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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Dos Equis on June 04, 2012, 08:52:52 PM
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Brilliant. >:(
Biden Spends $1 Million Annually for Weekend Trips
Monday, 04 Jun 2012 05:04 PM
By Ronald Kessler
Ronald Kessler reporting from Washington, D.C. — Last June, President Obama appointed Vice President Joe Biden to root out wasteful government spending. But behind the scenes, it’s a different matter.
Every Friday, Biden takes a helicopter designated as Marine Two from the vice president’s residence to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and then hops on Air Force Two to fly back to his home in Delaware. At the end of the weekend, he returns on Air Force Two, usually a Boeing C-32.
During warm weather, Biden regularly returns to Andrews on the airplane on Saturdays to play golf at the Air Force base with President Obama. After the golf game, he flies back to Delaware and returns to Washington on the plane on Sunday evening — all at taxpayer expense.
The cost of flying Air Force Two is $22,000 an hour, so each half-hour trip to or from Delaware costs about $10,000. Each golf game costs taxpayers $20,000. At that rate, the annual cost to taxpayers of Biden’s weekend trips is well over $1 million.
In addition, the Secret Service rents more than 20 condominiums in the Wilmington, Del. area for agents who must accompany Biden when he returns to his home state.
Biden’s press office had no immediate comment.
“Biden leaves every Friday from Joint Base Andrews, so he gets lifts from the observatory via Marine Two to Andrews Air Force Base, takes off via Air Force Two, lands in Delaware, and stays the weekend and then comes back on Sunday nights,” says a Secret Service agent familiar with the trips.
“Every three or four weeks when it’s warm, he gets up there on Saturday and then will fly back on Air Force Two,” the agent says. “While Air Force Two is sitting on the tarmac at Andrews, he goes and plays golf with the president at Andrews Air Force Base, gets back on the plane, and flies back to Delaware. Let me tell you something, that is egregious.”
Besides that, “The Secret Service rents condos in Wilmington because his schedule is so fluid and never concrete enough to properly prepare for his visits to Delaware,” the agent says. “So they keep a fully staffed Secret Service advance team in Delaware in condominiums that we lease so that when he does these things back and forth to D.C., they’re up there ready for him to arrive.”
The Boeing C-32 that usually flies as Air Force Two is a specially configured Boeing 757-200 commercial jet which typically requires a crew of 18.
As a U.S. senator, Biden was proud of the fact that he commuted daily by train from his home in Delaware to Washington during the week. Amtrak named the newly renovated Wilmington station the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Railroad Station. But after taking office as vice president, a Secret Service agent says Biden began the pattern of commuting on Air Force Two on weekends, costing taxpayers close to $4 million so far.
As recently as May 12, Biden flew back to Andrews to play golf with Obama and with Biden’s second son Hunter and White House trip director Marvin Nicholson. They played 18 holes of golf for four and a half hours.
Biden also plays golf at a country club he belongs to in the Wilmington area. The Secret Service agent says that since Air Force Two parks at Andrews, Obama is obviously aware that Biden is running up a huge government tab for each game of golf he plays with him.
Asked if President Obama thinks these costs are appropriate, why he has not questioned Biden flying to play golf with him at a cost of $20,000 per game, and in view of these costs of $1 million a year for weekend trips, whether the vice president should no longer be in charge of cutting government waste, the president’s press office had no immediate comment.
In addition to his salary as vice president of $230,700, Biden has free use of the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory. The vice president’s residence is a handsome 9,150-square-foot, three-story mansion overlooking Massachusetts Avenue NW in Washington.
Complete with pool, pool house, and indoor gym, the white brick house was built in 1893 as the home of the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory. Congress turned it into the official residence of the vice president in 1974 and gave it the address One Observatory Circle.
During the day, at least five Navy stewards attend to every personal need of the second family, including cleaning, cooking, shopping for food, and doing the laundry.
Biden has portrayed himself as a regular Joe, a product of a working class family who takes on millionaires and Republicans who are said to be out of touch with middle-class Americans.
Last June 13, Obama placed Biden in charge of a Campaign to Cut Waste, which will “hunt down and eliminate misspent tax dollars in every agency and department across the federal government,” according to the White House website.
In an email, Biden told supporters that he was the “new sheriff in town.” He said that “particularly at a time when we’re facing tough decisions about reducing our deficit, it’s a no-brainer to stop spending taxpayer dollars on things that benefit nobody.”
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Biden-weekend-travel-Air-Force-Two/2012/06/04/id/441168
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Disgusting. FUJB!!!
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Bon Jovi gets a ride on Air Force One
By BYRON TAU |
6/4/12 5:08 PM EDT
Musician Jon Bon Jovi is shown. | Reuters
Rocker Jon Bon Jovi got a lift Monday to New York on Air Force One with President Obama.
The Bon Jovi frontman was spotted by reporters rounding a corner at JFK airport in New York City. After he was spotted, the White House acknowledged that he joined the president on the flight. A White House official said he was traveling as a "guest of the President."
Bon Jovi is headlining a campaign event at the Waldorf-Astoria, where he will perform for about 500 supporters. According to a White House official, the campaign paid for Bon Jovi's trip.
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Iraq Rebuilding Risked Billions in U.S. Funds, Auditor Concludes
Friday, 13 Jul 2012
The U.S. government’s drive to rebuild Iraq “put billions of American taxpayer dollars at risk of fraud, waste and abuse,” and the amount misspent will never be known, according to the final report by a U.S. watchdog agency.
The report by Special Inspector for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen, released today, questioned almost $636 million in costs through June. Auditors found such lapses as “inadequate reviews of contractors’ invoices,” a lack of sufficient oversight staff and poor recordkeeping, according to the report.
The U.S. provided more than $51 billion for reconstruction projects in war-torn Iraq from fiscal year 2003 to 2011.
The report said U.S. officials failed in “numerous instances” to thoroughly review contractors’ invoices before paying them. In one case involving a State Department contract, the department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs had one contracting officer validating invoices totaling more than $2.5 billion.
“As a result, invoices were not properly reviewed, and the $2.5 billion in U.S. funds were vulnerable to fraud and abuse,” the report found. The State Department instituted stronger oversight of the contract and recovered more than $60 million that should never have been paid, the report said.
High Turnover
High staff turnover added to the risk of waste and fraud, the inspection agency said. In one case, the U.S. government paid a contractor almost $123 million to build electrical transmission and distribution facilities in southern Iraq, with 14 different contract officers supervising from March 2004 to September 2006. That is a new contracting supervisor every 65 days, undercutting the effectiveness of oversight, the report found.
The agency said work by its investigators and those of other agencies have resulted in 71 convictions and almost $177 million in fines and forfeitures.
Kickbacks were the leading type of criminal activity, accounting for 71 percent of indictments, according to the report. The report said one case involved an army major contracting officer deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait who accepted Rolex watches, cash and other items valued at more than $200,000 in exchange for help to foreign companies seeking Army contracts.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/iraq-reconstruction-fraud-waste/2012/07/13/id/445215
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Brilliant. >:(
Biden Spends $1 Million Annually for Weekend Trips
Monday, 04 Jun 2012 05:04 PM
By Ronald Kessler
Ronald Kessler reporting from Washington, D.C. — Last June, President Obama appointed Vice President Joe Biden to root out wasteful government spending. But behind the scenes, it’s a different matter.
Every Friday, Biden takes a helicopter designated as Marine Two from the vice president’s residence to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and then hops on Air Force Two to fly back to his home in Delaware. At the end of the weekend, he returns on Air Force Two, usually a Boeing C-32.
During warm weather, Biden regularly returns to Andrews on the airplane on Saturdays to play golf at the Air Force base with President Obama. After the golf game, he flies back to Delaware and returns to Washington on the plane on Sunday evening — all at taxpayer expense.
The cost of flying Air Force Two is $22,000 an hour, so each half-hour trip to or from Delaware costs about $10,000. Each golf game costs taxpayers $20,000. At that rate, the annual cost to taxpayers of Biden’s weekend trips is well over $1 million.
In addition, the Secret Service rents more than 20 condominiums in the Wilmington, Del. area for agents who must accompany Biden when he returns to his home state.
Biden’s press office had no immediate comment.
“Biden leaves every Friday from Joint Base Andrews, so he gets lifts from the observatory via Marine Two to Andrews Air Force Base, takes off via Air Force Two, lands in Delaware, and stays the weekend and then comes back on Sunday nights,” says a Secret Service agent familiar with the trips.
“Every three or four weeks when it’s warm, he gets up there on Saturday and then will fly back on Air Force Two,” the agent says. “While Air Force Two is sitting on the tarmac at Andrews, he goes and plays golf with the president at Andrews Air Force Base, gets back on the plane, and flies back to Delaware. Let me tell you something, that is egregious.”
Besides that, “The Secret Service rents condos in Wilmington because his schedule is so fluid and never concrete enough to properly prepare for his visits to Delaware,” the agent says. “So they keep a fully staffed Secret Service advance team in Delaware in condominiums that we lease so that when he does these things back and forth to D.C., they’re up there ready for him to arrive.”
The Boeing C-32 that usually flies as Air Force Two is a specially configured Boeing 757-200 commercial jet which typically requires a crew of 18.
As a U.S. senator, Biden was proud of the fact that he commuted daily by train from his home in Delaware to Washington during the week. Amtrak named the newly renovated Wilmington station the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Railroad Station. But after taking office as vice president, a Secret Service agent says Biden began the pattern of commuting on Air Force Two on weekends, costing taxpayers close to $4 million so far.
As recently as May 12, Biden flew back to Andrews to play golf with Obama and with Biden’s second son Hunter and White House trip director Marvin Nicholson. They played 18 holes of golf for four and a half hours.
Biden also plays golf at a country club he belongs to in the Wilmington area. The Secret Service agent says that since Air Force Two parks at Andrews, Obama is obviously aware that Biden is running up a huge government tab for each game of golf he plays with him.
Asked if President Obama thinks these costs are appropriate, why he has not questioned Biden flying to play golf with him at a cost of $20,000 per game, and in view of these costs of $1 million a year for weekend trips, whether the vice president should no longer be in charge of cutting government waste, the president’s press office had no immediate comment.
In addition to his salary as vice president of $230,700, Biden has free use of the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory. The vice president’s residence is a handsome 9,150-square-foot, three-story mansion overlooking Massachusetts Avenue NW in Washington.
Complete with pool, pool house, and indoor gym, the white brick house was built in 1893 as the home of the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory. Congress turned it into the official residence of the vice president in 1974 and gave it the address One Observatory Circle.
During the day, at least five Navy stewards attend to every personal need of the second family, including cleaning, cooking, shopping for food, and doing the laundry.
Biden has portrayed himself as a regular Joe, a product of a working class family who takes on millionaires and Republicans who are said to be out of touch with middle-class Americans.
Last June 13, Obama placed Biden in charge of a Campaign to Cut Waste, which will “hunt down and eliminate misspent tax dollars in every agency and department across the federal government,” according to the White House website.
In an email, Biden told supporters that he was the “new sheriff in town.” He said that “particularly at a time when we’re facing tough decisions about reducing our deficit, it’s a no-brainer to stop spending taxpayer dollars on things that benefit nobody.”
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Biden-weekend-travel-Air-Force-Two/2012/06/04/id/441168
>:(
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Labor Department spends stimulus funds for ads during Olbermann, Maddow shows
By Jim McElhatton
The Washington Times
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
The Labor Department paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus funds to a public relations firm to run more than 100 commercials touting the Obama administration’s “green training” job efforts on two popular MSNBC cable shows, records show.
The commercials ran on MSNBC on shows hosted by Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann in 2009, but the contract didn’t report any jobs created, according to records recently reviewed by The Washington Times.
Spending reports under the federal Recovery Act show $495,000 paid to McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations LLC, which the Labor Department hired to raise awareness “among employers and influencers about the [Job Corps] program’s existing and new training initiatives in high growth and environmentally friendly career areas” as well as spreading the word to prospective Job Corps enrollees.
Ultimately, the firm negotiated ad buys for “two approved spots” airing 14 times per week for two months on “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” and “The Rachel Maddow Show,” according to a project report, which listed the number zero under a section of the report asking how many jobs had been created through the stimulus contract.
David Williams, president of the nonprofit watchdog Taxpayers Protection Alliance, called the contract “questionable” because it created no jobs and because of the placement of the ads on shows viewed as friendly to the administration’s policies.
“Hiring a PR firm does not create jobs and this was obviously meant for selling a particular political agenda,” Mr. Williams said. “The placement really reeks of a political ad rather than a job ad, and taxpayers see through this.
“Taxpayers would be a lot happier at the end of the day to see a completed road rather than a bunch of ads on cable television,” he said.
The public relations firm did not respond to inquiries from The Times about who directed the ads to appear on MSNBC, but Labor Department officials defended the expenditures, saying the decision to place the ads on the network — now NBC News — had nothing to do with politics.
In a joint e-mail statement to The Times from two Labor Department spokesmen, David Roberts and Michael Volpe, officials said the money was used for outreach efforts to raise awareness among potential employers about the Job Corps’ green training in career areas, including automotive, advanced manufacturing and solar panel installation.
Mr. Roberts and Mr. Volpe also said Labor Department research showed advertisements would reach the target demographic of business owners and managers interested in hiring “green trained” employees through a programming list that initially also included shows hosted by CNN’s Larry King and public television’s Jim Lehrer, as well as the two MSNBC programs where the ads eventually appeared.
But public television was eliminated because advertising rates were too high, according Labor officials. And Larry King was dropped because MSNBC held the potential to reach more viewers, officials said. Officials gave no indication whether their research indicated if Fox News, ESPN or other cable outlets were considered for the Job Corps ads.
The Labor Department said that as measured in “gross impressions per spot”, the two MSNBC shows — Mr. Olbermann is no longer with the network — were twice as effective as compared to running ads on Mr. King’s show, which also is no longer on the air.
The use of tax dollars to promote administration programs and policies is hardly new. It’s a practice that came under sharp scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers upset about advertising during the Bush administration.
In 2006, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study requested by Democrats found more than $1.6 billion in public relations and media spending by the Bush administration during a two and a half year span.
A search of GAO reports in recent years doesn’t reveal any comparable studies reviewing public relations and media expenditures during the Obama administration. But federal purchasing records available online show thousands of contract actions since the changeover in administrations under specific purchasing codes both for advertising and public relations services.
Read more: Labor Department spends stimulus funds for ads during Olbermann, Maddow shows - Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/21/stimulus-funds-spent-obama-ads-olbermann-maddow
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Feds Spend $2.2 Million To Study “Why Lesbians Are Obese”
More waste of money! KCTV7 reports that $2,202,873 of tax payers money was wasted to study why lesbians are fat.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded the money to study the biological and social factors that cause a large number of lesbians to be obese. According to NIH three-quarters of lesbians are obese even though gay males are not — they call it an issue of “high public-health significance.”
A hospital in Boston, Brigham and Women’s, received grants to carry out the study. The overall goal is to study the relationship between sexual orientation and obesity.
Part of the grant reads, “Obesity is one of the most critical public health issues affecting the U.S. today. Racial and socioeconomic disparities in the determinants, distribution, and consequences of obesity are receiving increasing attention.”
“However, one area that is only beginning to be recognized is the striking interplay of gender and sexual orientation in obesity disparities,” it continues, “is now well-established that women of minority sexual orientation are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic. In stark contrast, among men, heterosexual males have nearly double the risk of obesity compared to gay males.”
The Washington Free Beacon reports, “The project has survived budget cuts due to sequestration, which the NIH warned would ‘delay progress in medical breakthroughs.’”
Despite the NIH claiming that the cuts are “delaying progress” in the development of cancer drugs, the lesbian study continues to receive funding.
The NIH said, “NIH research addresses the full spectrum of human health across all populations of Americans. Research into unhealthy human behaviors that are estimated to be the proximal cause of more than half of the disease burden in the U.S. will continue to be an important area of research supported by NIH.”
Is this study worth of $2 million, or is it a waste of tax dollars? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
http://www.thepcmdgazette.com/news/feds-spend-2-2-million-to-study-why-lesbians-are-obese/
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Government-Funded Study: Why Is Wikipedia Sexist?
$202,000 to address ‘gender bias’ in world’s biggest online encyclopedia
BY: Elizabeth Harrington
July 30, 2014
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is spending over $200,000 to find out why Wikipedia is sexist.
The government has awarded two grants for collaborative research to professors at Yale University and New York University to study what the researchers describe as “systematic gender bias” in the online encyclopedia.
“Wikipedia was launched in 2001 and has since become the world’s single most important reference tool and information clearinghouse,” the grant states. “Unlike traditional encyclopedias, which are controlled by experts, Wikipedia was supposed to have democratized knowledge.”
“Yet an emerging body of research indicates that Wikipedia suffers from systematic gender bias with respect to both contributors and content,” it continues. “How and why is this bias produced?”
A $132,000 grant was awarded to Julia Adams, a sociology professor at Yale, followed by $70,000 to Hannah Brueckner, the associate dean of social sciences at NYU Abu Dhabi.
The research intends to contribute to efforts to address gender bias, such as the work of Deanna Zandt, a “media technologist” who gives speeches encouraging women to edit Wikipedia.
“The investigators are committed to the goal of training new social scientists amid a landscape of enhanced interdisciplinary understanding,” the grant said. “Yet the potential impact of this project reaches far beyond the academy.”
“Under-representation of female scholars and associated scholarship reduces the quality and completeness of Wikipedia, imposing significant costs on the millions of readers who rely on it,” it said. “The findings from this research should clarify where in the complex chain of knowledge gender disparities arise. The findings should also bolster ongoing efforts to address those disparities, in this case by improving quality and reducing bias on academic—and more general—Wikipedia.”
An ongoing debate exists over whether the website has sexist undertones.
Zandt argues that Wikipedia is biased because the majority of its editors are “young, white, child-free men.”
“There’s nothing inherently wrong with a young, white, child-free man’s perspective, of course—it’s just that there are tons of other perspectives in the world that should influence how a story gets told,” Zandt wrote in an editorial for Forbes last year, entitled, “Yes, Wikipedia Is Sexist—That’s Why It Needs You.”
“It’s not enough to sit back and hope for the best when finding sexist, racist, homophobic, trans*phobic, etc., language or information on Wikipedia,” she said. “In order to fix it, we need lots of different kinds of people to jump in and start editing Wikipedia, too.”
Last year, a New York Times op-ed leveled charges of sexism against Wikipedia because it created a separate entry dedicated to women American novelists, removing female writers from the “American Novelists” page.
Noam Cohen, a columnist for the Times who does not have a Wikipedia page, has asserted the encyclopedia is biased because articles about friendship bracelets are shorter than entries about baseball cards.
“And consider the disparity between two popular series on HBO: The entry on ‘Sex and the City’ includes only a brief summary of every episode, sometimes two or three sentences; the one on ‘The Sopranos’ includes lengthy, detailed articles on each episode,” he wrote.
However, the Wikipedia page for “Woman” is much longer than the entry for “Man.”
Slate published a rebuttal to Cohen’s piece, arguing that a gender gap in the number of male contributors does not mean Wikipedia is sexist.
“Wikipedia’s gender imbalance is a non-problem in search of a misguided solution,” wrote Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. “Besides, the vast majority of men don’t contribute to Wikipedia, just as the vast majority of women don’t. The site has only 91,000 active contributors; that leaves a lot of men whose ‘voices’ are also not being heard.”
http://freebeacon.com/issues/government-funded-study-why-is-wikipedia-sexist/
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'Waste, fraud, and abuse' - the official democrat motto :D
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Transparency troubles: Audit finds $619B gap in federal spending site
Published August 06, 2014
FoxNews.com
The Obama administration failed to properly account for how it spent nearly $619 billion, according to a watchdog audit of the main federal website meant to track where taxpayer money is going.
The report from the Government Accountability Office picked apart the website USASpending.gov, and the agencies feeding information to it.
The database of government spending and contracts was created out of a 2006 transparency law, but the GAO found it continues to have serious problems. The Department of Health and Human Services was the worst offender, during the 2012 period GAO examined.
“Although agencies generally reported information for contracts to USASpending.gov, they did not properly report information on assistance awards, totaling nearly $619 billion,” the GAO reported.
USA Today first reported on the GAO audit.
According to the GAO findings, funding for more than 300 programs was not reported correctly. HHS topped the list of scofflaws, failing to report or reporting late $543.8 billion worth of spending. Part of the reason the number was so high is the agency was not providing information about direct payments to individuals, like for the massive Medicaid program HHS administers.
The Department of Veterans Affairs was next on the list, with $64 billion in spending not properly accounted for.
Further, the report found few contracts and grants were properly reported with all the required information. The GAO found just 2-7 percent of the awards had information “fully consistent” with agencies’ own records.
A spokesman for the White House budget office told USA Today that the administration is trying to improve the data on the site.
“OMB is committed to federal spending transparency and working with agencies to improve the completeness and accuracy of data submissions," he said in a statement.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/06/transparency-troubles-audit-finds-61b-gap-in-federal-spending-site/
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and you guys are going to do what other than complain about it?
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Vote.
Fortunately, there are groups like Judicial Watch and others that try and shine the light on these things.
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this waste doesn,t happen under the repubs ::) brahahahahAHAHA
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this waste doesn,t happen under the repubs ::) brahahahahAHAHA
Who said that?
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Who said that?
YOU DID
Vote.
Fortunately, there are groups like Judicial Watch and others that try and shine the light on these things
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YOU DID
Vote.
