") and lower everyone's standards to rock bottom.
Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau already sinking into scandal. It's great to have Uncle Sam looking out for the little guy,
isn't it? That's why it was such a super-duper, nifty idea for Washington to summon into being the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau. [...] So now that they are on the job, keeping citizens safe from big banking fat cats and ensuring financial responsibility
and ethics, how are they doing? Well... pretty much on par with what you'd expect out of any massive Washington bureaucracy.
Long
after announced 'resignation,' ex-Cover Oregon director Bruce Goldberg draws $14,425 monthly
salary. He was the highest profile casualty of Oregon's health insurance exchange
disaster. Bruce Goldberg, the respected, long-time director of the Oregon Health Authority,
offered to resign on March 18. Two days later, with the Cover Oregon tech mess going
from bad to worse, Gov. John Kitzhaber announced that he'd shown Goldberg the door. The
resignation was "effective immediately," said officials in the governor's office. Or so we
thought. It turns out, Goldberg never really left and is now drawing a full-time salary
from the state.
Taxpayers Paid $5.6 Million for
Climate Change Games. Taxpayers paid more than $5 million to create climate change games, including voicemails
from the future warning that "neo-luddites" will kill global warming enthusiasts by 2035. Columbia University's Climate Center
has received $5.7 million from the National Science Foundation for the university's "PoLAR Climate Change Education Partnership," to
"engage adult learners and inform public understanding and response to climate change." Based on the theory that games "motivate
exploration and learning of complex material," the school created "Future Coast," a website that features hundreds of made up
voicemails painting a dire picture of the future as a result of climate change.
IRS
workers spent 521,725 hours on union activities; cost taxpayers $23.5m. The Treasury Department has revealed to
the House Ways and Means Committee that Internal Revenue Service employees spent over 500,000 hours on union activities last year.
They estimated the cost to taxpayers at $23.5 million in salary and benefits. Officials told [the Washington Examiner] that
the exact hours IRS members of the National Treasury Employees Union dedicated to labor activities was 521,725 in fiscal 2013, which
ran from October 2012 to September 2013. That was slightly less than the 573,319 hours in fiscal 2012, according to the IRS,
but the spending was significantly above that year's total of $16 million.
Planned Homeland Security headquarters, long delayed and
over budget, now in doubt. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the
George W. Bush administration called for a new, centralized headquarters to strengthen the
department's ability to coordinate the fight against terrorism and respond to natural disasters.
More than 50 historic buildings would be renovated and new ones erected on the grounds of St.
Elizabeths, a onetime insane asylum with a panoramic view of the District. The entire complex was
to be finished as early as this year, at a cost of less than $3 billion, according to the initial
plan. [...] The budget has ballooned to $4.5 billion, with completion pushed back to 2026.
Fire
watch officers at Paterson high school cost $445,000. The cost of assigning special
fire watch officers to International High School continues to climb even though state officials say
they completed work on a requisite smoke control system seven months ago.
Feds
used donations intended for poor for massages, luxuries for themselves. Federal
employees and a contractor diverted more than $1 million of charitable contributions to spending on
themselves for in-office massages, meals at every meeting and other luxuries and unnecessary
expenses, a government audit found. They called themselves "volunteers" and said they needed
"motivation" to help the less fortunate, even though some 41 federal workers were being paid
full-time salaries to administer just one local chapter of the government's annual workplace
charity drive, the Combined Federal Campaign. They arrived a day early and stayed a day late for
annual training conferences in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and paid for room service and
pay-per-view movies with donated funds. Then, they adamantly defended their right to
do so when questioned by auditors.
EPA
Awarded Nearly $500,000 In Improper Bonuses. Retention bonuses are payments or
rewards outside of an employee's salary that are used as an incentive to keep the employee in their
current position. According to Investopedia, the bonuses have been used during mergers and
acquisitions, or to decrease corporate poaching.
Do
We Need This Government Agency? 'Let Me Google That'. The National Technical
Information Service was told to catalog, warehouse and make available all manner of scientific and
academic papers. That was 64 years ago, decades before the Internet was even invented.
So what's an easy way to find those papers now? At a computer in his Senate office, Sen. Tom Coburn is
looking for one of those reports — the one about the hazardous waste. NTIS sells it on their
website: $25 for an electronic file, $73 for a paper copy. "There it is," Coburn says. "There's
everything you want on it. There's the appendices, and here's the characteristics of the study. I
can print it out now. I don't want it, but I could print it out right now on my computer and have
it in 2 minutes." How much does that same study cost at the EPA website? That would be
nothing. Zero.
Federal
subsidy for Brazilian granite hurts U.S. rivals. Granite manufacturers are one of
many U.S. industries struggling to compete with foreign competition — which makes it odd
that the federal government is subsidizing a Brazilian granite project. The Overseas Private Investment
Corporation (OPIC) is a federal agency that subsidizes U.S. businesses that set up operations in
foreign countries. In 2012, OPIC approved a $6 million taxpayer-backed loan to support a U.S.
company expanding its Brazilian operation that extracts granite and cuts it into slabs for
countertops to ship to the U.S. and other countries. The OPIC subsidy obviously helps the
recipient — Wisenbaker Building Supply — but it hurts American companies that
excavate granite or shape granite blocks into countertops in the U.S.
The Editor says...
If you receive a government subsidy, don't take it for granite.
Pentagon
Spending Tax Money Preparing for "Climate Change". The phrase "fighting climate
change" has taken on new meaning, with the Department of Defense factoring consensus-based
forecasts of a warmer planet into its military preparedness models. [...] The problem, many critics
would say, is that the DoD's "mission reality" is based on the outcome of a "political debate" — not
on sound science. Climate models that had predicted rising temperatures for the past couple of
decades have proved faulty, as there has been no warming now for almost 18 years.
VA
Spends Close to $500 Million on Conference Room, Office Makeovers Under Obama. President
Barack Obama has increased the Department of Veterans Affairs' budget each year since he took office,
claiming the funds would give veterans the health care they deserve. However, an analysis of
records show the agency has spent close to $500 million on office furniture under the Obama
administration. This upcoming fiscal year Obama requested a 3 percent increase for the
Veterans Affairs budget. Obama's FY 2015 budget request points out he has increased the VA
discretionary budget by 35.2 percent since 2009 so veterans continue to access necessary services.
More
about VA hospitals:
a clear picture of what Obamacare will bring to all of us.
Obamacare
Contractor Pays Employees To Do... Absolutely Nothing. Under a Republican administration, this would
be a huge scandal. Above-the-fold coverage in The New York Times for weeks on end. The
lead story on the network news. You know the drill. Given this administration, however,
suffice it to say that you'll only see this immense waste of taxpayer dough on a few select outlets willing
to speak truth to power. Please note that this investigation was the product of an intrepid, local news team
at St. Louis KMOV. And anyone with a modicum of sense knows that this is but the tip of the iceberg.
Employees
charged with reviewing paper applications for Obamacare contractor do nothing all day, whistle
blower alleges. Employees working for Obamacare contractor Serco do nothing for days
or weeks at a time, a whistle blower within the company told a local news station this week.
The employees want to work but there's not enough work to go around, the employee, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity, told St. Louis, Missouri's News 4 KMOV. The employee alleged that
Serco is keeping its workforce unnecessarily high to get more money out of the federal government.
Cash for
Obamacare Shirkers. When Obamacare operatives aren't busy trashing the private health insurance market and
squandering billions on useless technology, they're busy ... being idle. [...] According to at least one Obamacare
paper-pusher, employees at an application-processing center in Wentzville, Mo., are getting paid to sit around and do
nothing. Investigative reporter Chris Nagus of the St. Louis television station KMOV News 4 spoke to the
whistleblower.
Obamacare
Contractor Pays Employees to Spend Their Days Doing Nothing. The contractor is called Serco and local
reporter discovered that, despite there not being any work to be done, the government contractor is still hiring.
"The company is still hiring," says a local reporter. "A current employee wonders why ... After providing proof
of employment, this Serco employee agreed to speak through the phone with their voice altered. The employee says
hundreds of employees spend much of the day staring at computer screens, with little or no work to do."
Cost of CFPB July Training
Session Estimated at $400,000. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is planning an "all hands" meeting
for its more than 1,300 employees at a hotel in Washington, D.C., this summer, with cost estimates nearing $400,000.
The agency will book up to 475 hotel rooms each night for a five-day conference in July. The CFPB issued a
solicitation on Friday, which included an attachment with the agency's request for hotel accommodations. The event
is billed as a "training meeting," which will be run by its Supervision Enforcement and Fair Lending division.
Report:
Pentagon Paid $150 Per Gallon for Green Jet Fuel. The Department of Defense (DOD) paid $150 per
gallon for alternative jet fuel made from algae, more than 64 times the current market price for standard
carbon-based fuels, according to a report released on Wednesday [5/7/2014]. The Government Accountability
Office (GAO) noted in its report that a Pentagon official reported paying "about $150 per gallon for
1,500 gallons of alternative jet fuel derived from algal oil."
USAID
Awards $341 Mil in April, Including $24.5 Mil for Circumcisions in Swaziland. As April
comes to an end Judicial Watch offers a sampling of some of the outrageous foreign causes that one
agency alone dedicated hundreds of millions to, including $24.5 million for male circumcision in
Swaziland and $71 million to improve child learning outcomes in Ghana. Remember, this huge chunk
of American taxpayer dollars was allocated in just one month by a single government agency, the famously
corrupt U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID). With a massive budget and little oversight,
USAID is charged with providing global economic, development and humanitarian assistance. That means
big bucks go to all sorts of preposterous initiatives in countries that are unlikely to be a priority for
Americans as they suffer through economic hardships and high unemployment at home.
Convict
Jackson Jr. Gets $8.7K A Month Disability For 'Mood Disorder'. Whenever you hear our dear politicians
in Washington DC say there's nothing more to cut or that they're just like us, let me give you a friendly reminder.
As Breitbart reported after his jail sentencing, convicted ex-congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) receives $8,700 per
month in government disability pay, as well as a partial federal pension of $45,000. [...] And I wouldn't be surprised
if Jackson Jr. eventually gets a pardon from his Chicago buddy, Barack Hussein Obama.
Unrequired
reading. Every year, as required by law, the U.S. government prepares an official
report to Congress on Dog and Cat Fur Protection. The task requires at least 15 employees in at
least six different federal offices. First, workers have to gather data about the enforcement of a
law banning imports of fur coats, furry toys or other items made from the pelts of pets. How many
shipments were checked? How many illegal furs were found? The data are written into a report,
passed up the chain of command and sent to Capitol Hill. And then nothing happens.
Afghan
opium production explodes despite billions spent, says US report. Opium cultivation is estimated to be at
an all-time high in Afghanistan, despite the US spending $7.5bn to combat it. A report released Wednesday by
Washington's Afghanistan war watchdog has found that the billions spent by the State and Defense departments on
counter-narcotics since 2002 has been for nought. Opium-poppy cultivation takes up 209,000 hectares
(516,230 acres) of land in Afghanistan, a 36% increase since 2012.
USDA
Made $6.2 Billion in Improper Payments Last Year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) made $6.2 billion in improper payments in 2013, according to the Office of Inspector General
(OIG). The OIG released an audit earlier this month that found that at least $416 million in
waste could have been avoided if the agency had met its reduction targets mandated by the Improper Payment
Information Act (IPIA). In fact, the USDA has failed to comply with the law for a third consecutive year.
In
NYC, A $185M Tunnel That Leads Nowhere, For Now. The 800-foot-long, 35-foot-deep concrete trench
could someday lead to two new commuter rail tunnels under the Hudson River to New Jersey, if the billions needed
to build them ever materialize.
Feds
Spent $26.2 Million On Medicare Advantage For Illegal Immigrants. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
has improperly paid millions of dollars to Medicare Advantage organizations on behalf of illegal immigrants. In a new
report released Friday [4/25/2014], the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General (OIG) revealed
that for calendar years 2010 through 2012, CMS provided $26.2 million in improper payments to Medicare Advantage
organizations for 1,600 "unlawfully present beneficiaries" — or nearly $16,375 per illegal immigrant.
Unsolicited
proposal earns architect $500,000 from Port Authority. The Port Authority quietly paid the world-famous
architect Santiago Calatrava $500,000 for bridge designs that the agency didn't request and can't use, records show.
The 2012 payment came after two Port Authority commissioners with ties to Calatrava privately pressed agency staff to
incorporate the unsolicited designs into construction of two bridges between New Jersey and New York and helped provide
the architect with insider access to pitch his plans, according to internal agency documents.
Despite
Rollout Failures, Federal Obamacare Employees Awarded Big Raises. Last year employees at the
federal office in charge of implementing Obamacare were given raises despite the massive failures of the
rollout of the president's takeover of our healthcare system. A recent Freedom of Information Act
request made by the Washington Examiner discovered that employees of the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS) were paid substantially more in 2013 compared to their 2012 salaries. The CMS
is Obama's "ground zero in launching and managing Obamacare."
Math
mistakes lead government to pay contractors up to 3 times market rate under Davis-Bacon.
Construction workers at companies doing work for the federal government are paid as much as three times
what their peers outside of government get for the same work, a Washington Examiner review of federal
statistics found. Pipefitters in Laredo, Texas, for example, can usually expect to make around
$11.47 hourly, but if working on a federal contract, they must be paid at least $36.49, plus benefits.
Window installers in New York City make $18.87 an hour in the market — that's the median salary,
including industry veterans — yet the government requires those doing that work for it in the
New York area to be paid at least $42, even if they're inexperienced.
U.S. Releases
Another $1 Billion to Iran. The United States has released $1 billion in cash assets to Iran
in April alone under the interim nuclear deal aimed at ratcheting back Iran's nuclear program, according to the
White House. The Obama administration unfroze Iranian assets totaling $550 million on April 10
and another $450 million on April 15. The United States has now released $2.55 billion to
Iran since February, when the scheduled cash infusions first began.
Medicaid
paid $12 million for deceased people in Illinois, documents show. The Illinois Medicaid program paid an estimated
$12 million for medical services for people listed as deceased in other state records, according to an internal state
government memo.
Obama
administration gives Detroit $100 million for 'blight removal'. The cash infusion by
the federal government is actually going to help the city pay pensions, even though they're playing
a kind of shell game with the money. As for "blight removal," perhaps they could start with city hall.
Biden:
Taking Grandkids on Trips 'One of the Great Advantages of Being Vice President'. The
Obama daughters aren't the only ones with travel privileges. Vice President Joe Biden told a
gathering on Monday that he likes to bring his grandchildren with him when he travels. "I
literally — at Christmastime, Mr. Ambassador, I always sit with the kids the last
five or — and say, well, where do you want to go this year? Because one of
the great advantages of being vice president, I'm able to take, if I'm not going into a war zone,
one of my grandchildren with me. And I do take them all. They're good kids. They
don't get in the way. And it's a great experience."
Feds spending $750,000 to study how kid cartoons
contribute to obesity. The federal government is worried Dora the Explorer is contributing to
childhood obesity. The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded two grants totaling $750,000 to
find out if cartoon characters are making children overweight and whether researchers can hone the
marketing power of characters to sway kids' eating habits. Both studies were awarded last June, and
the project is scheduled to run until 2016. The first grant, totaling $300,000, was awarded to Ellen
Wartella, a psychology professor at Northwestern University. Sandra Calvert, the director of the
Children's Digital Media Center at Georgetown University, received $450,000.
Many
Government Programs Have 10 Agencies Doing Same Job. A new Government Accountability Office
report reveals that government programs are often "fragmented, duplicative, overlapping, or just inefficient,"
USA Today reports. [...] For example, there are 10 different Health and Human Services offices that run programs
related to AIDS in minority communities. Eleven different agencies are dedicated to researching autism,
and the Defense Department has eight agencies searching for prisoners of war and those missing in action.
Look At What America Is Giving To
Terrorists. Look at what America is giving these terrorists in Syria. This is a BGM-71, one of
the most widely used anti-tank guided missiles. The weapon is used in anti-armor, anti-bunker,
anti-fortification and anti-amphibious landing roles. The TOW is in service with over 45 militaries
and is integrated on over 15,000 ground, vehicle and helicopter platforms worldwide. In other words,
its serious weaponry, and its in the hands of these savages all thanks to politicians like Obama and McCain.
Rocket Science: House Conservative Targets NASA's $3 million Spent to Find
Intelligent Life ... in Congress? An Arizona conservative congressman is shining light on how President
Barack Obama is using $3 million of taxpayer money to teach National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
officials how to lobby Congress. In the first of a series of efforts targeting wasteful government spending,
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) wrote to House Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) last week to pressure
him to include language banning the Obama administration from spending money on the program.
