Archive for the ‘Waste and Fraud’ Category
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Obama’s Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that “insurance company profits are ‘way over anybody’s estimates.’ She said the five largest U.S. insurers took in combined profits of $12.2 billion in 2009, 56 percent higher than in 2008.”
Whoa, slow down there Kathy! Are you trying to tell me that five multi-billion dollar companies managed to make almost $2.5 billion each in profits in a single year? Shock! Outrage!
By way of comparison, Apple Inc. earned slightly over $8.2 billion dollars in net profit all by itself in it’s 2009 Fiscal Year, yet I haven’t heard liberals citing that as cause for nationalizing the computer industry. (OK, recently.)
For another point of comparison, those health care profits may be as little as one tenth the total cost of bailing out GM and Chrysler.
What, pray tell, do Obama and Sebelius think are “acceptable” levels of profit would be for those five companies?
This is supposed to be a supporting point in the quest to nationalize 1/6th of the American economy? Not to mention that the true government cost of ObamaCare is estimated to top 6 trillion dollars.
Compared to the total costs for ObamaCare, health insurance company profits are a rounding error.
Tags:Apple Computer, bailout, deficits, Kathleen Sebelius, ObamaCare, profit
Posted in Democrats, ObamaCare, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Since I’ve slagged him fairly mercilessly in this space, I would be remiss not to mention the passing of Rep. John P. Murtha. Murtha served his country honorably in Vietnam, and then dishonorably in Congress, where he became the poster child for earmark corruption, doing everything in his power to steer pork patronage to his friends and relatives. The fate I wanted for Murtha was seeing him defeated and indicted, not dead. He’s now beyond the reach of any earthly justice, but the endemic congressional culture of cronyism and corruption he helped create and perpetuate survives him.
Tags:corruption, cronyism, John Murtha, Obituary
Posted in Democrats, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Saturday, February 6th, 2010
As I write, these are the top two stories listed on Real Clear Politics:
Blame the Childish, Ignorant American Public – Jacob Weisberg, Slate
Why Are Liberals So Condescending? – Gerard Alexander, Washington Post
If you put that in a novel, an editor would reject it as far too unsubtle to be realistic…
Tags:Gerard Alexander, Jacob Weisberg, Liberal Condescension
Posted in Democrats, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
You would have thought that Scott Brown’s election would have caused even the dimmest bulbs among Congressional Democrats to give up on showing ObamaCare down the throat of a nation violently opposed to it.
You’d be wrong.
Like some sort of ghastly, undead thing, ObamaCare has risen from the grave yet again, shambling mindlessly along the halls of congress, seeking trillions of taxpayer dollars and ever-more-elusive votes. In a way, this is the best possible result for Republicans. Instead of throwing ObamaCare to the hordes of rake-carrying peasants howling for their blood in November, Democrats seem determined to clasp the deformed beast to their bosoms in order to drag it over the finish line, even at the cost of their own (political) life. Indeed, they’re still scurrying around trying to protect their various backroom deals.
If you wanted to design the perfect storm for Republicans to retake control of the House and Senate this fall, you’d have them keep working on dragging ObamaCare across the finish line until right before the November election, when voters can do nationwide what they’ve already done in Massachusetts. Every day they keep trying to breathe life into the hdieous, undead thing brings us a step closer to that goal.
Tags:Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, ObamaCare
Posted in Democrats, ObamaCare, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
The news of Sen. John Edwards marital affairs will probably not be news to anyone who has followed the story, but the details in Andrew Young’s book The Politician seem to make him out to be an even bigger scumbag than even his fiercest critics on the right thought he was.
- Contempt for the people he claimed to represent? Check. Edwards complained about state fair appearances where “fat rednecks try to shove food down my face. I know I’m the people’s senator, but do I have to hang out with them?”
- A complete political animal with no loyalty or sense of shame or decency? Check. “Young says that Edwards would confide in him about how he thought about leaving ‘crazy’ Elizabeth, but how she plays better with American voters than he.”
- “Breck Girl” fixation on his hair? Check.
Basically, just about everything Republicans ever said about him was correct, and just about everything his supporters claimed was a lie. Edwards is just a complete slimeball, and he was almost Vice President of the United States of America.
What I wonder is: When the tell-all books on Obama come out, what are they going to reveal that’s being swept under the rug now?
Tags:John Edwards, Scumbag
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
According to left-leaning Public Policy Polling. Also, even 1 in 6 Democrats expect ACORN to commit election fraud.
Funny, all those Democratic apologists loudly claiming that “registration fraud doesn’t equal voting fraud” don’t seem to be changing the minds of voters who have to suffer the continuing indignity of only casting a single vote…
Tags:ACORN, Martha Coakley, Massachusetts, Scott Brown, Voter Fraud
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Today’s Rep. John Murtha (D-ollars)-related corruption story involves outright kickbacks from Kuchera Defense Systems Inc.:
A defense contractor with ties to Rep. John Murtha has been suspended again from bidding on government contracts, this time for paying more than $200,000 in kickbacks to another contractor turned government witness.
If you look at that CREW chart I linked to yesterday, you’ll see that Kuchera Defense Systems Inc. is part of the circle of corruption (one of several circles of corruption on that chart) for the Ervin Technical Associates lobbying firm. And which Ervin would they be technical associates of? That would be Jim Ervin, who you may remember from yesterday’s post about PharmAthene, the company to which the Obama Administration (personified by Tara O’Toole, another Murtha friend) awarded a no-bid contract for anthrax vaccines. And needless to say, just about everyone associated with Kuchera Defense Systems are heavy Murtha campaign contributors. (So many backs to scratch, and so many taxpayer dollars needed to scratch them.)
