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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; government waste</title>
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	<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com</link>
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		<title>Soros Backed Marxist Media Group Got $364 Mil from US Gov</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/soros-backed-marxist-media-group-got-364-mil-from-us-gov/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=soros-backed-marxist-media-group-got-364-mil-from-us-gov</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/soros-backed-marxist-media-group-got-364-mil-from-us-gov/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Apr 2014 19:15:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[George Soros]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[state department]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[USAID]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=214870</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ $124,400 to “sponsor the first-ever Palestinian social media conference.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/internews.top_.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-214875" alt="internews.top" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/internews.top_-450x306.jpg" width="450" height="306" /></a></p>
<p>But it&#8217;s<a href="http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=220261#more-220261"> all for a good cause</a>. Even if we&#8217;re <a href="http://mrc.org/articles/364-million-taxpayers-put-liberal-journalists-boots-ground-syria">not entirely sure what that cause</a> might be.</p>
<blockquote><p>Internews was founded by a self-described Marxist anti-war protester. It has received $1.7 million from Soros, which pales in comparison to the fat government checks it has received. In 2011 alone, it sucked up $52,350,784 in government grants, according to its 990 tax forms. This made up 92.4 percent of the $56,644,153 in total reported revenue for that year.</p>
<p>And 2011 wasn’t unusual. According to the Soros-funded Center for Public Integrity, “all but $1.6 million of the $26.7 million in revenue it [Internews] reported in 2004 came from the federal government.”</p>
<p>Yet Internews runs a massive international journalism organization with a surprisingly small media footprint. Already a presence in more than 90 countries, including hotspot regions like Egypt, Libya and the “Palestinian Territories,” Internews has branched out into the latest conflict area to dominate the world stage: Syria.</p>
<p>Hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars have gone to this little-known, liberal journalism nonprofit since 2002, but the government agencies responsible for funding Internews didn’t seem to know much about it at all. And they certainly don’t like answering questions about it.</p>
<p>Maybe they realize what they are paying for. Far from being politically neutral, Internews pushes a liberal agenda and has helped to found at least three other liberal organizations.</p>
<p>To put its $364,325,778 in federal funding in perspective, Internews has gotten an average of $83,122.46 from taxpayers per day during the past 12 years. That’s $83,000 every single day for 12 years.</p></blockquote>
<p>So what are we getting for all that money?</p>
<blockquote><p>The organization operates in more than 70 countries, with global partners including Al Quds University (a Palestinian University), Central European University (which has received at least $250 million from Soros since 2000) and the University of California Berkeley (one of the most liberal colleges in the United States).</p>
<p>More than $6.3 million in federal grants to Internews were designated for Palestinian organizations, including $124,400 to “sponsor the first-ever Palestinian social media conference.”</p></blockquote>
<p>The first-ever Palestinian social media conference. Just what the world needed.</p>
<blockquote><p>Like many other journalism groups, Internews also has close ties to George Soros. Internews has received $776,311 in Soros funds since 2000, and $1 million in seed money in the early ‘90s. The organization also has several former Soros employees on staff, including President and CEO Jeanne Bourgault, who used to be a consultant for the Open Society Institute, and Josh Machleder, Internews VP for Europe and Eurasia Programs and for the Global Human Rights project, who also used to work for the Open Society Institute.</p></blockquote>
<p>The US government is really becoming an outlet of Soros Inc.</p>
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		<title>While Vets Wait 5 Years for Benefits, VA Bought $562,000 in Art</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/while-vets-wait-5-years-for-benefits-va-bought-562000-in-art/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=while-vets-wait-5-years-for-benefits-va-bought-562000-in-art</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/while-vets-wait-5-years-for-benefits-va-bought-562000-in-art/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Jan 2014 18:27:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[veterans affairs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=214287</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The agency has spent four years and $537 million on a new computer system]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/298_wounded-veteran-support-benefits.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-214288" alt="298_wounded-veteran-support-benefits" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/298_wounded-veteran-support-benefits.jpg" width="298" height="298" /></a></p>
<p>The Obama era has been a terrible one for veterans. The cuts to health and pensions were bad enough, but <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/under-obama-veterans-wait-2000-longer-for-disability-claims/">the backlog for benefits grew even</a> worse.</p>
<blockquote><p>The ranks of veterans waiting more than a year for their benefits grew from 11,000 in 2009, the first year of Obama’s presidency, to 245,000 in December — an increase of more than 2,000 percent.</p>
<p>Since 2009, the number of Southern California veterans waiting more than a year for their benefits has increased from 262 to 21,567.</p>
<p>More than 3,000 Southern California veterans have been waiting more than two years for their benefits.</p>
<p>As a candidate, Obama had promised to revamp a “broken VA bureaucracy,” but the documents reveal that many of the administration’s attempts — including efforts to boost staffing and computerize claims processing — have fallen apart in the implementation.</p>
<p>The agency has spent four years and $537 million on a new computer system, 97 percent of all veterans’ claims remain on paper. Since those numbers were tallied by the agency in January, the VA’s two top technology officers have announced their resignations, saying they had accomplished their goals.</p></blockquote>
<p>A closer look at the VA disaster would have told you everything you needed to know about how ObamaCare was going to work. <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/colin-powell-calls-for-universal-healthcare/">Colin Powell recently advocated </a>for government healthcare based on military healthcare.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/va-broken-death-medical-mistreatment-claims-backlogs-neglect-veterans-affairs-hospitals-clinics">how much actual experience he </a>has had with it as a patient.</p>
<blockquote><p>In 2010, Korean War veteran Gary Willingham, 80, went to the VA hospital in Dallas for what his family believed would be a short operation to remove a tumor from his neck. But the doctors accidentally clamped off his carotid artery and starved his brain of oxygen for 15 minutes. He had a massive stroke, which rendered him paralyzed and unable to eat or drink on his own. He died a year later.</p>
<p>Willingham’s family was never informed about the ghastly mistake made by VA doctors.</p>
<p>In just the past year, we&#8217;ve learned about at least 21 preventable deaths of military veterans at VA facilities across the nation as well as the spread of infectious diseases at these hospitals and clinics. In addition, there is evidence of bonuses awarded to executives at troubled VA hospitals and a lengthy ongoing disability claims backlog.</p></blockquote>