The Editor says...
NASA has run out of things to do, quite simply, and if you'd like details,
go here.
IRS Wasted $11.6 Million of
Computer Software. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) bought $11.6 million worth of computer software
the agency never used, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). TIGTA attributed
the error to poor management and a lack of inventory of more than $200 million in software purchased by the IRS,
according to an audit released Thursday [4/3/2014].
Hackers
Steal $1.5 Million in Printer Ink from FBI, EPA, GSA. Hackers were able to steal $1.5 million
worth of printer cartridges from the FBI, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the General Services
Administration (GSA) by placing fraudulent contract orders.
Government
Wastes More Money than You Think. [You might] wonder why Washington doesn't have a single agency to
monitor and expose government waste and mismanagement of our tax dollars. In fact, we have several.
There are 73 inspectors general at different federal agencies. The White House contains an Office of Management
and Budget that looks for ways to cut costs. The Government Accountability Office also checks expenditures.
And so do legions of congressional staffers who are eager to help their bosses score political points.
Obama
administration spending $400,000 on camel sculpture in Pakistan. The Obama administration wants to spend
$400,000 on a camel sculpture for a new embassy building in Pakistan, according to a report Monday. BuzzFeed broke
the news that the State Department has plans to commission the camel sculpture from John Baldessari, an American artist.
The art is called, "Camel Contemplating Needle."
Postal
service employees use travel cards to gamble, pay bills and go bowling. Postal employees
have spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on gambling, bills and other personal expenses, according to a
series of reports by the U.S. Postal Service inspector general. Federal employees may use government
credit cards for official travel expenses, but some used theirs to withdraw cash before hitting casinos.
Nearly a dozen reports on closed travel card theft investigations were obtained by the Washington
Examiner in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Feds
Spend $50K on Two Mitsubishis for the Albanian Border Police. The State Department purchased two
Mitsubishi pick-ups for $50,000 to be used by the border police in Albania. The U.S. government has already
bought six L200 Double Cab Mitsubishis for the Albanian Border Police (ABP), and said the two additional vehicles
will "fulfill the ABP's needs."
Taxpayers paid $697,177 for a musical theater production about
global warming. The National Science Foundation awarded a grant of nearly $700,000 in 2010
to a New York City theater company so it could write and produce a play about climate change. 'The
play uses real places and stories drawn from interviews conducted by the artists to create an experience
that is part investigative journalism and part inventive theater,' according to the grant's online
description. 'Attendance at the performances is projected to be about 75,000.'
Federal
workers make up to twice as much as others doing same job. Across the country, employees of
companies with federal contracts make up to twice what others doing the same work in the region make,
dramatically increasing the costs to taxpayers, a Washington Examiner analysis found. Under the
Service Contract Act of 1965, contractors are paid a minimum wage determined to be "prevailing" in the area
by the Labor Department. But those "prevailing wages" are often far off the mark, according to the
analysis, which compared every SCA "district" with far more authoritative figures compiled by the Bureau
of Labor Statistics.
U.S.
Gives Russia Free Military Equipment Used By Army, Marines. Behind closed doors the U.S. government
is giving Russia free military equipment — also used to train American troops — even after President
Obama announced punitive sanctions against Moscow and, more importantly, a suspension in military engagement
over the invasion and occupation of Ukraine. The secret operation was exposed this week by members of
Congress that discovered it in the process of reviewing the Fiscal Year 2014 budget and the proposed Fiscal
Year 2015 budget request. It turns out that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has
been providing the Russian Federation with the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES), the
federal legislators say.
Early
Results Indicate $4.6 Billion in School Turnarounds was a Waste. A $4.6 billion federal school
improvement program aimed at the bottom 5 percent of U.S. schools has at best done nothing for them, and at
worst spent money as some schools worsened, federal data show, and analysts and educators are questioning the
program. The U.S. Department of Education released a report Nov. 21 comparing average proficiency rates
of School Improvement Grant (S(G) schools in 2011-2012 to the year prior. Although some schools' academic
performance improved, many worsened. "SIG is almost certainly going to go down as one of the U.S. Department
of Education's biggest and most expensive mistakes — possibly the biggest," said Andy Smarick, a partner
at Bellwether Education Partners. "Schools are getting millions, and we're just not seeing anything close to the
gains that were promised and are needed."
Why
Does Michelle Obama's Mother Live at the White House? Here's a question I'll bet nobody ever asked
Jay Carney at a White House press briefing: Why does Michelle Obama's mother live at the White House at
taxpayer expense? [...] Now that Michelle Obama's mother has caused a disruption on the latest exotic vacation
for the first lady, perhaps it is time for some answers about why Marian Robinson is even on the trip to China.
Worse, why is she appearing in official photographs with Chinese officials?
Feds
flying in style: Uncle Sam's executive jets used for personal travel. Federal officials have no qualms
flying the friendly skies in style, regularly using executive jets and other planes in the government's fleet of
1,700 aircraft for everyday travel. But they often don't track how much such trips cost or the reasons why
they skipped cheaper commercial flights in favor of firing up one of Uncle Sam's aircraft. And lawmakers in
Congress — usually charged with overseeing or reining in such expenditures — have their own
addiction to luxury travel with a growing tendency to fly first class. Those findings by two separate
watchdogs in Congress are the latest examples of a culture of entitlement that pervades federal spending, even
in an era of supposed cutbacks and bulging budget deficits, critics warn.
$2.3M
Wind Turbine at Veterans Affairs Medical Center 'Inoperable' for Last 1½ Years. A wind turbine at the
Veterans Affairs Medical Center in St. Cloud, Minnesota paid for with $2.3 million in federal stimulus funds has been
"inoperable" for one and half years. According to Fox News, the "600-kilowatt wind turbine — some 245 foot
[sic] tall — stands... frozen" and no one is even trying to fix it.
Veterans
Affairs wind turbine, built for $2.3 million, stands dormant. A $2.3 million federal stimulus project at
the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in St. Cloud is giving green energy initiatives a bad name. A 600-kilowatt wind
turbine — some 245 foot [sic] tall — stands on the wintry VA grounds, frozen in time and temperature,
essentially inoperable for the past 1½ years. No one is working to fix it, though many attempts were
made to repair the turbine, once billed as a model green energy project.
The
Pentagon Spent $2.7 Billion on an Intelligence System That Doesn't Work. Here's another item for the (long)
list of spectacular waste in the Pentagon's budget: a $2.7-billion intelligence program that's supposed to help
Army troops on the ground collect and use intelligence on enemy fighters. It sounds like a good idea, but the
thing is, the Army's Distributed Common Ground System doesn't actually do that, according to report from Foreign Policy.
The article cites an internal assessment of the DCGS's effectiveness, long requested by Congress but kept under wraps by
the Pentagon for eight months. Probably because they didn't feel like talking about such a spectacular failure.
Gov't Spending
$4.8M to Tell Students to 'Get Fruved'. If a college student dressed up as a giant bunch of grapes jumped
out of the shadows and told you to "get fruved," what could you possibly say? The University of Tennessee-Knoxville
is getting more than $4.8 million taxpayer dollars to develop a healthy-eating campaign that has students —
dressed up as fruits and vegetables — cavorting in the hallways of higher education.
Feds spend
millions dressing creepy students up as fruits, vegetables. The federal government gave nearly $5 million to
the University of Tennessee in support of its creepy healthy-eating campaign, which dresses students up as fruits and vegetables
and films them terrorizing the residence halls. [...] Most of the campaign is designed and run by students. The grant for
the project was made through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Border Patrol Shifted $7M From Border
Fence to Salaries. As sequestration bore down in February 2013, the threat of furloughs for thousands of government workers
was a common refrain from those warning of the dire effects of the across the board budget cuts. [...] As it turned out, DHS did not
furlough any personnel, but rather relied on cuts to other areas and shifting funds from other budgets to cover salaries. For
instance, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shifted $7 million from its border security fencing account to salaries and expenses.
Bipartisan Bill Would
Eliminate Useless Government Reports. Congress is moving forward with legislation that would eliminate
hundreds of useless government reports, including the annual review on "Dog and Cat Fur" by the Department of Homeland
Security. [...] The legislation would eliminate 118 reports and consolidate 200 others, which range from the irrelevant to the
bizarre. A Department of Agriculture report provides a "Listing of Areas Rural in Character," and the Corporation for National
and Community Service has a "Report on Reports Provided by Other Federal Agencies."
Government's Empty Buildings
Are Costing Taxpayers Billions. Government estimates suggest there may be 77,000 empty or underutilized buildings across the
country. Taxpayers own them, and even vacant, they're expensive. The Office of Management and Budget says these buildings could
be costing taxpayers $1.7 billion a year. That's because someone has to mow the lawns, keep the pipes from freezing, maintain
security fences, pay for some basic power — even when the buildings are just sitting empty.
Two weeks later, CBS runs the same story:
Empty
government buildings cost taxpayers more than $1 billion. No one has been coming to work in the USDA
Cotton Annex building for some time. Just blocks from the White House, it's been vacant for six years.
It's one of 77,000 empty buildings the government continues to own and maintain, costing taxpayers $1.5 billion
a year in electric bills, roof repairs, and other monthly costs. What's more, a recent audit found
that part of the reason the costs are so high is that the government can't keep track of what buildings
it owns and what shape they're in.
Feds Spend $30,410 for "Beauty
Salon' in Minnesota Federal Prison. The government is spending over $30,000 for "beauty salon" equipment for a women's
federal prison, an order that includes "porcelain shampoo bowls," eight nail stations, and four massage tables. Minnesota's
Federal Correction Institution Waseca, which houses 1,030 inmates, put in an order on Thursday [3/13/2014] for multiple salon items.
Audit
finds EPA workers used gov't-issued cards for dubious expenses. A government audit found employees from the Environment
Protection Agency used federally-issued charge cards to buy gym memberships, gift cards and other items that were either forbidden or
not even documented. The report by the office of the Inspector General faulted the agency for not keeping track of scores of
transactions made by employees authorized to use so-called "SmartPay" cards. It found more than half of $150,000 in expenditures
singled out for scrutiny was not in compliance with federal regulations.
Inhofe:
Obama Wasted $120 Billion on Global Warming Which Could Buy 1400 F-35s. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of
the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday [3/5/2014] at a hearing on the Defense Department's Fiscal Year 2015 budget that
President Barack Obama has wasted $120 billion on global warming over the past five years — money that would be better
spent on the military. "I've been working on this for quite some time ... In the last five years, between 2009 and 2014, the
president has spent $120 billion on the environmental agenda, mostly global warming, climate and that type of thing," said
Inhofe. "And in that respect, if you'll just take the amount that was not authorized by Congress — and I'm
talking about the environmental agenda, you could actually buy 1,400 F-35s."
The Editor says...
Even politicians on the right make the mistake of speculating about what we "could have bought" with the money wasted on
some frivolous program, without considering the best alternative: Don't spend the money at all, especially if it increases
the national debt.
As Global Debt Soars,
Where's The Big Recovery? A new study says governments around the world boosted their debts by more than 40% to over
$100 trillion in response to the global financial crisis. Where's the promised recovery from all that spending? [...] Get
ready for the big tax hikes that are surely coming. We keep hearing this is an age of austerity. It isn't. Governments
are still ringing up record amounts of debt so they can spend more, but have nothing to show for it.
Obama
proposes billions more for job training despite spotty track record. Despite spotty evidence that the billions of dollars spent
on dozens of federal job training programs are delivering results, President Obama is proposing to spend billions more as
part of his $4 trillion budget plan. On the federal level, the government already spends about $18 billion
a year to provide multiple services to unemployed workers on everything from career counseling to job training and
searching. About half that money goes to Labor Department programs.
Iran to Receive Another $550 Million Cash
Infusion. Iran is scheduled to receive another $550 million in unfrozen assets from the Obama administration on Friday
[3/7/2014], just days after Tehran unveiled a slew of new weapons and advanced ballistic missiles. Iranian banking authorities on
Wednesday confirmed that another $550 million is now on its way to Tehran under the interim nuclear accord inked last year with
the United States and other Western nations.
Taxpayers Paid $2.4 Million to Develop
'Origami' Condoms. Taxpayers have paid more than $2.4 million to develop "origami condoms," including male and
female versions, and the "first of its kind anal condom." Out to "reinvent the condom," Los Angeles businessman Danny Resnic has
completed the first rounds of testing for three variations based on Japanese folding paper, courtesy of the National Institutes of Health.
[The]
State [Department] spent more than $94 million a year on condoms, contraceptives. The State Department's international
aid branch is bidding to prevent 54 million births and help 6 million people with HIV/AIDS in 80 countries annually via a
smorgasbord of tools from medicines, the pill, IUDs, and condoms scented to smell like banana, vanilla and strawberry. In documents
broadly outlining what USAID plans to buy and distribute overseas to help with birth control, HIV/AIDS, malaria and other issues, the
taxpayer-funded agency revealed its population control and HIV/AIDS prevention agenda.
The Editor says...
Taxpayers in the U.S. should not pay to prevent childbirth or diseases in other countries.
CFPB must explain spiraling
renovation costs. It's about time. That somebody called out the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, that is. As the Washington
Examiner's Richard Pollock reported Friday, the Federal Reserve's inspector general has opened an investigation into why what started out as a $55 million
renovation of the new bureau's central headquarters has ballooned to $145 million in less than two years.
Obama marks 5th birthday of his
shovel-ready spending hoax. Like most Americans, you probably remember exactly where you were that February day when the brand-new president flew
out to Denver because he could. And there, he signed the nearly trillion-dollar spending bill, one of the largest in history. It's one that helped
take the national debt to new heights of Democratic achievement, ensuring that generations of unborn taxpayers will long remember this 44th president.
Despite minority Republican warnings that only the private sector creates real jobs, the colossal spending measure was hastily rammed through the Democratic
Congress because of the economic urgency and because Obama wanted to show action in his first month. He'd already promised to close Guantanamo by the
end of 2009.
The 10 Most Outrageous Stimulus Projects. Today marks the
five-year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Commonly known as the stimulus, the nearly $1 trillion law was hailed as an
opportunity to bring America into the "21st century." Just two years after the bill was signed into law, President Barack Obama admitted, "shovel-ready
was not as shovel-ready as we expected." While the law failed to create jobs as promised, it has provided plenty of examples of waste, fraud, and
abuse. Five years and at least $816.3 billion later, here are 10 ways the government wasted taxpayer money.
Obama pledges $1B in loan guarantees to
Jordan. President Obama pledged $1 billion in loan guarantees for Jordan, a Middle East ally that is dealing with a flood of Syrian
refugees who have crossed the border. The president made the loan guarantee commitment during a meeting Friday evening [2/14/2014] with Jordan's
King Abdullah II at Sunnylands, the Annenberg estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Obama also extended an aid package for the country for five years.
Debbie Does USAF. [Scroll down] The F-35 "Lightning II" is
the most expensive defense procurement program ever. It's going to cost more than $400 billion to buy and, according to the Office of the
Secretary of Defense, about $1 trillion for the Air Force to own and maintain over its life. For that kind of money, you'd assume that
the [...] thing would work. But it doesn't, even in its thirteenth year of "development," as I've written before.
Bad News for Obama's Antiobesity
Effort. With the obesity epidemic in full swing and millions of American living in neighborhoods where fruits and vegetables
are hard to come by, the Obama administration thought it saw a solution: fund stores that will stock fresh, affordable produce in
these deprived areas. But now, three years and $500 million into the federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative, there's a
problem: A study suggests it's not working.
IRS employees to receive
bonuses. I generally don't think much of bonuses for government workers anyway. Why give someone extra
for just doing his job? If we're going to hand out bonuses, then we should also cut the salaries of people who screw up.
Like IRS employees.
U.S. Taxpayers Fund $52K Study of
16 Schizophrenic LGBT Canadians. American taxpayers are paying over $52,000 to study 16 LGBT individuals who have schizophrenia
in Toronto, Canada. The research project, "Defining Community for LGBT People with Schizophrenia," will follow the lives of a handful
of lesbian, gay, and transgender individuals for one year to study the societal "barriers" of this group.
U.S. Spends
$2.7M to Study Impact of TV on Area of Vietnam That Lacks Electricity. The Department of Health and Human Services is
spending $2,797,979 on a study that brings television to more than a dozen remote villages in Vietnam to study its impact on their
culture and reproductive behavior. "In cooperation with the Vietnam government, we have selected 14 villages in a remote,
mountainous area of Vietnam that currently lacks electricity," according to the grant description for 'Television and International
Family Change: A Randomized Experiment.' "Treatment villages will receive televisions and generators with gasoline to
operate the televisions. Control villages will not receive generators or televisions."
