Government - waste, fraud, and abuse

[P@triot]

Recipients of federal disability checks often admit that they are capable of working but cannot or will not find a job, that those closest to them tell them they should be working, and that working to get off the disability rolls is not among their goals.

More baffling, most have never received significant medical treatment and not seen a doctor about their condition in the last year, even though medical problems are the official reason they don't work. Those who acknowledge they're on disability because they can't find a job say they make little effort to find one, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of federal survey results.

EXography: Many disability recipients admit they could work | WashingtonExaminer.com

 

[P@triot]

Some of my personal "favorites" from this article...

1. GATHERING DUST: The Transportation Security Administration let 5,700 pieces of unused security equipment worth $184 million sit in storage in a Dallas, Texas, warehouse, which costs $3.5 million annually to lease and manage. Taxpayers lost another $23 million in depreciation costs, because most of the 472 carry-on baggage screening machines had been housed there for nine months or more. That’s a lot of money!

2. DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY: The National Science Foundation used part of a half-million dollar grant to develop a video game that simulates a high school prom.

3. BIRD IS THE WORD: The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research spent $300,000 on a study that concluded the first bird on Earth probably had black feathers.

7. FELLAS, GET YOUR GUNS: Do you think this guy appears taller, stronger, and manlier? The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research spent $681,387 on a study to confirm that he does—when he’s carrying a firearm.

15 Pictures of Ridiculous Government Spending Guaranteed to Make You Mad

 

[P@triot]

Patrick Louis Knudsen, who spent two decades working on the House Budget Committee, recently went line-by-line through the federal budget to find $42 billion in unnecessary, poorly run, and duplicative federal government programs.

How Congress Can Save by Eliminating Bad Government Programs

 

[P@triot]

State Department finalized a $5million order for custom crystal wine glasses for American embassies just hours before the government shutdown

• Vermont-based crystal company Simon Pearce commissioned to make 12,000 pieces for American embassies
  
  
• Order was finalized the day before the government shutdown
  
  
• One of a handful of pricey orders filed in the last week of the fiscal year, known inside the Beltway as 'use it or lose it' week

Government filed $5m order of crystal glasses before shutdown | Mail Online

 

[P@triot]

New Buses Without Riders — $2.4 Million: The Winter Haven Area Transit Authority (WHAT) in Florida, which averages two to three riders per hour, used $2.4 million in federal stimulus funds to buy five new buses. Polk County commissioner Randy Wilkinson observed that WHAT spends more on the bus service than if the agency hired a cab for each rider.

7 Instances of Wasteful Spending in the Stimulus Package

 

[P@triot]

“Green” Jobs Training — $500 Million: After two years and hundreds of millions of federal dollars, job placement for the Green Jobs Program was only at 10 percent of the target level. Furthermore, what qualifies as a “green” job does not always match the high-tech, high-skill profile the President often touts. There were 33 times as many green jobs in the septic tank and portable toilet servicing industry as there were in solar electricity utilities, according to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as well as more green jobs selling used merchandise (eg. The Salvation Army) than in engineering services.

(How appropriate that Obama's policies end with people working 33x's more in septic and toilets )

7 Instances of Wasteful Spending in the Stimulus Package

 

[P@triot]

Bureaucrats Gone Wild “Punished” with Paid Vacations... ($19 million)

Charging booze and personal trips on the office credit card. Passing out on the job after a late night of partying. Wasting most of the work day surfing for smut on office computers. Making unwanted sexual advances. Using an office laptop to send explicit images.

Any one of these outrageous behaviors would be reason enough for most to be fired... unless, of course, you are on the federal government’s payroll, in which case you might instead get a paid vacation lasting months or even years.

Rather than disciplining employees who are underperforming or even engaging in criminal mischief, federal bureaucrats place troublesome employees on “administrative leave,” where they continue to get paid but are essentially relieved of their duties including having to report to work or do work. A federal employment attorney calls administrative leave “the government’s dirty little secret.”

1. Secret Service agent responsible for protecting the President during overseas trip found drunk and passed out in hotel hallway after a late night of partying.