<p>But the Department of Veterans Affairs under Obama seems to have the same priority as the State Department did, when <a href="http://blog.heritage.org/2013/12/30/mb-1230-booze-pole-dancing-luxurious-hotels-top-10-examples-government-waste-2013/">instead of spending money on securit</a>y for the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, it bought art.</p>
<blockquote><p>This past week, the Department of Veterans Affairs bought $562,000 worth of artwork.</p>
<p>On Monday, VA paid $27,000 for an order of photographs showing sunsets, mountain peaks and country roads. They would go into a new center serving homeless veterans in Los Angeles; a spokeswoman described the art as “motivational and calming, professionally designed to enhance clinical operations.”</p>
<p>VA spent another $220,000 on artwork for its hospitals. On Thursday, VA was buying art again. It spent $216,000 on artwork for a facility in Florida.</p></blockquote>
<p>Instead of improving operations at troubled VA hospitals, they spent a few hundred thousand dollars putting art up on the walls.</p>
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		<slash:comments>22</slash:comments>
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		<title>Obama Pays Mexican Male Prostitutes to Stay Disease-Free</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-pays-mexican-male-prostitutes-to-stay-disease-free/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-pays-mexican-male-prostitutes-to-stay-disease-free</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-pays-mexican-male-prostitutes-to-stay-disease-free/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Oct 2013 01:11:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mexico]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=208752</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Pete doesn't really need to get his kids braces. The Mexican male prostitutes need that money. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/4NBM_APTOPIX_Mexico_Obama_Copy.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-208756" alt="4NBM_APTOPIX_Mexico_Obama_Copy" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/4NBM_APTOPIX_Mexico_Obama_Copy-450x299.jpg" width="450" height="299" /></a></p>
<p>“There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody. You built a Mexican male brothel in Tijuana, good for you. But I want to be clear, you did it because the United States government paid Mexican male prostitutes to remain disease free. Your customers were able to return to your brothel without succumbing to AIDS because American taxpayers paid them not to get AIDS.</p>
<p>&#8220;Now look you built a Mexican male brothel, great idea, Allah bless. Keep a hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay it forward to the United States government so it can study why lesbians drink too much or why Thailand prostitutes read more Baudelaire.</p>
<p>&#8220;You <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/22/u-s-government-funded-study-involves-paying-mexican-prostitutes/">didn&#8217;t build that male Mexican brothel. Obama did</a>.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote><p>The study is called “Conditional Economic Incentives to Reduce HIV Risks: A Pilot in Mexico,” and uses a grant from the National Institute of Health to pay male prostitutes in Mexico City. The prostitutes were placed in different groups and tested for sexually transmitted diseases. For every six months that they remain clean, they receive a payment that is larger or smaller depending upon their group.</p>
<p>Though the dollar amounts paid to each prostitute are small — they must remain poor enough to continue in prostitution, of course — the study has already cost nearly $400,000.</p>
<p>Drew Johnson of the Center for Individual Freedom wondered if bribing Mexican prostitutes was the best use of the taxpayer’s dime.</p>
<p>“At a time when the federal government is hiking taxes, raising its debt ceiling and drowning in ever-deepening debt, the last thing Washington needs to do is ship our money to Mexico City to give a cash reward to prostitutes for not catching Chlamydia or Gonorrhea,” he wrote.</p></blockquote>
<p>I suspect some government officials have a certain &#8220;personal interest&#8221; in the outcome of this study. But if we&#8217;re paying terrorists, who not also pay male prostitutes? It&#8217;s just taxpayer money and they have lots of it.</p>
<p>Pete doesn&#8217;t really need to get his kids braces. The Mexican male prostitutes need that money.</p>
<p>Donna doesn&#8217;t really need new shoes. The male Mexican prostitutes need her shoe money.</p>
<p>This is Obama&#8217;s <del>America</del> Mexico. You didn&#8217;t build that. Unless you voted for him.</p>
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		<title>Sessions Challenges Government Grant to Study &#8220;Meaning of Life&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/senator-sessions-challenges-government-grant-to-study-meaning-of-life/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=senator-sessions-challenges-government-grant-to-study-meaning-of-life</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/senator-sessions-challenges-government-grant-to-study-meaning-of-life/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Oct 2013 01:48:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National Endowment for the Arts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National Endowment for the Humanities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sen. Jeff Sessions]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=208633</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Other grants included  "Why are bad people bad?" ($23,390) and  "What is a monster?"]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/grand_universe.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-208634" alt="grand_universe" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/grand_universe-450x241.jpg" width="450" height="241" /></a></p>
<p>Apparently all the big problems have been solved. And these days, g<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/24/list-neh-grants/">overnment is focusing on the big questions</a>. Like the meaning of life. (Stop saying 42.)</p>
<blockquote><p>Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions wants to know why thousands of taxpayer dollars are being spent by the National Endowment for the Humanities on research projects and grants probing seemingly impossible-to-answer questions like, “What is the meaning of life?”</p>
<p>In his letter, he calls out seven specific grants totaling $172,445 including &#8220;What is the meaning of life?&#8221; ($24,953), &#8220;Why are bad people bad?&#8221; ($23,390),  &#8220;What is a monster?&#8221; ($24,999) and &#8220;Why do humans write?&#8221; ($24,774).</p></blockquote>
<p>I can answer that last one. Obviously it&#8217;s to get money from the government. More seriously, <a href="http://freebeacon.com/jeff-sessions-questions-value-of-neh-grants/">Sessions challenged some of </a>the Islamic propaganda being funded by the NEH.</p>
<blockquote><p>He also asked Watson about a project by NEH’s Bridging Cultures Bookshelf Administration that distributed books about Islam to 900 libraries across the country.</p>
<p>“One would think that NEH takes a fair and balanced approach to promoting culture” by using its funding to promote other major religions, he said.</p>
<p>Sessions asked for a list of materials about Islam distributed under the program, as well as “an itemized list, over the last five years, of all spending related to Christianity […] or Judaism where books or forums promoting one point of view were provided to libraries, etc.”</p></blockquote>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>$338 Mil Auto Bailout of Afghanistan Ends in Disaster</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/338-mil-auto-bailout-of-afghanistan-ends-in-disaster/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=338-mil-auto-bailout-of-afghanistan-ends-in-disaster</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/338-mil-auto-bailout-of-afghanistan-ends-in-disaster/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Oct 2013 01:21:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[foreign aid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=207965</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[U.S. officials have been relying on the Afghan army to confirm receipt of the components.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Volga-Afghanistan.-Picture-courtesy-of-Zabi-Sangary-on-Flickr.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-207966" alt="Volga-Afghanistan.-Picture-courtesy-of-Zabi-Sangary-on-Flickr" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Volga-Afghanistan.-Picture-courtesy-of-Zabi-Sangary-on-Flickr.jpg" width="450" height="296" /></a></p>