Millions
in farm subsidies flow freely to DC residents who don't actually farm. Washington, D.C., doesn't have many farms, or farmers.
Yet thousands of residents in and around the nation's capital receive millions of dollars every year in federal farm subsidies, including
working-class residents in Southeast, wealthy lobbyists on K Street and well-connected lawmakers on Capitol Hill. In neighboring
Chevy Chase, Md., one of the nation's wealthiest communities, lawyers, lobbyists and at least one psychologist collected nearly $342,000 in
taxpayer farm subsidies between 2008 and 2011, according to the watchdog group Open the Books.
EPA to Invalidate 30 Million Fuel Credits After
Fraud. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it has invalidated 33.5 million renewable-fuel credits sold by an Indiana company for biofuel
it didn't produce, the fourth time the agency has alleged fraud in the program. The filing today [12/18/2013] follows fraud charges filed against the former
owners of the Indiana-based E-Biofuels LLC in September.
Federal government continues to lose billions to waste, fraud and abuse. Despite progress in reducing improper
payments, federal agencies continue to lose billions annually to waste, fraud and abuse. The federal government lost $261 billion, or 7 percent of total
spending, to fraud and waste in 2012, said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) during a February [2013] House committee hearing.
Two men just defrauded the
Renewable Fuel Standard credit system for $37 million. From agriculture and energy subsidies to food stamps to Medicare and Medicaid, the feds lose hundreds
of billions of taxpayer dollars every year via the nefarious deeds of people who scam the system. It couldn't be that Big Government is both a vehicle for costly,
bureaucratic inefficiency as well as an enabler of opportunities for said waste, fraud, and abuse, could it?
Omnibus Spending Bill Continues Funding Food Stamp Ads in Mexico. The
omnibus spending bill before Congress continues to fund U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) advertising programs for food stamps
in foreign countries like Mexico, Breitbart News has learned. [...] The funding will continue despite claims in a document the House
Appropriations Committee published that the bill contains a "prohibition" on such programs.
Omnibus
Funds 'Permanent Extended Coffee Break' for Dozens of DOJ Employees. Hans von Spakovsky has the inside scoop of the new omnibus
spending bill. Most notably, the new bill funds the government jobs of dozens Department of Justice employees who no longer have any
work to do after the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act.
Report Finds More Flaws in
Digitizing Patient Files. Although the federal government is spending more than $22 billion to encourage hospitals and doctors
to adopt electronic health records, it has failed to put safeguards in place to prevent the technology from being used for inflating costs and
overbilling, according to a new report by a federal oversight agency.
The Editor says...
The government is spending $22 billion on encouragement? That must be a euphemism for coercion.
Justice
Department will spend $544,000 on a new LinkedIn profile. The U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division is paying
$544,000 for a shiny new LinkedIn profile, in the wake of a partial government shutdown that followed a top Democrat's assurance that
'the cupboard is bare, there's no more cuts to make.' While Congress was wrangling in December over how many billions to trim
from future budgets, Washington bureaucrats were spending like teenagers with their first credit cards.
OPM:
Nearly $85 Million Paid to Dead Federal Retirees in 2013. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) erroneously paid
$274 million in benefits to deceased federal retirees over the past three years, including $84.7 million in 2013 alone,
according to the agency's annual financial report. OPM's FY 2013 financial report released in mid-December revealed that
improper "overpayments" to deceased federal annuitants under its retirement program reached $102.9 million in FY 2011,
$86.1 million in FY 2012, and $84.7 million in FY 2013 for a total of nearly $274 million during that
three year span.
Don't Let Death Stop your Social
Security. Uncle Sam, always generous to a fault with taxpayers' money, doled out about $108 billion in Social Security
benefits to the dead in 2012.
Dead or alive? Social Security
can't always say. Federal auditors said Friday the Social Security Administration still struggles with a basic problem —
figuring out who is dead and who is not. The question is a crucial one, since federal agencies rely on the administration to cross-match
data on deceased persons and avoid paying out federally funded benefits to people who aren't alive, or to establish accurate benefits for
survivors. The administration also maintains a "Death Master File" that is available to the public.
Department of Labor Gives $5 Million
Dollar Grant to Morocco. From the Department of Labor press release: ["]The project aims to reduce child labor in the
Marrakesh-Tensift-Al-Haouz region of Morocco by promoting children's participation in educational programs and delivering vocational training
focused on sectors, such as farming and ecotourism.["]
White House
Damage Control: Obamacare Repeal Will 'Cost too Much'. [I]t is a bit hard to understand how repealing the Affordable Care Act could
cost more than the millions that is being inefficiently spent to enroll single applicants. Early in November, for instance, it was discovered
that the five Obamacare enrollees for the District of Columbia cost the taxpayers a hefty $26.7 million each. Other states have seen
similar waste, one source estimating that the cost for all enrollees nationwide had been $14,000 each.
National Lampoon's ObamaCare Vacation.
Enrollment and technical dysfunctions and security breaches akin to the 36 federal exchanges continue to beset Minnesota's operation, called MNsure.
On Tuesday [12/17/2013], April Todd-Malmlov, the exchange's executive director since 2011, resigned under political duress. [...] Out in Hawaii, Coral
Andrews stepped down from her position running that state's exchange on the same day as Ms. Pearce. Fewer than 500 people have enrolled thus far
in the Aloha State's exchange, despite having received $205,342,270 in federal exchange planning and establishment grants.
N.J. public servant wants job No. 6.
There are double dippers and then there is Patrick DeBlasio, a man with five public jobs in New Jersey. He now wants one more. DeBlasio wants to
increase his workload by adding at least 10 hours a week as Highlands' new chief financial officer. His annual compensation totaled $244,606 in
2012, according to state pension and payroll records. If hired in the new position, DeBlasio would be paid up to $65,000, a portion of which could
be shared with an assistant, borough officials said.
The EPA's Million-Dollar Con Man. As a
senior policy adviser in the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Air and Radiation, [John C.] Beale dealt with his workplace malaise by convincing
his bosses that he was a CIA operative whose top-secret work required him to be out of the office for long periods of time — including one stretch
that lasted 18 months. Sometimes Beale claimed to be in Pakistan. Other times he claimed to be at CIA HQ in Langley. In reality, the
agency's top climate-change expert spent most of his time puttering around his Northern Virginia home or at his vacation house on the Cape, collecting his
salary (plus bonuses!) while doing zero work.
Sen.
Tom Coburn's annual Wastebook catalogs government waste in lean times. The federal government this year made significant cuts to important services
and programs while at the same time wasting $30 billion on frivolous expenditures like the "pillownauts" study NASA conducted to learn the effects of lying in
bed all day, a new watchdog report shows. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., on Tuesday [12/17/2013] released his fourth annual "Wastebook," a catalog of questionable
government spending that is, at best, pretty wacky (funding for "Popular Romance Project" — $1 million) and, at its worst, infuriating (continuing
pay for Army Major Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter — $52,000).
Wasted: Feds pay to collect human
urine. Facebook, the hot technology company that is earning more than $1 billion in revenue, won't pay any taxes on its
income this year and instead probably will get a major refund from federal taxpayers, according to Sen. Tom Coburn's annual roundup of
wasteful spending. Among the nearly $30 billion of unnecessary spending that the Oklahoma Republican identified in this year's
"Wastebook" were taxpayer dollars going to buy human urine, to purchase crystal goblets at the State Department, and to pay $18,000 apiece
to "pillownauts" — people whom NASA recruited to lie on a bed for two straight months.
Sen. Coburn's Wastebook:
extravagant government spending amid claims cupboard is bare. Despite a warning last July 31 from Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel that under
sequestration, "We risk fielding a force that is unprepared due to a lack of training, maintenance, and the latest equipment," Coburn found DoD is leaving 2,000
MRAP's — Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles — behind in Afghanistan to be destroyed rather than delivered to other bases. MRAP's
were rushed through the procurement process in 2007, as I.E.D attacks took an increasing toll on NATO forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each MRAP cost
$500,000 to build, Coburn's report says.
Nothing Left to Cut: Budget Deal
Spares $30 Billion in Waste. Now that the Senate is on board with a budget deal that busts the sequester spending caps, lawmakers can finally
stop all that dreadful cost-cutting — before they hit vital projects like NASA's 3D Pizza Printer. The bipartisan budget deal, which will
add $63 billion in spending, came just in time. After all, "the cupboard is bare," as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., put it awhile
back. "There's no more cuts to make." [...] In addition to its $125,000 3D Pizza Printer effort, for example, NASA is spending $3 million on a
space-aged study into how Congress works, and another $390,000 on a YouTube cartoon about global warming.
'Complete waste':
Army Corps flushed $5.4M on 'unusable' trash incinerators, probe finds. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers paid $5.4 million for shoddy
trash incinerators that were delivered years behind schedule and never used, leaving soldiers at an Afghanistan base with no other option than to keep
burning waste in open-air pits, according to an internal probe.
HHS
Spending $55.5 Million to 'Bolster' Healthcare Workforce as Obamacare Causes Doctor Shortages. The Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) is spending an additional $55 million to "bolster" the healthcare workforce, as Obamacare contributes to shortages
in the industry. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced last week that her agency will provide over 270 grants "from diversity
to dentistry" to address worker shortages in the healthcare industry. The funding includes $45.4 million to support the nursing
workforce, $5.2 million of which will go towards "improving nursing diversity."
The Editor says...
The government is really good about pretending to solve problems that don't exist, when in reality they are pandering to
specific constituents: How many people have complained about a lack of "nursing diversity?" And how much
does diversity cost, anyway?
State Department
defends $1 million sculpture for London embassy. The State Department on Friday [12/6/2013] defended its decision to commission
a $1 million sculpture for the American embassy in London just days before the partial government shutdown in October.
State Dept. bought $180,000 in liquor
before shutdown. While the rest of the government prepared to shut down this fall, the State Department was busy stocking up on embassy
liquor supplies. In September, the final month of the fiscal year, the State Department spent about $180,000 — and racked up a total
of more than $400,000 for the whole year, three times the entire liquor tab for all of 2008.
Dozens of Russian diplomats have been
ripping off Medicare for years. Almost 50 Russian diplomats and members of their families have been charged in a massive health care fraud
scheme, officials announced Thursday [12/5/2013]. Federal officials allege that 58 of the 63 births to Russian officials living in New
York between 2004 and 2013 were fraudulently paid for by Medicare at a cost of roughly $1.5 million to US taxpayers. The Russians were applying
for these benefits while emptying their pockets at famed stores such as Bloomingdale's, Jimmy Choo's, Prada and Tiffany & Co, officials said.
Obama
reveals $100 million HIV research initiative. Obama says his administration is redirecting $100 million into the
project to find a new generation of therapies.
The Editor says...
(1) The money is being redirected from where? (2) An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of therapy,
and AIDS is one of the most easily preventable diseases in the world.
Nebraska's
Tax Dollars at Work: Promoting a New Outlet Mall. The grand opening festivities for Nebraska Crossing Outlets began one
day before the official opening with a fashion show featuring former University of Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne and continued
Friday [11/15/2013] with live remotes, deejays and giveaways including Husker football tickets and a Land Rover Evoque. It's not
clear which of these grand opening festivities might constitute your tax dollars at work, however, since Gretna city officials refused
to divulge much information about how the $16.7 million in subsidies for "marketing and communication" is being spent.
NSF Spends $82,525 to
Study Self-Defense by Millipedes. The National Science Foundation spent $82,525 on a one-year grant to study on the
self-defense of bioluminescent millipedes. "Animals use myriad strategies to avoid predation — camouflage, spines,
and toxins are among a few. Animals that are toxic, inedible, or otherwise noxious often advertise this by a warning signal,
for example the yellow and black stripes of a yellowjacket or the rattle of a snake," the award abstract said.
No remorse, no hesitation, no stigma at all.
During chilly November,
feds jet off to Caribbean resort at taxpayer expense. Down go the temperatures, and away go the bureaucrats to the Caribbean,
nonetheless. A group of federal officials skipped chilly Washington this month for a taxpayer-funded trip to the Virgin Islands in the
name of protecting the world's coral reef.
USAID programs hit by
fraud, corruption and bid-rigging allegations. USAID, the government agency in charge of distributing tax dollars to foreign aid projects,
once again is being hit with allegations and audits exposing how fraud and corruption are undermining its programs. Though the government says it's
taking "steps" to address the problems, the multiple reports reflect a decades-long problem with how USAID money is administered and, critics say, how
little has been done to fix it.
MAVEN takes off. Today [11/18/2013],
NASA will launch a new mission — one that cost $671 million and has been in development for 10 years — to
determine what happened to the water on Mars.
NASA Aims for Mars, With Robotic
Maven Set to Soar. The Maven mission will cost $671 million over its entire lifetime.
NASA launches new spacecraft to orbit Mars. You may have heard
it before: Billions of years ago, Mars probably looked more like Earth does now, with clouds and oceans and a much thicker atmosphere. [...] So
what happened? Where did the air and water go? [...] NASA says the mission will cost $671 million.
The Editor says...
NASA — or at least CNN — presumes to know what Mars looked like "billions of years ago."
IRS Sent Hundreds of Checks to One
Address in China. The IRS, which is adept at targeting conservatives and which is the enforcement arm for Obamacare, sent 655 tax refunds
to one address in Lithuania! They sent 343 tax refunds to one address in China! It apparently never occurred to them that this could be
identity fraud. There is no one minding the store.
Our Cash For Obama's Clunkers.
The last five years of American economic policy has been a sad and expensive replay of what governments should never do. Amidst the uproar
over the pathetic ObamaCare website rollout, many Americans missed the stinging report about Obama's Cash for Clunkers program. Not
surprisingly, it was a failed program that cost us $1.4 million for each job allegedly created — a perfect representation of the failure of
government-led economies.
Agencies can't always tell who's dead and who's not, so benefit checks keep coming. The U.S.
government has a problem with dead people. For one thing, it pays them way too much money. In the past few years, Social Security paid
$133 million to beneficiaries who were deceased. The federal employee retirement system paid more than $400 million to retirees who
had passed away. And an aid program spent $3.9 million in federal money to pay heating and air-conditioning bills for more than 11,000 of
the dead.
Bankrupting America: Or, Gorbachev's
revenge. Starting in the 1930s with Social Security and unemployment insurance and continuing right through the introduction of the subsidized
health-care insurance program known as Obamacare on Oct. 1, the U.S. Congress has provided a helping hand to any and every cause that can put together a
street demonstration, a petition or (these days) a website. And the enemies of America know this. They are not stupid. So they are using our
compassion as a weapon against us, just as we used the Russians' urge for world dominance as a weapon against them. Call it Gorbachev's revenge.
Our enemies know that we truly care about people as individuals and want to assist everyone in achieving a better life, so we have been challenged to do more
than we possibly can.
Watchdogs: Government Paid Millions
in Medicare to Deceased, Illegal Immigrants. The Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services paid
out $23 million to beneficiaries after their deaths in 2011, according to one report from HHS' inspector general. Another report tallied more
than $28 million in payments from 2009 to 2011 to individuals who were in the country illegally. In all, CMS paid Medicare benefits to 4,139
illegal immigrants and 17,403 deceased people, according to the two reports.
Medicare paid millions to dead patients,
illegal immigrants, probe finds. Medicare paid $23 million for dead patients in 2011 and $29 million for drug benefits for illegal
immigrants from 2009 to 2011, according to a report Thursday [10/31/2013] from the Health and Human Services inspector general. The investigators
said Medicare has safeguards to try to stop payments to dead patients, but it still ended up sending out the $23 million anyway. The
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) — the same agency that is struggling to fix the broken Obamacare website —
acknowledged the problems and said it will try to take steps to fix them.
Stick a Fork in Obama. America put men on the
moon. Now, with 3½ years and a half a billion dollars, we can't even build a website. This is how much Barry and his
ilk have degraded the brand. We used to be the shining light on the hill. Now, we are darkness at the end of the tunnel.
Barack Obama has been the worst thing that has ever happened to the Oval Office, and in the end, ObamaCare will seal his fate as a failed
president. Three and on half years ago, who would have thought that the most emblematic part of the Affordable Care Act, would be
the website? Yet, they already have more than a half a billion dollars in for something that doesn't work at all. Just imagine
how much they will spend to fix it.
Former
Dept. of Veterans Affairs chief pleads the Fifth. A former assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs pleaded the
Fifth on Wednesday [10/30/2013], refusing to testify about a pair of taxpayer-funded human resources conferences in 2011 that cost a scandalous
$6.1 million or more. John Sepulveda oversaw the conferences, which included the screening of a parody video based on 'Patton,' whose
production cost the Treasury more than $52,000. But in front of the House Oversight Committee, he chose to remain silent, [...]