Three Secret Service agents “responsible for protecting President Obama” during his visit to Amsterdam in March 2014 were placed on paid administrative leave after a late night of partying on the eve of the President’s arrival. One of the agents was found “passed out drunk in a hallway and later had to be lifted into his room by several hotel employees” and “claimed to have no memory of the events.” The other two agents, one of whom was the “team leader” on the trip, “were deemed complicit” because they did not “intervene” or “tamp down his behavior.” The agents were “temporarily replaced by other agents in the country until additional agents could be flown in to meet up with Obama’s entourage at his next destination, Brussels.” All three are GS-13-level agents, which means they are paid an annual salary of at least $72,000.56 The misconduct violated Secret Service rules barring agents from drinking alcohol ten hours before an assignment. These rules were “adopted in the wake of a damaging scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, in April 2012, when a dozen agents and officers had been drinking heavily and had brought prostitutes back to their hotel rooms before the president’s arrival for an economic summit.” The Amsterdam incident “came less than three weeks after the traffic accident in Miami, which led to the two officers involved being sent home.”

http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public...&File_id=6932c44c-6ef4-491d-a0f1-078b69f1f800

 

[P@triot]

Bureaucrats Gone Wild “Punished” with Paid Vacations... ($19 million)

Charging booze and personal trips on the office credit card. Passing out on the job after a late night of partying. Wasting most of the work day surfing for smut on office computers. Making unwanted sexual advances. Using an office laptop to send explicit images.

Any one of these outrageous behaviors would be reason enough for most to be fired... unless, of course, you are on the federal government’s payroll, in which case you might instead get a paid vacation lasting months or even years.

Rather than disciplining employees who are underperforming or even engaging in criminal mischief, federal bureaucrats place troublesome employees on “administrative leave,” where they continue to get paid but are essentially relieved of their duties including having to report to work or do work. A federal employment attorney calls administrative leave “the government’s dirty little secret.”

2. EPA employee who admits to viewing porn for up to six hours a day over the past four years paid $120,000 a year with performance bonuses.

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employee who admits spending up to six hours every day viewing pornography on government computers during work hours collected a $120,000 annual salary and with performance bonuses. When a special agent from the EPA Office of Inspector General went to interview the employee about his behavior, he was “actively viewing pornography on his government-issued computer. The employee confessed to spending, on average, between two and six hours per day viewing pornography while at work. The OIG’s investigation determined that the employee downloaded and viewed more than 7,000 pornographic files during duty hours. This investigation has been referred to and accepted by the DOJ for prosecution.” A high ranking EPA official admitted at a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing in May, “I’m not personally doing anything about it.” The chairman of the committee, Congressman Darrell Issa, questioned “how much pornography would it take for an EPA employee to lose their job?” Rather than being fired, the employee received “performance awards, merit based prizes, during the months he was found to be surfing porn at taxpayer expense,” according to an EPA official.

http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public...&File_id=6932c44c-6ef4-491d-a0f1-078b69f1f800

 

[bravoactual]

Let's step into the Way Back Machine.

The last full Quarter of 2008 (September, October November and December) the U.S. was losing 650,000 to 750,000 jobs a month. By the end of December of 2008 over 1.5,000,000 jobs lost. The shrub was in the White House when that happened.

Unemployment is now at 5.9% as opposed to 15% under darth dummy and curious george.

I know you watch fox, because thinking for yourself is not something Cons are good at. Thinking scares them and they prefer to be lied to.

Good Con.

 

[rightwinger]

In his State of the Union address, President Obama said he wanted to “make high-quality preschool available to every child in America” and “make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind.”

Another government-controlled, top-down, one-size-fits-all program—what could go wrong?

Look at the government’s record. As Heritage’s Lindsey Burke, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education, and research associate Rachel Sheffield point out in their new paper, “Washington already has a poor track record for K–12 education, with federal spending nearly tripling over the past three decades while academic achievement and attainment languishes.”

Why We Don't Need Universal Preschool

It's a fact that the more government has spent on poverty, the worse the poverty situation as become in the U.S. And the more they've spent on education, the worse our entire education system has become in the U.S.

But hey, liberals were never ones to let facts stand in the way...