<p>We borrowed money from China <a href="http://www.halalporkshop.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2013-10-17T14:03:00-07:00&amp;max-results=20&amp;start=20&amp;by-date=false">to help buy auto parts for Afghanistan </a>that will smuggled and sold back into China. If <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/16/us-afghan-program-wasting-millions-spare-parts-rep/?page=all#pagebreak">that&#8217;s not smart economics, I don&#8217;t know</a> what is.</p>
<blockquote><p>Just like GM, the U.S. government has decided to give millions to another part of the auto industry — only this time it’s in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>In fact, a U.S.-led international group spent $230 million on spare vehicle parts for the Afghan National Army and other security agencies — then lost them.</p></blockquote>
<p>So they did the sensible thing. Of course.</p>
<blockquote><p>Not knowing where the parts were, the group ordered up an additional $138 million in parts a watchdog said likely aren’t needed and some of which are now sitting in warehouses with boxes stacked to the ceiling.</p></blockquote>
<p>But at least Obama made veterans pay more for health care. So it all evens out.</p>
<blockquote><p>Worse, U.S. officials couldn’t be sure the parts were going to help their intended target. They could only confirm that 10 percent of the parts were being transferred to the Afghan army.</p></blockquote>
<p>But I&#8217;m sure the pros at the Afghan army will fix that.</p>
<blockquote><p>U.S. officials have been relying on the Afghan army to confirm receipt of the components. But the special inspector general warned that the Afghan army itself is doing a poor job of tracking what parts it has in its inventory, where they are, and what additional supplies might be needed.</p></blockquote>
<p>Supply chain problems in a corrupt military made up of illiterate fighters working for warlords who don&#8217;t know how to use the bathroom?</p>
<blockquote><p>“Giving the [Afghan army] more responsibility for tracking and shipping vehicle spare parts raises concerns, as [it] is not yet consistently using or updating its inventory to track what is currently in stock,” the special inspector general said.</p></blockquote>
<p>Nor will they. The Afghan army is as capable of managing a supply chain as it is of religious tolerance. At this point it would be smarter to sell the parts locally and give Afghan commanders vouchers. There would probably be less waste and less corruption and better odds of parts going where they&#8217;re supposed to.</p>
<p>But that would be too sensible. It&#8217;s smarter to expect a gang whose great achievement is figuring out how to blow things up with second-hand equipment to be able to merge their supply chain with that of a First World superpower.</p>
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		<title>ObamaCare Website Now Officially the Most Incompetent Thing Obama has Ever Done</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/the-obamacare-website/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-obamacare-website</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/the-obamacare-website/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Oct 2013 23:36:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obamacare]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=207789</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The website was only tested four days before launch ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Burnbag_Obama_Biden.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-207797" alt="Burnbag_Obama_Biden" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Burnbag_Obama_Biden-450x300.jpg" width="450" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>Sure there&#8217;s a lot of things to choose from. But I think we have a winner.</p>
<p>The ObamaCare website, which estimates have placed at anywhere from under 100 million to 400 million to just under 300 million to 634 million dollars, not only tops  even Solyndra, but couldn&#8217;t have been designed any worse if Joe Biden had tried making it in his spare time.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s all the worse for Obama Inc. which boasted of<a href="http://ace.mu.nu/archives/344255.php"> being web savvy only to unveil this.</a>..</p>
<blockquote><p>The federal health care exchange was built using 10-year-old technology that may require constant fixes and updates for the next six months and the eventual overhaul of the entire system, technology experts told USA TODAY.</p>
<p>&#8220;The application could be fundamentally flawed,&#8221; said Jeff Kim, president of CDNetworks, a content-delivery network. &#8220;They may be using 1990s technology in 2.0 world.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>That&#8217;s okay. They&#8217;re using 1890&#8242;s economics in 2013.</p>
<blockquote><p>Recent changes have made the exchanges easier to use, but they still require clearing the computer&#8217;s cache several times, stopping a pop-up blocker, talking to people via Web chat who suggest waiting until the server is not busy, opening links in new windows and clicking on every available possibility on a page in the hopes of not receiving an error message. With those changes, it took one hour to navigate the HealthCare.gov enrollment process Wednesday.</p>
<p>Those steps shouldn&#8217;t be necessary, experts said.</p></blockquote>
<p>Not even the part where a donkey turns a wheel that turns the exchange?</p>
<blockquote><p>The root cause of the problems was a pivotal decision by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials to act as systems integrator, the central coordinator for the entire program. Usually this role is reserved for the prime information technology contractor.</p>
<p>As a result, full testing of the site was delayed until four to six days before the fateful Oct. 1 launch of the health care exchanges, the individual said.</p></blockquote>
<p>So the website was only tested four days before launch by a government agency that had little to no experience with websites on this scale.</p>
<p>How could a plan so perfect have gone so wrong?</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;I have never seen a website — in the last five years — require you to delete the cache in an effort to resolve errors,&#8221; said Dan Schuyler, a director at Leavitt Partners, a health care group by former Health and Human Services secretary Mike Leavitt. &#8220;This is a very early Web 1.0 type of fix.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Well this whole plan is Hillary&#8217;s health care plan from 1993 remixed. So why not give it a 1993 website?</p>
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		<title>$634 Million ObamaCare Website Company was Fired by Canada</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/634-million-obamacare-website-company-was-fired-by-canada/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=634-million-obamacare-website-company-was-fired-by-canada</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/634-million-obamacare-website-company-was-fired-by-canada/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 13 Oct 2013 01:14:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obamacare]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=207177</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why did Obama dump 1.4 billion in taxpayer money on a company this incompetent?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/500xNxObamacare.jpg.pagespeed.ic_.d1b4NYtYqW.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-207178" alt="500xNxObamacare.jpg.pagespeed.ic.d1b4NYtYqW" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/500xNxObamacare.jpg.pagespeed.ic_.d1b4NYtYqW-450x262.jpg" width="450" height="262" /></a></p>
<p>So Obama took a Canadian company that <a href="http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=208042">Canadian officials fired for s</a>crewin<a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/canadian-officials-fired-it-firm-behind-troubled-obamacare-website/article/2537101">g up their health care website</a> and gave it a much bigger job.</p>
<blockquote><p>Canadian provincial health officials last year fired the parent company of CGI Federal, the prime contractor for the problem-plagued Obamacare health exchange websites, the Washington Examiner has learned.</p>