Coburn attacks
National Park Service for wasteful spending while parks themselves fall into disrepair. Taxpayers shell out $52,000 a year to maintain the
home of Black History Month founder Carter Woodson. Yet the tiny, dilapidated row house in northwest Washington D.C., with a "No Trespassing" sign
and iron bars blocking the front door and windows hasn't seen a visitor in the seven years since the National Park Service bought it for $2.1 million
and designated it a National Historic Site. Senator Tom Coburn, R-Okla., points to the house as one tiny symbol in a sea of dysfunction in the
National Park Service. The Service, with its comparatively small budget, is, he says, a microcosm for wasteful spending in the federal government.
Global warming gets nearly
twice as much taxpayer money as border security. The White House reported to House Republicans that there are 18 federal agencies
engaged in global warming activities in 2013, funding a wide range of programs, including scientific research, international climate assistance,
incentivizing renewable energy technology and subsidies to renewable energy producers. Global warming spending is estimated to cost $22.2 billion
this year, and $21.4 billion next year. At the same time, the federal government will spend nearly $12 billion on customs and border
enforcement this year.
Government 'Mining' Social Media for Information on
Health Behavior. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is "mining" Facebook and Twitter to improve its social media footprint and to assess how
Tweets can be used as "change-agents" for health behaviors. The NLM, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will have software
installed on government computers that will store data from social media as part of a $30,000 project announced last week.
Federal Employees
Receive Full Pay for Shutdown Period — Even If They Didn't Work. Much ink was spilled earlier this month about the plight of federal
workers who were furloughed due to the budget impasse. One federal employee union even bafflingly likened its members to "indentured servants." But
now, quietly, federal workers are receiving full pay for the shutdown period, whether they worked or not. In fact, some furloughed employees will receive
special overtime and holiday premiums on top of their regular paychecks, just as long as they were scheduled to work overtime or on Columbus Day.
BLS: Gov't Workers 'Absent' 50% More Than
Private-Sector Workers. A government worker is 38 percent more likely to be absent from work for personal reasons or illnesses than a
private-sector worker, and government workers miss 50 percent more of their usual work hours as a result of such absences than do private sector
workers, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Arrival of Obamacare puts
focus on IRS tax-credit scandal. The program is the Earned Income Tax Credit, through which the federal government gives out between $60 billion
and $70 billion to low-income working Americans each year. It's known as a "refundable" tax credit, but it is basically a transfer payment, in which
the IRS sends a check — perhaps even $5,000 every year — to workers who have little or no tax liability. The problem is, the IRS
does little to determine whether recipients actually qualify for the money.
What to Cut? Gov't finds wasteful spending
hard to shake. In the realm of government excesses, it's hard to top a series of grants recently awarded by the National Endowment for the
Humanities that have drawn the scrutiny of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. Sessions wrote acting NEH Director Carol Watson this week asking why it awarded
$25,000 for a study entitled, "What is the Good Life and How Do I Live It?"; $23,390 for a study entitled, "Why are Bad People Bad?"; and $24,990 for yet
another study called, "What is a Monster?"
After troops leave, U.S. to lose access to Afghan reconstruction projects worth billions.
As coalition forces withdraw from Afghanistan, U.S.-funded reconstruction projects worth billions of dollars in far-flung regions of the country
will soon be impossible for American officials to safely visit and directly inspect.
Your tax dollars: $24,953 to research 'meaning of life'. What is the meaning of life?
The answer is worth $24,953, at least according to the National Endowment for the Humanities, a taxpayer-funded federal agency that is providing an educational grant
to study the question.
It's Ted Cruz's Fault! Texas Senator Ted Cruz is why
ObamaCare is having 'glitches' a month after its $600 million rollout — software any contractor could have designed for one million.
The president explained that Apple also had glitches when OS7 was rolled out. He is correct and Apple fixed theirs in 24 hours. That's the
difference between private and government enterprise.
ObamaCare
spending to top contractors tops $1 billion. The price tag usually associated the Affordable Care Act rollout is $394 million, based
on a Government Accountability Office report. [Peter] Gosselin argued that study was too narrowly focused, so he expanded his search of a federal
contractor databases to include all awards where the acronym "ACA" or other related words and phrases appeared. "In looking at the full range of
ACA-related contracts for just 10 firms, the BGOV analysis found more than $1 billion worth of contract awards," he wrote.
Another IRS Triumph. The earned-income tax credit,
or EITC, is a major welfare program intended to supplement the incomes of the working poor. It is "refundable," which means you get the credit even if you
pay no income tax. In 2011, more than 27 million families received EITC payments of nearly $62 billion. But here's the catch: The
IG report says that in 2011 at least 21% of those payments and as much as 26% were "improper." The percentages in 2012 were 21% and 25%. In other
words, at least one of every five dollars, and maybe one in four, of EITC payouts were in some way undeserved.
Investigator: IRS paid more than $110 billion in improper tax credits over past decade. The Internal Revenue Service
paid out more than $110 billion in tax credits over the past decade to people who didn't qualify for them, according to a Treasury report released Tuesday [10/22/2013].
The Earned Income Tax Credits were intended for poor working families. In his report, IRS inspector general J. Russell George said more than one-fifth of all
credits paid under the program went to people who didn't qualify.
With U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, American military gear sold as scrap. The armored trucks, televisions, ice
cream scoops and nearly everything else shipped here for America's war against the Taliban are now part of the world's biggest garage sale. Every week, as the U.S.
troop drawdown accelerates, the United States is selling 12 million to 14 million pounds of its equipment on the Afghan market.
Reality Check for HealthCare.gov. [A] lot of people would
like to know how the federal government showered $634 million on a host of IT contractors to build HealthCare.gov, a website that has had the worst debut of any product
since New Coke.
The
Army's $5 billion New Uniform Already Being Replaced. Eight years after spending $5 billion on a heavily-criticized universal camouflage
pattern, the Army is back at the drawing board looking for a new design that's estimated to cost another $4 billion.
US quietly releasing $1.6B in Pakistan assistance. The U.S. has quietly
decided to release more than $1.6 billion in military and economic aid to Pakistan that was suspended when relations between the two countries disintegrated
over the covert raid that killed Osama bin Laden and deadly U.S. airstrikes against Pakistani soldiers.
Another ObamaCare
'Glitch': $30B blown on non-operational medical record system. The rollout of ObamaCare has been plagued by problems these past two weeks,
as thousands complained they couldn't sign up for coverage due to a deeply defective website. But this process could have been easier if a nine-year,
government-backed effort to set up a system of electronic medical records had gotten off the ground. Instead of setting up their medical ID for the
first time, would-be customers would have their records already on file. Unfortunately for patients — and taxpayers — the
long-running project has produced tangibly few results despite costing the government, so far, at least $30 billion.
Insight: As Obamacare tech woes
mounted, contractor payments soared. A Reuters review of government documents shows that the contract to build the federal Healthcare.gov
online insurance website — key to President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reform — tripled in potential total value to nearly
$292 million as new money was assigned to the work beginning in April this year.
Just how much does HealthCare.gov cost?
Government officials deny the price tag on the troubled ObamaCare website is as big as $634 million, as widely reported on Thursday.
Nonetheless, a close look at the cost of HealthCare.gov and the overall architecture of this giant federal program reveals no real bargain for
the American taxpayer. "What a train wreck. How can we tax people for not buying a product from a website that doesn't work?" Speaker
of the House John Boehner demanded on Wednesday [10/9/2013], as report after report indicated that the software problems experienced by the online
portal were nowhere near being resolved.
Postal Service
Destroys 'Just Move' Stamps Over Safety Concerns. The stamps, which were aimed at getting children to be more active, featured kids
cannonballing into a pool, skateboarding without kneepads, and performing a headstand without a helmet.
We paid over $500 million for the Obamacare sites and all we got was this lousy 404.
The site itself, which apparently underwent major code renovations over the weekend, still rejects user logins, fails to load drop-down menus and other crucial components for users that
successfully gain entrance, and otherwise prevents uninsured Americans in the 36 states it serves from purchasing healthcare at competitive rates — Healthcare.gov's primary
purpose. The site is so busted that, as of a couple days ago, the number of people that successfully purchased healthcare through it was in the "single digits," according to the
Washington Post.
How the government spent $634 million on the Obamacare
website and it still doesn't work. The federal government has spent $634 million on the Obamacare website — more than it cost to build Facebook or
Twitter, it was revealed today. [...] The price tag for the broken healthcare site is more than six and a half times higher than what the government initially meant to pay.
Obama Spent $634 Million to Build Broken
Healthcare.gov Website. I could have built him a broken website for only $633 million. But I have trouble even taking in or believing that
number is real. [...] Google managed to build an index of 60 million pages while basically being run by two guys with $100k in seed money. Sure they had
Stanford's computers, but this was supposed to be backed by the US government. Data centers are expensive. That's why you used to see Twitter's Fail Whale
so much. But Facebook spends $50 million a year on data centers. And it rarely goes down.
Government
spends $47k on mechanical bull as a National Guard recruitment tool seven days into shutdown. Seven days into the government shutdown it has been revealed
that the National Guard has bought a $47,000 mechanical bull. The National Guard contract was awarded to a Pennsylvania company tasked with supplying the device
as a way to attract new recruits.
Obama Continues to
Violate His Own 'Stimulus' Law by Not Releasing Quarterly Reports. Have you heard much about President Obama's $787,000,000,000 economic "stimulus"
(now estimated to cost $831,000,000,000) lately? In its last report, published in 2011, the president's own Council of Economic Advisors released an
estimate showing that, for every $317,000 in "stimulus" spending that had by then gone out the door, only one job had been created or saved.
Committee Reveals Widespread Disability Scheme. A Kentucky lawyer made
millions off Social Security disability programs, devising a scheme with a judge to approve fraudulent claims at an "assembly-line" rate. A two-year investigation
led by Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, revealed a case of coordinated fraud responsible
for the approval of billions in claims.
New Air Force cargo planes fly straight into
mothballs. The Pentagon is sending $50 million cargo planes straight from the assembly line to mothballs because it has no use for them,
yet it still hasn't stopped ordering the aircraft, according to a report. A dozen nearly new Italian-built C-27J Spartans have been shipped to an Air
Force facility in Arizona dubbed "the boneyard," and five more currently under construction are likely headed for the same fate, according to an investigation
by the Dayton Daily News. The Air Force has spent $567 million on 21 of the planes since 2007, according to purchasing officials at
Dayton's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
State Dept. Awards $5M Contract
for Crystal Stem and Barware For Embassies. Just a week before the government shutdown kicked in on October 1, the State Department awarded a
five-year, maximum $5 million contract for custom handcrafted crystal stem and barware, according to a report in the Valley News, an online news site in
Vermont.
Tribes
Mishandle Funds, Go Unpunished. American Indian tribes have been caught misappropriating tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, according to
internal tribal audits and other documents.
New
York's pampered pooches get a $5 million park and dog run thanks to Uncle Sam. TriBeCa, one of Manhattan's most affluent neighborhoods put a
federal windfall worth millions into play this past summer. Local brass decided to spend the $5 million earmarked in 2005 not on subways or
bridges but to bankroll a dog run and install an immaculate landscaping along a waterfront park, MailOnline has learned.
Serving Our Government Masters. [George] Washington
once said that government is "a troublesome servant and a fearful master." Government has long ceased being a troublesome servant and has become our
fearful master. Today the servants of the people have more servants of their own than many kings and queens. The government shutdown has forced
Obama to make do with only a quarter of his 1,701 person staff. That would leave 436 "vital" employees. The 90 people who look after his
living quarters would be slashed to 15 to "provide minimum maintenance and support".
Shutdown Preparations Prove Most
Government Is Waste. When the government shuts down, the president will do without three-fourths of his White House staff —
1,265 taxpayer-salaried federal workers. That's a fraction of the government's total waste. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who didn't
show up to vote on the budget last week, recently claimed, "the cupboard is bare. There's no more cuts to make" in a government that spends
almost $4 trillion each year. But it's funny how when the massive state apparatus is starved of its cash flow, lots of things magically appear
in that bare cupboard.
Bankrupt ideas lead to bankrupt governments.
Medicare fraud and abuse alone now costs more than $115 billion per year, and even though the problem is well known, it persists decade after decade, as
Mrs. Pelosi and her colleagues do nothing to stop it. But then, again, it is not their money that is wasted. According to the Congressional
Research Service, the U.S. government has 77,000 unused or underused buildings that cost taxpayers $1.67 billion annually to operate and maintain.
The list goes on and on.
Fiscal Monkey Business. As the budget histrionics
continue, both parties are slyly doing what Congress does best — spend more money. We reported last week that the GOP House has already agreed
with Senate Democrats to raise spending in 2014 by $19 billion over the Budget Control Act caps — to $986 billion from $967 billion.
But now Senate budget experts have identified in the spending bill some $18 billion more of mostly phantom savings from "changes in mandatory spending
programs," also known appropriately enough as Chimps.
Oklahoma senator calls out
Congress for blowing money on 'fruity' grants. One Washington lawmaker says the fiscal fight in DC needs to be refocused on millions of dollars
being blown on new government grants that include everything from spending on social media for apples, Christmas tree initiatives and a YouTube video promoting
the proper handling of watermelons. And that's just this week alone.
Detroit to Receive "Not-Bailout" from Federal Government.
Detroit is going to receive an infusion of cash, courtesy of the federal government. The municipality declared bankruptcy this summer and is trying
to avoid having to pay the $18 billion in liabilities it has accrued, with court battles and protests raging all the while. Final details will
be worked out in Detroit by an Obama administration delegation led by Gene Sperling, head of the White House National Economic Council, which sounds like
something out of an Ayn Rand novel. [...] The ostensible purpose of the meeting is not to talk about bailouts (which aren't happening, everyone insists)
but rather to discuss plans to "lift up" Detroit, "to expand opportunity and renew this world-class city."
Obama administration plans
$320 million to aid Detroit recovery. Top Obama administration officials will head to Detroit on Friday [9/27/2013] to announce
nearly $320 million in federal and private aid as the city grapples with the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history.
Meet the slush funds Obama used to bail
out Detroit. According to the Detroit Free Press, [Gene] Sperling "wasn't immediately able to break down" exactly how much of the money
awarded represents "new funding" for Detroit, but he did say "much of it represented an effort by administration officials to scour their departments
for funding that Detroit could access." In other words, this is all the cash Obama could scrape together after looking for spare change in between
the couch cushions of the federal government.
U.S. sells $50 million green-tech loan at sharp
discount. The U.S. Department of Energy recovered only about one-sixth of its $50 million green-technology loan to
Vehicle Production Group LLC, a maker of wheelchair-accessible vans now under new ownership.
Not Even Fisker's Fire Sale
Can Dampen DOE Enthusiasm for 'Investments'. After the Department of Energy announced this week it had given up on
not-bankrupt-but-should-be Fisker Automotive, and will auction off its loan for a pittance, you'd think (and hope) Congress would have had enough
of this kind of thing. Senator John Thune certainly has. "The Obama administration has gotten into the business of picking winners
and losers at a significant cost to taxpayers," said the South Dakota Republican yesterday [9/18/2013].
How will anyone benefit from this?
FDA
Spending $182,814 to 'Better Understand' Social Media. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is paying six figures to a group that
worked for the "Obama for America" campaign to monitor its social media platforms so it can be more effective on Facebook and Twitter.
The agency awarded $182,814 to IB5k, a company billing itself as "the People Who Brought You Obama '08," to provide "comprehensive coverage" of
the FDA's social media websites.
Kerry to Spend $10 Million to
Fight 'Gender-Based Violence'. "Secretary of State John Kerry announced Monday the provision of $10 million in funding for a
new U.S. initiative, Safe from the Start, to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in humanitarian emergencies worldwide.
Secretary Kerry emphasized that in the face of conflict and disaster, we should strive to protect women and girls from sexual assault and other
violence," reads the State Department press release.
The Editor says...
If Mr. Kerry wants to waste $10 million of his own money, that's one thing. But spending taxpayer dollars (by the million) to chase down
feminist problems in other countries is not the proper role of government, to put it politely.
House CR Forks Over $174,000 for Late Senator's Wife.
There are many things House Republicans liked about the government continuing resolution. It defunds Obamacare, locks in the sequester spending cuts and
keeps the government running. But there's one provision tucked into the CR that may anger constituents back home: Among the various sections of the
House-passed CR are 28 words that would pay $174,000 to the widow of the late Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J. [...] Before Lautenberg's death, he was
No. 8 on Roll Call's 50 Richest Members of Congress with a net worth of at least $56.8 million.
