Rampant Fraud in Obamaphone Program

Classic case of how the Spending Other People's Money Society operates among government officials. 

[From article]
The federal subsidy known as the "Obamaphone" or "Obamanet" program could be losing nearly $500 million to fraud annually, according to a top Republican on the Federal Communications Commission.
Commissioner Ajit Pai made the accusation Wednesday in letter to the Universal Service Administrative Company, referring to the FCC's Universal Service Fund, which provides a monthly $9.95 subsidy for telecom service to low-income consumers.
The subsidy is limited to one per "independent economic household," or IEH, but telecom companies have the ability to override that restriction if applicants check a box stating they represent a separate household, even if they have the same address.
The Universal Service Administrative Company is a nonprofit organization designated by the FCC to administer the fund.
Pai wrote that data obtained by the FCC last month revealed carriers had enrolled nearly 4.3 million subscribers using the IEH override process between October 2014-April 2016, or 35.5 percent of total subscribers for the period. "It is alarming that over one-third of subscribers — costing taxpayers almost half a billion dollars a year — were registered through an IEH override.
[. . .]
The program was originally established to help low-income consumers in rural areas obtain access to 911 services. It was expanded to include cellular devices in more recent years, and expanded in March to include Internet service.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ajit-pai-fraud-from-obamaphone-program-reaching-500-million/article/2593375

Commissioner says fraud from Obamaphone program approaching $500 million

By RUDY TAKALA (@RUDYTAKALA) 

6/8/16 4:48 PM

TSA Officers Suspended For Sex Video Using Government Equipment

Is this a public record available under the FOIA?



[From article]
[Update at 10:24 p.m. ET: TSA Spokesperson Bruce Anderson told The Intercept Wednesday night that a third air marshal was involved. “Two of the employees involved have been placed on an indefinite suspension without pay, and the third employee has resigned from the agency,” he wrote in an e-mail.]
Two federal air marshals have been suspended without pay after allegedly using their government phones to film and share their sex acts with a prostitute while on assignment in Europe, The Intercept has learned.
[. . .]
The two air marshals, based in Chicago, allegedly used their government-issued phones to record their own sexual encounters with a prostitute and then shared them using their personal email accounts, which they had connected to their work phones, according to TSA, government and law enforcement sources.

https://theintercept.com/2015/09/16/air-marshals-investigated-sharing-videos-sex-prostitutes-europe/

Federal Air Marshals Under Investigation for Filming Sex With a Prostitute While On Duty
Jana Winter
2015-09-16T20:03:31+00:00

High Stakes In Supreme Court Decision On Obamacare

[From article]
Prepare to be shocked, shocked, shocked! It’s increasingly looking like Republicans won’t have any contingency plan in place if the Supreme Court guts subsidies for millions in three dozen federal exchange states. Jonathan Cohn has a must-read this morning in which he reports that there are no signs of any public Congressional debate among Republicans about this contingency fix.
As Cohn notes, there’s a reason Republicans aren’t offering any temporary contingency fix or broader health reform alternative: They don’t agree with the idea of “creating a truly universal coverage system in which everybody has access, regardless of income or health,” because that “requires some combination of regulation, taxes and redistribution.”
New HHS numbers illustrate that the stakes have only grown higher: Some 6.4 million people are now at risk of losing subsidies nationally.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/06/03/morning-plum-the-stakes-in-obamacare-lawsuit-just-got-a-whole-lot-higher/

Morning Plum: The stakes in Obamacare lawsuit just got a whole lot higher
By Greg Sargent

June 3, 2015 at 9:33 AM

Refugees Heavily Dependent on Taxpayer Funded Assistance

[From article]

Refugees from Africa and the Middle East were the heaviest users of cash assistance at 61.9 percent and 68.3 percent respectively. Latin American refugees only used cash assistance at a rate of 8.1 percent and South Asia used about 42.7 percent. Data for Europe and the former Soviet Union was not available.
The use of food stamps — or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — also varied with 88.9 percent of refugees from Africa, 91.4 percent of Middle Eastern refugees, the Middle East, 72.9 percent of South Asia, and 36.7 percent of Latin American refugees using the benefit.
Overall, according to the report just 50 percent of refugee households in the five year window were self-sufficient.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/01/3-in-4-refugees-on-food-stamps-many-using-other-forms-of-public-assistance/

3 IN 4 REFUGEES ON FOOD STAMPS, MANY USING OTHER FORMS OF PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
by CAROLINE MAY

1 Apr 2015

Another Supreme Court Challenge To Obama's Health Care Law

[From article]
The justices said they will review a federal appeals court ruling that upheld IRS regulations that allow health-insurance tax credits under the Affordable Care Act for consumers in all 50 states. Opponents argue that most of the subsidies are illegal.
The long-running political and legal campaign to overturn or limit the 2010 health overhaul will be making its second appearance at the Supreme Court. The justices upheld the heart of the law in a 5-4 decision in 2012 in which Chief Justice John Roberts provided the decisive vote.
[. . .]
The case is King v. Burwell, 14-114.
The case probably will be argued the first week in March, with a decision expected by late June.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SUPREME_COURT_HEALTH_OVERHAUL_SUBSIDIES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-11-07-12-51-59
Nov 7, 4:26 PM EST