<p>CGI Federal’s parent company, Montreal-based CGI Group, was officially terminated in September 2012 by an Ontario government health agency after the firm missed three years of deadlines and failed to deliver the province’s flagship online medical registry.</p>
<p>The online registry was supposed to be up and running by June 2011.</p>
<p>&#8230;</p>
<p>The CMS officials refused to say if federal officials knew of its parent company’s IT failure in Canada when awarding the six contracts.</p></blockquote>
<p>It wasn&#8217;t just those contracts. As mentioned earlier, <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-spent-634-million-to-build-broken-healthcare-gov-website/">Obama dumped huge amounts of money on CGI</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>CGI Federal is a subsidiary of Montreal-based CGI Group. With offices in Fairfax, Va., the subsidiary has been a darling of the Obama administration, which since 2009 has bestowed it with $1.4 billion in federal contracts, according to USAspending.gov.</p>
<p>HHS is by far the single largest federal contractor of CGI, showering it with $645 million in contracts. The Defense Department pays the Canadian company $254 million, the EPA $58 million and the Justice Department $36 million.</p>
<p>In comparison, in 2008, under President George W. Bush, CGI contracts totaled only $16.5 million for all federal departments and agencies.</p></blockquote>
<p>The interesting question is why Obama dumped 1.4 billion in taxpayer money on a company this incompetent and ignored all the warnings.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s one more thing that ought to be investigated.</p>
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		<title>Obama Spending $313 Mil on Palestinian Mortgages</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-spending-313-mil-on-palestinian-mortgages/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-spending-313-mil-on-palestinian-mortgages</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-spending-313-mil-on-palestinian-mortgages/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2013 14:10:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mortgages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinians]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=202281</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Financing mortgages for Muslim terrorists combines two of Obama's interests into one]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Mideast_Palestinians_Israel_Arafat_JRL116.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-202289" alt="Mideast_Palestinians_Israel_Arafat_JRL116" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Mideast_Palestinians_Israel_Arafat_JRL116-450x287.jpg" width="450" height="287" /></a></p>
<p>Financing mortgages for Muslim terrorists combines two of Obama&#8217;s interests into one horrible black hole.</p>
<p>The valiant search for the best way to throw money into a giant metaphorical hole continues. So far Palestinian Home Mortgages is running neck and neck with Carbon Credits and Lesbian Duck Studies.</p>
<p>Palestinian mortgages unlike Lesbian duck studies however help funnel money to Palestinian construction companies which tend to be run by terrorists and their supporters<a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/us-govt-funding-313m-mortgages-palestinians-west-bank"> for added destructiveness making this a sure winner</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>The U.S. government will fund $313 million in home mortgages for Palestinians living on the West Bank, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday.</p>
<p>The U.S. will also guarantee $110 million in loans to small- and medium-sized businesses located on the West Bank.</p>
<p>The mortgage and business-loan activities will be conducted by the federal Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). “OPIC is the U.S. Government’s development finance institution,” says OPIC’s website. “</p>
<p>“U.S. agencies and implementing partners participate in various programs with the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) or PIF-owned entities that include home mortgage financing, loan guarantees, and educational initiatives,” says the report. “First, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) along with PIF and other entities have committed to lend $485 million to the Affordable Mortgage and Loan Company (AMAL) to support mortgages for low- and medium-income borrowers in the West Bank.</p></blockquote>
<p>Americans being evicted from their homes could use some of that money, but they&#8217;re not Muslim terrorists do they don&#8217;t get a taste. Not unless they can think of an even better and more destructive way to waste money than financing mortgages for Muslim terrorists.</p>
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		<title>No Money for Benghazi Security, But State Department Spent $630,000 on Facebook Likes</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/no-money-for-benghazi-security-but-state-department-spent-630000-on-facebook-likes/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=no-money-for-benghazi-security-but-state-department-spent-630000-on-facebook-likes</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/no-money-for-benghazi-security-but-state-department-spent-630000-on-facebook-likes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Jul 2013 20:56:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[us state department]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=195383</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hillary knew where the money really needed to go. Buying Facebook fans.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/6C7810917-1204060-clinton-viral-hmed-945a.blocks_desktop_medium.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-195384" alt="6C7810917-1204060-clinton-viral-hmed-945a.blocks_desktop_medium" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/6C7810917-1204060-clinton-viral-hmed-945a.blocks_desktop_medium-450x337.jpg" width="450" height="337" /></a></p>
<p>I wonder how much security that <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/state-department-bureau-spent-630000-on-facebook-likes/article/2532629">$630,000 would have bought f</a>or the Benghazi mission. But Hillary knew where the money really needed to go. Buying Facebook fans.</p>
<blockquote><p>State Department officials spent $630,000 to get more Facebook &#8220;likes,&#8221; prompting employees to complain to a government watchdog that the bureau was &#8220;buying fans&#8221; in social media, the agency&#8217;s inspector general says.</p>
<p>The department&#8217;s Bureau of International Information Programs spent the money to increase its &#8220;likes&#8221; count between 2011 and March 2013.</p>
<p>Despite the surge in likes, the IG said the effort failed to reach the bureau&#8217;s target audience, which is largely older and more influential than the people liking its pages. Only about 2 percent of fans actually engage with the pages by liking, sharing or commenting.</p>
<p>In September 2012 Facebook also changed its approach to users&#8217; news feeds, and the expensive &#8220;fan&#8221; campaigns became much less valuable. The bureau now must constantly pay for sponsored ads to keep its content visible even to people who have already liked its pages.</p></blockquote>
<p>Also less valuable are four dead Americans in a mission that did not receive adequate security, while Hillary&#8217;s State Department was squandering money on overpriced Kindles, art in embassies and Facebook likes.</p>
<p>But as Hillary said, &#8220;What difference does it make anyway?&#8221;</p>
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		<title>Without Federal Regulation, America Could Have a $53.9 Trillion GDP</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/without-federal-regulation-america-could-have-a-53-9-trillion-gdp/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=without-federal-regulation-america-could-have-a-53-9-trillion-gdp</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/without-federal-regulation-america-could-have-a-53-9-trillion-gdp/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 30 Jun 2013 00:05:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GDP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gdp growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=194802</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[But who needs a $53.9 trillion GDP anyway when we can have free birth control and a vast bureaucracy? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/327670650_640.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-194804" alt="327670650_640" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/327670650_640-450x253.jpg" width="450" height="253" /></a></p>
