Unfortunately, what used to take a day to cover has now morphed into multiple posts every month just to keep up with the ineptness and craziness of today’s politicians. This month will be no different. If anything, the insanity seems to be increasing and intensifying as we continue to sense that we are being served by the worst set of politicians in the history of this country.
The proof to this theory continues below and for the next week or so:
1) One of Obama’s big selling points when he was first running for president is that he was going to operate the most transparent Presidential administration in the history of this country. There would be no secrets during his time in office, citizens would know just about everything that was going on in the Federal government.
Unfortunately, we have shown many times in previous posts how this became just another failure of this Presidency. Information request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) have been stymied a record number of times by this administration. Journalists have been spied on and investigated for negative reporting by this administration as they try to keep secrets that should be put out in public.
Well, according to a short article recently published by Reason magazine's website, this secrecy and lack of transparency should come as no surprise. The article discusses and shows an official government letter received from a Mr. Taylor D. August. Apparently Mr. August’s official job title at the Department of Education is "FOIA Denial Officer."
Yes, apparently in at least one Federal department under the Obama administration, there is an “officer” whose job title apparently puts him in charge of actually finding ways of denying FOIA requests. Makes you wonder if every Federal department now has a similar “officer” whose job is to deny lawfully requested documents and information from the Federal government.
Hardly seems like Obama is living up to his promise to be the most transparent President of all time when he has formalized personnel in the Federal government to do just the opposite, stifle and deny request for information and government transparency. Another lie, another deception, another failure.
2) The IRS has been around a long time. Given its longevity, one would have hoped that it had is methods and procedures down pat from a long trail of experience. One would have hope that but as usual when it comes to government bureaucracies, you would be wrong.
According to a new report from IRS’ Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, or TIGTA, some of the IRS’s outside contract employees had access to taxpayer data despite not having undergone required background checks. Obviously, this opens up the possibility of massive identify theft of millions of Americans:
“TIGTA found that taxpayer data and other [Sensitive But Unclassified] information may be at risk due to a lack of background investigation requirements in five contracts for courier, printing, document recovery and sign language interpreter services.”
Instances of failed security included:
- The Inspector General cited on instance where the IRS gave an outside contractor a CD disc containing 1.4 million taxpayer names, addresses and Social Security numbers. None of the contractor personnel who worked on this contract were subjected to a background investigation.
- The TIGTA found 12 service contracts for which employee background checks were required by the contract but some contractor personnel did not have background investigations done prior to working on the contracts.
- The TIGTA also found 20 contracts for which some contractor personnel did not sign nondisclosure agreements.
3) Many times in past insanity posts we have shown how wasteful and negligent the Federal government and the Washington politicians who operate it are with taxpayer wealth. Inefficiencies, fraud, and other wastes of tax payer dollars are widespread throughout every single government entity.
A recent article from the CATO Institute, written by Nicole Kaeding, confirmed nothing has changed as it relates to wasteful spending, at least within the Medicare program. She lists out some of the current wasteful Medicare spending:
- She first cites a Washington Post article that exposed the fact that 80% of motorized Medicare wheelchair claims are “improper," leading to billions and billons of dollars spent unnecessarily every year.
- Government Accountability Office (GAO) research estimates that Medicare’s “improper payments” amount to $44 billion, or 8% of total expenditures.
- Additionally, the GAO found Medicare to be a “high risk” program for its “vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement.”
- GAO chastised the program for its inability to control the wasteful spending problem and declared that Medicare “has yet to demonstrate sustained progress in lowering the rates [of improper payments].”
- But the CATO article goes on to say that the GAO might be kind in its criticism since other experts such as Malcolm Sparrow of Harvard University estimate the wasteful spending closer to 20% of claims or $120 billion annually.
- Although the Federal government’s Medicare Fraud Strike Force “has charged nearly 1,900 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6 billion” since 2007, $6 billion is next to nothing when the program spends hundreds of billions of dollars every single year, illustrating just how widespread the issue is.
Much like the IRS, the Medicare program has been around for decades and the political class and government bureaucracy still have not figured out how to run it efficiently and effectively and fraud free. No wonder the Federal government has run up an almost $18 TRILLION national debt when it possibly loses over $100 billion every year for no societal benefit in return from just Medicare.
And the sad thing, those who operate this program and others that also waste taxpayer dollars, seem to have no concept or plan on how to fix what they have severely broken.
4) One last piece of insanity for today. As most informed people know, the following international crises are going on today around the world:
- An American journalist was beheaded on video by terrorists in Iraq.
- Libya continues to disintegrate into a civil war.
- Russia and the Ukraine are fighting each other in Europe.
- Israel and the Palestinians are fighting each other in Gaza.
- Syria is still in the midst of a terrible civil war.
- Islamic terrorists are rampaging through Africa.
- North Korea and Iran are still working diligently on becoming nuclear weapons powers.
- Refugees are flooding our borders from Central and South America.
Well, two weeks ago, of all places, Mr. Kerry was in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific. Why was he there in the face of all the international turmoil cited above? He was there to lay a wreath at the Guadalcanal American Memorial to honor American soldiers killed in the Solomons in World War II. While this was a nice gesture and honor to those who fought there, you really have to question whether this was the right priority for him in these trying times.
And to add insult to injury, he did not talk about international affairs in his public comments. Instead, he focused on….wait for it…. Climate change: “But more importantly, we have $25 million in Asia Pacific climate change adaptation. We have another $25 million in mitigation programs. I know it’s of great concern to you. And in addition to that, we have huge historical ties that we respect enormously.”
While the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central America are disintegrating, Kerry is handing out American taxpayer money to the Solomon Islands to fix “climate change,” even though the planet has not warmed in over 19 years. And besides, how is climate change the overriding priority of the Secretary of State?
This is just another example of our politicians not having the will, intelligence, or ability to address and fix real problems, forcing them to address trivial things like climate change in the Solomon Islands, the name of an NFL football team, etc.
That will do it for today. More insanity, more wasteful spending, and more horrible priorities from the worst set of politicians ever to serve in office. More of the same to follow.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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