Update:
House eliminates payout to wealthy senator's
widow. After an outcry, the House has dropped a $174,000 payment to the widow of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg from its stopgap spending bill.
U.S. Makes $1.2 Bil in Disability "Overpayments".
In a recent example of egregious government waste, the U.S. has doled out more than a billion dollars in disability benefits to tens of thousands of people who
were not supposed to get it. One recipient got $90,000 — nearly twice the median annual income in the U.S. — without being detected
by the Social Security Administration (SSA), the agency that hands out the cash. Others raked in $74,000 and $57,000 without raising any alarms.
In all, 36,000 people who didn't qualify for SSA disability money received an astounding $1.29 billion without getting caught, according to a federal audit.
Budget Cuts, Political Sensitivity Preventing Military
Spending Reform. While it is important for the U.S. military to be prepared for whatever unexpected conflicts arise, [Senator Tom] Coburn
said [9/18/2013] there are ample opportunities for the Department of Defense (DOD) to operate more efficiently. He noted the consolidation of the
Air Force's operations at its three strategic depots, which he said would save $1.6 billion, and Army requests for as much as $2.5 billion for
equipment needs like cargo planes that can be met for $100 million as examples.
Undocumented LA County
Parents On Pace To Receive $650M In Welfare Benefits. A projected $650 million in welfare benefits will be distributed to illegal alien
parents in 2013, county officials said Monday. Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich announced the latest figures from the Department of Public Social
Services, which showed more than $376 million in CalWORKs benefits and food stamps combined have been distributed through July to illegal alien parents
for their native-born children.
Also posted
under welfare programs attract illegal immigrants.
Flying carrot, winged
guitar, not health care, featured in new $3.2m Obamacare ad. New Obamacare ads targeting Oregon residents never mention health care reform or the
system's new health care exchanges opening Oct. 1, and instead feature psychedelic Images of people flying through the air singing, "Long live Oregonians,
we're free to be healthy." The so-called "Free" ads cost $3.2 million. What's odd about the ads for Cover Oregon is the lack of information
about Obamacare [...]
State Dept. to Spend $450K for Green
Jobs — in Morocco. The State Department through its Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific
Affairs plans to spend $450,000 to create green jobs in Morocco. "Morocco has set the goal to become one of the world's largest sustainable
economies by 2020, with an emphasis on creating green jobs in: renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, environmental and natural resource
management, and improvement in environmental technologies," the grant announcement said.
Google's Brin, Page lose
Pentagon fuel subsidy on private jets. Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have lost a jet fuel perk, according to a new
report. Google and the Pentagon inked a deal, which started in 2007, that let Google purchase fuel for its entire fleet — seven
jets and two helicopters — at a discounted price from the US government, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Google Jet Fleet
Loses a Pentagon Fuel Perk. The agreement between the Google founders and the government, which started in 2007, ended Aug. 31
after officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration — which sponsored the arrangement — opted not to
renew it, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman.
DOE to Lose Tens of Millions on Green Car Company.
The Department of Energy (DOE) will likely lose tens of millions of dollars on a loan extended to a green vehicle company with ties to a top fundraiser for
President Barack Obama. The news comes days after DOE announced that it would restart the loan program responsible for lending taxpayer funds to the
struggling company. The department loaned $50 million to the Vehicle Production Group in March 2011. It announced this week that, after
recouping a small amount of that loan, it will sell the remaining $45 million debt to AM General for $3 million.
Sequestration nation: DoD doles out $7 billion in
wind-energy contracts. Why the Obama administration insists upon using the military as a sponsor of what they, rather than the free market, have arbitrarily and
falsely deemed to be practical and cost-effective sources of energy, it pains me to think on — but the point is that the U.S. military is currently choosing to
spend big money on energy sources that do not offer them the biggest bang for their buck. Even better, the Pentagon dished out a similarly sized set of contracts for
solar energy companies last month; and this is all on top the Navy's push to outfit a number of cruisers, destroyers, and fighter jets with biofuel-blended gas.
The art of saving: Bill would cut funds for official portraits.
The capital is full of portraits of government officials, sometimes more than one of the same person. [...] But in budget-conscious Congress, an effort is underway to put an end to
the practice of taxpayers footing the bill for the commissioned paintings. The measure is dubbed the Eliminating Government-funded Oil-painting, or EGO, Act.
Energy Department
loses a casual $42 million on failed loan to green van company, no big deal. [T]he Department of Energy just got some sweet news about yet another project in
government venture socialism. Yet another of the beneficiaries of their ghastly loan guarantee program has made it to the end of the line, and not in a good way.
Palestinian Authority takes $148M from US, doles
out 'grants' to convicted terrorists. The Palestinian Authority is doling out millions of dollars in cash grants to convicted terrorists recently released from
Israeli prisons in a program announced the same day as the P.A. accepted $148 million in the latest round of U.S. aid.
U.S. Failed to Reduce 'Food
Insecurity' Despite Spending Billions More. Despite a $6 billion increase in food assistance spending, there was no
reduction in the number of American households that are "food insecure," according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The USDA says its food programs "increase food security." However, the agency's spending through the Food and Nutrition Service
(FNS) increased by $6.4 billion from 2011 to 2012 with no statistically significant change in the level of food insecurity.
Feds Spending $2.2 Million to Study Lesbian Obesity.
The National Institutes of Health awarded an additional $682,873 to Brigham and Women's Hospital for the study on July 17.
The project had received previous grants of $778,622 in 2011, and $741,378 in 2012. Total funding has reached $2,202,873.
The project has survived budget cuts due to sequestration, which the NIH warned would "delay progress in medical breakthroughs."
Former senior EPA adviser Beale expected to plead guilty in $900,000 pay fraud. Over the past 12 years,
John C. Beale was often away from his job as a high-level staffer at the Environmental Protection Agency. He cultivated an air of mystery and explained
his lengthy absences by telling his bosses that he was doing top-secret work, including for the CIA. For years, apparently, no one checked.
Grounded
TV Marti plane [is] a monument to the limits of American austerity. At an airfield in rural Georgia, the U.S. government pays a contractor
$6,600 a month for a plane that doesn't fly. The plane is a 1960s turboprop with an odd array of antennas on its back end and the name of a Cuban
national hero painted on its tail. It can fly, but it doesn't. Government orders.
Electric Losers, Round Two. A leading candidate for
the biggest government failure in recent years is the $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVM), which stopped doling out
loans in 2011 after funding such debacles as Fisker Automotive. But this is the Obama Administration, where nothing in government fails, so naturally
new Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz wants to revive it.
State Department Begins Work on New
$178M Embassy Complex in Benin. This week, the State Department announced that [...] construction has begun on a new $178 million embassy
complex in the small West African nation, a neighbor of Togo and Nigeria. As is often the case in the construction of new U.S. diplomatic facilities,
the plans include a number of "sustainable" features including solar panels, rainwater harvesting, wastewater reuse, and LED lighting.
The Editor says...
Why must the United States have an embassy in every country?
DHS spends $600,000 to buy $100,000 homes.
The Homeland Security Department spent $600,000 apiece to build houses in Arizona that would have gone for less than $100,000, according to a report in the Arizona
Republic that's raising questions in Congress. "This type of spending is irresponsible as our nation faces significant budget deficits and the men and women
in the Border Patrol face cuts in overtime that are essential to their mission," Rep. Ron Barber, Arizona Democrat, said in a statement Friday [8/16/2013].
Pentagon Car Rentals: We Don't Try Harder.
The old saying is that no one washes a rental car. It's a little bit different at the Pentagon. Over there, they rent a lot of cars for
travel by staff in and around the capital. They don't need to wash many of them, either — because they drive them so rarely. That's
the bottom line in a Pentagon inspector general's report released Thursday showing that 511 of the 774 vehicles leased by four Pentagon offices in
2011 — two out of every three — weren't driven enough miles annually to warrant their rental.
The United States Constitution vs. Barack
Obama. SUNY Buffalo received $390,000 to study young adults who drink malt liquor and smoke marijuana.
Montana received $2.2 million to install skylights in their state-run liquor warehouse.
[...]
$30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
The Coast Guard gets $572 million to create 1,235 new jobs. This comes to $460,000 per job.
$11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.
$1.15 million to install a guardrail for a persistently dry lake bed in Guymon, Oklahoma.
Left-Wing Labor Protesters Funded by Taxpayer Dollars.
Using a combination of federal grants and grants from left-leaning organizations, the Restaurant Opportunity Center, or ROC, is technically a charitable nonprofit and
not a union. But their pro-worker messages, anti-employer protests and self-proclaimed goal of organizing service sector employees for the purposes of negotiating
higher wages make ROC look and sound much like a labor union. [...] While the Restaurant Opportunity Center is working to increase wages for some workers, they are
getting paid, in part, with federal tax dollars.
Golden hammer: Medicaid
innovation programs ran up $32 billion tab, watchdog says. When the government approved letting states experiment with new ways
to deliver Medicaid services, it promised the innovations wouldn't cost taxpayers any extra money. Somebody in the bureaucracy, however,
failed to keep track. A new report by the chief watchdog for Congress finds that the so-called demonstration projects have cost taxpayers
as much as $32 billion more than if the program has just been left alone over the last five years.
Great Green Waste: Are Military Contracts the New Obama Stimulus?
The Department of Defense (DoD) is the largest energy consumer in the United States. To meet its energy needs, the Defense Logistics Agency
(DLA) executes contracts to purchase fuel and electricity on behalf of the service branches. These contracts present opportunities for the
federal government to provide de facto subsidies, should they choose to purchase more expensive sources of energy than is necessary. For the
purposes of this report, subsidies are defined as disbursements by the federal government that have an identifiable federal budget impact and are
specifically targeted at energy production. If the government pays more than the fair market value for a good or service, particularly in
a closed-bidding process, this amounts to a subsidy.
Wetlands Protection. Remember how the
sequester was going to force the federal government to slash vital services? Not only didn't it happen, but the Labor Department's Women's
Bureau is still in operation. As its acting director, Latifa Lyles, explains in a blog post, the bureau was established in the year of
Helen Thomas's birth to "promote the welfare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency and advance their
opportunities for profitable employment." If you thought that mission was accomplished sometime around 1973, think again.
Cory
Booker Spent $100 Million in Education Money on Political Consultants. Newark Mayor and U.S. Senate Candidate Cory Booker claims he cares about
education, but a new ad produced by the American Commitment Fund shows Booker squandered $100 million in education funds donated by Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg on political consultants, focus groups, mailing and polling.
Time to Sequester Insipid Federal Research.
These studies include: how to ride a bike; when dogs became man's best friend; whether political views are genetically predetermined; and why the same
teams always seem to dominate the NCAA basketball tournament. More recent studies funded by the NSF include "how power affects empathy" and an
assessment of "the role of optimism and pessimism in shaping the political beliefs and behavior of Americans." Most of these ill-advised projects
are funded by the [National] science foundation's Social, Behavioral and Economics Directorate.
The National Science Foundation:
Under the Microscope. Very few of the proposals submitted for NSF financial support represented transformative scientific research
according to most grant reviewers surveyed. Taxpayers may also question the value of many of the projects NSF actually chose to fund, such as:
How to ride a bike; When did dogs became man's best friend; If political views are genetically pre-determined; How to improve the quality of wine;
Do boys like to play with trucks and girls like to play with dolls; How rumors get started; If parents choose trendy baby names; How much housework
does a husband create for a wife; and When is the best time to buy a ticket to a sold out sporting event.
Money for nothing. Writing in the The Atlantic magazine,
Orszag and Bridgeland estimate that less than $1 out of every $100 in federal spending "is backed by even the most basic evidence that the money
is being spent wisely." Instead, they write, "spending decisions are largely based on good intentions, inertia, hunches, partisan politics,
and personal relationships." Orszag and Bridgeland offer infuriating examples, drawn from experience, of programs that were either useless
or at best questionable and yet continued to get billions because somebody knew somebody and every item sounded like a good idea.
Questions raised about IRS executive
travel. A new report by the inspector general of the IRS found that a small group of top executives at the IRS ran up "extremely high
travel expenses" in recent years, with some basically commuting each week to work in Washington, D.C. by plane from around the nation. [...] An IRS
source told me the most frequent travelers were four different officials inside the tax agency who "work" in Washington, at IRS headquarters, but
actually live in Dallas, Minneapolis and Atlanta.
Fraud fighter in $$ shock.
The acting inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security flouted nepotism rules by employing his wife, and took multiple jaunts, at
taxpayers' expense, to Florida, according to documents obtained by The [New York] Post.
$10.33 billion in energy loans pressured
by the White House and POTUS approved, now at risk. [Scroll down] The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Biorefinery Assistance
Program, funded through the energy title of the farm bill, which was first introduced in 2002, also provides government-backed loan guarantees to
support renewable energy, as they did with Range Fuels and others, since 2009 for about $1.02 billion. In the Range Fuels case, which
received a $76 million federal loan from the Bush administration in 2007, and over $80 million from the Obama administration in 2009
($46 million DOE grant and a $40 million USDA loan guarantee), eventually went bust in 2011.
IRS
Overpaid Earned Income Credit By Nearly $111 Billion, Treasury Report Says. The Internal Revenue Service has overpaid the Earned
Income Tax Credit by at least $110.8 billion since 2000, according to a recent Treasury Department inspector general report. That is
more than double the $53 billion of sequester cuts expected in 2013, totaling less than 2 percent of outlays, and puts the lie to
those who suggest there is nothing to cut in the federal budget.
Audit:
Workers at costly Veterans Affairs job center took average of 2 calls a day. The Veterans Affairs Department is spending millions on
employment call centers where workers have handled as few as one or two calls a day ever since the facilities opened in October 2011, according to
a recent inspector general report. The two centers are operated and staffed by a private contractor and were opened to increase the number
of veterans working for the department.
364 Billion Ways the Government
Wastes Your Money. In 2012, the GAO produced a 428-page study that outlines inconceivable duplication, overlap, and fragmentation which
can be cut back to save over $360 billion every single year! The GAO report should be required reading for taxpayers and presidents
because it includes Mitt Romney's claim of 47 different federal programs for job training, 20 programs devoted to homelessness, 17 grant
programs for disaster assistance, 17 programs for technical assistance to entrepreneurs with 5 of these entrepreneur programs being run
by USDA.
Millions
Missing, Misspent at Texas Housing Authority: Auditor. The Harris County (Texas) Housing Authority is a generous landlord,
one that gave its tenants $8,500 in gift cards to Walmart for Christmas in 2011. But that sort of unrestrained spending —
on tenants, on memorabilia, on failed real estate deals, on its own salaries and especially on contracts with two firms connected to two
former board members — has dissipated the agency's fund balances from $37.9 million to $1.6 million between 2009
and 2012, according to an audit recently published by the inspector general of the Texas Department of Housing and Urban Development.
More
about waste
and fraud in
the welfare state.
Defense Dept.
Memo Decries Having Too Much Money, Urges Spending All Of It. An internal email from a Department of Defense agency calls its
budget "too large" while at the same time urging colleagues about the importance of spending "100% of our available resources." The
June 27 memo, obtained by the Washington Post and sent by the Defense Information Systems Agency, said, "Our available funding balances
remain large in all appropriations — too large to spend" on just unfunded requests.
Military
spending millions to protect gophers, while workers go on furlough. A total of 650,000 civilian employees are now being furloughed
at U.S. military bases in response to sequester cuts — but the Department of Defense is still spending millions to protect fuzzy
critters. Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Washington state just received a $3.5 million department grant to purchase land around
the base in an effort to protect the Mazama pocket gopher, a species that has not even been listed as endangered or threatened.
Feds Unwilling or Unable To Stop Illegal Checks.
A Long Island, N.Y., woman has spent nearly two years trying to convince the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Postal Service that persons with
Hispanic-sounding surnames using her address to obtain tax refunds from the IRS are part of a fraud scheme. She has not found a government agency
that will stop the phony tax refunds from arriving in her mailbox. Instead, federal and state authorities pass the buck. The checks,
including some offering payment for Hurricane Sandy "relief" to people who may not exist, keep coming.
Military dumps $34M into
Afghanistan HQ that US forces won't use. The U.S. military blew through $34 million on a hulking headquarters in southwestern
Afghanistan that probably will never be used by U.S. forces, in an example of government waste that has military commanders fuming.
Another Fine Mess Obama's
Gotten Us Into In Mideast. Is it too late, Mr. President, to get a refund on the billions in aid you gave the Islamist thugs
in Egypt? How about the F-16s and Abrams tanks you sent? It's now painfully obvious you invested in the wrong regime.