<p>Ironically <a href="http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/06/federal-regulations-have-lowered-gdp-growth-by-2-per-year/?utm_source=today&amp;utm_medium=web&amp;utm_campaign=062713">we could then pay down the national debt</a> we wouldn&#8217;t have.</p>
<blockquote><p>In a research paper that appears in the June 2013 issue of The Journal of Economic Growth titled “Federal Regulation and Aggregate Economic Growth,” economists John Dawson (Appalachian State University) and John Seater (North Carolina State University) examine the relationship between the growth in regulations (measured by the pages of federal regulations) since 1949 and economic performance (measured by real GDP growth)</p>
<p>Here’s part of the conclusion:</p>
<p>Federal regulations added over the past fifty years have reduced real output growth by about two percentage points on average [annually] over the period 1949-2005. That reduction in the growth rate has led to an accumulated reduction in GDP of about $38.8 trillion as of the end of 2011. That is, GDP at the end of 2011 would have been $53.9 trillion instead of $15.1 trillion if regulation had remained at its 1949 level.</p></blockquote>
<p>But who needs a $53.9 trillion GDP anyway when we can have free birth control and a vast bureaucracy sucking the citizenry dry? Only extremists, that&#8217;s who. And taxpayers.</p>
<p>Good people would rather have a caring government, a huge deficit and no money to pay for any of it.</p>
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		<title>Obama Bringing Mother-in-Law Along on $100 Mil African Vacation</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-bringing-mother-in-law-along-on-100-mil-african-vacation/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-bringing-mother-in-law-along-on-100-mil-african-vacation</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-bringing-mother-in-law-along-on-100-mil-african-vacation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Jun 2013 23:38:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=194615</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The White House says the excursion is an important step toward building democracy and advancing U.S. strategic interests in Africa.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/FF20110926-Barack-Obama-Marian-Robinson.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-194616" alt="FF20110926-Barack-Obama-Marian-Robinson" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/FF20110926-Barack-Obama-Marian-Robinson-450x300.jpg" width="450" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>It&#8217;s an official diplomatic visit. Sure it is. And don&#8217;t all official diplomatic visits involve <a href="http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2013/06/26/obama-brings-motherinlaw-niece-africa/">bringing your wife&#8217;s family along on the taxpayer&#8217;s dime</a>?</p>
<blockquote><p>In a move that can only fuel charges that his week-long trip to Africa is a de facto vacation, President Obama is taking his mother-in-law Marian Robinson and niece Leslie Robinson with him on Air Force One, which departed the United States this morning. Leslie is the daughter of First Lady Michelle Obama’s brother Craig…</p>
<p>The Obamas have been criticized for the massive expense of the trip, which reportedly could reach up to $100 million. Obama was ridiculed when news surfaced that he had been contemplating a safari that would have required Secret Service agents to act as snipers in case animals tried to attack the first family.</p>
<p>The White House says the excursion is an important step toward building democracy and advancing U.S. strategic interests in Africa.</p></blockquote>
<p>At least Obama limited his strategic deployment of family members on Air Force One to just Michelle&#8217;s relatives. If he had brought along all his half-brothers, it would have taken a thousand planes to ferry them all over.</p>
<p>Speaking of building democracy, can we get that done in America? Because there&#8217;s supposed to be a big difference between an American leader and some tinpot Third World dictator who lives the good life while squeezing the people dry.</p>
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		<title>National Lampoon&#8217;s $100 Million Obama Africa Vacation</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/national-lampoons-100-million-obama-africa-vacation/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=national-lampoons-100-million-obama-africa-vacation</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/national-lampoons-100-million-obama-africa-vacation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:17:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=193169</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For $100 mil you can probably just buy an African country. Or at least a big part of it that will allow Obama to be President for Life. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/obama-kenya-in01-wide-horizontal1.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-193171" alt="obama-kenya-in01-wide-horizontal1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/obama-kenya-in01-wide-horizontal1-450x288.jpg" width="450" height="288" /></a></p>
<p>For <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obamas-family-trip-africa-cost-60-100-million_735195.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&amp;utm_medium=twitter">$100 mil you can probably just buy an African country</a>. Or at least a big part of it that will allow Obama to be President for Life. It&#8217;s win-win.</p>
<blockquote><p>President Obama and his family will be going to Africa later this month. But the trip won’t be cheap; it’s expected to cost American taxpayers $60 to $100 million, according to the Washington Post.</p>
<p>“When President Obama makes his first extended trip to sub-Saharan Africa later this month, the federal agencies charged with keeping him safe won’t be taking any chances. Hundreds of U.S. Secret Service agents will be dispatched to secure facilities in Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. A Navy aircraft carrier or amphibious ship, with a fully staffed medical trauma center, will be stationed offshore in case of emergency,” reports the Post.</p></blockquote>
<p>Suddenly all those Martha&#8217;s Vineyard trips and golf outings don&#8217;t look so bad. They&#8217;re downright cut rate by comparison.</p>
<blockquote><p>“Military cargo planes will airlift in 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines and three trucks loaded with sheets of bullet-proof glass to cover the windows of the hotels where the first family will stay. Fighter jets will fly in shifts giving 24-hour coverage over the president’s airspace so they can intervene quickly if an errant plane gets too close.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Reminds me of the medieval days when kings carried along glass to put in the windows of the places they stopped because glass was too expensive.</p>
<blockquote><p>After the paper questioned the costs of a planned family safari, the White House nixed the plan. &#8220;The president and first lady had also planned to take a Tanzanian safari as part of the trip, which would have required the president’s special counter-assault team to carry sniper rifles with high-caliber rounds that could neutralize cheetahs, lions or other animals if they became a threat, according to the planning document.</p></blockquote>
<p>Got to watch out for those right wing Tea Party cheetahs and lions.</p>
<blockquote><p> The paper adds, &#8220;Obama’s trip could cost the federal government $60 million to $100 million based on the costs of similar African trips in recent years, according to one person familiar with the journey who was not authorized to speak for attribution.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>For such a tech friendly guy, Obama might want to get around to embracing telecommuting. He could meet with world leaders while on his iPhone at the golf course. So long as the calls don&#8217;t come at 3 AM.</p>