Fortunately, there are groups like Judicial Watch and others that try and shine the light on these things
I didn't say anything about voting for a particular party. ::) Judicial Watch pursues Democrats and Republicans.
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http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/06/medicare-wasted-millions-on-hiv-treatments-for-patients-who-didnt-have-hiv
>:(
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Wasted! Feds spend millions of tax dollars getting monkeys drunk
(http://media.washtimes.com/media/image/2014/09/11/9_112014_monkey8201_s877x917.jpg?c7ec6b41f9457800bcabe74d726219ae33a4f3cf)
By Drew Johnson - The Washington Times -
Thursday, September 11, 2014
There’s a whole lot of drinking going on in the name of government science, and some watchdogs think it’s the American taxpayer who is getting hammered.
Right now the National Institutes of Health is spending $3.2 million to get monkeys to drink alcohol excessively to determine what effect it has long term on their body tissue.
NIH also has handed out $69,459 to the University of Missouri to study whether text messaging college students before they attend pre-football game tailgates will encourage them to drink less and “reduce harmful effects related to alcohol consumption.”
And the government’s premier research arm has doled out money in recent years for research on binge-drinking mice, inebriated gamblers and pilots seeking the sensation of flying drunk — on a simulator of course.
NIH defends such expenditures on the grounds that these research projects help those they fund improve their “potential to develop into a productive, independent research scientist.”
In an email to The Washington Times, the NIH pointed out that the goal of the Missouri text message project wasn’t just to save the lives of coeds but also to empower “promising predoctoral students to obtain individualized, mentored research training from outstanding faculty sponsors while conducting dissertation research in scientific health-related fields relevant to the missions of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers.”
In other words, it’s the sort of stuff that gets scientists excited.
But with 50,000 grants totaling $24 billion each year at taxpayer expense, NIH has some spending watchdogs and lawmakers in Congress wondering whether it has become a drunken spender that has wandered too far astray from its core mission.
“The National Institutes of Health has an outrageously large budget and gives away money with no real consideration of whether the projects being funded are of any value to taxpayers,” said David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a think thank focused on waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer moneys.
For its use of American tax dollars to study inebriated pilots, mice, monkeys and students, the NIH wins this week’s Golden Hammer, a weekly award from The Times aimed at highlighting examples of questionable or wasteful spending.
Congress created the NIH to develop “knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life and reduce illness and disability.” But taxpayer advocates question whether many of its projects today really meet that mission.
“This is an agency that wastes our tax dollars to determine whether cutting the ovaries out of prepubescent rabbits causes them to have heart attacks, if physical activity can alleviate erectile dysfunction in obese men and what’s the best way to reduce tobacco use in Indonesia,” Mr. Williams said, citing some of his favorite examples. “Some of the projects the NIH funds are absolutely embarrassing.”
Alcohol and other vices have long been a favorite of NIH research grants.
Between 2008 and 2010 the NIH granted Yale University and Arizona State University a combined $154,688 to determine if drinking excess amounts of alcohol leads to losing more money while gambling.
To perform the study, researchers plied 21- to 30-year-old volunteers with enough alcohol for them to become legally intoxicated. Researchers then measured how well the twentysomethings performed gambling on video poker machines while drunk compared to when they were sober.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/11/golden-hammer-feds-spends-millions-to-study-drunke/#ixzz3D7iKmoWM
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This is why I laugh when they tell us we have to cut defense spending and that our 'benefits' are to high compared to the civilian sector. First off, the uniformed side has very little to do with the budget processes that waste all this cash. The same assholes wasting money in the DOJ or HHS are the same in the DOD. The civilians run all this shit. We waste more money doing stupid shit, buying crap that doesn't work and going on trips that are way unnecessary. We could buy a new carrier with all the wasted trips they send people on.
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$39,643,352 worth of NIH funding that could have gone to the Ebola vaccine
By Elizabeth Harrington
Published October 17, 2014
Washington Free Beacon
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has spent more than $39 million on obese lesbians, origami condoms, texting drunks, and dozens of other projects that could have been scrapped in favor of developing an Ebola vaccine.
“Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would’ve gone through clinical trials and would have been ready,” said NIH Director Francis Collins, blaming budget cuts for his agency’s failure to develop a vaccine for the deadly virus.
However, the Washington Free Beacon has uncovered $39,643,352 worth of NIH studies within the past several years that have gone to questionable research.
For instance, the agency has spent $2,873,440 trying to figure out why lesbians are obese, and $466,642 on why fat girls have a tough time getting dates. Another $2,075,611 was spent encouraging old people to join choirs.
Millions have gone to “text message interventions,” including a study where researchers sent texts to drunks at the bar to try to get them to stop drinking. The project received an additional grant this year, for a total of $674,590.
The NIH is also texting older African Americans with HIV ($372,460), HIV and drug users in rural areas ($693,000), HIV smokers ($763,519), pregnant smokers ($380,145), teen moms ($243,839), and meth addicts ($360,113). Text message interventions to try to get obese people to lose weight have cost $2,707,067.
The NIH’s research on obesity has led to spending $2,101,064 on wearable insoles and buttons that can track a person’s weight, and $374,670 to put on fruit and vegetable puppet shows for preschoolers.
Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/17/3643352-worth-nih-funding-that-could-have-gone-to-ebola-vaccine/
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Biden is really concerned about global warming I can see.
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http://www.neurope.eu/news/wire/ap-investigation-nazi-war-crime-suspects-collected-millions-dollars-us-social-security-0
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Thousands of federal workers on extended paid leave
The Washington Post via Drudge Report ^ | October 20, 2014 | Lisa Rein
Posted on 10/21/2014 9:25:58 AM by upbeat5
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.
The extensive use of administrative leave continues despite government personnel rules that limit paid leave for employees facing discipline to “rare circumstances” in which the employee is considered a threat. The long-standing rules were written in an effort to curb waste and deal quickly with workers accused of misconduct.
And the comptroller general, the top federal official responsible for auditing government finances and practices, has repeatedly ruled that federal workers should not be sidelined for long periods for any reason.
But a report by the Government Accountability Office, first made public by The Washington Post on its Web site Monday, found that 53,000 civilian employees were kept home for one to three months during the three fiscal years that ended in September 2013. About 4,000 were idled for three months to a year and several hundred for one to three years. This is the first time the government has calculated the scope and cost of administrative leave.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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Audit: Taxpayer dollars paid for eco group’s $25G Christmas party, and more
Published December 03, 2014
FoxNews.com
$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.
The report found that spending at the group has gotten out of control.
"Given the present lack of controls, there is virtually no accountability over the contingency funds ... NSF does not have sufficient safeguards over the significant and unsupported contingency costs included in NEON's award budget," the report said.
The report, and the spending, was the subject of a House science committee hearing Wednesday morning.
Among the spending was a slew of items billed to the National Science Foundation between mid-September 2012 and mid-April 2013, under a so-called "management fee." They included the lavish Christmas party, the coffee services, $3,000 for alcohol-fueled Board of Directors dinners, $3,000 for T-shirts and more. It also included $112,000 for lobbying, according to the report. According to a whistle-blower document, the Christmas and holiday party costs included more than $12,000 for expenses at a Westin.
"Why did NSF allow this to happen?" Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said Wednesday at the hearing. "The NSF needs to be held accountable for how they spend taxpayers' hard-earned dollars."
Though it wasn't in the IG report, Smith also alleged trips to a "high-end resort in France."
Asked for comment, an NSF spokeswoman said the agency has initiated a review of "management fee policies and controls."
"Consistent with government-wide regulations that govern audit resolution, NSF has policies and procedures for resolving and following up on and recommendations contained in audit reports issued by the Office of the Inspector General," the spokeswoman said, adding the agency will post its final decision online.
NEON Board Chairman James Collins also defended the organization. "NEON, Inc. has always spent all funding in strict compliance with our understanding both of the guidelines provided to the organization and the law," he said in a statement.
The audit stemmed from concerns dating back to 2012 over a NEON construction budget, where more than $150 million in costs were questioned.
This is not the first time the NSF has come under scrutiny for its spending.
In 2011, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., released a report on wasteful spending at the NSF, identifying more than $1.2 billion in losses from waste, fraud, duplication and mismanagement.
This included an $80,000 study on why the same teams always dominate March Madness; $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.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/12/03/audit-taxpayer-dollars-paid-for-eco-groups-25g-christmas-party-and-more/
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Feds spend $33G to find out if same-sex couples live close to tobacco shops
By Elizabeth Harrington
Published December 23, 2014
Washington Free Beacon
The federal government is spending over $33,000 to figure out whether same-sex couples live closer to tobacco retailers, theoretically making them more likely to smoke.
A National Institutes of Health (NIH) project, entitled, "Relationship Between Tobacco Retailer Density and Sexual Minority Couples," reasons that since many gay and lesbian couples live in cities, they may be close to stores that sell cigarettes, such as 7 Elevens.
"Tobacco use is substantially higher among sexual minorities than among heterosexuals," the grant states. "The reasons for this persistent disparity remain unclear, but the high toll of death and disability from tobacco use creates substantial health inequalities in cancer."
"Same-sex couples' movement within the U.S. results in same-sex couples concentrating in more urban neighborhoods where there may be more tobacco retailers," the grant continued. "Living near a tobacco retailer has been associated with decreased success in quitting tobacco. The presence or absence of overlapping patterns of same-sex couples and tobacco retailers have not been explored."
The $33,341 study is cross-checking a "high quality list" of nearly 100,000 tobacco retailers from 97 U.S. counties with census data to determine whether same-sex couples live nearby.
"Sexual minorities are more likely to use tobacco products than heterosexuals," the grant said. "The reasons for this disparity are unknown; however, where people live and their proximity to tobacco retailers can influence decisions to quit smoking."
Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/12/23/feds-spend-33g-to-find-out-if-same-sex-couples-live-close-to-tobacco-shops/?intcmp=latestnews
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Part of the reason I am anti-tax militant is stories like this. Makes my blood boil.
HHS execs doing good and living large, flying first class around the world
BY LUKE ROSIAK | JANUARY 9, 2015
An upgraded trip from Los Angeles to Sydney cost $14,201. Coach would have been $2,763. A medical disability was the reason for the upgrade.
Photo - HHS executives spent $31 million in first class and business class flights between 2009 and 2013. (iStock Photo)
HHS executives spent $31 million in first class and business class flights between 2009 and 2013....
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.
Half the records listed the price of a coach ticket for comparison. For that portion alone, the upgrade boosted the cost by almost $14 million, from $4.9 million to $18.5 million.
Federal employees are allowed to fly business or first class if the flight is longer than 14 hours, but only 1,400 of the 7,000 flights met that description.
For the vast majority of the flights — 5,100 — the government executives upgraded because they claimed they had a medical disability that necessitated it.
Others cited "exceptional security circumstances," that no coach tickets were available, that a non-federal source was footing the bill, that first or business class was "required because of agency mission."
Then-Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took 14 first- or business-class trips totaling $56,000, including flights to and within India and from Paris to Vietnam.
The Food and Drug Administration took 2,000 upgraded trips costing $14 million and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took 3,000 trips costing $11 million. The National Institutes of Health took 1,300 such trips costing $3.5 million.
One flight for the Food and Drug Administration from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles , then to Australia and Germany, is listed as costing $26,469.23, with the upgrade because of a medical disability. A flight to Germany cost $23,000 for the same reason. Another FDA staffer spent an extra $10,000 of taxpayer money to fly first class from San Francisco to D.C.
A flight by FDA inspector David Heiar to India cost $30,000. Inspector Robert Horan flew to Hong Kong at a cost of $21,427 when coach would have cost $5,021. Another inspector flew to Australia for $12,344 when coach was $543.
But over 1,000 trips were for conferences, training sessions, speeches and meetings. An additional 1,000 records didn't have a description of the purpose.
Hundreds of trips were also taken by top HHS officials in the Office of the Secretary.
And the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which manages Obamacare, took 50 upgraded flights, including a trip from Baltimore to a three-day conference in Phoenix where a first class ticket cost $3,000 each way. On another equally expensive trip to Baltimore, CMS' Joseph Fine said first class travel was "required because of agency mission."
CMS officials also flew business class from Charlotte, North Carolina to Charleston, South Carolina for $1,000 each way rather than drive three hours.
Other federal agencies spend heavily on first class travel as well, according to records reviewed by the Examiner, but none for which records were obtained appears to have come close to the 7,000 first class flights by HHS officials during the four-year period.
The FDA's efforts to inspect the sources of American food and drugs, and the CDC's mission to combat the spread of diseases, require more travel than most agencies.
But two departments that also have international missions appear to have managed to do more of their travel in coach. The Department of Defense had 784 first class flights during 2012 and 2013, but that number doesn't account for trips made on military aircraft. The Department of Commerce had 635 during those two years.
HHS did not return a request for comment.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/hhs-execs-doing-good-and-living-large-flying-first-class-around-the-world/article/2558399?utm_campaign=Fox%20News&utm_source=foxnews.com&utm_medium=feed
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Outrageous. Because he runs every two years, he has an excuse to perpetually fundraise. And the good little voters of Illinois will probably continue to send this turd back to D.C. He is a walking advertisement for term limits.
Congressman's spending brings Schock and awe
His “Downton Abbey” decor fits a pattern of spending on resort hotels, charter flights and a personal photographer.
By Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan and Anna Palmer
2/9/15
(http://images.politico.com/global/2015/02/09/150209_aaron_schock_ap_1160_956x519.jpg)
He charters private planes and employs a personal photographer. In Aspen, Colorado, he stays at the Little Nell, a five-star resort near the ski slopes. In Las Vegas, he prefers the pricey Wynn hotel. While in Vail, Colorado, and San Francisco, it’s the Four Seasons. In Miami Beach, he’s sampled the Delano, Fontainebleau and the exclusive Soho Beach House. And in Beverly Hills, California, he’s tried both the Peninsula and the Beverly Wilshire.
Illinois GOP Rep. Aaron Schock raises a lot of money, for himself and other Republicans — he had $3.2 million in the bank at the end of December. And through his web of campaign committees, the 33-year-old lawmaker also spends lavishly.
Story Continued Below
Schock’s spending, which was always a subject of internal GOP chatter, has come under scrutiny since The Washington Post revealed last week that he had his Capitol Hill office redecorated to resemble “Downton Abbey.”
In addition to staying at expensive hotels, Schock also has spent more than $90,000 in campaign dollars on private air charters, an unusually high sum for a rank-and-file member of the House. His allies say it’s necessary so he can quickly hop between Republican districts across the country. House financial records also show that he has spent thousands of dollars in taxpayer money on private planes, which his office says helps him get around his Illinois district.
Schock’s campaign has also purchased a $74,000 Chevrolet Tahoe to help get him around back home in Illinois, in addition to a $27,000 Ford.
To keep track of all his comings and goings, Schock has hired a personal photographer. Jonathon Link, a former Dallas-area wedding photographer, now snaps shots for Schock, and both his campaign and taxpayers pick up the bill.
To pay for all of this, Schock is constantly fundraising, and he has repeatedly attended high-profile events. On Jan. 31, 2014, Schock cut a check to the NFL for more than $10,000 to cover the cost of Super Bowl tickets. In April 2013, Schock spent $3,320 on tickets to the CMA Country Music Awards. Instead of holding fundraisers at golf courses — as dozens of other Republicans do — Schock insiders say he prefers sporting and music events.
And to keep track of this burgeoning political operation, Schock has spent more than $200,000 on lawyers since 2011, including $91,369 in the past two years. He has come under the scrutiny of the Office of Congressional Ethics for allegedly soliciting a contribution for a super PAC above the legal limits. Schock has denied any wrongdoing.
The campaign filings — analyzed by POLITICO — help illustrate a pattern of aggressive spending by Schock. The issue was first raised by the Post, which reported his office had been decorated in the theme of “Downton Abbey,” the British drama about early-20th-century English aristocrats, complete with red-painted walls, an elaborate mirror and a “gold-colored wall sconce with black candle.” USA Today then disclosed that Schock had previously shelled out “tens of thousands” in taxpayer dollars on office renovations, leather furniture and amenities like granite countertops.
Schock later said he would personally cover the cost of his “Downton Abbey” renovation.
Speaking in Peoria on Friday, Schock said the office renovation has made him “the punching bag” for the press.
“I’m the same person today that I was seven years ago when I was elected,” Schock insisted. “But when you’re in this environment, all is fair.”
None of this spending is illegal. Lawmakers are free to spend their political money as they wish, as long as they are not enriching themselves. And Schock, in an email, defended his spending. He said his cars “are used more often by the campaign than him personally, for such activities as distributing campaign yard signs, driving folks to parades, helping transport larger signs, etc.”
The pricey hotels are all “campaign-related expenses,” his office said. And Schock aides defended employing a full-time photographer; “what is spent on photographers is in line with what is raised as a result.”
“Rep. Schock has been consistently named one of the top fundraisers for the Republican Party,” a spokesman said in a statement. “Last year alone he was one of the top five fundraisers for the party in the House. Rep. Schock raised $2 million personally for the [National Republican Congressional Committee] last year, $15.2 million for the March Dinner and gave out half a million from his leadership PAC to other Members and Congressional candidates, obviously to raise that amount of money, he must spend resources as well and incur overhead costs. These trips are for fundraising events around the country or campaigning for other candidates. For example, in the month of October, he went to 40 different congressional districts.”
The hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees are “a matter of business practice to ensure he is in compliance with all applicable federal laws,” the statement added.
Schock certainly wants to be a high-profile player in Washington and back home in Illinois. The ambitious Republican was elected at 27, and six years later, he has a seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He has eyed statewide office and once toyed with challenging NRCC Chairman Greg Walden of Oregon.
He is a prodigious fundraiser, and pulled in $2.5 million from 2013 to 2014, and has given and raised a total of $2 million to the NRCC last year. Schock also funnels hundreds of thousands of dollars to his Republican colleagues, helping them win reelection and netting him political chits.
In 2014, Republican leaders tapped Schock to chair the NRCC’s March Dinner, the organization’s biggest fundraiser of the year. He raised more than $15 million for that event, setting a record.
But Schock has been equally well known for showing off his enviable lifestyle on social media. His Instagram account details his globetrotting, including surfing in Hawaii and meeting the pope. He posted a photo of his hang gliding in the Andes with the caption, “serenity in the skies of Mendoza.”
When Schock’s in Washington, his campaign accounts show that he spends money at a roster of typical D.C. fundraising spots including Fiola, Ristorante Tosca, the Capital Grille and Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab.
He’s dropped tens of thousands of dollars at pricey hotels and restaurants in Miami, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Vail and Aspen. In one trip to Las Vegas, he spent $5,000 at the Wynn. He also cut checks to the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco, Vail and Washington.
Schock has also taken several privately funded trips, according to the website LegiStorm, which tracks these expeditions. Schock went to India — Bangalore and New Delhi — during 2013, with an aide. He flew business class and stayed in the Taj Hotel, according to a filing. The trip cost more than $10,000, and was paid for by the National Indian American Public Policy Corp.
He also has taken privately funded trips to Havana; Barcelona, Spain; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Turkey, according to trip records.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/aaron-schock-spending-115020.html#ixzz3RN5NhAco
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http://freebeacon.com/issues/obamas-dhs-spent-nearly-150m-on-office-furniture-and-makeovers/
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Obama, first lady flew on separate planes to L.A. on same day
By Dave Boyer - The Washington Times - Friday, March 13, 2015
Taxpayers paid for President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama to fly separately Thursday to Los Angeles, where they appeared on separate TV talk shows on the same day.
Mr. Obama flew on Air Force One, which costs about $228,000 per hour of flight time, to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday night in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Obama flew on a different plane Thursday across country to Burbank, California, to tape an appearance on Ellen Degeneres‘ show. That show will be broadcast on Monday.
White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz told reporters Friday that the president and first lady’s “schedules were not in sync in order to travel together.”
“I’m not even sure they overlapped,” he said when asked if the president and first lady saw each other in southern California Thursday.
Mr. Obama flew Friday morning from Los Angeles to Phoenix, where he was visiting the veterans’ hospital that sparked a scandal in health care services last year. He was scheduled to return to Washington late Friday.
It was Mrs. Obama’s fourth appearance on the “Ellen” show. She is promoting the fifth anniversary of her initiative to combat childhood obesity.
The show’s producers released video Friday of the segment, which includes Mrs. Obama and Ms. DeGeneres performing a high-energy dance with a troupe of backup dancers.
“There is some hip thrusting,” the first lady said after the microphone battery pack clipped to her waist came undone as they began the routine. “There’s a lot of it.”
Mrs. Obama’s office had not previously announced that she would be in California on Thursday.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/13/obama-first-lady-flew-separate-planes-la-same-day/#ixzz3UZtQ8MAL
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Outrageous. Because he runs every two years, he has an excuse to perpetually fundraise. And the good little voters of Illinois will probably continue to send this turd back to D.C. He is a walking advertisement for term limits.
Congressman's spending brings Schock and awe
His “Downton Abbey” decor fits a pattern of spending on resort hotels, charter flights and a personal photographer.
By Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan and Anna Palmer
2/9/15
(http://images.politico.com/global/2015/02/09/150209_aaron_schock_ap_1160_956x519.jpg)
He charters private planes and employs a personal photographer. In Aspen, Colorado, he stays at the Little Nell, a five-star resort near the ski slopes. In Las Vegas, he prefers the pricey Wynn hotel. While in Vail, Colorado, and San Francisco, it’s the Four Seasons. In Miami Beach, he’s sampled the Delano, Fontainebleau and the exclusive Soho Beach House. And in Beverly Hills, California, he’s tried both the Peninsula and the Beverly Wilshire.