Washington does not provide K-12 education, local communities do

 

[P@triot]

Bureaucrats Gone Wild “Punished” with Paid Vacations... ($19 million)

Charging booze and personal trips on the office credit card. Passing out on the job after a late night of partying. Wasting most of the work day surfing for smut on office computers. Making unwanted sexual advances. Using an office laptop to send explicit images.

Any one of these outrageous behaviors would be reason enough for most to be fired... unless, of course, you are on the federal government’s payroll, in which case you might instead get a paid vacation lasting months or even years.

Rather than disciplining employees who are underperforming or even engaging in criminal mischief, federal bureaucrats place troublesome employees on “administrative leave,” where they continue to get paid but are essentially relieved of their duties including having to report to work or do work. A federal employment attorney calls administrative leave “the government’s dirty little secret.”

3. VA execs covered up veterans’ deaths and patient delays to secure performance bonuses for themselves.

Public outrage over a scheme by executives at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) clinics to get paid bonuses by manipulating wait times and patients’ deaths cost the job of one employee at the department-- the Secretary. A whistleblower revealed the Phoenix VA Health Care System was concealing long delays for care and maintaining a secret list of patient wait that claimed the lives of as many as 40 veterans. A series of audits and investigations found VA administrators from coast to coast were “gaming the system” by “producing phony appointment data” to cover-up the thousands of veterans waiting months to see a doctor. Those within the agency who attempted to speak out against the culture of corruption were punished, but those involved in the scheme have yet to be held accountable. Three executives at the Phoenix VA were put on administrative leave in May “until further notice,” including the director and associate director. Each continues to receive their full salary, for the director that amounts to nearly $170,000 annually, or $85,000 since being put on leave.

This one is especially disturbing as it continues the disgusting pattern of liberals - greed and complete contempt and neglect for our veterans.

http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public...&File_id=6932c44c-6ef4-491d-a0f1-078b69f1f800

 

[P@triot]

In his State of the Union address, President Obama said he wanted to “make high-quality preschool available to every child in America” and “make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind.”

Another government-controlled, top-down, one-size-fits-all program—what could go wrong?

Look at the government’s record. As Heritage’s Lindsey Burke, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education, and research associate Rachel Sheffield point out in their new paper, “Washington already has a poor track record for K–12 education, with federal spending nearly tripling over the past three decades while academic achievement and attainment languishes.”

Why We Don't Need Universal Preschool

It's a fact that the more government has spent on poverty, the worse the poverty situation as become in the U.S. And the more they've spent on education, the worse our entire education system has become in the U.S.

But hey, liberals were never ones to let facts stand in the way...

Washington does not provide K-12 education, local communities do

Uh....no chief. Local communities are supposed to. But as it stands now, the federal government has unconstitutionally thrown around federal tax payer dollars to city schools all over this country in exchange for control over them. You might want to check the facts before blindly commenting. Just say'n...

 

[rightwinger]

Bureaucrats Gone Wild “Punished” with Paid Vacations... ($19 million)

Charging booze and personal trips on the office credit card. Passing out on the job after a late night of partying. Wasting most of the work day surfing for smut on office computers. Making unwanted sexual advances. Using an office laptop to send explicit images.

Any one of these outrageous behaviors would be reason enough for most to be fired... unless, of course, you are on the federal government’s payroll, in which case you might instead get a paid vacation lasting months or even years.

Rather than disciplining employees who are underperforming or even engaging in criminal mischief, federal bureaucrats place troublesome employees on “administrative leave,” where they continue to get paid but are essentially relieved of their duties including having to report to work or do work. A federal employment attorney calls administrative leave “the government’s dirty little secret.”

3. VA execs covered up veterans’ deaths and patient delays to secure performance bonuses for themselves.

Public outrage over a scheme by executives at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) clinics to get paid bonuses by manipulating wait times and patients’ deaths cost the job of one employee at the department-- the Secretary. A whistleblower revealed the Phoenix VA Health Care System was concealing long delays for care and maintaining a secret list of patient wait that claimed the lives of as many as 40 veterans. A series of audits and investigations found VA administrators from coast to coast were “gaming the system” by “producing phony appointment data” to cover-up the thousands of veterans waiting months to see a doctor. Those within the agency who attempted to speak out against the culture of corruption were punished, but those involved in the scheme have yet to be held accountable. Three executives at the Phoenix VA were put on administrative leave in May “until further notice,” including the director and associate director. Each continues to receive their full salary, for the director that amounts to nearly $170,000 annually, or $85,000 since being put on leave.