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		<title>US Spending $41 Mil to Advertise Food Stamps</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/us-spending-41-mil-to-advertise-food-stamps/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=us-spending-41-mil-to-advertise-food-stamps</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/us-spending-41-mil-to-advertise-food-stamps/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:21:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food stamps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=192960</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Spending on advertising and outreach for food stamps has increased six-fold since 2000]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/barack-obama-creates-food-stamp-nation1.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-168603" alt="barack-obama-creates-food-stamp-nation1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/barack-obama-creates-food-stamp-nation1-450x293.jpg" width="450" height="293" /></a></p>
<p>For some context, total food stamp spending in 1969 was 250 million dollars. Now food stamp spending has long since departed into out of control territory and <a href="http://weaselzippers.us/2013/06/11/obama-regime-spending-41-3-million-a-year-to-advertise-food-stamps/">we&#8217;re spending the entire national budget</a> of an 1840s year just to promote it.</p>
<blockquote><p>Spending on advertising and outreach for food stamps has increased six-fold since 2000 — reaching $41.3 million in 2011, according to a new GOP report.</p>
<p>ccording to calculations released by Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions Budget Committee staff, using data from the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service, in the year 2000 spending on advertising for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — or food stamps — was approximately $6.5 million.</p>
<p>In the ensuing years, spending on advertising and outreach steadily increased reaching $41.3 million in 2011, according to the calculations, which were confirmed by the Congressional Research Service, according to Budget Committee staff.</p>
<p>The increase in spending on SNAP advertising came as the program’s cost rapidly increased — quadrupling since 2001 and more than doubling since 2008.</p></blockquote>
<p>Just think, if this goes on, we can look forward to spending 2 trillion a year to advertise food stamps in 2061. Because how can people know they are entitled to free food unless we advertise it everywhere?</p>
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		<title>Student Loan Fraud Up 82% Under Obama</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/student-loan-fraud-up-82-under-obama/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=student-loan-fraud-up-82-under-obama</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/student-loan-fraud-up-82-under-obama/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 09 Jun 2013 03:20:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Student Loans]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=192555</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are a lot of things that seem to be rising sharply under Obama. And they usually involve words like "Fraud" and "Waste" ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0428obama_economy.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-191481" alt="0428obama_economy" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0428obama_economy.jpg" width="320" height="240" /></a></p>
<p>There are a lot of things that seem to be rising sharply under Obama. And<a href="http://www.washingtonguardian.com/not-so-smart"> they usually involve words like &#8220;Fraud&#8221; and &#8220;Waste&#8221;</a> and rarely words like &#8220;Economic Improvement&#8221; and &#8220;Job Growth.&#8221;</p>
<p>I wonder if these two things aren&#8217;t perhaps connected.</p>
<blockquote><p>The results have been devastating to taxpayers: an 82 percent increase in student loan fraud since 2009 and at least $187 million in losses. Investigators say the actual losses could be as high as $874 million.</p>
<p>A new assessment by the department&#8217;s internal watchdog, the inspector general, found officials were not using basic digital investigative tools like checking Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or verifying email addresses, allowing easy avenues for defrauding federally backed student loans.</p>
<p>The inspector general first flagged the concerns about fraud in January and this month renewed the concerns with a subsequent mention in its semiannual report to Congress.</p></blockquote>
<p>Obama Inc. never even got around to instituting basic credit card security measures for its campaign contributions. Somehow I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s going to run to shut off the gravy train for its base. Criminals.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>US Gov to Spend Half a Mil Teaching Fish Survival Skills</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/us-gov-to-spend-half-a-mil-teaching-fish-survival-skills/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=us-gov-to-spend-half-a-mil-teaching-fish-survival-skills</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/us-gov-to-spend-half-a-mil-teaching-fish-survival-skills/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 01 Jun 2013 14:42:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fish]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=191516</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Considering that the national debt is headed for 17 trillion, maybe the fish should be teaching survival skills to the United States government.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Aquaman.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-191518" alt="Aquaman" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Aquaman-450x326.jpg" width="450" height="326" /></a></p>
<p>Considering that the national debt is headed for 17 trillion, <a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/feds-will-spend-472150-teach-survival-skills-sucker-fish">maybe the fish should be teaching survival skills </a>to the United States government.</p>
<blockquote><p>The Department of Interior will be spending $472,150 to teach survival skills to bonytails and sucker fish.</p>
<p>“The objective of the proposed project is to determine if training increases Bonytail and Razorback Sucker survival when exposed to predators,” the grant abstract states.</p>
<p>“This proposal builds upon the 2012 Bureau of Reclamation assistance agreement with the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) tasked with investigating the potential for training Bonytail and Razorback Suckers to recognize and avoid predators,&#8221; says the abstract for the program.</p></blockquote>
<p>I don&#8217;t want to put down the majestic sucker fish, which is no doubt a beautiful and highly intelligent creature, but if it hasn&#8217;t figured out how to recognize predators yet, it probably isn&#8217;t going to learn that vital skill from interaction with government bureaucrats.</p>
<p>And government bureaucrats are a much more dangerous form of predator than anything in the water. Perhaps we should be spending that money teaching taxpayers to recognize their natural enemies instead.</p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/aquaman-dont-talk-to-fish.png"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-191522" alt="aquaman-dont-talk-to-fish" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/aquaman-dont-talk-to-fish-450x177.png" width="450" height="177" /></a></p>
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		<title>IRS Handed Out $100 Million in Bonuses</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/irs-handed-out-100-million-in-bonuses/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=irs-handed-out-100-million-in-bonuses</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/irs-handed-out-100-million-in-bonuses/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2013 14:01:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IRS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189861</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Shame about how those CEOs just get bonuses all the time. Fortunately government is nothing like that.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/irs.jpeg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-189862" alt="irs" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/irs-373x350.jpeg" width="373" height="350" /></a></p>
<p>Shame about how those CEOs just get bonuses all the time. Fortunately government is nothing like that. You can choose to do business with a company and see your income go toward its bonuses. You can&#8217;t choose to do business with the IRS.</p>