Illinois GOP Rep. Aaron Schock raises a lot of money, for himself and other Republicans — he had $3.2 million in the bank at the end of December. And through his web of campaign committees, the 33-year-old lawmaker also spends lavishly.
Story Continued Below
Schock’s spending, which was always a subject of internal GOP chatter, has come under scrutiny since The Washington Post revealed last week that he had his Capitol Hill office redecorated to resemble “Downton Abbey.”
In addition to staying at expensive hotels, Schock also has spent more than $90,000 in campaign dollars on private air charters, an unusually high sum for a rank-and-file member of the House. His allies say it’s necessary so he can quickly hop between Republican districts across the country. House financial records also show that he has spent thousands of dollars in taxpayer money on private planes, which his office says helps him get around his Illinois district.
Schock’s campaign has also purchased a $74,000 Chevrolet Tahoe to help get him around back home in Illinois, in addition to a $27,000 Ford.
To keep track of all his comings and goings, Schock has hired a personal photographer. Jonathon Link, a former Dallas-area wedding photographer, now snaps shots for Schock, and both his campaign and taxpayers pick up the bill.
To pay for all of this, Schock is constantly fundraising, and he has repeatedly attended high-profile events. On Jan. 31, 2014, Schock cut a check to the NFL for more than $10,000 to cover the cost of Super Bowl tickets. In April 2013, Schock spent $3,320 on tickets to the CMA Country Music Awards. Instead of holding fundraisers at golf courses — as dozens of other Republicans do — Schock insiders say he prefers sporting and music events.
And to keep track of this burgeoning political operation, Schock has spent more than $200,000 on lawyers since 2011, including $91,369 in the past two years. He has come under the scrutiny of the Office of Congressional Ethics for allegedly soliciting a contribution for a super PAC above the legal limits. Schock has denied any wrongdoing.
The campaign filings — analyzed by POLITICO — help illustrate a pattern of aggressive spending by Schock. The issue was first raised by the Post, which reported his office had been decorated in the theme of “Downton Abbey,” the British drama about early-20th-century English aristocrats, complete with red-painted walls, an elaborate mirror and a “gold-colored wall sconce with black candle.” USA Today then disclosed that Schock had previously shelled out “tens of thousands” in taxpayer dollars on office renovations, leather furniture and amenities like granite countertops.
Schock later said he would personally cover the cost of his “Downton Abbey” renovation.
Speaking in Peoria on Friday, Schock said the office renovation has made him “the punching bag” for the press.
“I’m the same person today that I was seven years ago when I was elected,” Schock insisted. “But when you’re in this environment, all is fair.”
None of this spending is illegal. Lawmakers are free to spend their political money as they wish, as long as they are not enriching themselves. And Schock, in an email, defended his spending. He said his cars “are used more often by the campaign than him personally, for such activities as distributing campaign yard signs, driving folks to parades, helping transport larger signs, etc.”
The pricey hotels are all “campaign-related expenses,” his office said. And Schock aides defended employing a full-time photographer; “what is spent on photographers is in line with what is raised as a result.”
“Rep. Schock has been consistently named one of the top fundraisers for the Republican Party,” a spokesman said in a statement. “Last year alone he was one of the top five fundraisers for the party in the House. Rep. Schock raised $2 million personally for the [National Republican Congressional Committee] last year, $15.2 million for the March Dinner and gave out half a million from his leadership PAC to other Members and Congressional candidates, obviously to raise that amount of money, he must spend resources as well and incur overhead costs. These trips are for fundraising events around the country or campaigning for other candidates. For example, in the month of October, he went to 40 different congressional districts.”
The hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees are “a matter of business practice to ensure he is in compliance with all applicable federal laws,” the statement added.
Schock certainly wants to be a high-profile player in Washington and back home in Illinois. The ambitious Republican was elected at 27, and six years later, he has a seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He has eyed statewide office and once toyed with challenging NRCC Chairman Greg Walden of Oregon.
He is a prodigious fundraiser, and pulled in $2.5 million from 2013 to 2014, and has given and raised a total of $2 million to the NRCC last year. Schock also funnels hundreds of thousands of dollars to his Republican colleagues, helping them win reelection and netting him political chits.
In 2014, Republican leaders tapped Schock to chair the NRCC’s March Dinner, the organization’s biggest fundraiser of the year. He raised more than $15 million for that event, setting a record.
But Schock has been equally well known for showing off his enviable lifestyle on social media. His Instagram account details his globetrotting, including surfing in Hawaii and meeting the pope. He posted a photo of his hang gliding in the Andes with the caption, “serenity in the skies of Mendoza.”
When Schock’s in Washington, his campaign accounts show that he spends money at a roster of typical D.C. fundraising spots including Fiola, Ristorante Tosca, the Capital Grille and Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab.
He’s dropped tens of thousands of dollars at pricey hotels and restaurants in Miami, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Vail and Aspen. In one trip to Las Vegas, he spent $5,000 at the Wynn. He also cut checks to the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco, Vail and Washington.
Schock has also taken several privately funded trips, according to the website LegiStorm, which tracks these expeditions. Schock went to India — Bangalore and New Delhi — during 2013, with an aide. He flew business class and stayed in the Taj Hotel, according to a filing. The trip cost more than $10,000, and was paid for by the National Indian American Public Policy Corp.
He also has taken privately funded trips to Havana; Barcelona, Spain; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Turkey, according to trip records.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/aaron-schock-spending-115020.html#ixzz3RN5NhAco
This made my day. Good riddance.
Aaron Schock resigns after new questions about mileage expenses
By JAKE SHERMAN, ANNA PALMER and JOHN BRESNAHAN
3/17/15
(http://images.politico.com/global/2015/03/17/150317_schock_gty_1160_956x519.jpg)
Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock resigned Tuesday, less than 12 hours after POLITICO raised questions about tens of thousands of dollars in mileage reimbursements he received for his personal vehicle.
Schock billed the federal government and his campaign for logging roughly 170,000 miles on his personal car from January 2010 through July 2014. But when he sold that Chevrolet Tahoe in July 2014, it had roughly 80,000 miles on the odometer, according to public records obtained by POLITICO under Illinois open records laws. The documents, in other words, indicate he was reimbursed for 90,000 miles more than his car was driven.
The discrepancy added to a growing wave of ethical and legal problems for the 33-year-old politician.
“[T]he constant questions over the last six weeks have proven a great distraction that has made it too difficult for me to serve the people of the 18th District with the high standards that they deserve and which I have set for myself,” Schock said in a surprise statement on Tuesday. “I have always sought to do what’s best for my constituents, and I thank them for the opportunity to serve.”
Later Tuesday, a spokesman for Schock added, “In an effort to remove any questions and out of an abundance of caution, Congressman Schock has reimbursed all monies received for official mileage since his election to Congress.”
Schock’s resignation marks a swift downfall of one of the GOP’s most promising young stars and prolific fundraisers. The former state legislator was elected to Congress in 2008 and shot through the ranks of the House GOP, at one point gracing the cover of Men’s Health magazine. He was a fresh face in a party eager to update its image.
But as his prominence grew, Schock adopted an expensive lifestyle — staying in luxury hotels, dining at pricey restaurants, flying on private jets. Mounting questions about how he paid for it eventually caught up with him.
Schock’s fall
Mounting legal and ethical problems consumed the Illinois Republican over the past two months.
By Nick Gass
Feb. 2 - The Washington Post reports on Schock’s “Downton Abbey”-inspired office in the Rayburn House Office Building, featuring pheasant feathers and a bust of home-state President Abraham Lincoln.
Feb. 9 - Following the Post report and another revelation from USA Today, POLITICO details Schock’s lavish—but legal—spending at pricey hotels in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Miami Beach and other posh destinations for campaign purposes.
“In addition to staying at expensive hotels, Schock also has spent more than $90,000 in campaign dollars on private air charters, an unusually high sum for a rank-and-file member of the House,” POLITICO reported at the time.
Feb. 10 - Schock launches his own internal review of tens of thousands of dollars in reimbursements he received for using his official vehicle. POLITICO reports that he has received approximately $1,000 in “private auto mileage” reimbursements from his monthly congressional allowance.
Feb. 24 - Schock brings on two prominent Washington defense lawyers and a public relations firm to battle the brewing controversy over his use of campaign and official accounts to pay for expensive travel and lodging accommodations.
His office declined to answer when asked about a 2011 trip to London in which he stayed at a five-star hotel where the cheapest room went for $500 per night. Documents obtained by POLITICO also showed he was scheduled to visit expensive clothing stores and dined at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.
Feb. 26 - It comes out that the Illinois lawmaker never disclosed receiving dinner or drinks during the London trip, POLITICO reports.
Feb. 27 - Schock suspends fundraising events.
The same day, POLITICO reports that Schock spent nearly $15,000 in government money for private flights between October and December.
March 1 - The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Schock used taxpayer money to fly from Peoria to Chicago for a Bears game the previous November.
March 6 - More details about Schock’s international spending surface, as some in his circle and the House Republican Conference fear the Illinois lawmaker could face an Ethics Committee investigation. He holds a news conference but does not alert the national media.
March 9 - POLITICO finds that Schock misreported his payment for the private flight from Peoria to Chicago for the Bears game, indicating the more than $3,000 as a software expenditure. In reality, the $3,000 was a deposit in addition to the $10,000 that Schock previously disclosed that he was billed for the flight, said Keith Sillats, the chief technology officer for Bytelogics.
March 11 - POLITICO asks the congressman in his home district whether he thought he had broken any rules or federal regulations. “Well, I certainly hope not,” Schock said. “I’m not an attorney.”
March 16 - Investigators from the Office of Congressional Ethics start reaching out to people in Schock’s circle.
March 16 - POLITICO asks Schock about tens of thousands of dollars in questionable mileage reimbursements.
March 17 - Schock announces his resignation, effective March 31.
The congressman’s vehicle history was pieced together from dozens of pages of Illinois vehicle records.
When Schock transferred the SUV to an Illinois dealership in 2014, it had 81,860 miles on the odometer, documents show. However, from January 2010 to the end of July 2014, he billed the federal government for 123,131 miles on his personal vehicle. During the same period, the Republican billed his “Schock for Congress” campaign account and GOP Generation Y Fund, his leadership political action committee, for an additional 49,388 miles.
Altogether, Schock sought reimbursement for 172,520 miles on his car, despite the fact that he signed documents that certified the vehicle traveled less than half that distance.
Schock had no other vehicles registered in his name at the time, according to state public records. Multiple sources familiar with his office operations say he only drove the Tahoe during this period.
In November 2009, less than a year after Schock took his seat in Congress, the lawmaker bought the 2010 Tahoe from Green Chevrolet in Peoria. The dealership is owned by Jeff Green, a contributor to Schock who has flown the congressman around his district in his airplane and helicopter.
When Schock purchased the new car, it had four miles on it, according to publicly available automobile transaction documents.
On July 19, 2014, Schock transferred the car back to Green Chevrolet with 81,860 miles on it, according to a transfer document Schock signed.
On that same day in 2014, Schock bought a black 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe with 10 miles on it. Schock’s campaign spent nearly $75,000 on the car, according to campaign filings, but the congressman registered the car in his own name. The SUV sports congressional license plates with the number “18” — the number of Schock’s congressional district.
Between 2010 and 2014, the government mileage reimbursement requests were filed by Schock on a near-monthly basis. Members of Congress and staffers are permitted to bill the government and campaign for use of a personal vehicle, and, generally speaking, do not have to keep logs to record the miles they drive.
When asked about the mileage several weeks ago, Schock’s office said the congressman spends a lot of time in automobiles and chartering private jets between events in his central Illinois district. His office also raised the possibility that staffers were driving his vehicle and weren’t sure if it was permissible under the rules.
During the past month, Schock repaid the government $40,000 after spending money from his official office budget to redecorate his office to resemble the set of PBS’s “Downton Abbey,” an English historical drama. He also reimbursed taxpayers more than $1,200 after using his office account to pay to fly on a private plane to a Chicago Bears football game.
Separately, on a campaign-finance document, Schock labeled the cost of a November flight on a private plane as a software purchase. He has failed to report trips abroad, as required. And he held a fundraiser at a golf course without reporting paying for its use.
In an interview with POLITICO last week in Peoria, Schock could not say with certainty that he had not broken the law.
“I certainly hope not,” Schock said. The Illinois Republican added that he was not an attorney, and therefore could not know whether he broke the law or ethics rules. Schock also declined to directly answer whether he had accepted improper gifts as a member of Congress.
News reports by POLITICO and the Chicago Sun-Times raised a series of questions about Schock’s spending and record-keeping. The Office of Congressional Ethics opened an investigation of the lawmaker on Feb. 28 and has begun contacting his associates about appearing before the independent panel behind closed doors.
The OCE probe —and any potential Ethics Committee investigation — will disappear with Schock’s resignation. However, federal law enforcement could still look into Schock’s actions. He has two attorneys, former Federal Election Commission Commissioner Don McGahn and criminal defense attorney William McGinley, both of Jones Day. Ron Bonjean and Brian Walsh, two longtime GOP communications aides, are handling his press strategy.
Schock will remain in Congress until March 31.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/aaron-schock-resigns-116153.html#ixzz3Ul05jvZJ
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This made my day. Good riddance.
Aaron Schock resigns after new questions about mileage expenses
By JAKE SHERMAN, ANNA PALMER and JOHN BRESNAHAN
3/17/15
(http://images.politico.com/global/2015/03/17/150317_schock_gty_1160_956x519.jpg)
Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock resigned Tuesday, less than 12 hours after POLITICO raised questions about tens of thousands of dollars in mileage reimbursements he received for his personal vehicle.
sounds like a partisan witch hunt to me.
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sounds like a partisan witch hunt to me.
(http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-don-t-feed-the-troll-22.png)
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This made my day. Good riddance.
Aaron Schock resigns after new questions about mileage expenses
By JAKE SHERMAN, ANNA PALMER and JOHN BRESNAHAN
3/17/15
(http://images.politico.com/global/2015/03/17/150317_schock_gty_1160_956x519.jpg)
Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock resigned Tuesday, less than 12 hours after POLITICO raised questions about tens of thousands of dollars in mileage reimbursements he received for his personal vehicle.
Schock billed the federal government and his campaign for logging roughly 170,000 miles on his personal car from January 2010 through July 2014. But when he sold that Chevrolet Tahoe in July 2014, it had roughly 80,000 miles on the odometer, according to public records obtained by POLITICO under Illinois open records laws. The documents, in other words, indicate he was reimbursed for 90,000 miles more than his car was driven.
The discrepancy added to a growing wave of ethical and legal problems for the 33-year-old politician.
“[T]he constant questions over the last six weeks have proven a great distraction that has made it too difficult for me to serve the people of the 18th District with the high standards that they deserve and which I have set for myself,” Schock said in a surprise statement on Tuesday. “I have always sought to do what’s best for my constituents, and I thank them for the opportunity to serve.”
Later Tuesday, a spokesman for Schock added, “In an effort to remove any questions and out of an abundance of caution, Congressman Schock has reimbursed all monies received for official mileage since his election to Congress.”
Schock’s resignation marks a swift downfall of one of the GOP’s most promising young stars and prolific fundraisers. The former state legislator was elected to Congress in 2008 and shot through the ranks of the House GOP, at one point gracing the cover of Men’s Health magazine. He was a fresh face in a party eager to update its image.
But as his prominence grew, Schock adopted an expensive lifestyle — staying in luxury hotels, dining at pricey restaurants, flying on private jets. Mounting questions about how he paid for it eventually caught up with him.
Schock’s fall
Mounting legal and ethical problems consumed the Illinois Republican over the past two months.
By Nick Gass
Feb. 2 - The Washington Post reports on Schock’s “Downton Abbey”-inspired office in the Rayburn House Office Building, featuring pheasant feathers and a bust of home-state President Abraham Lincoln.
Feb. 9 - Following the Post report and another revelation from USA Today, POLITICO details Schock’s lavish—but legal—spending at pricey hotels in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Miami Beach and other posh destinations for campaign purposes.
“In addition to staying at expensive hotels, Schock also has spent more than $90,000 in campaign dollars on private air charters, an unusually high sum for a rank-and-file member of the House,” POLITICO reported at the time.
Feb. 10 - Schock launches his own internal review of tens of thousands of dollars in reimbursements he received for using his official vehicle. POLITICO reports that he has received approximately $1,000 in “private auto mileage” reimbursements from his monthly congressional allowance.
Feb. 24 - Schock brings on two prominent Washington defense lawyers and a public relations firm to battle the brewing controversy over his use of campaign and official accounts to pay for expensive travel and lodging accommodations.
His office declined to answer when asked about a 2011 trip to London in which he stayed at a five-star hotel where the cheapest room went for $500 per night. Documents obtained by POLITICO also showed he was scheduled to visit expensive clothing stores and dined at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.
Feb. 26 - It comes out that the Illinois lawmaker never disclosed receiving dinner or drinks during the London trip, POLITICO reports.
Feb. 27 - Schock suspends fundraising events.
The same day, POLITICO reports that Schock spent nearly $15,000 in government money for private flights between October and December.
March 1 - The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Schock used taxpayer money to fly from Peoria to Chicago for a Bears game the previous November.
March 6 - More details about Schock’s international spending surface, as some in his circle and the House Republican Conference fear the Illinois lawmaker could face an Ethics Committee investigation. He holds a news conference but does not alert the national media.
March 9 - POLITICO finds that Schock misreported his payment for the private flight from Peoria to Chicago for the Bears game, indicating the more than $3,000 as a software expenditure. In reality, the $3,000 was a deposit in addition to the $10,000 that Schock previously disclosed that he was billed for the flight, said Keith Sillats, the chief technology officer for Bytelogics.
March 11 - POLITICO asks the congressman in his home district whether he thought he had broken any rules or federal regulations. “Well, I certainly hope not,” Schock said. “I’m not an attorney.”
March 16 - Investigators from the Office of Congressional Ethics start reaching out to people in Schock’s circle.
March 16 - POLITICO asks Schock about tens of thousands of dollars in questionable mileage reimbursements.
March 17 - Schock announces his resignation, effective March 31.
The congressman’s vehicle history was pieced together from dozens of pages of Illinois vehicle records.
When Schock transferred the SUV to an Illinois dealership in 2014, it had 81,860 miles on the odometer, documents show. However, from January 2010 to the end of July 2014, he billed the federal government for 123,131 miles on his personal vehicle. During the same period, the Republican billed his “Schock for Congress” campaign account and GOP Generation Y Fund, his leadership political action committee, for an additional 49,388 miles.
Altogether, Schock sought reimbursement for 172,520 miles on his car, despite the fact that he signed documents that certified the vehicle traveled less than half that distance.
Schock had no other vehicles registered in his name at the time, according to state public records. Multiple sources familiar with his office operations say he only drove the Tahoe during this period.
In November 2009, less than a year after Schock took his seat in Congress, the lawmaker bought the 2010 Tahoe from Green Chevrolet in Peoria. The dealership is owned by Jeff Green, a contributor to Schock who has flown the congressman around his district in his airplane and helicopter.
When Schock purchased the new car, it had four miles on it, according to publicly available automobile transaction documents.
On July 19, 2014, Schock transferred the car back to Green Chevrolet with 81,860 miles on it, according to a transfer document Schock signed.
On that same day in 2014, Schock bought a black 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe with 10 miles on it. Schock’s campaign spent nearly $75,000 on the car, according to campaign filings, but the congressman registered the car in his own name. The SUV sports congressional license plates with the number “18” — the number of Schock’s congressional district.
Between 2010 and 2014, the government mileage reimbursement requests were filed by Schock on a near-monthly basis. Members of Congress and staffers are permitted to bill the government and campaign for use of a personal vehicle, and, generally speaking, do not have to keep logs to record the miles they drive.
When asked about the mileage several weeks ago, Schock’s office said the congressman spends a lot of time in automobiles and chartering private jets between events in his central Illinois district. His office also raised the possibility that staffers were driving his vehicle and weren’t sure if it was permissible under the rules.
During the past month, Schock repaid the government $40,000 after spending money from his official office budget to redecorate his office to resemble the set of PBS’s “Downton Abbey,” an English historical drama. He also reimbursed taxpayers more than $1,200 after using his office account to pay to fly on a private plane to a Chicago Bears football game.
Separately, on a campaign-finance document, Schock labeled the cost of a November flight on a private plane as a software purchase. He has failed to report trips abroad, as required. And he held a fundraiser at a golf course without reporting paying for its use.
In an interview with POLITICO last week in Peoria, Schock could not say with certainty that he had not broken the law.
“I certainly hope not,” Schock said. The Illinois Republican added that he was not an attorney, and therefore could not know whether he broke the law or ethics rules. Schock also declined to directly answer whether he had accepted improper gifts as a member of Congress.
News reports by POLITICO and the Chicago Sun-Times raised a series of questions about Schock’s spending and record-keeping. The Office of Congressional Ethics opened an investigation of the lawmaker on Feb. 28 and has begun contacting his associates about appearing before the independent panel behind closed doors.
The OCE probe —and any potential Ethics Committee investigation — will disappear with Schock’s resignation. However, federal law enforcement could still look into Schock’s actions. He has two attorneys, former Federal Election Commission Commissioner Don McGahn and criminal defense attorney William McGinley, both of Jones Day. Ron Bonjean and Brian Walsh, two longtime GOP communications aides, are handling his press strategy.