Why Call it Intelligence? The American
Intelligence Community (IC) is starting to resemble a large cast of delinquents, a Faustian opera where bad behavior seeks constant
rationalization and confirmation. And like most bad behavior, the real remedy might not be that complicated. [...] Ironically,
the 9/11 attack in New York, the worst warning failure since Pearl Harbor, produced a knee-jerk windfall for American Intelligence.
Like public school systems, failure became a kind of fiscal stimulus. Subsequently, government agencies that could embed "terrorism"
in their mission statements were showered with tax dollars.
54 Months: Record Stretch of 7.5%+ Unemployment
Continues. [Scroll down] In a February 2013 report on the impact of Obama's stimulus law — the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) — the Congressional Budget Office said that it estimated the law would have the net effect of increasing federal
budget deficits by $830 billion between 2009 and 2019. CBO also estimated that the stimulus had the impact in the last quarter of 2012 of
lowering "the unemployment rate by between 0.1 percentage points and 0.4 percentage points."
Videos Obtained
by Judicial Watch Reveal Costumed Parodies, Playacting at GSA. Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained more than a half-dozen,
newly uncovered videos from U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) which show senior GSA officials and staff participating in costumed playacting and
parodies. These videos are evidence of GSA's extravagance, which, along with the scandalous 2010 Las Vegas regional conference, were revealed in a
scathing April 2012 inspector general (IG) report. These videos had been available on GSA's website prior to the release of the IG Report but were
removed shortly thereafter.
IG report: State
Department spent $630,000 to increase Facebook 'likes'. The State Department spent over $630,000 to increase Facebook "likes" for four of its pages
on the social-networking site, according to an inspector general's report. The efforts, which involved advertising initiatives between 2011 and March 2013,
increased the fan numbers for each page from about 100,000 to more than 2 million, the report said. But employees complained that the agency was "buying
fans," according to the inspector general.
The high price of Astroturf:
Hillary Clinton's State Department Spent $630,000 on
Facebook. Only two percent of the people who "liked" the Facebook pages shared or commented on the items. The program faced problems when
Facebook changed its approach to news feeds, making the campaign less viable. Instead, the bureau now pays for sponsored ads to keep content visible.
State Department bureau spent
$630,000 on Facebook 'likes'. State Department officials spent $630,000 to get more Facebook "likes," prompting employees to complain
to a government watchdog that the bureau was "buying fans" in social media, the agency's inspector general says. The department's Bureau of
International Information Programs spent the money to increase its "likes" count between 2011 and March 2013. "Many in the bureau criticize
the advertising campaigns as 'buying fans' who may have once clicked on an ad or 'liked' a photo but have no real interest in the topic and have
never engaged further," the inspector general reported.
DOT to Spend
$1.8 Million to Encourage Kids to Walk, Bike to School. The Transportation Department's Federal Highway
Administration is planning to spend $1.8 million to encourage students to bike and walk to school through the
establishment and operation of a National Safe Routes to School Clearinghouse.
The Editor says...
The Department of Transportation is spending serious money to tell kids to walk to school. What kind of transportation is that?
Obama unveils $7 billion power initiative for
Africa. U.S. President Barack Obama pledged $7 billion Sunday [6/30/2013] to help combat frequent power blackouts
in sub-Saharan Africa. Funds from the initiative, dubbed Power Africa, will be distributed over the next five years.
'Waist' of money at Guantanamo Bay as detainees
get prison's 'infidel' gym replaced. Americans are supposed to have sympathy for the accused terrorist detainees now on
hunger strike to protest supposedly cruel conditions at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. [...] But just a few years ago,
detainees got so plump from overeating hummus and other dishes from the camp's Islamically correct menu that commanders specially
ordered treadmills to help them lose weight.
Washington's $279 Billion Fraud.
If you think the federal student-loan program looks like a bad deal for taxpayers, imagine how it would look with honest accounting.
And now you don't need to imagine thanks to a new report that's receiving far too little attention. Turns out that the official
"savings" for taxpayers of $184 billion over the next decade really add up to $95 billion in losses.
US to Spend $771M on Planes Afghans Can't Use.
The U.S. government is about to spend more than $771 million on military aircraft that the Afghan people "lack the capacity to operate,"
according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).
IRS credit cards used for wine,
pornography, IG report says. Another government watchdog report has flagged inappropriate behavior at the IRS, this time claiming
government credit cards were used to make questionable purchases on items ranging from wine to online pornography. The report from the
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that between fiscal 2010 and 2011, the more than 5,000 IRS card accounts racked up
$103 million in purchases.
IRS Sent $46,378,040 in Refunds
to 23,994 'Unauthorized' Aliens at 1 Atlanta Address. The Internal Revenue Service sent 23,994 tax refunds worth a combined $46,378,040
to "unauthorized" alien workers who all used the same address in Atlanta, Ga., in 2011, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
(TIGTA). That was not the only Atlanta address theoretically occupied by thousands of "unauthorized" alien workers receiving millions in federal
tax refunds in 2011. In fact, according to a TIGTA audit report published last year, four of the top ten addresses to which the IRS sent thousands
of tax refunds to "unauthorized" aliens were in Atlanta.
Tax dollars spent on public broadcasting are being squandered on facilities like this:
NPR flaunts its wealth as MSM struggles.
An understandable wave of envy is sweeping through the Beltway mainstream media, in the wake of NPR (formerly known as National Public Radio) showing off a
spectacular new headquarters building in Washington, DC. NPR is spending big on creating a pleasant work environment while most other news media companies
are cutting back and laying off. The controversy started last Tuesday, when NPR offered a media tour of its new facility.
NPR Shows Off New Facility. NPR recently moved from Chinatown
into its new 400,000 square-foot home on North Capitol, and they're excited about it. Eager to show off the new facility, the organization offered a tour to
members of the media Tuesday morning [6/18/2013], starting with breakfast from their in-house chefs, along with some talking points from CEO Gary Knell, who
outlined some impressive features of the space.
Big Pill to Swallow:
Taxpayers to Pay for Illegal Immigrants' Med School. "The university's Stritch School of Medicine not only intends to waive legal residency
as an admissions requirement for applicants but aims to offer a financing plan through a state agency." Yes, that's right, not only is Loyola
admitting illegal aliens to its medical school, it is also handing you, the Illinois taxpayer, the bill for their education.
$45K for bloody mary mix, $213K for
strawberries among federal subsidies that must end, Coburn says. Even as it's cutting food programs for poor women and children, the
Agriculture Department is still spending money on housing for wealthy residents on Martha's Vineyard and paying companies to run marketing campaigns
for alcohol, pickles and jelly, according to a top senator who wants to see those priorities changed.
Stuff like this used to be called Army Surplus.
Scrapping
equipment key to Afghan drawdown. Facing a tight withdrawal deadline and tough terrain, the U.S. military has destroyed more than 170 million
pounds worth of vehicles and other military equipment as it rushes to wind down its role in the Afghanistan war by the end of 2014. [...] Military planners have
determined that they will not ship back more than $7 billion worth of equipment — about 20 percent of what the U.S. military has in
Afghanistan — because it is no longer needed or would be too costly to ship back home.
Uncle Sam's Yard Sale:
Gov't looks to unload Afghanistan war hardware. After 12 years of war in Afghanistan, officials are now
pondering what to do with $50 billion in equipment half a world away — including combat vehicles, dining
rooms, gyms, clothing and more. "A lot of this stuff, you're not really concerned about bringing it back," said Jim
Hasik, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. "I mean if a Coke machine falls into the hands of the Taliban, this
is just not a big disaster." But eventually, much of the gear will trickle down to the public. With the click of a
mouse the spoils of war can be yours on govliquidation.com. Each day, new items appear on the site — as bases
around the country release unneeded items — from rafts and trucks, to fire engines and pretzel stands.
The Editor says...
I wouldn't mind having a fire truck, but I don't want to go to Afghanistan to pick it up.
IRS Hiring 'Diversity
and Inclusion Specialist,' Starting at $123,758/Year. The IRS is looking to hire a "diversity and inclusion" specialist,
with a minimum salary of $123,758 a year. The opening for a full-time "Supervisory Diversity and Inclusion Specialist" at the
agency's national headquarters in Washington, D.C. was announced on June 11 and is open until June 24. The Diversity
Specialist will "serve as a change agent to provide strategies, solutions, training, tools, resources and thought leadership on
diversity and foster inclusion" across the workplace and "build internal awareness" for diversity and inclusion throughout the agency.
HHS spent $36 million on
meetings for bureaucrats. Coming on the heels of revelations that the IRS spent $50 million on more than 200 employee
conferences, it may be inconsequential to find out about $20,000 for a dental conference, $30,000 for a meeting in New Jersey and
$1 million for a Head Start gathering. Except perhaps to millions of American taxpayers who grow either more angry or
weary every time they hear — as they so frequently do these days — of yet another federal employee conference
of dubious value and excessive expense. The outlays for the dental, New Jersey and Head Start conferences were part of the
$36 million spent on such events by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since 2009, according to the House
Education and the Workforce Committee chaired by Rep. John Kline, R-Minn.
Taxpayers
spend $41.3 million in a year to advertise food stamps, a 6-fold increase over last decade. Spending on advertising and
outreach for food stamps has increased six-fold since 2000 — reaching $41.3 million in 2011, according to a new GOP
report. According to calculations released by Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions Budget Committee staff, using data from the
Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service, in the year 2000 spending on advertising for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP) — or food stamps — was approximately $6.5 million.
DOD Makes $1.1 Bil
in "Erroneous Payments" in One Year. Though it may seem inconceivable to the taxpayers that fund this atrocity, a
major government agency with a monstrous annual budget loses such large sums of money to waste and fraud each year that it has no idea
how much and nothing has been done to stop the hemorrhaging. What we do know, thanks to a federal audit released this month,
is that the amount of public funds lost to waste and fraud amounted to at least $1.1 billion in one recent year alone though
it's likely much higher. The actual figure will never be pinned down because financial management shortcomings at the agency,
the Department of Defense (DOD), are too severe.
State Employee Gambles
Nearly $1 Million in Taxpayer Money at Casino. The former fiscal director of Louisiana's Department of Health and
Hospitals stole more than $1 million in taxpayer money over a six-year period and spent more than $600,000 of it at a local casino,
CBS WAFB reports. She has been charged with theft by fraud, money laundering and malfeasance in office and faces a prison sentence
of up to 115 years.
Kerry quietly approved $1.3 billion in arms to Egypt.
US Secretary of State John Kerry quietly approved sending $1.3 billion in arms to Egypt in May, waiving the requirements of a US law meant to promote
democratic development in the post-revolutionary country.
U.S. quietly allows military aid
to Egypt despite rights concerns. Secretary of State John Kerry quietly acted last month to give Egypt $1.3 billion in
U.S. military aid, deciding that this was in the national interest despite Egypt's failure to meet democracy standards.
Secret Man Caves Found in EPA
Warehouse. A warehouse maintained by contractors for the Environmental Protection Agency contained secret rooms full of
exercise equipment, televisions and couches, according to an internal audit. EPA's inspector general found contractors used
partitions, screens and piled up boxes to hide the rooms from security cameras in the 70,000 square-foot building located in Landover,
Md. The warehouse — used for inventory storage — is owned by the General Services Administration and
leased to the EPA for about $750,000 per year.
'Deplorable'
Conditions Cited at EPA Warehouse in Maryland. The report found that the 70,000-square-foot warehouse — one
of EPA's largest — was storing large amounts of expensive, unused equipment, ranging from computers to pianos.
It also found numerous security and safety issues. "Personally identifiable information and agency sensitive files —
such as passports and legal files — were located in unsecured open boxes throughout the warehouse," the report states.
"There was a locked office inside the facility for which we could not determine a purpose."
GITMO Offers 'Resume Writing' Class for
Terrorists. The 166 terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay are offered a course in "interviewing and resume writing" as
part of their indefinite stay at the prison camp. Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) lists the variety of classes and
activities it offers to the terrorist trainers, financiers, bomb makers, recruiters and facilitators who are housed at Gitmo.
Among them: "Interviewing and Resume Writing "and "Writing Success."
House
panel: Report finds $50M for IRS conferences. Already under siege, the Internal Revenue Service was cited by a government
watchdog for a $4.1 million training conference featuring luxury rooms and free drinks, even as conservative figures told Congress
Tuesday [6/4/2013] they had been abused for years while seeking tax-exempt status.
More information — none of it favorable — about
the IRS.
IRS Spent $1.1 Million on BlackBerries and
Aircards It Didn't Use. According to an audit report released in January 2013 by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
(TIGTA), the Internal Revenue Service spent $1 million in taxpayer dollars to purchase BlackBerry™ smartphones and wireless internet
"aircards" — that subsequently went unused. According to the report, "The IRS paid approximately $1.1 million during Fiscal Year
2011 for 13,878 aircards and 754 BlackBerry™ smartphones that were not used for periods of three months to one year. [Moreover,] TIGTA
identified 45 aircards and 68 BlackBerry™ smartphones that were not used at all for the entire 12 months of the fiscal year."
IRS Worker Used Federal Plastic
For Amazon Buys. Entrusted with a government credit card, an Internal Revenue Service worker allegedly used the plastic
for a years-long Amazon.com shopping spree that netted her hundreds of items, including a chocolate fondue fountain; Bollywood
movies; Pampers; Harlequin romance novels; Omaha Steaks; Apple Bottoms skinny jeans; mango body wash; and a Ginsu knife set.
Yetunde Oseni, 37, was named this month in a U.S. District Court felony complaint charging her with embezzling government funds.
Oseni has worked since 2000 as a secretary in an IRS office in Lanham, Maryland. According to a court filing, Oseni was given a
Citibank MasterCard for the "purchase of office supplies for her business unit."
$19.5 Mil to Study Effect of
Climate Change on Cows. Just when you thought the U.S. government's global warming frenzy couldn't possibly get any worse,
the Obama administration announces that it's dedicating a whopping $19.5 million to study the effect of climate change on cows.
This crazy story comes via the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is giving several academic institutions the cash to support
research, education and other activities associated with climate solutions in agriculture. The goal is to uncover the impacts of
climate variability and change on dairy and beef cattle, according to an agency announcement released this week.
The Editor says...
Cows have been around longer than people, and so far the cows and the people have adapted every time their surrounding climates changed.
Also notice that "global warming" is now called "climate change",
because there is no global warming at the moment.
Stimulus: $152K to Get Lesbians
Ready for 'Adoptive Parenthood'. While the White House claims its stimulus package "supported as many as 3.5 million
jobs," none were yielded from a $152,000 project to ready lesbians for "adoptive parenthood." The $833 billion American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), commonly known as the stimulus, awarded the tustees of Clark University, in Worcester, Mass.,
$152,000 to interview roughly 50 lesbian couples about their adoption experiences.
Feds Spend $402,721 on Underwear That
Senses Cigarette Smoke. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded more than $400,000 to a research project
involving underwear that can detect when a person smokes cigarettes. The University of Alabama has received two grants totaling
$402,721 for the project, which so far has produced a "very early prototype" of the monitoring system, which — in its
current state — fits like a vest.
The Editor says...
I doubt if the vest can tell the difference between first- and second-hand smoke. But more importantly, who needs
a device like this, and for what purpose?
$12
million to help Bengal tigers survive global warming — in Bangladesh. Stymied in its war on global warming in
the United States, the administration is taking its fight overseas and into Bangladeshi jungles to help the Bengal tiger survive the
effects of climate change. While the most numerous of all tigers, there are only about 2,500 left in the wild and 440 in Bangladesh,
where the U.S. Agency for International Development is shopping around a four-year, $10.8 million to $12 million grant to
help establish the "Bengal Tiger Conservation Activity."
Wasn't enrollment in Obamacare supposed to be quick and easy?
HHS budgets
$150m to teach people how to enroll in Obamacare. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Thursday
that HHS will spend $150 million to teach people how to enroll in the Obamacare exchanges, after a Democratic senator scolded her for
running a poor "public information campaign."
Obama's $2.5M Hotel and 'Vehicle
Rental' Tab on Last Mexico Trip. According to recently discovered documents relating to the costs of that trip, taxpayers paid nearly
$2.5 million for hotel and "vehicle rental."
Obama
admin paid at least $2.5 million for hotel rooms and rental cars during one meeting in Mexico. The Obama
administration spent between $2.52 million and $2.77 million for hotel rooms and rental cars during the
president's 2012 trip to Mexico for a G-20 summit, MailOnline has learned. Government travel documents available
online show that the State Department contracted with a travel agency to spend between $1,889,383 and $2,078,327 on hotel
rooms alone, for the President, the Secret Service, and the rest of the State Department and White House staff and VIPs.