<p>In Soviet America, the IRS chooses to do business with you. And uses <a href="http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/05/16/report-nearly-100-million-bonuses-handed-out-irs-2009">the loot to give itself more bonuses</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p> There is a new report by the Washington Examiner claiming IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner took home tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses, and she is not alone. Nearly $100 million went toward agency bonuses since 2009 during the period when the IRS was targeting conservative groups, according to the report.</p></blockquote>
<p>Much of the cash went, predictably enough, to management, just like in the private sector. Because government is like the worst private sector monopoly without the competition or any incentive to turn a profit.</p>
<blockquote><p>The average annual salary of the employees receiving at least one bonus during the four-year period between 2009 and 2012 was slightly less than $94,000, indicating that the extra tax dollars mostly went to managers and executives eligible for performance-based incentives.</p>
<p>The IRS’s overall workforce includes more than 97,000 employees. The agency also withheld the names of an unknown number of IRS law enforcement officials who received bonuses, though it did release the amounts of the bonuses paid to them.</p>
<p>The largest individual bonus was for former IRS Commissioner Richard E. Byrd for $60,270.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, The Washington Examiner reported that Lois Lerner, the IRS executive who made public her agency’s improperly singling out of conservative Tea Party groups seeking non-profit exemptions was given more than $42,000 in bonuses during the four years.</p></blockquote>
<p>Thank goodness we have the government to protect us from the corrupt cronyism and abuses of the private sector.</p>
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		<title>Government Spent $402,721 to Develop Underwear that Can Detect Cigarette Smoke</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/government-spent-402721-to-develop-underwear-that-can-detect-cigarette-smoke/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=government-spent-402721-to-develop-underwear-that-can-detect-cigarette-smoke</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/government-spent-402721-to-develop-underwear-that-can-detect-cigarette-smoke/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2013 14:40:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NIH]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=188656</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded more than $400,000 to a research project involving underwear that can detect when a person smokes cigarettes.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/smoking-underwear.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188657" alt="smoking underwear" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/smoking-underwear.jpg" width="220" height="274" /></a></p>
<p>An E-1 enlisted United States Marine initially earns  $16,548 a year. Obama fired 20,000 marines to &#8220;save money.&#8221; But meanwhile he was spending the equivalent of 25 E-1 salaries to develop underwear that can detect cigarette smoking.</p>
<p>That is <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/feds-spend-402721-underwear-senses-cigarette-smoke">the bizarre Bloombergian government we are burdened</a> with. If you&#8217;re a Marine who served his country, hit the bricks. But if you come up with underwear that can detect cigarette smoke, here&#8217;s a wheelbarrow full of money from Obama Inc.</p>
<blockquote><p>The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded more than $400,000 to a research project involving underwear that can detect when a person smokes cigarettes.</p>
<p>The University of Alabama has received two grants totaling $402,721 for the project, which so far has produced a “very early prototype” of the monitoring system, which &#8212; in its current state &#8212; fits like a vest.</p>
<p>The goal of the three-year study is to “develop a wearable sensor system comprised of a breathing sensor integrated into conventional underwear.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Who exactly needs under underwear that detects cigarette smoke, except for a crazy person?</p>
<blockquote><p>“The modern methods of monitoring smoking, primarily you rely on self-report,” said Dr. Edward Sazonov, an associate professor at the University of Alabama who is leading the project. “There are few devices which actually allow a more computerized health report,” he told CNSNews.com.</p>
<p>“We are trying to eliminate the need for self-report from people about how much they smoke, when they smoke, how many puffs they take from the cigarette,” he said.</p></blockquote>
<p>Sure, why go to the trouble of keeping track of when you smoke, when you can just wear a giant bulky vest under your clothes that will detect it for you?</p>
<p>It&#8217;s easy and convenient and a bargain at only the price of a Porsche Carrera GT.</p>
<blockquote><p>The project began in March 2010, with the University receiving $187,368 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.  That grant was followed by an additional $215,353 in 2011, though the project will not end until August of this year.</p></blockquote>
<p>The National Institute on Drug Abuse has gone rather far afield from the &#8220;drug abuse&#8221; part of its name. It has a workgroup on AIDS and another one on genetics and a nicotine group.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear what, if anything, the Institute has ever accomplished, but despite that its budget for the next year is set at $1,071,612,000. That is a whole lot of money and <a href="http://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/legislative-activities/budget-information/fiscal-year-2014-budget-information">a sharp increase in its budget</a>.  But magic tobacco underwear has to come from somewhere.</p>
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		<title>Obama Cuts Military, Boosts UN Spending to $3.6 Billion</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-cuts-military-boosts-un-spending-to-3-6-billion/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-cuts-military-boosts-un-spending-to-3-6-billion</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-cuts-military-boosts-un-spending-to-3-6-billion/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Apr 2013 18:32:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United Nations]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=185714</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[State Department contributions to “International Organizations and Programs” include a 30 percent hike for the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-cuts-military-boosts-un-spending-to-3-6-billion/obama-u-n/" rel="attachment wp-att-185715"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-185715" title="obama-u.n." src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/obama-u.n..jpg" alt="" width="450" height="327" /></a></p>
<p>Obama is firing 20,000 Marines to save 10 billion dollars. Meanwhile <a href="http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2013/04/obama-increases-un-funding-despite.html">the 2014 budget</a> raises the cash giveaway to the United Nations <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/12/despite-sequester-state-department-ups-support-for-un/">to 3.6 billion dollars&#8230; or 7200 Marines</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>The State Department is planning to boost spending on the United Nations in 2014 by more than 4 percent to at least $3.6 billion.</p>
<p>That is likely to be far from the final tally of Obama Administration support, as hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. development, health and other funds are usually channeled through U.N. agencies and institutions &#8212; with the U.N. agencies taking administrative fees as part of the deal. The most recent tally on the website of the White House Management and Budget website, for example, lists support for the U.N. at $7.7 billion &#8212; in 2010.</p>
<p>The projected spending increase for the New York-based U.N. Secretariat, for example, is an 8.6 percent hike, to $617.6 million, compared with 2013.</p>
<p>When a broader array of U.N. affiliated agencies, listed under “Contributions to International Organizations,” are added in to the Secretariat support, the U.S. planned contribution climbs to $1.2 billion &#8212; a still significant 4.5 percent hike in an age of enforced American domestic austerity.</p>