Schock will remain in Congress until March 31.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/aaron-schock-resigns-116153.html#ixzz3Ul05jvZJ
Schock's dad outed him in an interview. Classless.
Barney Frank hatin' on Schock for voting anti-gay hypocrisy.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/aaron-schock-sexuality-barney-frank-116259.html?cmpid=sf
While it looks like Schock probably resigned for way more than "a mileage snafu", aren't his sexual preferences are his own business?
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Schock's dad outed him in an interview. Classless.
Barney Frank hatin' on Schock for voting anti-gay hypocrisy.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/aaron-schock-sexuality-barney-frank-116259.html?cmpid=sf
While it looks like Schock probably resigned for way more than "a mileage snafu", aren't his sexual preferences are his own business?
Another day, another lie by the lying liar.
Schock has flatly denied being gay, and his father, Dr. Richard Schock, raised the issue of his son’s sexuality this week in an interview with ABC7 Chicago.
“Aaron is very popular. Aaron is a little different,” the elder Schock said. “He wears stylish clothing, and yet he’s not gay. And it makes people — and he’s not married, and he’s not running around with women. So, everybody’s throwing up their arms; they can’t figure out Aaron.”
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Another day, another lie by the lying liar.
Schock has flatly denied being gay, and his father, Dr. Richard Schock, raised the issue of his son’s sexuality this week in an interview with ABC7 Chicago.
“Aaron is very popular. Aaron is a little different,” the elder Schock said. “He wears stylish clothing, and yet he’s not gay. And it makes people — and he’s not married, and he’s not running around with women. So, everybody’s throwing up their arms; they can’t figure out Aaron.”
yeah, i'm sure you're right.
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yeah, i'm sure you're right.
Right that you lied about his father outing him? Well duh. I posted the quote from your own link.
You are a pathological liar.
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Hotel for Michelle Obama’s Cambodia visit cost $242,500
By Elizabeth Harrington
Published March 30, 201
5Washington Free Beacon
Hotel accommodations for First Lady Michelle Obama’s two-day trip to Cambodia required 85 rooms and cost taxpayers $242,500, according to a government contract released Friday.
Mrs. Obama traveled to Siem Reap, Cambodia on March 21 to promote a girls education initiative. A contract was awarded on March 3, citing the “unusual and compelling urgency” of the First Lady’s trip.
Mrs. Obama and a delegation of senior high-level U.S. government officials stayed at the Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra Golf and Spa Resort, according to a justification and approval document for the visit.
The trip required 85 single rooms, five office suites, five sleeping suites, and one conference room for 14 nights. Mrs. Obama herself only stayed in Cambodia for two days, leaving on March 22.
The Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra is listed as a luxury five-star hotel.
“The Siem Reap hotel, which elegantly combines Khmer and French architectural design, features landscaped gardens, [five] restaurants and bars, meeting facilities, a luxury spa and the largest free form swimming pool in Cambodia,” according to Accor, the French hotel operator that manages the hotel. “The leading luxury resort in Siem Reap also boosts a world-class 18-hole golf course at the Phokeethra Country Club, which is only a 25 [minute] drive from the hotel.”
Suites at the Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra come with personal butler service.
Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03/30/hotel-for-michelle-os-cambodia-visit-cost-242500/?intcmp=HPBucket
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Pentagon credit cards used for gambling, escorts
IG report finds military officials and civilians used government cards for ‘adult entertainment.’
(http://images.politico.com/global/2015/05/06/150506_gambling_gty_1160_956x519.jpg)
By BRYAN BENDER 5/6/15
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.
A Pentagon official briefed on some of the findings stressed that the federal government did not necessarily pay the charges; holders of the cards pay their own bills and then submit receipts to be reimbursed for expenses related to their government business.
The official said that the employees may have used the government cards for gambling and escort services in order to shield the charges from spouses.
Because the review was an audit of the credit card system and not an investigation of particular individuals, the official said the likely result will be that the agencies and military branches most affected will be compelled to remind employees that the practice violates policy — and possibly the law.
A Pentagon spokeswoman acknowledged the existence of the audit but said she was not authorized to speak about it until its release later this month.
The abuses come despite a 2012 law proposed by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) called the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act. The law required federal agencies to beef up oversight of purchases on government-issued credit cards.
Grassley said in a statement he hopes that the law is one reason why the audit was completed in the first place.
“I’m interested to see the report and find out more about what’s being done, right and wrong, at DoD to prevent abuse,” he said. “What I hope is that my reforms that became law have been implemented well and that agencies and auditors are using the reforms to catch problems.”
He added: “The law requires periodic audits by inspectors general, like this one, specifically to keep on top of charge card abuse and hold agencies accountable for implementing the required internal controls. That’s especially true with purchase cards, where taxpayer money is directly involved even more than with travel cards, but the reforms should prevent travel card abuse, too. If everything is implemented as intended, we’ll stop a lot of purchase card and travel card abuse.”
Some estimates suggest that such prohibited purchases cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
In 2008, for example, a report by the Government Accountability Office found that “abuse of government issued credit cards has been a growing challenge in recent years.”
It cited instances “where cardholders used purchase cards to subscribe to Internet dating services, buy video iPods for personal use and pay for lavish dinners that included top-shelf liquor.”
Late last year, federal auditors reported to Congress that the problem persists despite efforts to rein it in.
For example, the Department of Labor’s Inspector General recently found that Job Corps employees charged nearly $100,000 to the government for hair cuts, clothing, and personal cell phone service. The Department of Homeland Security found that Coast Guard employees charged more than $12,000 at a one California coffee shop alone. Three employees were fired and two resigned last year at the Bureau of Land Management after they charged $800,000 worth of gift cards on their government credit cards.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/pentagon-credit-cards-escorts-gambling-inspector-general-report-117696.html#ixzz3ZTpHkVt4
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Good work if you can get it.
Average NYC school janitor makes $109K a year
By Aaron Short
September 20, 2015 | 5:30am
(https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/shutterstock_262928504.jpg?w=720&h=480&crop=1)
Photo: Shutterstock
School custodians are cleaning up — in the hallways and in their paychecks — because the city doesn’t want to hire enough of them.
Custodians took home an average pay of $109,467 in the 2013-14 school year — and 634 of the city’s 799 custodians earned more than $100,000 in salary and overtime during that time, city payroll records show.
That’s because of the city’s 1,500 school buildings, 238 have no full-time custodian on site, up 74 percent from the 137 empty slots in 2012, according to data from the custodians union.
The arrangement is forcing nearly one-third of the city’s 737 custodians to cover two schools — and reap additional pay.
Union leaders say the city has traded school cleanliness and safety for a meager savings.
“The city is not saving much money because they’re paying my members to be at both places,” said International Union of Operating Engineers Local 891 president Robert Troeller, referring to overtime costs. “I don’t know why they’re not hiring. It’s ridiculous.”
Custodians possess licenses needed to operate and maintain a school building, including credentials for boilers, heating/air conditioning and fire sprinklers and alarms.
Department of Education spokesman Jason Fink said school buildings have “fully qualified” staff members on site who can perform all duties required.
http://nypost.com/2015/09/20/average-nyc-school-janitor-makes-109k-a-year/
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why is a custodian making $100k with all the overtime? Don't we have 59% unemployment (republican estimates)?
Cut the job in half, and pay TWO people $50k each to do the job.
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House report: Planned Parenthood spent millions on ‘blowout’ parties, travel, salaries
Published September 30, 2015
FoxNews.com
Planned Parenthood and its affiliates have spent millions in recent years on "blowout" parties, first-class travel and "lucrative" salaries, according to a report from the chairman of the House oversight committee.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, publicly accused the organization of spending a big chunk of its budget on non-health care expenses during a heated hearing on Tuesday. But on the sidelines of that hearing, he released a report detailing those costs.
In doing so, he and other Republicans continued to question whether Planned Parenthood needs all the taxpayer funding it receives.
"If they're going to pay those people that much money and pay for first-class travel and have all of these exorbitant parties, and send money overseas, then they don't need funding from the American taxpayers," Chaffetz told Fox News.
According to the report, which cited tax returns, Planned Parenthood spent over $5.1 million on travel in 2013, or nearly $14,000 a day. On top of that, several affiliates reported spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on travel. The report also said Planned Parenthood "books first class or charter travel," though President Cecile Richards said at Tuesday's hearing that she, personally, does not travel first class.
The report also said Planned Parenthood gave nearly $22 million in grants over five years to its Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which is legally able to do lobbying activity. Campaign finance records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show donations from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund Inc. PAC, in turn, go almost exclusively to Democratic candidates.
Further, the House report said Planned Parenthood spent $622,706 on "blowout parties" in 2013 and 2013; and the group's affiliates likewise spent on events ranging from a so-called "Gathering of Goddesses and Gods" to "Murder Mystery" fundraisers.
The report also said over 40 executives earned salaries of $200,000 or more between 2009 and 2013. Richards acknowledged during Tuesday's hearing, under questioning from Chaffetz, that her annual compensation is $520,000.
Chaffetz called the salaries "exorbitant."
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., later criticized Chaffetz for the line of questioning, accusing him of "beating up on a woman ... for making a good salary."
Republicans, though, argued that Planned Parenthood doesn't need all the taxpayer money it gets. According to the committee, about 41 percent of the group's reported $1.3 billion in revenue is government funding. Most of those funds are simply reimbursements for services through Medicaid -- but $60 million comes from Title X funding, through the "National Family Planning Program." Chaffetz said that's the funding in question.
Asked Tuesday about the group's spending on travel and other expenses, Richards noted their organization is in 50 states and works overseas.
"We have programs in Latin America and in Africa as well, where we support family planning programs in those," she said, while offering to provide more details on their financial situation.
She also stressed, "We don't make any profit off of federal money."
The hearing was held amid congressional investigations into a series of videos showing Planned Parenthood workers discussing fetal tissue harvesting.
Democrats blasted Republicans for their scrutiny of Planned Parenthood, following the hearing.
"Once again, House Republicans have wasted taxpayer time and money to conduct a wasteful investigation into baseless allegations," Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. "Their efforts to try to score cheap political points instead of governing on behalf of hardworking families is exactly why the American people are frustrated with Washington."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/09/30/house-report-planned-parenthood-spent-millions-on-blowout-parties-travel/?intcmp=hpbt2
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GAO: Feds made nearly $1 trillion in overpayments since fiscal 2003
By Elizabeth MacDonald
Published October 02, 2015
FoxNews.com
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.
U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro testified Thursday on the GAO’s new findings (http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-92T) before the Senate Finance Committee.
In total, overpayments accounted for approximately 90 percent of the federal government’s improper payment estimate, the GAO said. The waste spans 24 federal programs across 22 government agencies.
Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said: "There is, of course, plenty of questionable spending that the government does on purpose on a more or less daily basis -- but that’s a whole other hearing,"
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the committee’s highest-ranking Democrat, said: “Every taxpayer dollar lost to mistakes -- no matter the cause -- is a dollar that’s not available to help seniors cover medical costs, put a student through college, or rebuild our aging infrastructure.”
The GAO said three programs were most at fault: Medicare, Medicaid and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). These three government programs were responsible for a full three-quarters of the nearly $19 billion in erroneous payments the federal government made in fiscal 2014, the GAO said.
“Improper payments remain a significant and pervasive government-wide issue,” the congressional watchdog unit warned.
The Earned Income Tax Credit program was the worst offender.
The Internal Revenue Service estimated that the program erroneously handed out $17.7 billion worth of “improper” payments. That amounts to a whopping 27.2 percent of the total $65.2 billion in EITC refund checks that the IRS sent out in fiscal 2014.
And that means the federal government is now fast approaching the day when one out of every three earned income tax credits is erroneous.
Medicare was nearly as bad. The program, which covers about 54 million elderly and disabled beneficiaries, incorrectly doled out $59.9 billion in fiscal 2014, which is about a tenth of its $603 billion budget.
So, one out of every $10 that Medicare spent last year was erroneous, the GAO found. Medicaid made $17.5 billion in mistaken payments out of its $304 billion budget, for a nearly 6 percent error rate.
Besides the EITC program, the federal programs with the highest reported error rates for fiscal 2014 included the School Breakfast program (25.6 percent) and the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act Programs (23.1 percent).
The congressional watchdog group also warned that unless Congress and the administration crack down, the taxpayer-funded overpayments will continue to rise, since “federal spending in Medicare and Medicaid is expected to significantly increase -- on average by 8.6 percent annually over the next three years.”
And Dodaro repeatedly said Thursday that Congress and the White House must do more to protect taxpayer money, demanding they enforce accountability at these agencies.
Most glaring is the fact that the federal government still can’t gauge how bad the problem is.
“GAO has reported for several years that the federal government is unable to determine the full extent to which improper payments occur and reasonably assure that actions are taken to reduce them,” its report said.
Only since fiscal 2003 did federal agencies begin reporting improper payments, as required by the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002, the watchdog unit noted.
Elizabeth MacDonald is a senior stocks editor for Fox Business News
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/10/02/gao-feds-made-nearly-1-trillion-in-overpayments-since-fiscal-2003/
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Report: DHS spends $1B to digitize, only 1 immigration form available online
Published November 09, 2015
·FoxNews.com
A Department of Homeland Security agency spent more than $1 billion in taxpayer money to digitize immigration paperwork -- and after a decade of work, only has managed to put one document online.
The Washington Post reported Monday that officials at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services still are only able to offer a single form -- out of nearly 100 -- for online applications, and make a single fee payable electronically.
All other forms can still only be filed with paper.
The report sheds light on a struggling effort that not only has frustrated immigrant applicants but raises national security concerns and could put at risk any effort to overhaul immigration policies.
The project was originally supposed to be done in 2013, for a half-billion-dollar price tag.
Now, according to the Post, it isn't projected to be done for another four years and could cost over $3 billion.
"It's a huge albatross around our necks," Kenneth Palinkas, former head of the USCIS union, told the Post.
The report from the Post described a startling sequence of mismanagement in the program.
According to the report, agency officials did not finish a basic plan for the new system until three years after the initial contract was given to IBM, rendering part of the plan outdated before work began.
Only three forms were ever digitized, but two needed to be taken down after problems. The only available online form is an application for renewing or replacing a lost green card.
According to the Post, even that system has had problems and delays.
While DHS officials acknowledge these setbacks, they say the department has abandoned earlier plans and is moving toward a new system based in part on cloud computing, according to the Post.
"We took a fresh start -- a fix that required an overhaul of the development process -- from contracting to development methodology to technology," a USCIS spokesman told the newspaper.
The spokesman said they're "confident we are moving in the right direction."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/11/09/report-dhs-spends-1b-to-digitize-only-1-immigration-form-available-online/?intcmp=hpbt3
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Veterans Affairs pays $142 million in bonuses amid scandals
Donovan Slack and Bill Theobald, USA TODAY
November 11, 2015
WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs doled out more than $142 million in bonuses to executives and employees for performance in 2014 even as scandals over veterans' health care and other issues racked the agency.
Among the recipients were claims processors in a Philadelphia benefits office that investigators dubbed the worst in the country last year. They received $300 to $900 each. Managers in Tomah, Wis., got $1,000 to $4,000, even though they oversaw the over-prescription of opiates to veterans – one of whom died.
The VA also rewarded executives who managed construction of a facility in Denver, a disastrous project years overdue and more than $1 billion over budget. They took home $4,000 to $8,000 each. And in St. Cloud, Minn., where an internal investigation report last year outlined mismanagement that led to mass resignations of health care providers, the chief of staff cited by investigators received a performance bonus of almost $4,000.
As one of his final acts last year before resigning, then-VA secretary Eric Shinseki announced he was suspending bonuses in the wake of revelations that VA employees falsified wait lists to meet wait-time targets — ostensibly as part of efforts to secure the extra pay. But he only curtailed them for a sliver of VA executives -- those in senior levels of the Veterans Health Administration, which oversees health care.
The agency has continued to pay performance-based bonuses to nearly half of agency employees, including in health administration, according to data provided to USA TODAY by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. In all, some 156,000 executives, managers and employees received them for 2014 performance.
VA spokesman James Hutton said the vast majority of agency employees are committed to serving veterans.
“VA will continue to review tools and options in order to ensure the department is able to attract and retain the best talent to serve our nation's veterans, while operating as a good steward of taxpayer funds,” Hutton said.
That’s not good enough for Florida Republican Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House VA committee, which has been investigating questionable VA bonuses for years. Miller says the most recent awards reflect a “disturbing trend of rewarding employees who preside over corruption and incompetence.”
He noted the agency paid more than $380,000 in 2013 performance bonuses to top officials at hospitals where veterans faced long delays in receiving treatment, including those under investigation for wait-time manipulation. “Rewarding failure only breeds more failure,” he said Tuesday. “Until VA leaders learn this important lesson and make a commitment to supporting real accountability at the department, efforts to reform VA are doomed to fail.”
Miller spearheaded – and the House passed – a measure last year that would have eliminated bonuses for VA senior executives for five years. But ultimately the House and Senate compromised on legislation that still allows the VA to hand out up to $360 million annually to executives, managers and employees.
Overall, the agency awarded $276 million in incentives in 2014, including retention and relocation payments, rewards for saving money on travel and coming up with inventive ideas, according to committee data.
The cash bonuses of $142.5 million were tied to performance reviews. Employees were eligible to receive the lump-sum payments for ratings of “fully successful” or higher. The payments ranged from $8 to as much as $12,705. Most were more than $500. The average payout was $909.
Here are some of the recipients:
-- In Tomah, Wis., the former chief of staff of the VA medical center there, Dr. David Houlihan — whom veterans nicknamed the “Candy Man” because of his prolific prescribing of narcotics — received a $4,000 bonus in December. That was nine months after an inspector general investigation report concluded he was prescribing alarmingly high amounts of opiates. And it was four months after Marine Corps veteran Jason Simcakoski, 35, died of "mixed-drug toxicity" as an inpatient at Tomah after he was prescribed a fatal cocktail of medications, including opiates. The inpatient pharmacist supervisor also received a $1,050 bonus in December. A spokesman for the Tomah VA declined to comment. The VA moved last month to fire Houlihan. A lawyer who represented him did not respond to a message Tuesday seeking comment.
-- In Colorado, the flawed facility construction project in Denver was overseen in part by several VA officials headquartered in Washington. Among them were Stella Fiotes, executive director of the VA’s Office of Construction and Facilities Management, who received a $8,985 bonus; Dennis Milsten, an associate director in the same office, who got $8,069; and Chris Kyrgos, former national acquisitions director, who took home $3,800. VA spokesman Hutton did not address those awards beyond his general statement about the VA continually reviewing incentive options.
-- In St. Cloud, Minn., chief of staff Dr. Susan Markstrom got a $3,900 bonus in 2014. She was cited in an internal investigation report in January 2014 that concluded mismanagement led to mass resignations of health care providers at the facility. The report also said she and other leaders oversaw a work environment where employees were scared to report problems. St. Cloud VA spokesman Barry Venable said issues cited in the report were in 2013 and that Markstrom is “an excellent chief of staff" whose "ongoing contributions to patient care and safety are significant.”
-- In Augusta, Ga., VA financial manager Jed Fillingim was awarded a $900 performance bonus. He drew scrutiny from Congress last year after news reports revealed he admitted drinking and driving a government truck to a VA meeting in 2010 and a co-worker fell from the truck and was killed. Fillingim resigned from the VA after the incident but was rehired in March 2011, WRC-TV reported. A spokesman for the VA Medical Center in Augusta, Brian Rothwell, said Fillingim is not employed there.
-- In Arizona, Sandra Flint, now-former director of the Phoenix regional VA benefits office, received a bonus of $8,348. Irate veterans confronted Flint at a public forum in August 2014 over a backlog of about 8,200 pending benefit claims. Included were 3,667 pending longer than 125 days. A spokeswoman at the office could not be reached for comment.
-- In St. Paul, Minn., VA benefits office director Kimberly Graves received a bonus of $8,697 for 2014 performance. A VA inspector general report issued in September this year concluded Graves improperly used her authority to engineer a switch into her current post in October 2014. IG investigators concluded she also improperly received an additional $129,000 related to the move. Graves pleaded the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions at a House VA Committee hearing last week.
Hutton, the national VA spokesman, underscored that no top senior executives in the Veterans Health Administration received bonuses. “The issues raised in your questions focus on challenges VA has faced in the past,” he said. “(T)he department is working diligently to plan a foundation for the future that will modernize VA’s culture, processes, and capabilities to put the needs, expectations and interests of veterans and their families first.”
Miller said the agency, if it hands out bonuses at all, should do more to ensure they don’t reward the wrong behavior. He also wants the agency to take back bonuses deemed inappropriate after they are awarded.
“VA loves to tout its bonus program as a way to attract and retain the best and brightest employees,” he said. “Unfortunately, often times the employees VA rewards with thousands in taxpayer-funded bonuses are not the type of people the department should be interested in attracting or retaining.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/11/11/veterans-affairs-pays-142-million-bonuses-amid-scandals/75537586/
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VA spent $20M on art as ailing veterans languished, report finds
By Elizabeth Harrington
Published July 27, 2016
Washington Free Beacon
The Veterans Affairs administration spent $20 million on expensive artwork and sculptures amidst the healthcare scandal, where thousands of veterans died waiting to see doctors.
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.
The VA 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.
A “rock sculpture” cost taxpayers $482,960, and more than a half a million dollars were spent for sculptures for veterans that could not see them.