And rental cars for the trip cost between $630,760 and $693,836, according to a separate contract document.
New
Video Slams Unbuilt Ike Memorial for $142 Million Cost to Taxpayers. So far, the Eisenhower Memorial Committee has
spent more than $30 million on the yet-to-be built monument, and the total estimated cost of the project is
$142 million — three times the usual cost of presidential memorials in today's dollars, and twice
what was originally proposed.
Congresswoman's Round-the-World Trip Cost Taxpayers $23K.
The House Judiciary Committee reported Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, traveled around the world on an official trip in February that cost $23,646.
The Feb. 16-22 trip on commercial flights was to Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Senate Republicans quiz
Labor Department on purported payments for labor unions worldwide. Senate Republicans say the Labor Department appears to be spending millions in
taxpayer dollars to establish labor unions and promote collective bargaining in foreign countries and are asking top Obama administration officials for a full audit.
Karzai's Office Gets Bags Full of C.I.A.
Cash. For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been
dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan's president — courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency. All told, tens of
millions of dollars have flowed from the C.I.A. to the office of President Hamid Karzai, according to current and former advisers to the Afghan leader.
Shrink the Federal Bureaucracy. The federal government simply
spends too much. It also wastes far too much. Needless duplication and wasteful inefficiency permeate the federal bureaucracy.
For instance, the Government Accountability Office issued a report in March 2011 detailing "34 areas for consideration related to
duplication, overlap, or fragmentation" and 47 additional areas "describing other opportunities for agencies or Congress to consider
taking action." A year later, only five percent of the GAO's recommendations had been fully addressed.
Feds
spend at least $890,000 on fees for empty accounts. It is one of the oddest spending habits in Washington: This year,
the government will spend at least $890,000 on service fees for bank accounts that are empty. At last count, Uncle Sam has 13,712
such accounts with a balance of zero. They are supposed to be closed. But nobody has done the paperwork yet.
Another IRS
Scandal; Employees Lie to Get Welfare, Food Stamps. On the heels of "Tax Day," 24 Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
employees have been charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in government benefits, including food stamps, welfare
and housing vouchers. The story comes out of Tennessee, where federal prosecutors announced this month that the scheme fleeced
U.S. taxpayers out of at least a quarter of a million dollars in government benefits. The corrupt IRS employees did it by making
false statements to fraudulently obtain the benefits, which also included unemployment insurance.
Another day, another pointless and expensive experiment.
Why NASA Is Firing Cell Phones Into
Space. The space agency this week took a handful of cheap but powerful smartphones, slapped them to a gigantic rocket and
blasted them into low-earth orbit to see how they'd fare. The project, called PhoneSat, is one of those wacky experiments that
seems at first to have nothing to do with science.
More about NASA — an
organization that ran out of meaningful tasks about 20 years ago.
DOJ Spent $100 Million On Conferences In One Year.
Before the sequester took effect Attorney General Eric Holder went out and warned the American people that our safety would be at risk if the budget for the Department
of Justice was cut. What he didn't tell us is how much money the department wastes every year. Despite having four empty federal prisons, they bought another
prison in Illinois for $165 million that's now sitting empty and costing $6 million a year to maintain. They also spend $1.5 million a year to work
with Hollywood. And in 2010 alone, they spent $100 million on conferences, according to Rep. Bob Goodlatte.
Safe from Sequester: $704,198 for Gardening at
NATO Ambassador's Home. Just over a week after sequestration took effect, the State Department allotted more than $700,000 for gardening
at a U.S. Ambassador's residence in Brussels, Belgium. On March 11, State awarded a contract to provide gardening services at an "official
residence" of the U.S. Mission in Belgium.
DHS Orders Bagpipes? So
Much for Sequester Cuts. Apparently the head of the Department of Homeland Security is not even trying to save the government any money.
Yesterday [4/10/2013] DHS ordered a new supply of musical instruments including bagpipes and drums. There is music writing software included in
the order as well as the many small parts that go into caring for bagpipes.
Paterson cardiologist
admits to $19M in health care fraud. A prominent cardiologist who ran medical services companies in New Jersey and New York pleaded
guilty on Wednesday to orchestrating a massive fraud that subjected thousands of patients to unnecessary tests and procedures and resulted in
$19 million in losses. Dr. Jose Katz, 68, of Closter, confessed his crimes to U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares during a
hearing in federal court in Newark.
Feds waste $95 billion
on duplicative programs. How many federal agencies does it take to do catfish safety inspections? At least three, according to
the Government Accountability Office, which on Tuesday [4/9/2013] released its 2013 report on fragmentation and duplication of federal programs.
This year's report — there were two previous editions of the report first requested by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. — documents an
estimated $95 billion in duplicative programs that waste precious tax dollars. That brings the three-year total of potential savings
documented by GAO to $295 billion.
IRS Sits By As Inmates
Collect Fraudulent Tax Refunds. Nearly a year after Congress passed a law to stop incarcerated criminals from fraudulently
receiving millions of dollars in tax returns, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) hasn't bothered creating a system to catch the offenders.
Shouldn't those employees be working?
Obama Admin Spends $21,000 on Basketball
Equipment. At least the Oval Office just plays pick-up. The Departments of Interior and Transportation have caught the
basketball fever so bad, they've dropped more than $20K on rebounding machines.
Arlington, Va.'s million-dollar bus
stop looks cool, but why so expensive? At the corner of Columbia Pike and Walter Reed Dr. in Arlington, Va., sits a
stainless steel bus stop with a million dollar price tag. Yes, that's right. The futuristic-looking bus stop cost $1 million
to build. The so-called "super stop" boasts a heated concrete floor and a digital display board that shows when the next bus will
arrive, but it doesn't do much to keep commuters warm or dry (except for their feet).
364 Billion Ways the
Government Wastes Your Money. As the White House politicized the sequester cuts amounting to $85 billion in lower
federal spending, a recent GAO (Government Accountability Office) study identified "more than 1,362 duplicative programs accounting for
at least $364.5 billion in federal spending every single year..." claims Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) in a letter to the White House on
February 26. Yet little publicity has been generated in the media by the GAO report to Congress [...]
Here is the GAO report:
Opportunities to Reduce Duplication, Overlap and Fragmentation, Achieve Savings,
and Enhance Revenue. We have found that agencies can often realize a range of benefits, such as improved customer service,
decreased administrative burdens, and cost savings from addressing the issues we raise in this report. Cost savings related to
reducing or eliminating duplication, overlap, and fragmentation can be difficult to estimate in some cases because the portion of agency
budgets devoted to certain programs or activities is often not clear.
$423,500
Stimulus on 'Correct Condom Use' Yields Zero Jobs. The details of a stimulus grant awarded to Indiana University to study
condom use have now been released on a government website. The study, titled "Barriers to Correct Condom Use," is now completed,
according to the website, and the university received $423,500 of stimulus funds to perform the study.
HUD report: Nearly
$700 million Katrina rebuilding funding missing. A report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office
of the Inspector General reveals that $698.5 million dollars in disaster recovery funds given to Louisiana homeowners in the wake of
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were not used to fulfill the purpose of the funding — to elevate damaged homes. According
to the report, dated March 29, a total of 24,042 Louisiana homeowners who received up to $30,000 each were "noncompliant, including
those that had not elevated their homes; were nonresponsive; or did not provide sufficient supporting documentation" to show that they
had used the taxpayer funding to reconstruct their homes as of Aug. 31, 2012.
$700 Mil in Hurricane
Recovery Funds Gone With the Wind. In yet another example of how the Obama administration blows the nation's tax dollars,
hundreds of millions earmarked for a failed housing program have vanished and the feds aren't terribly worried about recovering the lost
cash. The missing loot is part of a highly questionable Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program that liberally doled out cash
to Louisiana homeowners so they could elevate and protect their houses from storms. The feds came up with this brilliant idea after
Hurricane Katrina slammed the region in 2005 because the area, especially New Orleans, got flooded.
Obama's great
high-speed train robbery. The state of California, already $28 billion in debt, is supposed to begin construction
of a $68 billion high-speed rail project in July. The state's High-Speed Rail Authority voted last week to issue $8.6 billion
in taxpayer-approved bonds to build the first 130 miles of track between Fresno and Bakersfield. But a slew of lawsuits threatens
to delay the project, and state authorities still have not purchased a single acre of land on which to build the rail line.
More information (none of it favorable)
about high speed rail projects.
Obama to announce $100 million for brain research.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday [4/2/2013] unveiled a $100 million initiative to unlock the "enormous mystery" of the human brain in
hopes of boosting the understanding and treatment of brain disorders.
The Editor says...
Scientists are already studying the human brain, and have been for at least a century. Basic scientific research is not the
proper role of government. Spending $100 million on such a thing, at a time when the national debt is already increasing rapidly, is
irresponsible. President Obama is spending money on problems nobody has asked him to address, simply because spending other
people's money is the only thing he knows how to do.
Bread and Circuses:
The Last Days of the American Empire. The 2012 Census report of Foreign Economic and Military Aid totaled some $45 B,
handed to 70 such major (and numerous minor) recipients as Pakistan, Egypt, Russia, (Russia?) Zimbabwe and the Gaza Strip.
If the U.S. is not an empire, it certainly seems to act like one. And as Rome's empire finally exceeded its finances, so now with
America. One cannot finance an empire with deficits.
Feds Spending $880,000 to Study Benefits of
Snail Sex. The National Science Foundation awarded a grant for $876,752 to the University of Iowa to study whether there is
any benefit to sex among New Zealand mud snails and whether that explains why any organism has sex. The study, first funded in 2011
and continuing until 2015, will study the New Zealand snails to see if it is better that they reproduce sexually or asexually —
the snail can do both — hoping to gain insight on why so many organisms practice sexual reproduction.
HHS Gives Planned
Parenthood Orlando $2.4 Million to Fund Sex Ed for Teens. Health and Human Services' Office of Adolescence Health is giving
Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando $2,388,950 in grant funding for its "Teens Rise!" project.
Insane
Government Waste and Use of Taxpayer Money:
• $1.5 million on designing a video game controller
• $100,000 on taxpayer funded comedy group tour in India
• $547,430 on a dancing robot that connects to an iPhone
• $25,000 funding a course about "How to be happy"
• $145,000 on a sculpture garden
• $25,000 on an Alabama Watermelon Queen tour
• $697,177 on a climate change musical
IRS
knowingly sends Billions in Fraudulent Refunds to Illegal Immigrants. A WTHR-TV Indianapolis investigative report
exposes a fraudulent scheme wherein the IRS is sending $4.2 billion per year to illegal immigrants as an "additional child tax
credit" for children who don't even live in the U.S. Further, the IRS and Congress have been ignoring the scheme for years.
Pentagon handed out
$419 million in improper travel reimbursements last year. While making improvements in some spending areas, the
Defense Department was singled out this week for failing to trim unnecessary travel reimbursements. In fact, the Pentagon's
internal watchdog concluded that wasteful travel spending actually grew last year to a total of $419.3 million, accounting for
roughly five percent of the Pentagon's mammoth $8.4 billion travel budget.
The Economic Truth About Lying.
The U.S. Attorney in Manhattan revealed in October 2011 an investigation into Long Island Railroad workers' fraudulent disability claims
adding up to millions of dollars. As of January, 32 people had been indicted, with 16 guilty pleas involving perjury,
health-care fraud and obstruction of justice. An FBI report on financial crimes for the 2010-11 fiscal year calculated that
fraudulent billing to health-care payers, Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurers is between 2% and 10% of total health-care
expenditures.
No Money for Air Traffic Control, But $500 million
for Hamas. Dear Leader says there's no money for airport control towers. But that didn't stop him from writing a
$500 million dollar check to the terrorists of Hamas.
Joe
Biden runs up bill of $585,000 for just one night in five-star Paris hotel. Paris may be known
as the City of Light, but that title certainly doesn't mean that visitors are light on spending as Vice President Joe
Biden's one day trip cost taxpayers more than half a million dollars. When Mr Biden and his hefty entourage stayed
in Paris for an evening in early February and it cost $585,000.50 for that single night.
Biden's $459,388.65 Hotel Bill.
Vice President Biden and his entourage spent a little time in London in early February during his first foreign trip of the second term of
the Obama administration. A document released today [3/22/2013] revealed that the cost of lodging in London alone was close to half a
million dollars.
Sequester Joe Biden. Vice President Biden's hotel
bill in Paris — the Drudge Report headlines it at $585,000.50 for a night at the Intercontinental, not including the ride in
from the airport — is prompting the futureofcapitalism.com to wonder why Amtrak's most famous passenger failed to stay at the
sprawling palace that serves as the residence of the American ambassador in the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. A good question,
to which we'd add our own: What was Mr. Biden, whose only constitutional duty is to serve in the Senate as its president, doing in
Paris in the first place?
Amtrak isn't good enough for him.
As VP, Biden Has Been Flying To Delaware on the
Weekends. Vice President Biden has been flying home to Wilmington, Delaware most weekends at enormous expense to taxpayers,
even though he has an exclusive government-provided residence in Washington. [...] The cost of flying Air Force Two, a military version
of the Boeing 757-200, amounts to about $8,800 per hour, according to the most recent federal data. The distance between Washington
and Wilmington is only about a hundred miles [...]
Unplug the electric subsidies.
Taxpayers already offset $7,500 of the cost of every hybrid through a federal tax credit at a total cost of $2 billion. In
addition, many states offer similar incentives of their own. The 2009 stimulus bill poured $2 billion into the development
and manufacture of electric-car batteries and other components, and the Energy Department's "advanced-technology vehicle manufacturing
program" offers up to $25 billion in direct federal loans to electric car makers. Moreover, $400,000 has been wasted on
"education projects" to promote electric cars.
$2.7M
Federal Study: Why Do Lesbians Have Higher 'Risk for Hazardous Drinking'? The National Institutes of Health (NIH)
has awarded $2.7 million to study why lesbians are at a higher "risk for hazardous drinking." The University of Illinois
has received grants since 2009 for its project, "Cumulative Stress and Hazardous Drinking in a Community of Adult Lesbians," which
aims to develop "culturally sensitive" strategies to prevent lesbians from being drunks.
Obama keeps
rolling the dice on green energy. Like a desperate gambler who doubles down on a losing bet, President Obama is calling for
spending $2 billion more on green energy projects. Apparently these billions will succeed where previous billions have failed.
U.S. Spending $227,437
to Study How National Geographic Depicted Animals. The federal government is spending $227,437 to investigate how animals
have been depicted in National Geographic magazine over a span of 120 years, which federal officials say is an "innovative study"
that will examine "images of animals to see how people have changed their view of the natural world." The grant was issued March 4
from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to Michigan State University to look at how animals were depicted in the science magazine
from 1888 to 2008.
Obama
seeks $2 billion in research on cleaner vehicles, fuels. President Barack Obama tried to turn the page on bitterly
partisan fights over energy policy on Friday [3/15/2013], focusing the first energy speech of his second term on a modest proposal
to fund research into cars that run on anything but gasoline.
This is what's known as a slush fund.
Obama to call
for $2 billion green energy fund. President Obama in Illinois Friday will call for the creation of a $2 billion
Energy Security Trust, which would take government royalties from offshore oil and gas leasing and use the money for research in
green-energy technologies. [...] The initiative comes as Republicans pressure Obama to approve construction of the Keystone XL
Pipeline, a project that would carry oil from Canada to refineries in Texas. The president has delayed construction of the
pipeline because of environmental concerns.
Obama doubles down on
alternative energy. President Barack Obama is doubling down on the administration's plan to reinvest federal oil-and-gas
drilling revenues into next-generation alternative energy technology, unveiled during his State of the Union address last February.
$1.8M Federal Grant
Helped D.C. Make Fruits and Vegetables Available at Work. The municipal government of Washington, D.C. received a
$1.8 million federal Community Transformation Grant in 2012 to promote healthy lifestyles in the city. Among the things the
city would do with the money, as listed on its application, was increasing the "availability of fruit and vegetables to employees in their
workplaces."
Government Waste Hits
You Right in the Pocketbook. Federal watchdogs have ideas for saving $67 billion a year, according to a report by a
House committee. That's without counting the sequester. So who are these "watchdogs"? They are the government's
Inspectors General who police the departments of the government for waste, fraud and abuse. They are the government's auditors.
They suggest ways to make government operation more efficient and to plug money leaks.
Patriots
Must Be Prepared to Answer Obama's Lies and Deceptions. Obama stubbornly refused to cut Washington spending $2.6 million
training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job. The Government Accountability Office revealed that more than half
of federal employee upgrades to business-class flights are not properly authorized, costing taxpayers $146 million a year.