A NEW SUPREME COURT CHALLENGE FOR 'OBAMACARE'
BY MARK SHERMAN

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Government Assistance To Black People Is Not Helping

[From article]
Back in the heyday of the British Empire, a man from one of the colonies addressed a London audience.
"Please do not do any more good in my country," he said. "We have suffered too much already from all the good that you have done."
That is essentially the message of an outstanding new book by Jason Riley about blacks in America. Its title is "Please Stop Helping Us."
[. . .]
When it comes to affirmative action, Jason Riley asks the key question: "Do racial preferences work? What is the track record?" Like many other well-meaning and nice-sounding policies, affirmative action cannot survive factual scrutiny.
[. . .]
in response to claims that blacks don't do well academically because the schools use an approach geared to white students, he points out that blacks from foreign, non-English-speaking countries do better in American schools than black, English-speaking American students.
[. . .]
Asian students do better than whites in schools supposedly geared to whites. In New York City's three academically elite public high schools — Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech — there are more than twice as many Asian students as white students in all three institutions.

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell070814.php3#.U93eDt0--yN

Jewish World Review
July 8, 2014 / 10 Tammuz, 5774
A Primer on Race
By Thomas Sowell

Health Care Act Exposed as Misguided, Unlawful Changes By Obama

[From article]
Section 1342 of the Affordable Care Act forces taxpayers to make insurers whole for most of the losses incurred selling ObamaCare exchange plans through 2016. The bailout is designed to conceal the failure of the president's signature health law until he is out of office.
No one in the Obama administration talked up the advantages of bailing out insurers. It was kept under wraps until the fall of 2013. That's when 5 million to 6 million health plans were canceled because they didn't comply with ObamaCare's one-size-fits-all coverage requirements effective Jan. 1.
Insurers developed new plans, as the health law required, set premiums (generally higher) and sent out notices canceling the old plans.
That caused public outrage. Trying to quell it, the president ignored his own law and told insurance companies on Nov. 14 they could keep selling the old plans. Insurers were caught off guard. They predicted there would be less demand for their new plans and that they'd lose money.
Here's where the plot thickens. On the same day, an Obama administration health official, Gary Cohen, announced that the federal government (taxpayers) will offset most losses, citing Section 1342.
Sweetening what the law already guarantees, he pledged to "modify" the bailout's "final rules to provide additional assistance." That's when Congress finally did its job and read Section 1342.

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-on-the-right/013114-688457-obamacare-has-a-dirty-little-secret.htm?p=full

A Few More Reasons To Repeal ObamaCare
By BETSY MCCAUGHEY
 Posted 01/31/2014 05:32 PM ET

Businessman Makes Sign For Obama

http://www.ktul.com/story/19290493/broken-arrow-sign-sparks-controversy

Broken Arrow Businessman Says President Obama Can Kiss His...
Posted: Aug 15, 2012 11:51 PM EDT
Updated: Aug 16, 2012 4:22 PM EDT
Posted by: Mike Massey
KTUL-TV Tulsa OK

Eating Healthy?

This "study" does not take into account free food provided in many localities. Food banks have been operating for many years, plus dinners provided by charities who accept food otherwise thrown away by restaurants and grocery stores. There is an abundance of healthy foods. People must learn what foods to eat. Some people refuse to learn what is good for them. Some cannot or will not read. Free internet at libraries is one way to learn what to eat. As for prices the government provides subsidies but does not help people learn good nutrition. Food manufacturers print discount coupons which some libraries help patrons gather. Considering the incompetence of government in so many areas it is questionable that government should be dictating what others should eat.

http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110804/ap_on_sc/us_expensive_diet

Study: Healthy eating means spending more at store
By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP
Associated Press
Thu Aug 4, 12:22 pm ET

Corn Syrup Adds to Obesity

[From article]
"Today, subsidies to crops such as corn total $19 billion a year. Corn subsidies total more than $8 billion a year.
[. . .]
High-fructose corn syrup accounts for 81 percent of the calories added to the diet of the average American in recent decades; US consumption of the substance rose 120 percent from 1991 to 2000. More significantly, it rose more than 1,000 percent from 1970 to 1990, far exceeding the changes in intake of any other food or food group. Over the same period, the average American's caloric intake increased by 600 calories daily."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_feds_fat_factory_qtNUjL8s8xnhJgmjgVdjGO

The feds' fat factory
Cheap corn = corpulent kids
By PATRICK BASHAM
New York Post
Last Updated: 12:23 AM, December 15, 2010
Posted: 10:45 PM, December 14, 2010

Obama Plays Fast and Loose With the Economy


"the bond market is petrified that Washington will continue to make shameless decisions on the federal deficit that would embarrass even the strongman of a banana republic."

"'quantitative easing' -- a fancy phrase for simply printing money to pay one's bills."

"The Obama administration likes to talk about the urgency for reducing the deficit. But this can't be done just be mouthing the words; the brain has to also be involved. And continuing government subsidies for every person and company under the sun is brainless."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/housing_stimulus_without_ballooning_EW4sUi0ISpmk0M0A8eC9aN

Housing stimulus without ballooning the deficit
John Crudele
New York Post
Last Updated: 3:26 AM, October 29, 2009
Posted: 1:05 AM, October 29, 2009