“In an ironic vignette, at a healthcare facility dedicated to serving blind veterans—the new Palo Alto Polytrauma and Blind Rehabilitation Center—the agency wasted $670,000 on two sculptures no blind veteran can even see,” Andrzejewski said. “The ‘Helmick Sculpture’ cost $385,000 (2014) and a parking garage exterior wall façade by King Ray Studio for the ‘design, fabrication, and installation of the public artwork’ cost $285,000 (2014).”
“Blind veterans can’t see fancy sculptures, and all veterans would be happier if they could just see a doctor,” he said.
Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/07/27/va-spent-20m-on-art-as-ailing-veterans-languished-report-finds.html
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Feds Spend Nearly $1M to Study Alcohol Habits of Lesbian Couples
(http://www.newsmax.com/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=2caceffb-5922-4bd4-baf1-9ca2f554bf41&SiteName=Newsmax&maxsidesize=600)
Image: Feds Spend Nearly $1M to Study Alcohol Habits of Lesbian Couples
(AP Images)
Monday, 29 Aug 2016
The federal government will shell out close to $1 million for a study of the alcohol habits of lesbian couples and bisexual women, The Washington Free Beacon reports.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded the money as a grant to Virginia-based Old Dominion University by National Institutes of Health to look at the romantic relationships of same-sex females in a bid to find what causes them to drink.
"Sexual minority women … report more heavy drinking, more alcohol-related problems, and higher rates of alcohol use disorders as compared to heterosexual women. Young sexual minority women are particularly vulnerable," the grant for the study says.
"No studies have examined how relationship factors and partners' alcohol use contribute to hazardous drinking among female sexual minority couples."
One hundred fifty lesbians will be recruited for the study.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Feds-Study-Lesbian-Couple-Drinking/2016/08/29/id/745642/#ixzz4Ikhq1tsJ
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Feds Spend Nearly $1M to Study Alcohol Habits of Lesbian Couples
most men support this study ;)
Any insight we can gain as to how to convince 2 women to get wasted and toss us into the mix....
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Pentagon Officials Permitted Government Spending at Strip Clubs and Casinos: Report
Mahita Gajanan @mahitagajanan
Aug. 30, 2016
Department of Defense workers spent nearly $100,000 at strip clubs and almost $1 million at casinos
Pentagon officials allowed their employees to use government credit cards at strip clubs and casinos, without any disciplinary action, according to a new report released Tuesday.
The report from the Department of Defense’s inspector general found that management did not take the correct course of action after finding out their workers used government credit cards for non-work related purposes.
“DoD management did not take appropriate action when notified that cardholders potentially misused their travel card at casinos and adult entertainment establishments,” the report said. “Specifically, DoD management and travel card officials did not perform adequate reviews for the cardholders reviewed and did not take action to eliminate additional misuse.”
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.
The oversight occurred because officials did not emphasize proper use of the travel card and management did not know what disciplinary action to take, according to the report.
Because the spending was allowed, the Department of Defense had less money available for work-related travel expenses and experienced potential national security vulnerabilities.
http://time.com/4472824/pentagon-spending-strip-club-casino/
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‘Disadvantaged’ Beverly Hills Fashionista Worked No-Show VA Job, Took Millions From Feds
Daily Caller ^ | 9/11/2016 | Luke Rosiak
Posted on 9/15/2016, 8:22:56 AM by simpson96
A fashionista from Beverly Hills, Calif., collected millions in interior design contracts from federal agencies by claiming to be “disadvantaged,” while simultaneously working at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) sending work to design companies.
Ronda C. Jackson was a no-show at her VA job, colleagues said. Records show she instead spent her time running a design company that got $7 million in contracts from the VA and other government agencies since 2008, reselling them marked-up goods like five-seat tables for $17,000.
Since 1997, Jackson has run Décor Interior Design, which seeks preference on government contracts by claiming to be disadvantaged because she is black, a woman and based out of a supposedly downtrodden “Historically Underutilized Business Zone” (HUBZone). The reduced-competition contracting program is known as 8(a).
Jackson worked as a full-time federal employee at the Los Angeles VA center in fiscal years 2010 and 2011, which ran from Oct. 1, 2009 to Sept. 30, 2011. Pay records show she worked as a GS-12 level interior designer and made $80,000 each year. Colleagues said they never saw Jackson in the office.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
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Obama Administation Hires Hundreds of PR Staffers for $500 Million a Year
by Katherine Rodriguez
5 Oct 2016
The Obama administration hired hundreds of public relations employees to sell the administration’s policies, costing U.S. taxpayers $500 million a year, according to the government’s top watchdog.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that the administration added 667 PR staffers between 2008 and 2011 to bring the staffing total to 5,238; the number decreased since then, but 5,100 staffers remained in the administration in 2014, The Washington Times reported.
The GAO says these figures do not include the $100 million spent on private PR consultants to bolster the government’s PR efforts.
The government spent $800 million on contracts with outside advertising firms in 2015 to promote the administration’s policies, The Washington Times reported.
“With increasing pressures on limited federal resources, it is crucial to know how much is spent across the federal government on public relations activities and which federal agencies are spending the most,” said Sen. Mike Enzi, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who requested the report.
According to The Washington Times, the Pentagon gained the most PR staffers out of all the federal agencies, with 2,100 employees assigned to the agency.
The Interior Department, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security also saw big gains in PR staff.
Some departments, such as Social Security, the Transportation and Labor departments, and the National Science Foundation, faced the smallest PR staffing gains in a decade.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/10/05/obama-administation-hires-hundreds-pr-staffers-500-million-year/
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Which is why I take EVERY legal loophole I can to pay as little as possible.
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Pentagon buries evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste
By Craig Whitlock and Bob Woodward
December 5, 2016
The Pentagon has buried an internal study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste, according to findings by The Washington Post. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)
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.
The report, issued in January 2015, identified “a clear path” for the Defense Department to save $125 billion over five years. The plan would not have required layoffs of civil servants or reductions in military personnel. Instead, it would have streamlined the bureaucracy through attrition and early retirements, curtailed high-priced contractors and made better use of information technology.
The study was produced last year by the Defense Business Board, a federal advisory panel of corporate executives, and consultants from McKinsey and Company. Based on reams of personnel and cost data, their report revealed for the first time that the Pentagon was spending almost a quarter of its $580 billion budget on overhead and core business operations such as accounting, human resources, logistics and property management.
. . . .
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.b0bf7daf1089
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Pentagon buries evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste
By Craig Whitlock and Bob Woodward
December 5, 2016
The Pentagon has buried an internal study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste, according to findings by The Washington Post. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)
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.
The report, issued in January 2015, identified “a clear path” for the Defense Department to save $125 billion over five years. The plan would not have required layoffs of civil servants or reductions in military personnel. Instead, it would have streamlined the bureaucracy through attrition and early retirements, curtailed high-priced contractors and made better use of information technology.
The study was produced last year by the Defense Business Board, a federal advisory panel of corporate executives, and consultants from McKinsey and Company. Based on reams of personnel and cost data, their report revealed for the first time that the Pentagon was spending almost a quarter of its $580 billion budget on overhead and core business operations such as accounting, human resources, logistics and property management.
. . . .
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.b0bf7daf1089
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:D
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Watchdog calls out HUD for $500B-plus in accounting 'errors'
By Brooke Singman
Published April 10, 2017
FoxNews.com
Everybody makes mistakes – but this could be an accounting error for the ages.
An inspector general audit has identified more than $500 billion in "errors corrected" in the notes and financial statements for the Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Obama administration.
According to the report released in March, HUD reissued financial statements for fiscal 2015 and 2016 "due to pervasive material errors that we identified." Those errors were contained in a November filing.
"The total amounts of errors corrected in HUD’s notes and consolidated financial statements were $516.4 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively," the IG said.
The office also noted other circumstances that apparently made it difficult for the IG to obtain “sufficient, appropriate evidence” as part of the report. According to the IG, this included weak internal controls over financial reporting which led to errors and delays in preparing financial statements; several “significant deficiencies”; and instances of noncompliance with applicable laws and regulations.
In response, HUD revised the statements and said the “errors” were solely in “presentation” of financial information which had since been corrected. A February letter from HUD’s Chief Financial Officer Courtney B. Timberlake also argued that the corrections “did not represent a change in cash balances, any improper payments, or misallocation of HUD resources.”
A source at HUD told Fox News that the matter of revising and re-issuing financial statements is taken “very seriously.”
But according to the Office of the Inspector General, HUD’s statements are “misleading” because they imply that the information reported was correct, and “merely presented inconsistently.”
OIG said HUD’s management is “downplaying the severity of the condition and impact of errors identified,” noting that they were significant enough to cause the department to reissue financial statements and notes for 2016.
Some of the errors were caused by HUD rounding dollar amounts to the nearest “billion,” when financial guidance calls for rounding to the nearest “million.”
Errors are common, but not of this magnitude.
“While we have audited HUD’s reissued statements, we have not fully evaluated any of the new process improvements HUD discussed in its response,” Assistant Inspector General for Audit Randy McGinnis wrote in a March 1 letter. “We look forward to evaluating these processes as part of our fiscal year 2017 audit.”
While Ben Carson is now secretary of HUD, Julian Castro was secretary at the end of the Obama administration.
HUD OIG performs an annual audit, as required by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/10/watchdog-calls-out-hud-for-500b-plus-in-accounting-errors.html
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Trump Has Already Spent Almost Double Obama’s Annual Travel Budget
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/04/09/trump_has_already_spent_almost_double_obama_s_annual_travel_budget.html
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Report: Rep. Gutierrez Paid Wife $12K From Campaign Funds
By Jeffrey Rodack | Monday, 29 May 2017
The wife of Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., received $12,000 — almost half of the Democratic congressman's first quarter campaign expenditures for 2017, The Washington Free Beacon reported Sunday.
Soraida Gutierrez has been on the payroll of the Gutierrez for Congress campaign committee since 2010, according to the Free Beacon, noting that during that time she has been paid $385,000.
Most recently, she was paid $6,000 on Feb. 6 for serving as the campaign treasurer and overseeing fundraising services, according to the Free Beacon, citing Federal Election Commission filings. She was paid an additional $6,000 on Feb. 28.
From Jan. 1-March 31, the campaign had spent $25,152.08 – including the money paid to the lawmaker’s wife, the Beacon noted.
Members of Congress have been permitted to put family members on their campaign rolls since 2001. The article explained Gutierrez has also paid his daughters from campaign funds in the past.
Gutierrez’s wife was a registered lobbyist in Illinois from 2003 to 2009 before joining his campaign, Fox News reported. She has been the top recipient of campaign funds in three cycles since assuming the role, according to the news network.
http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/Rep-Luis-Gutierrez-Soraida-Gutierrez-campaign-funds/2017/05/29/id/792937/
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Another liberal leech
Report: Rep. Gutierrez Paid Wife $12K From Campaign Funds
By Jeffrey Rodack | Monday, 29 May 2017
The wife of Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., received $12,000 — almost half of the Democratic congressman's first quarter campaign expenditures for 2017, The Washington Free Beacon reported Sunday.
Soraida Gutierrez has been on the payroll of the Gutierrez for Congress campaign committee since 2010, according to the Free Beacon, noting that during that time she has been paid $385,000.
Most recently, she was paid $6,000 on Feb. 6 for serving as the campaign treasurer and overseeing fundraising services, according to the Free Beacon, citing Federal Election Commission filings. She was paid an additional $6,000 on Feb. 28.
From Jan. 1-March 31, the campaign had spent $25,152.08 – including the money paid to the lawmaker’s wife, the Beacon noted.
Members of Congress have been permitted to put family members on their campaign rolls since 2001. The article explained Gutierrez has also paid his daughters from campaign funds in the past.
Gutierrez’s wife was a registered lobbyist in Illinois from 2003 to 2009 before joining his campaign, Fox News reported. She has been the top recipient of campaign funds in three cycles since assuming the role, according to the news network.
http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/Rep-Luis-Gutierrez-Soraida-Gutierrez-campaign-funds/2017/05/29/id/792937/
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Senate Democrat blasts 'Obamaphone' over fraudulent findings, complete lack of oversight'
Published June 30, 2017
Fox News
A new government audit finds more than a third of enrollees of the "Obamaphone" program may not be qualified -- among other fraudulent findings -- prompting a Senate Democrat to roundly criticize the program's "complete lack of oversight."
A report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) claims the program, which gives cell phones to poor people, stashed $9 billion in private bank accounts, the Washington Times reported.
The 90-page report was requested by Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who serves as ranking Democrat on the Senate’s chief oversight committee and who is a former state auditor in Missouri.
"A complete lack of oversight is causing this program to fail the American taxpayer — everything that could go wrong is going wrong," McCaskill said in a statement, according to the newspaper.
"We’re currently letting phone companies cash a government check every month with little more than the honor system to hold them accountable, and that simply can’t continue," she said.
The program -- officially known as the Lifeline Program and run by the Federal Communications Commission -- predates President Obama but received attention during his time in office when recipients began to associate the free phone with other benefits given to the poor, the paper reported.
The GAO report found that about 10.6 million people have an Obamaphone, but 36 percent of them may not qualify, according to the Washington Times. The audit also concluded that more than 5,500 people were found to be enrolled for two phones, while the program was paying for about 6,400 phones for persons the government has listed as dead, the paper reported.
Click here for more from the Washington Times
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/30/senate-democrat-blasts-obamaphone-over-fraudulent-findings-complete-lack-oversight.html
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Andre still calling porno lines on his Obamacare phone
Senate Democrat blasts 'Obamaphone' over fraudulent findings, complete lack of oversight'
Published June 30, 2017
Fox News
A new government audit finds more than a third of enrollees of the "Obamaphone" program may not be qualified -- among other fraudulent findings -- prompting a Senate Democrat to roundly criticize the program's "complete lack of oversight."
A report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) claims the program, which gives cell phones to poor people, stashed $9 billion in private bank accounts, the Washington Times reported.
The 90-page report was requested by Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who serves as ranking Democrat on the Senate’s chief oversight committee and who is a former state auditor in Missouri.
"A complete lack of oversight is causing this program to fail the American taxpayer — everything that could go wrong is going wrong," McCaskill said in a statement, according to the newspaper.
"We’re currently letting phone companies cash a government check every month with little more than the honor system to hold them accountable, and that simply can’t continue," she said.
The program -- officially known as the Lifeline Program and run by the Federal Communications Commission -- predates President Obama but received attention during his time in office when recipients began to associate the free phone with other benefits given to the poor, the paper reported.
The GAO report found that about 10.6 million people have an Obamaphone, but 36 percent of them may not qualify, according to the Washington Times. The audit also concluded that more than 5,500 people were found to be enrolled for two phones, while the program was paying for about 6,400 phones for persons the government has listed as dead, the paper reported.
Click here for more from the Washington Times
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/30/senate-democrat-blasts-obamaphone-over-fraudulent-findings-complete-lack-oversight.html
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Pure greed.
NJ millionaires-on-welfare sting: 12 additional individuals charged
By Brittany De Lea
Published July 06, 2017
Twelve more wealthy individuals in Lakewood, New Jersey have been charged with defrauding Medicaid and other government assistance programs by misrepresenting their incomes, prosecutors said Thursday, after seven couples were charged last week for gaming the system out of $2 million.
The defendants have all been charged with theft by deception, misrepresenting their incomes to show levels low enough in order to qualify for public assistance programs including Medicaid, heating benefits and food stamps (SNAP).
“They’ve been given letters instructing them as to the time frame for appearing. All defendants are expected to respond no later than Tuesday of next week,” the Ocean County, New Jersey prosecutor’s office said in a statement to FOX Business.
The couples charged Thursday fraudulently amassed welfare benefits near $400,000, according to an analysis of data from the prosecutor’s office. One couple alone collected nearly $75,000 in unentitled benefits from Medicaid between 2011 and 2013.
Seven additional couples, including a Rabbi and his wife, were charged just last week with defrauding government assistance programs out of at least $2 million.
One of the couples allegedly received Medicaid benefits for multiple years despite their annual income of more than $1 million, the complaint said.
Throughout fiscal year 2016, New Jersey spent $14.5 billion on Medicaid, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Throughout the same time period, the country as a whole spent $553.4 billion on the health assistance program.
In another instance, a couple allegedly made $1.8 million through various business endeavors that they had listed under relatives’ names—yet received housing, food and health benefits. They ultimately defrauded the government out of $178,000. The max allowable gross monthly income for a family of five in the state to be eligible for SNAP assistance is $4,385—which amounts to about $52,600 per year.
The prosecutor’s office said Thursday the investigation is ongoing.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/07/06/nj-millionaires-on-welfare-sting-12-additional-individuals-charged.html
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Seven additional couples, including a Rabbi and his wife, were charged just last week with defrauding government assistance programs out of at least $2 million.
No way! Not HIM.
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Hasidics are the damn worst welfare thugs
Pure greed.
NJ millionaires-on-welfare sting: 12 additional individuals charged
By Brittany De Lea
Published July 06, 2017
Twelve more wealthy individuals in Lakewood, New Jersey have been charged with defrauding Medicaid and other government assistance programs by misrepresenting their incomes, prosecutors said Thursday, after seven couples were charged last week for gaming the system out of $2 million.
The defendants have all been charged with theft by deception, misrepresenting their incomes to show levels low enough in order to qualify for public assistance programs including Medicaid, heating benefits and food stamps (SNAP).
“They’ve been given letters instructing them as to the time frame for appearing. All defendants are expected to respond no later than Tuesday of next week,” the Ocean County, New Jersey prosecutor’s office said in a statement to FOX Business.
The couples charged Thursday fraudulently amassed welfare benefits near $400,000, according to an analysis of data from the prosecutor’s office. One couple alone collected nearly $75,000 in unentitled benefits from Medicaid between 2011 and 2013.
Seven additional couples, including a Rabbi and his wife, were charged just last week with defrauding government assistance programs out of at least $2 million.
One of the couples allegedly received Medicaid benefits for multiple years despite their annual income of more than $1 million, the complaint said.
Throughout fiscal year 2016, New Jersey spent $14.5 billion on Medicaid, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Throughout the same time period, the country as a whole spent $553.4 billion on the health assistance program.
In another instance, a couple allegedly made $1.8 million through various business endeavors that they had listed under relatives’ names—yet received housing, food and health benefits. They ultimately defrauded the government out of $178,000. The max allowable gross monthly income for a family of five in the state to be eligible for SNAP assistance is $4,385—which amounts to about $52,600 per year.
The prosecutor’s office said Thursday the investigation is ongoing.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/07/06/nj-millionaires-on-welfare-sting-12-additional-individuals-charged.html
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http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2017/07/12/seven-indicted-medicare-fraud/103640140
Insane, utterly insane - yet Single payer will end this. Uh huh ::)
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Feds charge 7 with $132M Medicare fraud
Sarah Rahal, and Robert Snell, DetroitNews Published 3:46 p.m. ET July 12, 2017 | Updated 3:46 p.m. ET July 12, 2017
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(Photo: Clarence Tabb Jr. / The Detroit News)
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Detroit – Seven people were indicted Wednesday and accused of conspiring to defraud Medicare out of almost $132 million as a team of FBI agents raided their offices in the Fisher Building.
The indictment, unsealed Wednesday in federal court, alleges the defendants participated in a nearly decade-long conspiracy that defrauded Medicare through a series of kickbacks and bribes.
The indictment appears to be part of an annual, nationwide crackdown on health care fraud. Two years ago, federal agents charged 243 people nationwide with participating in fraudulent schemes that involved $712 million in false billings.
This year’s health care fraud crackdown, and the Detroit indictment, is expected to be outlined Thursday by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
In 2015, the enforcement sweep led to 16 arrests on charges relating to schemes that involved more than $122 million.
The indictment unsealed Wednesday alleges the seven defendants conspired in a scheme involving $131.8 million.
The alleged scheme involved paying kickbacks and bribes for services billed to Medicare.
The seven people charged are:
■Mashiyat Rashid of Oakland County.
■Yasser Mozeb of Oakland County.
■Spilios Pappas of Ohio.
■Abdul Haq of Washtenaw County.
■Joseph Betro of Oakland County.
■Tariq Omar of Oakland County.
■Mohammed Zahoor of Oakland County.
Ages and hometowns were not immediately available Wednesday.
Mozeb, Pappas, Haq, Betro, Omar and Zahoor were released on $10,000 unsecured bond Wednesday. Rashid was arraigned and temporarily held without bond.
Four offices at the Fisher Building, where most of the seven people conducted business, were raided Wednesday by the FBI. A Detroit News photographer captured part of the raid in offices 305 and 306.
The business being raided include Aqua Therapy and Pain Management Inc., which was run by Rashid; Tri-State Physician Group, run by Pappas; New Center Medical P.C.; and National Laboratories Inc.
The other companies include Global Quality Inc., Tri-County Physician Group P.C. and Tri-County Wellness Inc., which served as a management company, at 3800 Woodward Ave.
Omar and Zahoor are enrolled as providers with Medicare for Tri-County Physician. Mozeb was paid by Rashid and received payments from Global Quality and Tri-County Wellness. They opened bank accounts in the name of ISN Marketing to receive payments, according to the indictment.
The conspiracy has continued for nearly a decade and involved sending false and fraudulent materials to Medicare, the indictment alleges.
They disguised ownership and billed Medicare for false treatments, entered into sham agreements and made misrepresentations and omissions in the enrollment applications and claims submitted to Medicare, the government claims.