This one is especially disturbing as it continues the disgusting pattern of liberals - greed and complete contempt and neglect for our veterans.

http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public...&File_id=6932c44c-6ef4-491d-a0f1-078b69f1f800

They are on paid administrative leave until their case is investigated and ruled upon

After the process is over they will either be fired or returned to their position. It is part of "innocent until proven guilty"

 

[rightwinger]

In his State of the Union address, President Obama said he wanted to “make high-quality preschool available to every child in America” and “make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind.”

Another government-controlled, top-down, one-size-fits-all program—what could go wrong?

Look at the government’s record. As Heritage’s Lindsey Burke, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education, and research associate Rachel Sheffield point out in their new paper, “Washington already has a poor track record for K–12 education, with federal spending nearly tripling over the past three decades while academic achievement and attainment languishes.”

Why We Don't Need Universal Preschool

It's a fact that the more government has spent on poverty, the worse the poverty situation as become in the U.S. And the more they've spent on education, the worse our entire education system has become in the U.S.

But hey, liberals were never ones to let facts stand in the way...

Washington does not provide K-12 education, local communities do

Uh....no chief. Local communities are supposed to. But as it stands now, the federal government has unconstitutionally thrown around federal tax payer dollars to city schools all over this country in exchange for control over them. You might want to check the facts before blindly commenting. Just say'n...

No they haven't. The federal government pays around ten percent of a schools funding. The remaining 90% is paid at the state and local level

 

[P@triot]

Let's step into the Way Back Machine.

The last full Quarter of 2008 (September, October November and December) the U.S. was losing 650,000 to 750,000 jobs a month. By the end of December of 2008 over 1.5,000,000 jobs lost. The shrub was in the White House when that happened.

Unemployment is now at 5.9% as opposed to 15% under darth dummy and curious george.

I know you watch fox, because thinking for yourself is not something Cons are good at. Thinking scares them and they prefer to be lied to.

Good Con.

And yet unemployment under GWB never hit 7% except for a single month out of his 8 years except for his final December in office, while it hit as high as 14% under Barack Obama and has never been below 8% (except when he's caught LYING about it).

Oops.... (care to try again or would you rather stop embarrassing yourself while you're still ahead?)

 

[P@triot]

Bureaucrats Gone Wild “Punished” with Paid Vacations... ($19 million)

Charging booze and personal trips on the office credit card. Passing out on the job after a late night of partying. Wasting most of the work day surfing for smut on office computers. Making unwanted sexual advances. Using an office laptop to send explicit images.

Any one of these outrageous behaviors would be reason enough for most to be fired... unless, of course, you are on the federal government’s payroll, in which case you might instead get a paid vacation lasting months or even years.

Rather than disciplining employees who are underperforming or even engaging in criminal mischief, federal bureaucrats place troublesome employees on “administrative leave,” where they continue to get paid but are essentially relieved of their duties including having to report to work or do work. A federal employment attorney calls administrative leave “the government’s dirty little secret.”

3. VA execs covered up veterans’ deaths and patient delays to secure performance bonuses for themselves.

Public outrage over a scheme by executives at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) clinics to get paid bonuses by manipulating wait times and patients’ deaths cost the job of one employee at the department-- the Secretary. A whistleblower revealed the Phoenix VA Health Care System was concealing long delays for care and maintaining a secret list of patient wait that claimed the lives of as many as 40 veterans. A series of audits and investigations found VA administrators from coast to coast were “gaming the system” by “producing phony appointment data” to cover-up the thousands of veterans waiting months to see a doctor. Those within the agency who attempted to speak out against the culture of corruption were punished, but those involved in the scheme have yet to be held accountable. Three executives at the Phoenix VA were put on administrative leave in May “until further notice,” including the director and associate director. Each continues to receive their full salary, for the director that amounts to nearly $170,000 annually, or $85,000 since being put on leave.