In 2008 and 2009 alone, Obama's Department of Justice spent $121 million on conferences for government employees. A Senate
audit exposed $18 billion in egregious government spending.
Feds let Medicare provider give away $20 grocery cards
to lure patients. The Department of Health and Human Services has given qualified approval for a Medicare provider to
give away $20 grocery gift cards to induce seniors to get more taxpayer-funded health screenings, despite concerns the promotion
could run afoul of federal anti-kickback laws.
Feds Spend $1.5 Million to Study Why
Lesbians Are Fat. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $1.5 million to study biological and social
factors for why "three-quarters" of lesbians are obese and why gay males are not, calling it an issue of "high public-health
significance." Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass., has received two grants administered by NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to study the relationship between sexual orientation and obesity.
Not so fast, Mr. President.
Since President Obama took office in 2009, money-saving ideas have continued to sit on a shelf, collecting dust. Four years ago,
there were 10,894 recommended reductions, compared with 16,900 reductions, worth an additional $30 billion, awaiting action today.
Since those "figures reflect the most conservative possible accounting" of the number of recommendations, their value is likely to be
"significantly higher," the committee explains. That's quite a contrast to the endless parade of sky-is-falling scenarios broadcast
by the Cabinet during the sequestration fight over a mere $85 billion reduction in the rate of spending growth.
HHS Awards $6 Million
Contract for Parking Spaces. The contract was awarded on February 19th before the sequester took effect, but the timing
could still prove embarrassing for the Obama administration. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the
five-year lease for 1,076 parking spaces in Bethesda, Maryland, for National Institutes of Health (NIH) employees at a cost of almost
$6 million. This breaks down to $1,115 per space per year.
NSF
Under the Microscope. The report identifies more than $1.2 billion the National Science Foundation (NSF) has lost due to
waste, fraud, duplication and mismanagement and an additional $1.7 billion in unspent funds. [...] Examples of the more than $3 billion
in waste and duplication outlined in the report include:
• $80,000 study on why the same teams always dominate March Madness;
• $315,000 study suggesting playing FarmVille on Facebook helps adults develop and maintain relationships;
• $1 million for an analysis of how quickly parents respond to trendy baby names;
• $2 million to figure out that people who often post pictures on the internet
from the same location at the same time are usually friends; and
• $581,000 on whether online dating site users are racist.
Investing in Bad Science. [Scroll down] The
master of waste, fraud, and abuse among the research-funding agencies, though, is the Environmental Protection Agency, the logo of which should be a
Golden Fleece flanked by dollar signs. EPA, with a research budget in excess of $800 million, has long been more concerned with public
relations than public health. A scheme was exposed several years that would have diverted EPA "research" funds to pay outside public relations
consultants up to $5 million over five years to improve the website of the Office of Research and Development, conduct focus groups on how to
polish the office's image, and produce ghostwritten articles praising the agency "for publication in scholarly journals and magazines."
Sen.
Coburn targets Defense Department waste. Senator Tom Coburn [is] blasting the Defense Department over wasteful
spending. He insists there are plenty of expenses to cut from the defense budget without hurting the military. For
instance, $1 million to send a spaceship to another galaxy, $1.5 million to cook up a new type of beef jerky, and why
spend any amount of money on a 46-minute video production called "Grill It Safe" featuring grill sergeants showing off their
own recipes.
Obscene Government Waste. The government spends
$1.7 billion for maintenance on empty buildings it owns, although some sources put the figure at closer to $25 billion.
The Office of Management and Budget estimates that 55,000 properties are underutilized or entirely vacant. The federal government
owns approximately one-third of all U.S. land. It does not need more land and it could be argued that it should not own 80% of
Nevada and Alaska, and more than half of Idaho.
How
more than $8 billion in US taxpayers' money went to waste in Iraq. During the course of the nine-year US presence in Iraq,
at least $8 billion — or 13.3 percent of US reconstruction spending — was wasted, according to the final
report released today by the Special Investigator General for Iraq Reconstruction.
Paper
Which Just Laid Off A Bunch Of Employees Hysterical Over "Austerity". First of all, if the people who run the federal
agencies cannot deal with tiny reductions in future increases of budget allocation and maximize the money they have, perhaps they
should be replaced with people who understand How To Make A Budget. Start with refusing to pay for cost overruns (this could
save hundreds of billions each year). Stop funding masters degrees for people in Indonesia (16-20 million). $500 million
on a study to get 5 year olds to sit still. Reduce overlapping programs. Oh, and here's $25 billion a year to
maintain unused federal buildings.
White House
Visitors Office director received $30,000 raise in 4 years. The annual salary for the director of the White House
Visitors Office, Ellie S. Schafer, went from $70,000 in 2009 to $100,000 in 2012. According to annual reports to Congress
on White House staff salaries, Schafer was paid $70,000 in 2009, $71,400 in 2010, $80,000 in 2011 and $100,000 in 2012. Schafer
is listed by the White House on each report as the director of the Visitors Office for each year, but was also named a special assistant
to the president in 2012.
Chief
White House calligrapher gets paid $96,725 a year. In all, the White House appears to employ three
calligraphers for a yearly total of $277,050.
U.S. Pays
$1.5 Mil to Preserve Politically Correct Graffiti. Because it's considered defacement and vandalism, graffiti is
a crime yet the U.S. government has spent $1.5 million to actually preserve some left during the hostile Indian occupation of
California's Alcatraz Island more than four decades go. Why is Indian graffiti worth preserving when local governments across
the nation spend tens of millions of dollars to remove it annually? Because, evidently, this is politically correct graffiti
that has a "social significance," according to a National Park Service official quoted in a San Francisco newspaper.
Senate
Audit Exposes $18 Billion in Egregious Govt. Spending. As the nation suffers through a mind-boggling $16 trillion
(and growing) debt crisis, a federal audit exposes some of the egregious ways the U.S. government has blown your tax dollars,
including millions on Moroccan pottery classes and hundreds of thousands on a musical about climate change. It would
almost be unbelievable if it weren't documented in a lengthy report (appropriately titled "Waste Book 2012") released this
week by a U.S. Senator who sits on the Finance, Judiciary and Homeland Security committees. While the Obama Administration
racks up record debt, many government agencies have embarked on wild spending sprees as Congress sits idly by.
High-flying
Holder: Report shows AG, FBI director used luxury jets for personal travel. Two high-tech luxury jets that
the FBI convinced Congress were needed for the fight against global terrorism have instead been used to ferry around
Attorney General Eric Holder and his predecessors, as well as FBI Director Robert Mueller, according to a government
report released Thursday [2/28/2013]. Those officials — which included Holder and Mueller, as well as
former Attorneys General Michael Mukasey and Alberto Gonzales — racked up nearly 700 "nonmission" trips between
2007 and 2011, at a cost of $11.4 million, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Sequestration doesn't cut nearly
enough. A study to learn whether or not a fish called the golden shiner can teach us about "collective action":
$5 million. A project to design beef jerky that rolls up: $1.5 million. A seminar in which a topic was, "Did
Jesus die for Klingons, too?" (This is a question, I can assure you, that will not be answered by any sane person): $100,000.
These examples of absurd government spending become even more absurd when you realize these items were all part of the budget for the
Department of Defense.
The FAA's unfriendly skies.
[I]n the last seven years the FAA has sent more than 18,000 of its employees to conferences across the country, including destinations
such as Las Vegas. In fiscal 2010 alone, the agency spent more than $8 million on conferences for its employees.
Three of those conferences, all held in the same city during the same three-week span, cost more than $4.5 million.
The Logic of Liberalism. Green
energy solutions have become a centerpiece of the current administration. Hundreds of millions have been poured into green
energy programs, many without a single measurable result. Yet, the administration is convinced of the importance of green
energy and is committed to further investment in this venue.
'Tens of Billions of Dollars'
Wasted on Duplicate Federal Programs: Report. A federal government watchdog said Tuesday tens of billions of dollars are
being wasted because of duplicate programs run by several agencies, and more effort is needed to address a problem first identified last
year. A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a non-partisan agency, said there are 51 areas where programs
can be streamlined and made more efficient. The GAO's 428-page report identifies programs that share goals and services, and that
are spread across multiple agencies.
$50,000 for Michelle's
Let's Move! trip . First lady Michelle Obama's three-day, four-city hop scotch to promote the third anniversary of her
"Let's Move!" initiative that cheers healthy eating and exercise will likely cost an estimated $50,000 or more, enough to fund a few
programs for kids that the White House fears the sequester will kill.
Pulling the plug on federal agencies'
TVs. I realize that each federal agency needs some cable televisions — for the agency head, the congressional
affairs office, the press office and the top-tier staff (e.g., chief agency attorney), to monitor congressional hearings, etc.
But the parking lot clerk? No way! Ditto for front-office clerical staff. I think they will be much more
productive when there's no television blaring away in the reception area.
The Diversity Racket. Millions of dollars in federal and local
taxpayer money have been spent on a controversial "diversity" speaker who has made government workers say the "pilgrims were illegal
aliens" and excused illegal immigration because the U.S. "took over what used to be Mexico." Judicial Watch recently revealed
that two federal government agencies, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Defense, had hired Dr. Samuel
Betances. Both agencies spent more than $3 million on Betances' training program. Judicial Watch obtained a videotape
of Betances' speech to USDA employees through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
Samuel Betances: Race Hustler
on the Dole. The Obama administration would have you believe trimming federal fat will cause a calamity.
Here's a suggestion — stop giving federal money to Samuel Betances. Betances is the top-shelf race hustler who
receives your hard-earned tax dollars to go inside federal agencies in Washington, D.C., and teach government workers that America
is a racist country. Judicial Watch obtained records of one of his looney talks at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
It contained a creepy call and response that would have made the Symbionese Liberation Army proud.
Health Dept.: Homeless
Can't Eat Deer Meat. Hunters across Louisiana are outraged after state health officials ordered a rescue mission to
destroy $8,000 worth of deer meat because venison is not allowed to be served in homeless shelters. The Dept. of Health and
Hospitals ordered the staff at the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission to throw 1,600 pounds of donated venison in garbage
bins — and then ordered then to douse the meat with Clorox — so other animals would not eat the meat.
"Deer meat is not permitted to be served in a shelter, restaurant or any other public eating establishment in Louisiana," said a
Health Dept. official in an email to Fox News.
The Editor says...
Beggars can't be choosers. Let them eat venison, or horse meat, or road kill.
The homeless shelter is not a hotel. We do not owe vagrants a balanced and nutritious diet.
DoD
Spends $5.2 Million on "Goldfish Studies". In an era of trillion dollar-plus annual deficits, $5 million might
not seem like a lot of money. But it's a start. And because [Kentucky Senator Rand] Paul recognizes that there are so
many other government programs that are wasteful and serve no meaningful purpose, he wants to give the president more leeway to
cut them.
Insurer
with NY's 'worst' record of complaints gets $340M Obamacare loan. The New York-based Freelancers Insurance Company
has been rated the "worst" insurer for two straight years by state regulators, and data compiled by a national insurance association
show an extremely high rate of consumer complaints. The firm was founded in 2008 by Sara Horowitz, who worked with Obama while
he was in the Illinois state senate to launch Demos, a left-wing, New York think tank funded in part by George Soros.
DOE
confirms LG Chem battery plant workers were paid not to make Chevy Volt batteries. After a big announcement
in 2010 that the plant would open and hire over 400 people, the first batteries were supposed to start being made in
2012. Unfortunately, the plant has been sitting idle even though the company received $142 million in federal
funds and was granted $175 million in tax breaks. Only half of the 400 job have been filled, and those workers
were paid about $842,000 to do other things in late 2012, including watching movies and playing board, card and video games.
FBI
raids headquarters of The Scooter Store as part of $100 million Medicare fraud investigation. More than 150 FBI agents and
local cops have raided the Texas headquarters of The Scooter Store, the nation's largest supplier of mobility vehicles, after the company
allegedly defrauded Medicare by $100 million. The company is accused of harassing doctors with constant phone calls and surgery
visits in order to wear them down to prescribe their vehicles to patients who do not need them.
USDA staff taught that the pilgrims were 'illegal aliens' in compulsory 'Cultural Sensitivity Training' video.
The USDA is under fire for spending $200,000 of taxpayers money on a mandatory 'Cultural Sensitivity Training' program in which employees were told to refer to
the Pilgrims as 'illegal aliens' and minorities as 'emerging majorities'.
Senators
raise alarm over another possible sale of taxpayer-backed firm to Chinese. Republican senators complained Wednesday that U.S. taxpayer
dollars could end up boosting the Chinese economy, following reports that a Chinese firm is leading the pack of companies bidding for a majority stake
in government-backed Fisker Automotive. The troubled California-based electric car maker, which was backed by U.S. taxpayers to the tune of
nearly $530 million, for months has been looking for a financial partner.
Taxpayer
dollars used to fund study tying Tea Party to tobacco lobby. Taxpayer dollars were used to fund a study that painted the
Tea Party movement as the spawn of the tobacco lobby — a premise that Tea Party leaders say is absurd.
NJ Transit workers
take trip to Super Bowl on taxpayers' dime. NJ Transit sent four employees to the Super Bowl in New Orleans — including
a key rail official who was in charge of the Hoboken terminal when dozens of rail cars and locomotives, left to sit in low-lying
yards, were damaged during superstorm Sandy — at a taxpayer cost of $14,505, expense reports show.
Federally
Funded Chevy Volt Battery Plant Paid Workers to Play, Not Make Batteries. It was supposed to be the center of a
resurgent domestic lithium ion battery industry. A shiny new factory in Holland, Michigan, that by the end of 2013 would
produce enough energy cells to power 60,000 electric or hybrid electric cars — and the Chevy Volt would be its highest-profile
customer. Instead, after spending $142 million of a $151 million federal Recovery Act grant to set up the
factory, LG Chem Michigan has yet to produce a single battery cell that can be used in an electric car sold to the public.
It gets worse. Two of five planned production lines remain unfinished. And rather than the 440 jobs the plant
was supposed to create, less than half exist today.
Retiring Parsippany police chief to
get $132K a year, state says. The township police chief will soon retire with an annual benefit of $131,951.76, according
to state Department of Treasury spokesman William Quinn. Anthony DeZenzo filed a retirement application with the New Jersey Police
and Firemen's Retirement System on Feb. 8, according to Quinn.
Report:
$2 billion spent annually for Medicaid emergencies, largely for illegal immigrant baby deliveries. Even
though federal law largely bars illegal immigrants from obtaining Medicaid coverage, the program annually pays out more
than $2 billion in free emergency coverage that mostly goes to illegal immigrants, according to Kaiser Health News.
The vast majority of the total emergency care reimbursements cover delivering babies, Kaiser reports.
Obama Commits Assault With Battery.
The problem here is so obvious that it shouldn't be necessary to say it: If projects such as this made any economic sense at all,
banks would be financing them. But these schemes are far too irrational for even the most profligate of banks or the junk bonds
or any other legitimate means of finance. So the politicians rush in, falling over each other to squander the nation's diminishing
treasure on yet another billion-dollar photo op.
Confidential,
expensive USDA sensitivity training: 'The Pilgrims were illegal aliens'. Footage of the United States Department
of Agriculture's compulsory "Cultural Sensitivity Training" program reveals USDA employees being instructed to refer to the
Pilgrims as "illegal aliens" and minorities as "emerging majorities" — at "a huge expense" to taxpayers. The
video clips were made public Thursday evening by the conservative government accountability group Judicial Watch, which obtained
them through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made on May 18, 2012.
No Batteries,
Just Playtime: Another $150M Strike for Green-Tech Stimulus. In February 2010, LG Chem Michigan Inc., a subsidiary
of the Korean corporation, was awarded more than $150 million in Recovery Act funding to help construct a $304 million
manufacturing plant in Holland, Mich., for lithium-ion polymer batteries to be used in electric cars. The goal was to
manufacture enough electric-car batteries to equip 60,000 vehicles annually by the end of this year. [...] While employees
were goofing off, the plant hadn't even reached the capability to manufacture batteries beyond test cells that couldn't be sold to
the public. [...] Additionally, a project that was supposed to create more than 440 jobs didn't even reach half that goal.
Report:
Michigan battery firm misused $150M U.S. grant. A Michigan-based company slated to produce lithium-ion polymer batteries
for electric vehicles has instead kept production overseas, has failed to meet job targets outlined in a $150 million grant
from the federal government, and has been reimbursed by the government for $842,000 in wasted work time, according to a U.S. Department
of Energy Special Report released Wednesday [2/13/2013]. [...] The agency said employees "spent time volunteering at local non-profit
organizations, playing games and watching movies during regular working hours."
Jet-setting Panetta
most expensive defense secretary, with $32,000 tab per weekend trip