“Physicians … would prescribe medically unnecessary controlled substances, including Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, and Opana, to Tri-County Network beneficiaries,” according to the indictment.
The indictment lists nine charges, including health care fraud conspiracy, health care fraud, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and receiving and paying kickback
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Feds Spend $438,699 Studying If ‘Gender Norms’ Make LGBTQ People Get Drunk
Washington Free Bacon ^ | 08/18/2017 | Elizabeth Harrington
Posted on 8/18/2017, 1:40:34 PM by ForYourChildren
Grant: Alcohol is 'integral component of bars and clubs'!
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."
"Alcohol has played a central role for SGM by facilitating exploration of sexuality and gender, coping with minority stress, trauma, and stigma and serving as an integral component of bars and clubs for SGM young adults," the grant states. "Given this central role, it is not surprising that problematic alcohol use, including heavy episodic drinking (HED) and intoxication, and alcohol-related problems are significant issues for SGM young adults."
Researchers will conduct "in-depth interviews" with approximately 200 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals about their alcohol use, to determine why they drink.
{..snip..}
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
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Feds Spend $438,699 Studying If ‘Gender Norms’ Make LGBTQ People Get Drunk
Washington Free Bacon ^ | 08/18/2017 | Elizabeth Harrington
Posted on 8/18/2017, 1:40:34 PM by ForYourChildren
Grant: Alcohol is 'integral component of bars and clubs'!
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."
"Alcohol has played a central role for SGM by facilitating exploration of sexuality and gender, coping with minority stress, trauma, and stigma and serving as an integral component of bars and clubs for SGM young adults," the grant states. "Given this central role, it is not surprising that problematic alcohol use, including heavy episodic drinking (HED) and intoxication, and alcohol-related problems are significant issues for SGM young adults."
Researchers will conduct "in-depth interviews" with approximately 200 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals about their alcohol use, to determine why they drink.
{..snip..}
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
>:(
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http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_d9e65356-b155-11e7-8634-7fcc67848f6d.html
Unbelievable!!!
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Maxine Waters Spent $10,000 on What??
The controversial representative spent $10,000 on tickets to a big Broadway show through her re-election campaign, and listed it as a “Fundraiser Expense.”
October 17, 2017
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has spent weeks in the headlines this year for her consistent calls to impeach President Trump. Now she’s in the headlines for some of her own bad news.
Observers pointed out on Monday that Waters, in her campaign’s new FEC report, purchased $10,747.15 worth of tickets to the broadway show Hamilton and listed the purchase as a “Fundraiser Expense.”
It’s far from the first time Waters has made the news this year. She has frequently argued for impeachment of President Trump without evidence, she mentioned HUD Secretary Ben Carson in the same breath as the KKK in August, and in September even suggested the president has cheated on his wife.
For all her bluster, Waters has surely picked up some new fans in 2017 – but would they approve of her decision to use campaign funds to purchase Broadway tickets?
http://ntknetwork.com/maxine-waters-spent-10000-on-what/
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Mueller Details $6.7M Spent in Early Months of Russia Probe
Tuesday, 05 Dec 2017
The special counsel investigation into possible coordination between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election has cost more than $6.7 million so far, according to a financial report released Tuesday.
The release of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller's office comes as the investigation appears to be gaining steam: Prosecutors have gained a key cooperator in their investigation and revealed that they are keenly focused on the actions of the president and his inner circle.
Of the overall price tag, only about $3.2 million was spent directly by the special counsel's office. An additional $3.5 million was paid out by the Justice Department to support the investigation, though the special counsel's office says that money would have been spent on ongoing probes anyway, even if Mueller had not been appointed.
Mueller incorporated several active investigations within the Justice Department including those of Trump campaign contacts with Russia, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's business activities and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The details of the expenditures related to Mueller's investigation were laid out in a report released publicly by the special counsel's office. The report covers from May 17, the date of Mueller's appointment, through Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year.
According to Mueller's report, the special counsel's office spent about $1.7 million for salaries and benefits and more than $223,000 for travel-related expenses. The majority of the travel costs stemmed from the relocation of Justice Department employees temporarily assigned to the expanding investigation.
The office also spent nearly $734,000 on equipment and about $363,000 on rent, communications and utilities.
Previous special counsel investigations, including probes of President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s, have also spent millions over a few months' time.
A 1999 General Accounting Office report, for example, showed that independent counsel Kenneth Starr's office spent $6.2 million in the last six months of 1998, though it's unclear if that amount included both direct expenditures by the special counsel and supporting agency costs. In the report released Tuesday, Mueller's office noted that previous special counsels only reported direct costs and not those incurred separately by the Justice Department on their own expenditure reports.
The four-and-a-half year investigations headed by Starr and his successor, Robert Ray, cost more than $52 million in taxpayer funds as they probed Clinton and then-first lady Hillary Clinton.
A 2000 General Accounting Office report that detailed those figures said that $36 million came from congressional appropriations and $16 million from other federal agency costs. Starr's predecessor, Robert Fiske, spent an additional $6 million investigating the Clintons' involvement in the Whitewater real estate deal, according to a May 1999 GAO report.
Starr's investigation turned over documentation to the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee, which impeached Bill Clinton in December 1998 on single charges of perjury and obstruction of justice related to his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. A Senate vote in February 1999 failed to convict Clinton on those charges.
So far, Mueller's team has charged four people as part of the ongoing investigation.
Last week, Flynn pleaded guilty to a felony charge of lying to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with Mueller's investigators. George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, made a similar plea deal with Mueller's prosecutors in October. Both men admitted to lying to the FBI about their contacts with Russians related to their work for Trump.
In addition, Manafort and his longtime business associate, Rick Gates, are currently facing several felony charges brought by the special counsel's office. Those charges involve allegations of money laundering and other financial crimes related to their political consulting work in Ukraine.
In its report, Mueller's team notes that it draws its funding from a revolving "permanent, indefinite" appropriation for independent counsels provided by Congress, as well as from non-reimbursed Justice Department agency expenditures and from intelligence agency appropriations.
In a statement, the special counsel's office said it will release a similar expenditure report after March 31, 2018.
https://www.newsmax.com/headline/trump-russia-probe-costs/2017/12/05/id/830037/
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Government Gives San Diego State Professor $430,000 to Study Latino Grocery Store Purchases
by TOM CICCOTTA
15 Jan 2018
A San Diego State University professor was given $430,000 by the federal government to study the grocery store habits of Latino Americans.
According to a report from The College Fix, Professor Iana Castro of San Diego State’s College of Business Administration has received a $430,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to study the grocery store purchases of Latino American families. The purpose of the study is to learn how Latino Americans can combat obesity by making healthier choices at the grocery store.
According to the grant proposal, the study aims to identify the factors that lead Latino families to purchase unhealthy items at the grocery store.
The proposed research will identify in-store and parent-child factors that influence grocery purchasing behavior, a behavior that occurs multiple times per week and has implications for dietary intake and diet quality through foods and beverages consumed. The modifiability of in-store and parent-child factors makes them excellent intervention targets, and examining their influence on grocery purchasing behavior is innovative and significant.
To conduct the study, Castro will follow Latino American families as they walk around the supermarket. She will analyze conversations from the entire shopping trip, particularly those between parents and their children. She plans to utilize eye-tracking technology to determine the products that the shopper’s eyes land on first.
The grant sets out that the project hopes to find solutions that will help promote the adoption of healthier diets amongst the Latino population. “Identifying strategies with the potential to promote the adoption and maintenance of healthier food and beverage purchasing is essential for improving health outcomes, including rates of obesity,” the grant reads.
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/01/15/government-gives-san-diego-state-professor-430000-to-study-latino-grocery-store-purchases/
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State Department Spending $592,500 to ‘Explore Gender Identities of Boys and Men in Kenya’
Washington Free Beacon ^ | 1/22/18 | Elizabeth Harrington
Posted on 1/22/2018, 5:29:34 AM
The State Department announced a new $600,000 taxpayer-funded study that suggests "ideals of masculinity" in Kenya are contributing to terrorism.
The department's Bureau of Counterterrorism is seeking a nonprofit group to "explore gender identities of boys and men in Kenya." The grant proposal states that men being "tough, heterosexual, aggressive, unemotional, and achieving" can make them vulnerable to joining Islamic extremist groups.
"Gender is increasingly recognized as an essential aspect to understanding and countering violent extremism throughout the world," the State Department said. "To date, research and interventions on gender in Kenya have predominantly focused on the role of women and girls in violent extremism. However, men and boys are disproportionately recruited by and join terrorist groups and carry out terrorist operations. In Kenya, there currently exists no CVE [countering violent extremism] programming dedicated to the role of gender of boys and men and vulnerability to violent extremism."
To remedy this, the State Department will spend up to $592,500 on the "Masculinity and Violent Extremism" study, which will be awarded to an American nonprofit or nongovernmental organization later this year.
The study will "determine existing knowledge and gaps on male gender and violent extremism as well as explore gender identities of boys and men in Kenya."
The grant proposal blames Kenya's "patriarchal" society of "tough, heterosexual" men for problems facing the developing country.
"In Kenya, boys and men are disproportionately recruited by al-Shabaab and more likely to be both operators and victims of terrorist acts," the State Department said. "Kenyan society, while diverse in its ethnic and cultural composition, is uniformly patriarchal and highly prescriptive of gender expressions and identities."
"Kenyan males are expected to head the household as well as provide for, protect, and maintain the family," the department continued. "Socially, males are expected to be tough, heterosexual, aggressive, unemotional, and achieving. The practical and social pressures to fulfill these expectations can be immense and create vulnerabilities that are exploited by violent extremist groups who appeal to these characteristics and offer the opportunity to fulfil [sic] these roles."
The State Department added that the research would involve fathers and community leaders in Kenya in the hopes to "shape existing cultural narratives on masculinity, gender, and violent extremism."
"Funds will support male-to-male dialogue and training on issues of gender and encourage stronger social and familial support structures," the department said.
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Sheriff who pocketed $750G from inmate food fund bought beach house for $740G
By Kathleen Joyce | Fox News
An Alabama sheriff who pocketed $750,000 from funds meant to feed inmates is coming under fresh scrutiny for the purchase of a beach house that cost nearly the same amount of money.
AL.com reported Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin received $750,000 of “compensation” from a source he called “food provisions” during a three-year period. When AL.com contacted Entrekin about the money he did not deny he received it despite the money being “allocated by federal, state and municipal governments to feed inmates in the Etowah County Jail.”
Entrekin like other Alabama sheriffs believe a pre-World War II state law allows them to keep any “excess inmate-feeding funds” for themselves. However, in counties such as Jefferson and Montgomery, any excess money is supposed to be given to the county government.
In forms filed with the Alabama Ethics Commission, Entrekin reported he made “more than $250,000 each of the past three years via the inmate-feeding funds.”
"In regards to feeding of inmates, we utilize a registered dietitian to ensure adequate meals are provided daily," Entrekin told AL.com in an email. "As you should be aware, Alabama law is clear as to my personal financial responsibilities in the feeding of inmates. Regardless of one's opinion of this statute, until the legislature acts otherwise, the Sheriff must follow the current law."
Entrekin’s annual salary is $93,178.80, AL.com reported. However, Entrekin was able to purchase a four-bedroom beach pad with a built-in pool for $740,000. Entrekin and his wife Karen also own a two-story home in Orange Beach worth about $200,900.
Matthew Qualls, 20, was arrested on drugs charges just days after he publicly criticized Sheriff Todd Entrekin. (Etowah County Sheriff's Office )
Some residents questioned Entrekin’s purchase, including one, Matthew Qualls, who was arrested on drug charges earlier this month just days after he publicly criticized Entrekin for keeping the fund surplus.
Qualls who was paid to mow Entrekins’s lawn told AL.com in an article published in February he questioned why he was receiving checks for his services via a “Sheriff Todd Entrekin Food Provision Account,” when he knew of individuals in jail who had gone without meals.
"I saw that in the corner of the checks it said 'Food Provision,' and a couple people I knew came through the jail, and they say they got meat maybe once a month and every other day it was just beans and vegetables," Qualls told AL.com.
Qualls was arrested after police responded to an “anonymous tip” about a marijuana odor coming from an apartment where he and a friend were found inside. He was released from custody after taking a plea deal prompted by public outcry after his arrest. The deal requires Qualls to participate in the Etowah County Drug Court program, where he will be subject to random drug screenings, and must complete substance abuse classes instead of facing prison time, his attorney Sam Bone told AL.com.
Entrekin is also being challenged for his job this year by Rainbow City Police Chief Jonathon Horton. Horton has pledged not to pocket any excess money from the inmate-feeding funds.
"I believe the funds belong to the taxpayers and any excess funds should go toward things that benefit the taxpayer," Horton told AL.com. "There's been a tremendous amount of money left over that shouldn't be used as a bonus check."
Entrekin declined to respond to AL.com about his finances and multiple homes.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/14/sheriff-who-pocketed-750g-from-inmate-food-fund-bought-beach-house-for-740g.html
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Mueller Details $6.7M Spent in Early Months of Russia Probe
Tuesday, 05 Dec 2017
The special counsel investigation into possible coordination between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election has cost more than $6.7 million so far, according to a financial report released Tuesday.
The release of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller's office comes as the investigation appears to be gaining steam: Prosecutors have gained a key cooperator in their investigation and revealed that they are keenly focused on the actions of the president and his inner circle.
Of the overall price tag, only about $3.2 million was spent directly by the special counsel's office. An additional $3.5 million was paid out by the Justice Department to support the investigation, though the special counsel's office says that money would have been spent on ongoing probes anyway, even if Mueller had not been appointed.
Mueller incorporated several active investigations within the Justice Department including those of Trump campaign contacts with Russia, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's business activities and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The details of the expenditures related to Mueller's investigation were laid out in a report released publicly by the special counsel's office. The report covers from May 17, the date of Mueller's appointment, through Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year.
According to Mueller's report, the special counsel's office spent about $1.7 million for salaries and benefits and more than $223,000 for travel-related expenses. The majority of the travel costs stemmed from the relocation of Justice Department employees temporarily assigned to the expanding investigation.
The office also spent nearly $734,000 on equipment and about $363,000 on rent, communications and utilities.
Previous special counsel investigations, including probes of President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s, have also spent millions over a few months' time.
A 1999 General Accounting Office report, for example, showed that independent counsel Kenneth Starr's office spent $6.2 million in the last six months of 1998, though it's unclear if that amount included both direct expenditures by the special counsel and supporting agency costs. In the report released Tuesday, Mueller's office noted that previous special counsels only reported direct costs and not those incurred separately by the Justice Department on their own expenditure reports.
The four-and-a-half year investigations headed by Starr and his successor, Robert Ray, cost more than $52 million in taxpayer funds as they probed Clinton and then-first lady Hillary Clinton.
A 2000 General Accounting Office report that detailed those figures said that $36 million came from congressional appropriations and $16 million from other federal agency costs. Starr's predecessor, Robert Fiske, spent an additional $6 million investigating the Clintons' involvement in the Whitewater real estate deal, according to a May 1999 GAO report.
Starr's investigation turned over documentation to the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee, which impeached Bill Clinton in December 1998 on single charges of perjury and obstruction of justice related to his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. A Senate vote in February 1999 failed to convict Clinton on those charges.
So far, Mueller's team has charged four people as part of the ongoing investigation.
Last week, Flynn pleaded guilty to a felony charge of lying to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with Mueller's investigators. George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, made a similar plea deal with Mueller's prosecutors in October. Both men admitted to lying to the FBI about their contacts with Russians related to their work for Trump.
In addition, Manafort and his longtime business associate, Rick Gates, are currently facing several felony charges brought by the special counsel's office. Those charges involve allegations of money laundering and other financial crimes related to their political consulting work in Ukraine.
In its report, Mueller's team notes that it draws its funding from a revolving "permanent, indefinite" appropriation for independent counsels provided by Congress, as well as from non-reimbursed Justice Department agency expenditures and from intelligence agency appropriations.
In a statement, the special counsel's office said it will release a similar expenditure report after March 31, 2018.
https://www.newsmax.com/headline/trump-russia-probe-costs/2017/12/05/id/830037/
We spent about $32 million of taxpayer money investigating a partisan-funded hoax.
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Embattled union honchos’ lavish spending exposed: Villas, four-figure dinners, $60,000 cigar bill
By Ronn Blitzer | Fox News
Work hard, play hard -- and on the union's dime.
That might as well have been the motto for some former top officials at the United Automobile Workers, whose lavish spending on luxuries including high-end cigars, four-figure dining and California villas has been exposed in painstaking detail by federal prosecutors.
It's a case that threatens to cause serious problems for top auto union bosses, including Gary Jones, who resigned as president last month under pressure. A complaint filed in September in Michigan federal court against union leader Vance Pearson refers to several unnamed individuals, but union officials have told the New York Times that one of them, UAW “Official A,” is, in fact, Jones, whose home was raided by federal agents.
And Official A's wild expenses are all over the court documents, allegedly including $13,000 at a cigar store.
“A December 2015 Gary’s Sales invoice issued to ‘UAW c/o [UAW Official A]’ for a $13,046.91 purchase that included an order for 12 boxes of Ashton Double Magnum cigars at $268.00 per box (totaling $3,216) and 12 boxes of Ashton Monarch Tubos cigars at $274.50 a box (totaling $3,294),” was among the purchases listed in court documents. The documents listed another $13,000 purchase invoiced to Pearson from the same store the following year, part of an alleged $60,000 on cigar- and tobacco-related purchases between 2014 and 2018.
This is just one example of expenses allegedly made by Jones, Pearson and others, which prosecutors say were made via accounts set up with hotels such as the Royal Palm Springs Hotel (RPSH) and Loews Coronado Bay Resort, where they had training conferences. The hotels then paid outside vendors on the UAW officials’ behalf, “as a way to conceal the embezzling of union funds for their own personal use,” the complaint says.
The Times detailed a slew of these expenses in a lengthy story Thursday, noting that another official referenced anonymously in court documents is Jones' predecessor as president, Dennis Williams. Neither has been charged. An attorney for Jones downplayed the accusations as part of filings "in which Gary was not charged," according to the Times, while a source close to Williams reportedly rejected accusations that he urged the misuse of funds.
General Motors and United Auto Workers union reach tentative contract dealVideo
Through the RPSH, union officials spent more than $400,000 at local businesses between 2015 and 2017 on expenses including off-site condominiums and villas for themselves, prosecutors claim. An additional amount of nearly $400,000 was spent on “training” and “conference” expenditures at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort. These allegedly included meals and “excursion expenses” for senior union officials and their spouses, including the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park and horseback riding on the beach.
The Times detailed how a "master account" was billed for over-the-top dinners, including one at LG's Prime Steakhouse that ran over $6,500.
According to a Detroit Free Press report, prosecutors allege top union officials misused upward of $1.5 million. Pearson is facing charges including embezzlement of union funds, filing false reports and maintaining false union records, money laundering, conspiracy, and mail and wire fraud.
Jones resigned as president in November before facing internal charges that would have removed him both from office and the union entirely. Jones' attorney Bruce Maffeo did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment, but he previously told The Detroit News that Jones' decision to resign "was reached before learning of the internal charges" that had been filed.
The case against Pearson is part of a larger investigation of UAW and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles that has gone on since 2015 and has already resulted in nine convictions. Many of these have been related to UAW officials improperly receiving things of value from Fiat Chrysler, and another involved a UAW official taking kickbacks from vendors in exchange for union contracts.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/embattled-union-honchos-lavish-spending-exposed-villas-four-figure-dinners-cigars
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Epidemic of Government Employees Watching Porn on Taxpayer Time
Judicial Watch ^ | January 07, 2020 | Staff
Posted on 1/10/2020, 12:01:26 PM
An epidemic of federal employees watching porn on taxpayer time has reached a new low at one agency where a veteran staffer “viewed child pornography on a government computer on multiple occasions,” according to an audit. The unidentified employee worked at the Bureau of Land Management, which operates under the Department of the Interior (DOI) and admitted to investigators from the agency’s Inspector General’s office that he viewed adult pornography on multiple occasions though he knew DOI policy prohibits it. A year ago, a separate DOI employee infected agency networks with Russian malware after visiting thousands of porn sites on his government computer. A forensic examination determined the employee, who was never identified, had an extensive history of visiting porn websites and saving material on an unauthorized drive. In both cases the employees retired and faced no consequences.
The DOI is hardly alone in the ongoing porn scandal. Watching porn on government computers during work hours is so rampant that legislation (Eliminating Pornography from Agencies Act) was introduced in Congress a few years ago to contain the embarrassing crisis. Porn has for years been part of the job at some government agencies and numerous federal audits have long documented the enraging details of how our tax dollars are being wasted. Judicial Watch has also reported extensively on the topic, especially the porn crisis at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency charged with policing the nation’s financial industry. While the economy crumbled, the SEC was preoccupied with pornography. In fact, high-ranking managers at the agency regularly spent work hours gawking at pornography web sites on their government computers while the country’s financial system collapsed. We’re talking dozens of SEC employees, including senior officers with lucrative six-figure salaries viewing explicit images on their agency computers during work hours.
Other agencies have also been embroiled in porn scandals evidently making legislation necessary. Among them is the National Science Foundation (NSF), which has been exposed by its inspector general for having employees spend significant portions of their workdays watching, downloading and e-mailing pornography on government computers without ever getting caught. This workday porn surfing costs American taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, according to the agency watchdog. In one case a senior NSF executive spent at least 331 days viewing porn on his government computer and chatting online with naked women without getting caught. A separate employee accessed hundreds of pornographic web sites during work hours in a three-week period and another was caught with hundreds of photos, videos and slide shows containing porn. None of the public employees was subject to criminal prosecution, civil court action or debarment, though some got suspended for short periods of time.