This one is especially disturbing as it continues the disgusting pattern of liberals - greed and complete contempt and neglect for our veterans.

http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public...&File_id=6932c44c-6ef4-491d-a0f1-078b69f1f800

They are on paid administrative leave until their case is investigated and ruled upon

After the process is over they will either be fired or returned to their position. It is part of "innocent until proven guilty"

Hey genius - they were CAUGHT in the act. Furthermore genius, "innocent until proven guilty" applies to criminal trials in the court - not to employment! There is no laws regarding "innocent until proven guilty" with your employment status. And when a liberal at the EPA admits to surfing porn for 6 hours per day while at work, then the "proven guilty" thing has been covered.

Man alive do you just make up some insane/absurd stuff as you go. Even in the face of indisputable facts, you keep playing the good little liberal soldier denying reality.

 

[bravoactual]

Under our former Deserter-In-Chief and his buddy Draft Dodger Dick(less) the U.S. went from the Largest Lend Nation in the world to the Largest Debtor Nation in the world.

Under georgie porgie and dick(less) the National Debt climbed to over Eleven Trillion Dollars ($11,000,000,000,000,000.00).

The shrub raised the Debt Ceiling Seven (07) Times.

Republicans voted Nineteen (19) Times to Raise Debt Ceiling.

Again, you listen to fox and you get lied to and believe the lies.

 

[P@triot]

In his State of the Union address, President Obama said he wanted to “make high-quality preschool available to every child in America” and “make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind.”

Another government-controlled, top-down, one-size-fits-all program—what could go wrong?

Look at the government’s record. As Heritage’s Lindsey Burke, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education, and research associate Rachel Sheffield point out in their new paper, “Washington already has a poor track record for K–12 education, with federal spending nearly tripling over the past three decades while academic achievement and attainment languishes.”

Why We Don't Need Universal Preschool

It's a fact that the more government has spent on poverty, the worse the poverty situation as become in the U.S. And the more they've spent on education, the worse our entire education system has become in the U.S.

But hey, liberals were never ones to let facts stand in the way...

Washington does not provide K-12 education, local communities do

Uh....no chief. Local communities are supposed to. But as it stands now, the federal government has unconstitutionally thrown around federal tax payer dollars to city schools all over this country in exchange for control over them. You might want to check the facts before blindly commenting. Just say'n...

No they haven't. The federal government pays around ten percent of a schools funding. The remaining 90% is paid at the state and local level

They are constitutionally required to pay 0% chief. And that 10% has given them complete and total control over the schools as, to get that 10%, the school must FULLY comply with any and ALL federal mandates.

So as I stated previously, you might want to check the facts before blindly commenting. Just say'n....

 

[P@triot]

Under our former Deserter-In-Chief and his buddy Draft Dodger Dick(less) the U.S. went from the Largest Lend Nation in the world to the Largest Debtor Nation in the world.

Under georgie porgie and dick(less) the National Debt climbed to over Eleven Trillion Dollars ($11,000,000,000,000,000.00).

The shrub raised the Debt Ceiling Nineteen (19) Times.

Oops! More misinformation from the left.

Under GWB, the national debt went from $4 trillion to just barely hitting $10 trillion. Under Barack Obama, it went from $10 trillion to over $17 trillion (and he still has over two years left!).

You've lost all credibility when you state that the national debt "climbed over $11 trillion" under the Bush administration because that simply isn't true and is easily verifiable.

This is why nobody takes you people seriously. You're full of misinformation and outright lies.

 

[P@triot]

Under our former Deserter-In-Chief and his buddy Draft Dodger Dick(less) the U.S. went from the Largest Lend Nation in the world to the Largest Debtor Nation in the world.

Under georgie porgie and dick(less) the National Debt climbed to over Eleven Trillion Dollars ($11,000,000,000,000,000.00).

The shrub raised the Debt Ceiling Seven (07) Times.

Republicans voted Nineteen (19) Times to Raise Debt Ceiling.

Again, you listen to fox and you get lied to and believe the lies.

Pssst....genius....yeah, you....Bush didn't and could "raise the debt ceiling". Only Congress can do that.

(It's astounding - I've never yet a liberal yet who knows how their own government operates).