Bonus: Owner Bill Kuchera is a convicted drug dealer.
Tags:bribes, corruption, Ervin Technical Associates, Jim Ervin, John Murtha, kickbacks, Kuchera Defense Systems
Posted in Democrats, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Remember Rep. John Murtha? The congressman who called his own constituents racists? You know, the John Murtha who sits as the chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee? The John Murtha whose nephew got $4 million in no-bid Defense contracts? The man at the center of the PMA Group lobbying scandal? The John Murthta who secured more than $200 million worth of taxpayer dollars for little-used John Murtha Airport?
You do? Good.
Well, guess what company got a single-source contract to produce anthrax vaccines? That would be PharmAthene, a company run by Murtha cronies Joel McCleary and James Ervin. And just who awarded the contract? That would be the Department of Homeland Security’s Under Secretary for the Science and Technology Directorate Tara O’Toole, who just happens (better sit down for this one) to be a friend of…Rep. John Murtha! (I know, it’s a shock. What are the odds?)
What would you care to bet that the same sorts of high ethical standards will be used to dole out funds for ObamaCare?
But wait! There’s still more exciting news on the Obama-anthrax front! If John Murtha’s cronies actually do succeed is producing enough anthrax vaccine, how will it be distributed in an emergency? Why, by that epitome of speed and efficiency, The U.S. Postal Service! As Stewart Baker at Skating on Stilts put it: “No one but an idiot would bet their children’s lives on that option.”
Here’s a link to CREW’s extremely informative interactive documentation of the web of corruption that surrounds Murtha, You Don’t Know Jack.
The Boot Murtha homepage may also be of interest.
Tags:anthrax, Democrats, James Ervin, Joel McCleary, John Murtha, Obama, ObamaCare, PharmAthene, Tara O’Toole
Posted in Democrats, Waste and Fraud | 3 Comments »
Monday, December 21st, 2009
If there’s a theme for the Obama years, and for the Pelosi/Reid legislation Obama has embraced, it’s that of spending tremendous amounts of taxpayer dollars to accomplish almost nothing. Consider:
- The stimulus spent $787 billion dollars of taxpayer money to pretend to create fake jobs in non-existent congressional districts.
- If cap-and-trade ever makes it out of congress, it will impose hundred of billions of dollars in taxes to (maybe) lower temperatures by 0.1°C by 2100. And given that Anthropogenic Global Warming increasingly appears to be a creation of scientific fraud, probably not even that.
- And then there’s ObamaCare. It’s extraordinarily unpopular. How much will it cost? One estimate was $6 trillion, but that was weeks and untold bill revisions ago. No one knows, because no one has had the time to read all of the 2,100 page bill Harry Reid has cobbled together. Those on the right who have read significant potions believe it amounts to the government takeover of health care. And several notable doyens of the left, including Moveon.org, Howard Dean, and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas are saying that the bill is a massive giveaway to insurance companies. Sadly, they’re both probably right. Either way, the taxpayer is still the loser.
What all three have in common?
- All are hugely expensive. How expensive no one knows, but given the vast increase we’ve seen in the cost of Social Security, Medicare, etc., my guess would be tens of trillions of dollars over the next 30 years.
- All are exteremly unpopular among the taxpayers who are being asked to foot the bill.
- All accomplish almost nothing except increase the size of the federal government and channeling money to Obama allies like ACORN and SEIU.
The way things are going, the slaughter of Democratic incumbents in the 2010 election could make 1994 look like a picnic by comparison…
Update:
Greetings Farkers!
<Troy McClure>Hi, I’m Lawrence Person! You may remember me from such Flamewars as “ObamaCare is all about choice, or rather, taking choices away from American citizens and giving them to government bureaucrats” and “From Iran to Honduras, millions of people around the world long for freedom and democracy. And wherever those seeking freedom can be found, Obama will be there…grinding his bootheel into their face”.</Troy McClure>
Come in and sit a spell. Have a beer and stretch your feet out to the toasty flamewar goodness. Feel free to buy a book or check out my other, completely non-political blog.
And, above all, Obey the Hypnotoad!
Tags:Fark, fraud, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Obama, ObamaCare, Stimulus, waste
Posted in Democrats, ObamaCare, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Monday, December 14th, 2009
During the recession, government employees have had to make serious cutba–ha, ha, oh sorry, I could even keep a straight face while typing that. They’ve made out like bandits:
- “Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.”
- 2008: there was only “one career federal worker making an annual salary of $170,000 or more at the U.S. Department of Transportation when the current recession began. Today, 18 months later, there are more than 1,600 career employees making that much.”
- “In the first six months of the year, the federal government was adding 10,000 jobs per month, and over the recession had grown the ranks of bureaucrats by 9.8 percent. The private sector, during that same period, shed 7.3 million jobs.”
- “The $448 billion appropriations bill approved last week by the House contained more than 5,000 earmarks, many of which will ultimately benefit the favored few rather than the suffering many.”
And just think of the additional billions they’ll be able to rake in for cap-and-trade and ObamaCare…
Tags:bureaucrats, deficits, fraud, Obama, waste
Posted in Uncategorized, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