About a year ago the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was embroiled in a large-scale pornography scandal in which hundreds of websites were used by employees and contractors to watch porn on government computers during work hours. The problem was so widespread that the USDA IG issued agency leadership a management alert memo warning of a “significant increase” in the number of USDA employees and contractors viewing and sharing unlawful or otherwise inappropriate pornographic content using their government-issued computers and other communication devices. Some of the content includes child pornography, according to the USDA OIG memo. “This employee misconduct is preventable, and it unnecessarily exposes USDA and its systems to significant risk,” the OIG memo states. USDA leadership took five months to address the problem even though the watchdog harped on the security risks of surfing the dicey websites on agency equipment. It didn’t even delve into the atrocity of public employees getting paid by taxpayers to enjoy porn.
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Epidemic of Government Employees Watching Porn on Taxpayer Time
Judicial Watch ^ | January 07, 2020 | Staff
Posted on 1/10/2020, 12:01:26 PM
An epidemic of federal employees watching porn on taxpayer time has reached a new low at one agency where a veteran staffer “viewed child pornography on a government computer on multiple occasions,” according to an audit. The unidentified employee worked at the Bureau of Land Management, which operates under the Department of the Interior (DOI) and admitted to investigators from the agency’s Inspector General’s office that he viewed adult pornography on multiple occasions though he knew DOI policy prohibits it. A year ago, a separate DOI employee infected agency networks with Russian malware after visiting thousands of porn sites on his government computer. A forensic examination determined the employee, who was never identified, had an extensive history of visiting porn websites and saving material on an unauthorized drive. In both cases the employees retired and faced no consequences.
The DOI is hardly alone in the ongoing porn scandal. Watching porn on government computers during work hours is so rampant that legislation (Eliminating Pornography from Agencies Act) was introduced in Congress a few years ago to contain the embarrassing crisis. Porn has for years been part of the job at some government agencies and numerous federal audits have long documented the enraging details of how our tax dollars are being wasted. Judicial Watch has also reported extensively on the topic, especially the porn crisis at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency charged with policing the nation’s financial industry. While the economy crumbled, the SEC was preoccupied with pornography. In fact, high-ranking managers at the agency regularly spent work hours gawking at pornography web sites on their government computers while the country’s financial system collapsed. We’re talking dozens of SEC employees, including senior officers with lucrative six-figure salaries viewing explicit images on their agency computers during work hours.
Other agencies have also been embroiled in porn scandals evidently making legislation necessary. Among them is the National Science Foundation (NSF), which has been exposed by its inspector general for having employees spend significant portions of their workdays watching, downloading and e-mailing pornography on government computers without ever getting caught. This workday porn surfing costs American taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, according to the agency watchdog. In one case a senior NSF executive spent at least 331 days viewing porn on his government computer and chatting online with naked women without getting caught. A separate employee accessed hundreds of pornographic web sites during work hours in a three-week period and another was caught with hundreds of photos, videos and slide shows containing porn. None of the public employees was subject to criminal prosecution, civil court action or debarment, though some got suspended for short periods of time.
About a year ago the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was embroiled in a large-scale pornography scandal in which hundreds of websites were used by employees and contractors to watch porn on government computers during work hours. The problem was so widespread that the USDA IG issued agency leadership a management alert memo warning of a “significant increase” in the number of USDA employees and contractors viewing and sharing unlawful or otherwise inappropriate pornographic content using their government-issued computers and other communication devices. Some of the content includes child pornography, according to the USDA OIG memo. “This employee misconduct is preventable, and it unnecessarily exposes USDA and its systems to significant risk,” the OIG memo states. USDA leadership took five months to address the problem even though the watchdog harped on the security risks of surfing the dicey websites on agency equipment. It didn’t even delve into the atrocity of public employees getting paid by taxpayers to enjoy porn.
No surprise. A cop got caught watching 105 hours of porn while on duty.
Got caught watching porn on duty for 105 hours (!), now he's an "undersheriff"...
Former BCSO deputy caught watching porn at work, now Valencia Co. undersheriff
He got caught looking at hours of porn while on duty with the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office. Now, Mark Kmatz is the undersheriff in another county, raising questions about how his misconduct was handled.
Kmatz was hired by BCSO in 1997 and was the face of the department for many years. However, in 2015, BCSO said Kmatz was caught on a Bernalillo County owned computer looking at porn sites for approximately 105 hours while on duty.
BCSO Undersheriff Rudy Mora filed a misconduct report stating Deputy Kmatz signed his time card indicating full compensation for time worked while committing the policy violations, meaning he was committing time fraud.
Kmatz resigned in 2015 as BCSO moved to fire him. Four years later, he's now the undersheriff in Valencia County.
https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/former-bcso-deputy-caught-watching-porn-at-work-now-valencia-co-undersheriff/2058720972
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Audit: US sent $1.4B in virus stimulus payments to dead people
Coronavirus hits record highs in 3 most populated states
By MARCY GORDON | June 25, 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 1.1 million coronavirus relief payments totaling some $1.4 billion went to dead people, a government watchdog reported Thursday.
More than 130 million so-called economic impact payments were sent to taxpayers as part of the $2.4 trillion coronavirus relief package enacted in March. The Government Accountability Office, Congress' auditing arm, cited the number of erroneous payments to deceased taxpayers in its report on the government programs.
While the government has asked survivors to return the money, it's not clear they have to.
The errors occurred mainly because of a lag in reporting data on who is deceased — a lapse that tax experts say is almost inevitable.
The revelation of more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds erroneously paid out shines a light on the part of the government's massive relief program with which most ordinary Americans are most familiar. It follows disclosures that several major restaurant chains and other publicly traded companies had received emergency loans under the $670 billion program for the nation's struggling small businesses.
"GAO found that more than $1 trillion in taxpayer funds have already been obligated — including more than $1 billion to deceased individuals — with little transparency into how that money is being spent," Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said in a statement.
The IRS didn't use death records to prevent payments to deceased individuals for the first three batches of payments because of the legal interpretation the agency was operating under, the GAO report says.
The IRS asked in May for the money back from the deceased taxpayers' survivors. Some legal experts have said the government may not have the legal authority to require that it be returned.
Former Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson has said there is nothing in the law prohibiting payments from going to the deceased. Nor is there anything in the law requiring people to return the payments. And she notes that the language used on the IRS website does not say that returning the payments is required by law.
"We are starting from these two soundbites and working backward," Olson, who now runs the nonprofit Center for Taxpayer Rights, said.
The relief payments were made to taxpayers based on the information filed on their 2019 or 2018 taxes. But it is considered a rebate on 2020 taxes. The government used the previous tax forms to help speed along payments to the public to offset some of the economic devastation from the coronavirus pandemic.
However, some people who filed those taxes may no longer be alive. Those payments are sent to an heir or executor of their estate. If the payment is based off a final tax return completed after their death, an economic impact payment check may even denote that the person is deceased next to their name.
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/06/25/audit-us-sent-b-virus-stimulus-payments-dead-people/?fbclid=IwAR3wRXPtuueBxSzTuhirE9d9xwpdc8mlKZs-EchGib3WAD-XMieuyYxZsEE
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Your Tax Dollars at Work: Man Convicted of Raping His Daughter Approved for Transgender Surgery
PJ Media ^ | Dec. 29, 2020 | Tyler O'Neil
Posted on 12/30/2020, 8:55:14 AM
Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that the Wisconsin Department of Corrections cannot deny transgender surgery to a man convicted of raping his 10-year-old daughter. The ruling also means Wisconsin will put the man in a women’s prison.
U.S. District Judge James Peterson approved the request of Mark Allen Campbell, a 49-year-old Wisconsin man who identifies as female and goes by the name “Nicole Rose,” to undergo transgender surgery at taxpayer expense, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. Campbell has identified as female since 2013, when he first requested the operation.
The Journal-Sentinel mentioned that Campbell began serving a 34-year prison sentence in 2007 for the sexual assault of a child. The paper did not mention the exact allegations that led to his conviction. According to the criminal complaint, the man’s 10-year-old daughter told investigators that her father had sex with her, masturbated in front of her, used sex toys with her, and exposed her to pornography. Judge Peterson ruled that this man must be eligible to receive transgender surgery at taxpayer expense.
“The rights of transgender persons and sex reassignment surgery remain politically controversial, even outside the prison context. And some members of the public are outraged at any effort to improve the health and well being of inmates,” Peterson wrote. “But the true public interest lies in alleviating needless suffering by those who are dependent on the government for their care.”
While gender dysphoria, the persistent and painful identification with the gender opposite one’s biological sex, is real, it remains an open question as to whether or not transgender identity (with experimental hormones and surgery) is the right course of treatment for it.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
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VA to offer gender surgery to transgender vets for the first time
Leo Shane III
Veterans Affairs officials for the first time will offer surgeries for transgender veterans seeking to alter their physical attributes, Secretary Denis McDonough will announce on Saturday.
The move follows repeated promises by VA officials to make the department “more welcoming” to all veterans and was accompanied by an announcement that the Veterans Health Administration will rename its LGBT health program to the LGBTQ+ program to “reflect new community standards of inclusiveness and anticipate future changes in terms.”
“[This is ] allowing transgender vets to go through the full gender confirmation process with VA by their side,” McDonough said prepared remarks for an event at the Orlando VA Healthcare System in Florida. “We’re making these changes not only because they are the right thing to do, but because they can save lives.”
The National Center for Transgender Equality estimates there are more than 134,000 transgender veterans in America today, and another 15,000 transgender individuals serving in the armed forces.
VA officials estimate that around 4,000 veterans nationwide will be interested in the surgeries. Total cost of the program is not yet known. The department also could not say when surgeries will be available, since officials must first go through a formal rule change process.
McDonough said making the change “will require changing VA’s regulations and establishing policy that will ensure the equitable treatment and safety” of transgender veterans.
“There are several steps to take, which will take time. But we are moving ahead, methodically, because we want this important change in policy to be implemented in a manner that has been thoroughly considered to ensure that the services made available to veterans meet VA’s rigorous standards for quality health care.”
The announcement on gender confirmation surgeries, also known as gender reassignment surgeries, is a dramatic shift from the previous White House and President Donald Trump’s moves to ban transgender individuals from joining the military and limit surgery options for those already in the ranks. Trump cited cost and morale concerns for that opposition.
McDonough, in his remarks, called it a matter of finding the best ways to serve veterans’ needs.
“LGBTQ+ veterans experience mental illness and suicidal thoughts at far higher rates than those outside their community,” he said. “But they are significantly less likely to seek routine care, largely because they fear discrimination.
“At VA, we’re doing everything in our power to show veterans of all sexual orientations and gender identities that they can talk openly, honestly and comfortably with their health care providers about any issues they may be experiencing.”
Since 2016, all VA facilities have had a local LGBT Veteran Care Coordinator responsible for helping those veterans connect to available services.
In a statement, House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano, D-Calif. and the first openly gay minority individual elected to Congress, hailed the move.
“Veterans in need of gender confirmation surgery should not have to seek healthcare outside of the VA health system or navigate complicated processes to get the care they need,” he said. “VA must be inclusive of all veterans who have served, regardless of their identity.”
Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester, D-Mont., similarly praised the expansion of health care offerings for transgender veterans.
“Every service member and veteran deserves equal access to quality care from VA, and this includes our LGBTQ+ veterans,” he said in a statement. “We must reaffirm our commitment to making VA a more welcoming place for everyone who fought to protect our freedoms.”
But House Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Mike Bost, R-Ill., blasted the announcement as the White House trying to win “the culture wars.”
“This announcement clearly has more to do with advancing a radical liberal agenda than serving veterans,” he said. “It is a disgrace. This administration should rethink their priorities immediately.”
In a statement, GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis praised the news as “not only an overdue victory for transgender veterans, but the latest move from Secretary McDonough and the VA in affirming LGBTQ veterans.”
https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2021/06/19/va-to-offer-gender-surgery-to-transgender-vets-for-the-first-time/
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Unbelievable. Terrible.
VA to offer gender surgery to transgender vets for the first time
Leo Shane III
Veterans Affairs officials for the first time will offer surgeries for transgender veterans seeking to alter their physical attributes, Secretary Denis McDonough will announce on Saturday.
The move follows repeated promises by VA officials to make the department “more welcoming” to all veterans and was accompanied by an announcement that the Veterans Health Administration will rename its LGBT health program to the LGBTQ+ program to “reflect new community standards of inclusiveness and anticipate future changes in terms.”
“[This is ] allowing transgender vets to go through the full gender confirmation process with VA by their side,” McDonough said prepared remarks for an event at the Orlando VA Healthcare System in Florida. “We’re making these changes not only because they are the right thing to do, but because they can save lives.”
The National Center for Transgender Equality estimates there are more than 134,000 transgender veterans in America today, and another 15,000 transgender individuals serving in the armed forces.
VA officials estimate that around 4,000 veterans nationwide will be interested in the surgeries. Total cost of the program is not yet known. The department also could not say when surgeries will be available, since officials must first go through a formal rule change process.
McDonough said making the change “will require changing VA’s regulations and establishing policy that will ensure the equitable treatment and safety” of transgender veterans.
“There are several steps to take, which will take time. But we are moving ahead, methodically, because we want this important change in policy to be implemented in a manner that has been thoroughly considered to ensure that the services made available to veterans meet VA’s rigorous standards for quality health care.”
The announcement on gender confirmation surgeries, also known as gender reassignment surgeries, is a dramatic shift from the previous White House and President Donald Trump’s moves to ban transgender individuals from joining the military and limit surgery options for those already in the ranks. Trump cited cost and morale concerns for that opposition.
McDonough, in his remarks, called it a matter of finding the best ways to serve veterans’ needs.
“LGBTQ+ veterans experience mental illness and suicidal thoughts at far higher rates than those outside their community,” he said. “But they are significantly less likely to seek routine care, largely because they fear discrimination.
“At VA, we’re doing everything in our power to show veterans of all sexual orientations and gender identities that they can talk openly, honestly and comfortably with their health care providers about any issues they may be experiencing.”
Since 2016, all VA facilities have had a local LGBT Veteran Care Coordinator responsible for helping those veterans connect to available services.
In a statement, House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano, D-Calif. and the first openly gay minority individual elected to Congress, hailed the move.
“Veterans in need of gender confirmation surgery should not have to seek healthcare outside of the VA health system or navigate complicated processes to get the care they need,” he said. “VA must be inclusive of all veterans who have served, regardless of their identity.”
Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester, D-Mont., similarly praised the expansion of health care offerings for transgender veterans.
“Every service member and veteran deserves equal access to quality care from VA, and this includes our LGBTQ+ veterans,” he said in a statement. “We must reaffirm our commitment to making VA a more welcoming place for everyone who fought to protect our freedoms.”
But House Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Mike Bost, R-Ill., blasted the announcement as the White House trying to win “the culture wars.”
“This announcement clearly has more to do with advancing a radical liberal agenda than serving veterans,” he said. “It is a disgrace. This administration should rethink their priorities immediately.”
In a statement, GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis praised the news as “not only an overdue victory for transgender veterans, but the latest move from Secretary McDonough and the VA in affirming LGBTQ veterans.”
https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2021/06/19/va-to-offer-gender-surgery-to-transgender-vets-for-the-first-time/
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(https://media1.tenor.com/images/895eb856b3946e0bd7427b0ac87f51dc/tenor.gif?itemid=4960326)
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Swalwell spent thousands of campaign dollars on booze and limo services, $20K at hotel where his wife works
Swalwell’s campaign spent over $10K on limo and luxury car services
By Houston Keene | Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/swalwell-campaign-dollars-booze-limos-hotels
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NY Post: Pelosi Makes Up to $30 Million on Insider Stock Trades
By Nick Koutsobinas
09 January 2022
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/nancy-pelosi-big-tech-stocks/2022/01/08/id/1051563/
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Fauci’s NIH Division Paid $205K for Researchers To Study Transgender Monkeys
Taxpayer-funded study aimed to explain high rate of HIV in trans women
Patrick Hauf • January 10, 2022
https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/faucis-nih-division-paid-205k-for-researchers-to-study-transgender-monkeys/
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Maxine Waters continues to pay daughter with campaign cash, adding up to $1.2M so far: FEC
Waters’ campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment
By Houston Keene , Cameron Cawthorne | Fox News
House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters has continued to pay her daughter with campaign cash – and has already broken the seven-figure mark.
Since 2003, Karen Waters has received over $1 million in payments from her mother to her and her company, Progressive Connections, for campaign-related services.
Federal Elections Commission (FEC) data reviewed by Fox News Digital shows the payments range from the hundreds to the tens of thousands of dollars for a variety of costs, including "slate mailer management" fees, "campaign managing services," and paying for a "band for [a] holiday event."
The payments add up, with the data showing that the congresswoman has paid her daughter and Progressive Connections over $1.2 million since 2003.
Waters’ campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The recurring financial windfall funneling from Waters’ campaign to her daughter’s coffers is a staple feature of the congresswoman’s career in office.
Karen Waters organized slate-mailing operations to bolster her mother's re-election.
Slate-mailing is an uncommon practice in federal elections, where a consulting firm is hired to create a pamphlet of sorts that contains a list of candidates or policy measures, and advises voters how to cast their ballots.
Rep. Waters was reportedly the only federal politician to use a slate-mailer operation during the 2020 general election.
Other members of the Waters clan have also made off with donor cash over the course of the congresswoman’s decades-long career.
In 2004, the Los Angeles Times revealed that the Waters campaign had shelled out over $1 million to other family members over the previous eight years.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/maxine-waters-continues-pay-daughter-campaign-cash
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Maxine can do whatever she wants. She gets the pass.
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How opportunists got rich off COVID-19 pandemic by stealing our money
By Eric Spitznagel
April 23, 2022
https://nypost.com/2022/04/25/hunter-biden-urged-beaus-widow-hallie-to-get-tested-for-hiv-during-their-affair/
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Nancy Pelosi's husband bought at least $1 million in Alphabet stock days before House leadership proposed a congressional stock trading ban
Madison Hall and Dave Levinthal
Oct 17, 2022
https://www.businessinsider.com/nancy-pelosi-husband-paul-pelosi-congressional-stock-ban-2022-10
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EXCLUSIVE: Analysis of RNC Spending Since 2017 Shows Millions Were Spent on Private Jets, Limousines, Luxury Retreats, Broadway Shows
By Jennifer Van Laar December 14, 2022
https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2022/12/14/exclusive-analysis-of-rnc-spending-since-2017-shows-millions-were-spent-on-private-jets-limousines-luxury-retreats-broadway-shows-and-more-n673852
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EXCLUSIVE: Analysis of RNC Spending Since 2017 Shows Millions Were Spent on Private Jets, Limousines, Luxury Retreats, Broadway Shows
By Jennifer Van Laar December 14, 2022
https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2022/12/14/exclusive-analysis-of-rnc-spending-since-2017-shows-millions-were-spent-on-private-jets-limousines-luxury-retreats-broadway-shows-and-more-n673852
Horrible.
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https://www.npr.org/2019/02/05/691684859/government-watchdog-trumps-trips-to-florida-costing-taxpayers-millions
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https://www.npr.org/2019/02/05/691684859/government-watchdog-trumps-trips-to-florida-costing-taxpayers-millions
The TDS is strong
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The TDS is strong
not really I'm pretty much over it. just tired of trump and his cronies sending letters and getting robo calls from eric and lara asking for a hand out. Let him pay his own legal fees.
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South Carolina Dem James Clyburn funneled six figures from campaign funds to family last cycle, filings show
Clyburn's son-in-law and grandson benefit from the powerful Democrat's campaign
By Joe Schoffstall | Fox News
Published February 5, 2023
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/south-carolina-dem-james-clyburn-funneled-six-figures-campaign-funds-family-last-cycle-filings-show
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South Carolina Dem James Clyburn funneled six figures from campaign funds to family last cycle, filings show
Clyburn's son-in-law and grandson benefit from the powerful Democrat's campaign
By Joe Schoffstall | Fox News
Published February 5, 2023
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/south-carolina-dem-james-clyburn-funneled-six-figures-campaign-funds-family-last-cycle-filings-show
Seems to be a pattern with these politicians, like Maxine Waters using slate mailers to funnel money to her daughter.
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Seems to be a pattern with these politicians, like Maxine Waters using slate mailers to funnel money to her daughter.
Definitely a pattern. And they keep doing it because there are no consequences.
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I told my wife about this and she thought it was satire. Nope. Your tax dollars hard at work.
Hola, Homosaurus: Biden Admin Shells Out Six Figures To Translate Gay Dictionary Into Spanish
Project includes definitions for terms such as 'anal fisting' and 'jizz'
Collin Anderson
April 6, 2023
The Biden administration is spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to translate the Homosaurus, a self-described "vocabulary of LGBTQ+ terms" that includes phrases such as "anal fisting" and "jizz," into Spanish, documents show.
President Joe Biden's National Endowment for the Humanities in January announced the $350,000 grant, which will see the University of Washington create a "Spanish-language version of the Homosaurus." The dictionary, which features a dinosaur standing under a rainbow as its logo, defines hundreds of terms and phrases "relating to bisexuality, trans, gender, and intersex concepts," according to its website. Examples include "anal fisting," which the Homosaurus defines as the "sexual practice of inserting a fist into an anus," "jizz," which it calls the "slang term for semen; primarily used in the United States," and "Indigiqueer," a "term used to describe the identity of people who are both Indigenous and queer and view those identities as inherently related and interconnected."