<p>Meantime, proposed U.S. contributions to U.N. peacekeeping are also taking a big  hike, to $2.09 billion, up more than a quarter-billion dollars, or 13.9 percent, from 2013, and an even more impressive 14.6 percent since 2012.</p>
<p>The State Department budget also contains, among other things, an optimistic $50 million item to support a “U.N. presence in Syria.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Isn&#8217;t it nice to see that State is already certain how Syria will turn out. And the UN cash giveaway wouldn&#8217;t be complete without funding the war on Israel.</p>
<blockquote><p>Among them: an Administration renewal of its campaign to give about $77.8 million next year to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, an annual contribution that Congress cut off in late 2011 when the organization gave full member-state status to Palestine over strong U.S. objections. The State Department tried to restore the money in 2012, but failed.</p>
<p>This time, in fact, the Administration hopes to give far more money to UNESCO even than the budget openly advertises.</p>
<p>Buried in a footnote to the 190-page State Department is the news that if the Administration can coax Congress into granting a waiver to the freeze, State hopes to hand over the money it did not provide in 2012 and 2013, which could amount to another $135 million.</p></blockquote>
<p>Even for someone who supports the UN, it&#8217;s hard to argue that UNESCO&#8217;s activities are vital or that funding should be increased at a time when we&#8217;re slashing the military to the bone and cutting Social Security. This shows once again the Post-American priorities of Obama Inc.</p>
<p>And Obama Inc. just had to get some Global Warming cash in there.</p>
<blockquote><p>State Department contributions to “International Organizations and Programs” include a 30 percent hike, to $13 million, for the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose assessments of global warming have been sharply criticized by skeptics.</p></blockquote>
<p>And some abortion.</p>
<blockquote><p>Another proposed budget increase that may spark controversy is a 22.5 percent hike in financing, to $37 million, for the U.N. Population Fund, whose espousal of abortion has drawn fire from the right-to-life movement.</p></blockquote>
<p>Good bye Marines. Hello Terrorism, Global Warming and Abortion. It&#8217;s just another day for Obama Inc.</p>
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		<title>1.75 Trillion or 10% of US Economy Spent on Federal Regulations</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/1-75-trillion-or-10-of-us-economy-spent-on-federal-regulations/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=1-75-trillion-or-10-of-us-economy-spent-on-federal-regulations</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/1-75-trillion-or-10-of-us-economy-spent-on-federal-regulations/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Apr 2013 04:07:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cost of government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=185673</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy estimates that it costs Americans $1.75 trillion to comply with federal regulations each year]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/1-75-trillion-or-10-of-us-economy-spent-on-federal-regulations/gatsenflag1/" rel="attachment wp-att-185674"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-185674" title="gatsenFLAG1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/gatsenFLAG1-1024x1010.jpg" alt="" width="427" height="421" /></a></p>
<p>And <a href="http://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/victims-of-government">that is just the cost to businesses</a>&#8230; not the gargantuan budget for the government.</p>
<blockquote><p>The Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy estimates that it costs Americans $1.75 trillion to comply with federal regulations each year.  To put $1.75 trillion into perspective, that amount is larger than all but eight economies in the world.  It also means that over 10% of the U.S. economy is spent on trying to satisfy rules issued by Washington bureaucrats. That doesn&#8217;t even include federal, state, and local taxes.</p></blockquote>
<p>Add the 3.8 trillion budget monster that Obama just brought us and we&#8217;re looking at over 5.5 trillion a year being eaten up by the government. And those are just direct costs.</p>
<p>The indirect costs go much deeper and higher. It&#8217;s hard to add up the cost of the money swallowed up by government bureaucrats and their non-profit allies. Money that is not spent paying workers or expanding businesses. Money that in some cases leads to businesses going out of business and workers losing their jobs. Money that encourages businesses to pack up and go do business in a country where it is cheaper and easier to do business.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s no way to calculate all that but we can compare the booming America of Eisenhower to the declining America of LBJ and Carter and finally the decrepit welfare state of Clinton and Obama held up by dirty financial industry crony capitalist gimmicks and desperate dot com development that ends up making it cheaper and easier for China to export more to the United States.</p>
<p>American business has been strangled by government. And the government anaconda isn&#8217;t done.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>1 Government Worker to Every 5 American Working Adults</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/1-government-worker-to-every-5-american-working-adults/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=1-government-worker-to-every-5-american-working-adults</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/1-government-worker-to-every-5-american-working-adults/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Apr 2013 23:57:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government jobs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Unemployment]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=184604</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In March, there were 20,633,000 total government workers in the U.S. Total Unemployment Rate = 7.6%, Unemployment Rate for Government Workers = 3.6]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/?attachment_id=184605" rel="attachment wp-att-184605"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-184605" title="Government Workers Protest" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Government-Workers-Protest.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="515" /></a></p>
<p>Unemployment Rate = 7.6%, Unemployment Rate for Government Workers = 3.6%</p>
<p>Why don&#8217;t we just give everyone a guaranteed government job? It worked in the Soviet Union where there was no unemployment and not much of anything else. Also people who didn&#8217;t have jobs were deported to labor camps. Or shot.</p>
<p>But until that wonderful Socialist utopia dawns, we can still be reassured that we live in a nation where government employees remain a privileged class, their noble public service rewarded by better benefits <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/36-percent-unemployment-government-workers">and low unemployment rates</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>The unemployment rate for civilian government workers dropped to 3.6 percent in March from 3.8 percent in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p>
<p>Since July, times have been very good for government in the United States, with governments managing to add 618,000 workers to their payrolls.  In March, there were 20,633,000 total government workers in the U.S.  In July the government employed 20,015,000 people.</p></blockquote>
<p>Why not shoot for 30 million? That way there can be 1 government worker to every 10 Americans. But actually going by an adult population of around 200 million in the 18-65 range, we&#8217;ve already passed 1 government worker to every 10 Americans</p>
<p>If you rank that against the number of American adults with full time jobs, you find that it&#8217;s more like 1 government worker to 5 employed adults.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s an obvious problem with that considering that government workers tend to be paid more than the private sector and having 5 workers subsidize 1 government employee is shaky, especially once unfunded pensions kick in.</p>
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