Biden as president has championed the National Endowment for Humanities, showering it with record-high budgets that make projects like its Homosaurus grant possible. The endowment in 2023 received an all-time high $207 million budget, and Biden last month proposed a $211 million budget for the agency for 2024. Biden in October 2021 tapped Navajo Nation member Shelly Lowe to chair the endowment, and one month later, the Democrat's White House identified the agency as a part of its effort to "restore and strengthen American democracy."
The endowment's Homosaurus grant will see $350,000 go to the University of Washington, where feminist scholar Marika Cifor will oversee the Spanish translation, a project she says will take three years. Cifor told the Washington Free Beacon that the project "received strong reviews and support from the NEH at each stage thus far" and that the grant will begin in September. For Cifor, the Spanish-language Homosaurus—which she said would include as many as 1,600 terms—will help solve the "basic struggles for information accessibility that many marginalized communities still face."
The National Endowment for Humanities did not return a request for comment.
Homosaurus includes a broad range of lesbian, gay, and transgender phrases. Some, such as "ass fucking," are vulgar and self-explanatory, while others require a more specific knowledge of the gay community. "Bear," for example, is not a term used to identify the carnivoran mammal but rather a slang term used to "describe hairy and large or muscular gay men." "Fag stags," meanwhile, consist of "heterosexual men who enjoy the company of gay men," while "anal beads" are defined as sex toys that consist of "multiple attached spheres (or balls) that are continuously inserted through the anus into the rectum and then removed with varying speeds."
Homosaurus also includes terms that define minors under the age of 18, such as "bisexual boys," "gay boys," and "transgender children." The dictionary, which sells children's apparel bearing its logo, also defines "pederasts" as "adult men who have sexual and mentor/protégé relationships with adolescent boys" but says the term should only be used "in historical contexts."
The Spanish-language version of the dictionary will take years, Cifor said in a March interview, because a direct translation "doesn't feel adequate and reinforces the centrality of the English language." While the project will see Cifor directly translate some of Homosaurus's English terms, it will also use "partner organizations" to identify "words that might exist only in Spanish and might not have an English equivalent."
"Direct translation seems simple on its surface, but it won't be culturally adequate to the kind of vocabulary we want to build," Cifor said.
Homosaurus's database is maintained by the Digital Transgender Archive, a self-described "trans-affirming," "anti-racist," and "feminist" academic resource that boasts a "collection of materials related to trans-ing gender." The archive is based in Boston, but its website recognizes that the city sits on "the sovereign territory of the Wampanoag and the Massachusett Peoples," an acknowledgement it says is "part of our commitment to working to dismantle the historic and ongoing erasures of Indigenous people and the widespread impacts of settler colonialism."
https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/hola-homosaurus-biden-admin-shells-out-six-figures-to-translate-gay-dictionary-into-spanish/
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Fraud report: $38 million in pandemic relief aid sent to dead people
Horowitz testified in February that federal agencies failed to use some of the tools at their disposal to prevent fraud.
By Brett Rowland
Updated: May 17, 2023
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/fraud-report-38-million-pandemic-relief-aid-sent-dead-people
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BLM paid execs millions despite being nearly $9M in the red: tax documents
Payments of over $1 million were sent to the companies of people with close ties with Black Lives Matter
By Michael Lee | Fox News
Published May 24, 2023
https://www.foxnews.com/us/blm-paid-execs-millions-despite-being-nearly-9m-in-red-tax-documents
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USDA says it overpaid 10% of food stamp benefits in 2022 as program doubled from 2019
Government Accountability Office estimates improper payments governmentwide were $247 billion in fiscal 2022.
By Greg Piper
Updated: July 4, 2023
https://justthenews.com/accountability/waste-fraud-and-abuse/usda-says-it-overpaid-10-food-stamp-benefits-2022-program
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USDA says it overpaid 10% of food stamp benefits in 2022 as program doubled from 2019
Government Accountability Office estimates improper payments governmentwide were $247 billion in fiscal 2022.
By Greg Piper
Updated: July 4, 2023
https://justthenews.com/accountability/waste-fraud-and-abuse/usda-says-it-overpaid-10-food-stamp-benefits-2022-program
'The program has also doubled since 2019, reaching $113.9 billion from $55.6 billion. It now covers 41 million Americans with an average payment of $230 per month.'
Why did it double? Perhaps the pandemic had some impact. Do you suppose the burden of a rapid and hopefully temporary increase in caseload along with a shortage of employees was a reason? According to the article you linked, Alaska was the worst at overpayment with 57% and South Dakota the best at under 3%. In May 2020 Alaska reached a 12% unemployment rate whereas South Dakota's unemployment rate reached a high of 8% in April of that year.
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'The program has also doubled since 2019, reaching $113.9 billion from $55.6 billion. It now covers 41 million Americans with an average payment of $230 per month.'
Why did it double? Perhaps the pandemic had some impact. Do you suppose the burden of a rapid and hopefully temporary increase in caseload along with a shortage of employees was a reason? According to the article you linked, Alaska was the worst at overpayment with 57% and South Dakota the best at under 3%. In May 2020 Alaska reached a 12% unemployment rate whereas South Dakota's unemployment rate reached a high of 8% in April of that year.
So your focus is on why the program doubled instead of the gross overpayments. Typical.
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PPP fraud is ‘worst in history’: $200B stolen and blown on Lamborghinis, beach houses and bling
By Jeanette Settembre
July 14, 2023
https://nypost.com/2023/07/14/ppp-fraud-is-worst-in-history-200b-stolen-splurged-on-lamborghinis-and-bling/
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We’re paying billions in taxes for federal offices that are sitting mostly empty
I’ve seen this firsthand.
Brad Polumbo
July 31, 2023
https://www.based-politics.com/2023/07/31/were-paying-billions-in-taxes-for-federal-offices-that-are-sitting-mostly-empty/
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Rep. Adam Schiff earmarked more than $10 million to his defense contractor donors
Pay to play? “If you’re getting a campaign contribution and getting your earmark for that same company or for a client of that lobbyist, it has that perception” says Taxpayers of Common Sense.
By Arjun Singh and The Daily Caller News Foundation
September 26, 2023
https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/dcrep-adam-schiff-earmarked-more-10-million-his-defense-contractor?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=offthepress&utm_campaign=home
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Rep. Adam Schiff earmarked more than $10 million to his defense contractor donors
Pay to play? “If you’re getting a campaign contribution and getting your earmark for that same company or for a client of that lobbyist, it has that perception” says Taxpayers of Common Sense.
By Arjun Singh and The Daily Caller News Foundation
September 26, 2023
https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/dcrep-adam-schiff-earmarked-more-10-million-his-defense-contractor?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=offthepress&utm_campaign=home
Pencil neck Schiff is one of the worst.
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How does someone with her government salary amass this kind of wealth?
Senator Dianne Feinstein's death leaves her daughters wrangling over breathtaking $102MILLION property fortune and $62M private jet she used to visit her mansions
Feinstein's portfolio is estimated to be worth upwards of $160 million
Much of her wealth stems from her billionaire second husband Richard Blum
The late senator's children are reportedly warring over the fortune
By WILL POTTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
UPDATED: 2 October 2023
Dianne Feinstein's daughter and three stepdaughters are set to inherit the late senator's $102 million property portfolio, as well as her $62 million private jet.
The California congresswoman, who died in DC Friday aged 90, leaves behind an Italianite mansion with stunning views of San Francisco Bay that's worth $21 million.
Democrat Feinstein - whose vast wealth raised eyebrows - died in a Washington DC mansion she owned that's worth $7.4 million.
She also owned a $5 million Hawaii duplex, $7.5 million beach house in Marin County, California and a $62 million Gulfstream G650 jet she used to shuttle between her property empire.
Feinstein's already-vast coffers were further swelled by the sale of two other enviable homes in recent years - an Aspen ranch sold last year for $25 million, and a Lake Tahoe compound sold for $36 million. She is also believed to have had around $70 million cash in the bank.
Much of her wealth has stemmed from her billionaire second husband Richard Blum, the financier and founder of investment firm Blum Capital Partners, who passed away in February 2022. Feinstein has one daughter, Katherine, as well as three stepdaughters with her late spouse.
But the portfolio, estimated to be worth upwards of $160 million, is now the subject of a tense argument between the couple's offspring, according to the New York Post.
. . . .
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12578503/Dianne-feinstein-death-property-private-jet-fortune.html
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The senate pay very well.
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IN-DEPTH: US Gives More Than $4.1 Billion in Grants for LGBT and Transgender Initiatives Worldwide
Among other things, grants infuse schools with gender ideology and sexual orientation topics, despite polls that show 70 percent of Americans don't want that.
IN-DEPTH: US Gives More Than $4.1 Billion in Grants for LGBT and Transgender Initiatives Worldwide
By Jackson Elliott
Updated: 10/9/2023
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/in-depth-us-gives-more-than-4-1-billion-in-grants-for-lgbt-and-transgender-initiatives-worldwide-5498747?utm_source=epochHG&utm_campaign=CFP&src_src=epochHG&src_cmp=CFP
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IN-DEPTH: US Gives More Than $4.1 Billion in Grants for LGBT and Transgender Initiatives Worldwide
Among other things, grants infuse schools with gender ideology and sexual orientation topics, despite polls that show 70 percent of Americans don't want that.
IN-DEPTH: US Gives More Than $4.1 Billion in Grants for LGBT and Transgender Initiatives Worldwide
By Jackson Elliott
Updated: 10/9/2023
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/in-depth-us-gives-more-than-4-1-billion-in-grants-for-lgbt-and-transgender-initiatives-worldwide-5498747?utm_source=epochHG&utm_campaign=CFP&src_src=epochHG&src_cmp=CFP
Holy shit what a waste of our money
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IN-DEPTH: US Gives More Than $4.1 Billion in Grants for LGBT and Transgender Initiatives Worldwide
Among other things, grants infuse schools with gender ideology and sexual orientation topics, despite polls that show 70 percent of Americans don't want that.
IN-DEPTH: US Gives More Than $4.1 Billion in Grants for LGBT and Transgender Initiatives Worldwide
By Jackson Elliott
Updated: 10/9/2023
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/in-depth-us-gives-more-than-4-1-billion-in-grants-for-lgbt-and-transgender-initiatives-worldwide-5498747?utm_source=epochHG&utm_campaign=CFP&src_src=epochHG&src_cmp=CFP
Promoting mental disorders, one letter of the alphabet at a time.
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>:(
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/oct/26/ghost-towns-federal-office-buildings-are-80-vacant/
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The senate pay very well.
I am not so sure about that. It is pretty much a thankless job.
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I am not so sure about that. It is pretty much a thankless job.
Pls don't be so deliberately stupid - Thats why so many spend their whole working
Life in there & beyond - it's that poorly paid - they're virtually destitute ::)
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Pls don't be so deliberately stupid - Thats why so many spend their whole working
Life in there & beyond - it's that poorly paid - they're virtually destitute ::)
Beyond their working life? How is that possible?
Politicians do not start out as U.S. Senators, who presently earn $174,000. Most people get into politics by getting elected to a local school board which pays zero dollars, a city or county councilor position or often as a page or clerk. For example, the mayor of West Linn is paid $6,400 per year and West Linn city councilors are paid $4,000 a year. These are 'entry level' elected positions many politicians start out in. Did you know that 30% of House Members, and 51% of Senators, have law degrees and have practiced law?
High wages are not what draws most folks into politics. Some even have more altruistic motives, at least when they first become politicians. Politicians have literally no job security beyond the length of their term of office. House members are elected for two-year terms, Senators for six-years. When their terms end, they must campaign to get reelected for another term. Any Senator or House representative who has held that office for many years has had to repeatedly work to stay in office.
Nope, it is not the big salary that attracts these folks. Would you run for public office given the above?
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Beyond their working life? How is that possible?
Politicians do not start out as U.S. Senators, who presently earn $174,000. Most people get into politics by getting elected to a local school board which pays zero dollars, a city or county councilor position or often as a page or clerk. For example, the mayor of West Linn is paid $6,400 per year and West Linn city councilors are paid $4,000 a year. These are 'entry level' elected positions many politicians start out in. Did you know that 30% of House Members, and 51% of Senators, have law degrees and have practiced law?
High wages are not what draws most folks into politics. Some even have more altruistic motives, at least when they first become politicians. Politicians have literally no job security beyond the length of their term of office. House members are elected for two-year terms, Senators for six-years. When their terms end, they must campaign to get reelected for another term. Any Senator or House representative who has held that office for many years has had to repeatedly work to stay in office.
Nope, it is not the big salary that attracts these folks. Would you run for public office given the above?
Sorry not reading that.
Yawn 🥱
HTH ;D
👊🏻
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I am not so sure about that. It is pretty much a thankless job.
I was being sarcastic. They don't make much but have millions afterwards.
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Beyond their working life? How is that possible?
Politicians do not start out as U.S. Senators, who presently earn $174,000. Most people get into politics by getting elected to a local school board which pays zero dollars, a city or county councilor position or often as a page or clerk. For example, the mayor of West Linn is paid $6,400 per year and West Linn city councilors are paid $4,000 a year. These are 'entry level' elected positions many politicians start out in. Did you know that 30% of House Members, and 51% of Senators, have law degrees and have practiced law?
High wages are not what draws most folks into politics. Some even have more altruistic motives, at least when they first become politicians. Politicians have literally no job security beyond the length of their term of office. House members are elected for two-year terms, Senators for six-years. When their terms end, they must campaign to get reelected for another term. Any Senator or House representative who has held that office for many years has had to repeatedly work to stay in office.
Nope, it is not the big salary that attracts these folks. Would you run for public office given the above?
I was being sarcastic. They don't make much but have millions afterwards.
Exactly. It's pretty naive to look at their salary and not their net worth as a result of holding public office. Feinstein just died with $75M in cash in the bank, not counting her multiple properties or stock portfolio.
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Exactly. It's pretty naive to look at their salary and not their net worth as a result of holding public office. Feinstein just died with $75M in cash in the bank, not counting her multiple properties or stock portfolio.
And a 62 million dollar jet
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And a 62 million dollar jet
Yep. We taxpayers made her a very wealthy woman.
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California Taxpayers Bankrolling Trans Surgery for Death Row Inmates
JAZZ SHAW November 06, 2023
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2023/11/06/california-taxpayers-bankrolling-trans-surgery-for-death-row-inmates-n590319#google_vignette
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California Taxpayers Bankrolling Trans Surgery for Death Row Inmates
JAZZ SHAW November 06, 2023
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2023/11/06/california-taxpayers-bankrolling-trans-surgery-for-death-row-inmates-n590319#google_vignette
you have to be FNG kidding me!!!
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Exactly. It's pretty naive to look at their salary and not their net worth as a result of holding public office. Feinstein just died with $75M in cash in the bank, not counting her multiple properties or stock portfolio.
Diane Feinstein did not begin life as a pauper. Wealth begets greater wealth. Diane's father Leon Goldman was a prominent surgeon. Diane grew up in the affluent San Francisco neighborhood of Presidio Terrace. She graduated from Stanford University in 1955. Her first husband, Jack Berman was a superior court judge in San Francisco, (no slouch). Her second husband, Bertram Feinstein graduated from Oxford University in England. He was a neurosurgeon. Richard Blum, Feinstein's third husband, was chairman of his own equity investment management firm, Blum Capital Partners, which had Bank of America as a client. His fortune was over $1 billion.
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California Taxpayers Bankrolling Trans Surgery for Death Row Inmates
JAZZ SHAW November 06, 2023
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2023/11/06/california-taxpayers-bankrolling-trans-surgery-for-death-row-inmates-n590319#google_vignette
Degenerate State.
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Degenerate State.
They're far worse than that.
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California Taxpayers Bankrolling Trans Surgery for Death Row Inmates
JAZZ SHAW November 06, 2023
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2023/11/06/california-taxpayers-bankrolling-trans-surgery-for-death-row-inmates-n590319#google_vignette
I guess if I were on death row I'd like to spend my final days playing with my tits.
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lol ;D
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Rand Paul's 'Festivus Report' exposes $900B in government squander
From funding for A-list to money for Egyptian tourism, here's this year's roster of waste
By Jamie Joseph Fox News
Published December 22, 2023
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rand-pauls-festivus-report-exposes-900b-government-squander
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Rand Paul's 'Festivus Report' exposes $900B in government squander
From funding for A-list to money for Egyptian tourism, here's this year's roster of waste
By Jamie Joseph Fox News
Published December 22, 2023
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rand-pauls-festivus-report-exposes-900b-government-squander
Wow they waste some money. Easy to do when its not yours.
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B?
Rand Paul's 'Festivus Report' exposes $900B in government squander
From funding for A-list to money for Egyptian tourism, here's this year's roster of waste
By Jamie Joseph Fox News
Published December 22, 2023
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rand-pauls-festivus-report-exposes-900b-government-squander
How much in taxes were collected to spend $900B? ::)
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First female mayor of tiny Illinois village who hired child gang rapist is slammed for 'living like a royal' after demanding $300k salary, using tax payer money for billboards, hair and makeup... and passing law so next mayor will earn just $25k
Tiffany Henyard was elected mayor of Dolton in 2021 and has been mired in controversy since
The 40-year-old politician regularly uses professional stylists and beauty teams ahead of public appearances but is reticent to discuss how they are paid
She has courted even more controversy for controversial salary bill that many feel is a bid to dissuade competition at the next election
By BETHAN SEXTON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 5 January 2024
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12931847/mayor-tiffany-henyard-dolton-illinois-slammed-salary-expenses.html
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Not surprising.
First female mayor of tiny Illinois village who hired child gang rapist is slammed for 'living like a royal' after demanding $300k salary, using tax payer money for billboards, hair and makeup... and passing law so next mayor will earn just $25k
Tiffany Henyard was elected mayor of Dolton in 2021 and has been mired in controversy since
The 40-year-old politician regularly uses professional stylists and beauty teams ahead of public appearances but is reticent to discuss how they are paid
She has courted even more controversy for controversial salary bill that many feel is a bid to dissuade competition at the next election
By BETHAN SEXTON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 5 January 2024
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12931847/mayor-tiffany-henyard-dolton-illinois-slammed-salary-expenses.html
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Con artist accused of stealing $100M from Army to buy 31 homes, luxury cars: report
By Nicholas McEntyre
Published Jan. 11, 2024
https://nypost.com/2024/01/11/news/texas-woman-janet-yamanaka-mello-accussed-of-defrauding-us-army/amp/?fbclid=IwAR2-Y8hxdEMEmH_RXR_8WkPveRv5UKvHHvKDT1qQlLwb8zUtitNuVOY9Iy0
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Military Doctor: Transgender Surgery Uptick Paid for with US Tax Dollars
by: Tracy Beanz 04/09/2024
https://www.uncoverdc.com/2024/04/09/transgender-surgery-in-military-paid-by-taxpayers
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Nearly $100 Billion in COVID Relief Money Remains Unspent
Joe Lancaster
Apr 11, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nearly-100-billion-covid-relief-181556066.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9jaXRpemVuZnJlZXByZXNzLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABPuYOtAZ9aRhM_ahiEp8ffXCtcGJeKytmBQCwxCdCx9bu3h1igBuHYN7WmaIMuqMiBQtbykbrhHaJ0Rg6799IA1WFr7li12viyxmU08N7CHVRv__6uZ07KWM4S70ekACmKlWWVsKXsoOa48iupj9j3FE9-oRlaEJHGytbMUGyWY
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You know they are skimming from that money.
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Of course it's "not a whole lot" to a senile turd like McConnell; it's easy when you're writing checks with other peoples' money.
Mitch McConnell argues $61 billion in Ukraine aid is ‘not a whole lot of money’ for US
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the $61 billion in aid to Ukraine will greatly help the European country, which is still fighting its war with Russia.
The Senate voted Tuesday to pass foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Indo-Pacific allies by a 79-18 vote, marking a victory for both Ukraine and the U.S. lawmakers who had pushed to provide the aid. McConnell explained that the $61 billion Ukraine will receive is much more valuable to it than to the United States, as the amount is only 0.2% of the latter’s gross domestic product.
“So put in that context, it’s not a whole lot of money for us, but it’s a very significant step for them because it gives them the more sophisticated weapons they need to hold the Russians at bay,” McConnell said on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate/2977604/mcconnell-argues-ukraine-aid-not-a-whole-lot-of-money/
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Of course it's "not a whole lot" to a senile turd like McConnell; it's easy when you're writing checks with other peoples' money.
Mitch McConnell argues $61 billion in Ukraine aid is ‘not a whole lot of money’ for US
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the $61 billion in aid to Ukraine will greatly help the European country, which is still fighting its war with Russia.
The Senate voted Tuesday to pass foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Indo-Pacific allies by a 79-18 vote, marking a victory for both Ukraine and the U.S. lawmakers who had pushed to provide the aid. McConnell explained that the $61 billion Ukraine will receive is much more valuable to it than to the United States, as the amount is only 0.2% of the latter’s gross domestic product.
“So put in that context, it’s not a whole lot of money for us, but it’s a very significant step for them because it gives them the more sophisticated weapons they need to hold the Russians at bay,” McConnell said on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate/2977604/mcconnell-argues-ukraine-aid-not-a-whole-lot-of-money/
Right? It's like Monopoly money to them.