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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

Entries Tagged as 'Where did the money go?'

Republicans criticize government’s management of real estate holdings

November 1st, 2010 · Accountability, Economy, Federal Spending, Government, Greed, Non-Transparency, Real Estate, Terrorism from Within

By Jonathan O’Connell – Capital Business Staff Writer
Sunday, October 31, 2010; 10:13 PM

Seven House Republicans have coined a phrase to describe how they think the federal government is managing its property, including its local real estate portfolio: “Sitting on Our Assets.”

Led by ranking minority-party member John L. Mica (Fla.), Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee recently issued a report by that name, criticizing the management of real estate and other assets by agencies including the General Services Administration, Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The federal government is the country’s largest real estate owner, with a portfolio of about 1.2 million facilities nationwide. An audit conducted during the George W. Bush administration found that the government owns 14,000 vacant buildings and underuses 55,000 other locations.

Although President Obama issued a memo in June requiring federal agencies to reduce real estate costs by $8 billion by the end of fiscal 2012, the Republicans’ analysis says the government continues to overly rely on leased space and retain underused and vacant property. The GSA, the report says, “struggles to dispose of its surplus property in a timely fashion and for reasonable rates of return despite its enhanced property disposal authorities.”

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Obama administration’s sex-ed program criticized by both sides of abstinence debate

October 29th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Government Control, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Terrorism from Within

By Rob Stein Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 28, 2010; 12:27 AM

Over the past decade, politicians have battled about how to reduce the teen pregnancy rate: safe-sex vs. abstinence-only sex education programs, even as films such as “Juno” and births by famous teens such as Bristol Palin and Jamie Lynn Spears seemed to make adolescent pregnancies more socially acceptable.

At the same time, after declining for years, the teen pregnancy rate increased, but the pace at which teens were having babies appeared to stop falling or even inch up.

Now, the Obama administration has entered the politically sensitive debate, promising to put scientific evidence before political ideology. A $110 million campaign will support a range of programs, including those that teach about the risks of specific sexual activities and the benefits of contraception and others that focus primarily on encouraging teens to delay sex.

The initiative exemplifies the administration’s oft-repeated quest to find new strategies to defuse some of the nation’s most divisive issues. In this case, officials are hoping to appease advocates of teaching teens about condoms and other forms of birth control as well as those who oppose sex outside marriage.

Although the program is being hailed by many adolescent health experts, it is being denounced by some on both sides of the abstinence debate.

“This is one of those emotionally charged issues where it’s very difficult to find compromise,” said Amy E. Black, a political scientist at Wheaton College in Illinois. “It inevitably becomes entangled in a larger constellation of issues, such as abortion, that raise ideological, moral and religious questions.”

During the George W. Bush administration, the federal government spent $1.5 billion on programs that encouraged teens to delay sex until marriage. Critics said it was grounded in religious tenets and conservative doctrine, failed to educate teens about condoms in the age of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, and ineffective.

In response, the Obama administration launched a teen pregnancy prevention program that officials promised would fund only programs that had been proven to work. Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded $75 million to 75 groups to try to reproduce some of the 28 programs deemed to have been “proven effective through rigorous evaluation.”

HHS also awarded $35 million to 40 organizations to test “innovative strategies” that appeared promising. Altogether, 115 programs in 38 states and the District received funding.

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Most Americans worry about ability to pay mortgage or rent, poll finds

October 29th, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Economy, Federal Spending, Housing Industry, Reform, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Unemployment

By Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jon Cohen Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 28, 2010; 12:52 AM

A majority of Americans now say they are worried about making their mortgage or rent payments, underscoring the extent of economic anxiety in the country heading into midterm elections.

A new Washington Post poll shows that concerns about housing payments have spiked since 2008 despite some improvements in the overall economy. In all, 53 percent said they are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about having the money to make their monthly payment. Worries are the most intense among those with lower incomes and among African Americans.

The poll results highlight the political challenge facing the Obama administration: Despite committing hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out troubled financial firms, create jobs and keep distressed borrowers in their homes, it has not been able to make many people feel better about their personal situations or even relieve fears about the cost of a need as basic as shelter.

The recent foreclosure mess provides another example of this gap between the policy decisions in Washington and the sentiment of ordinary Americans. The poll reveals that just over half of the country thinks the administration should impose a national moratorium on foreclosures to sort out whether banks are improperly seizing the homes of struggling borrowers. But the White House rejected that idea, saying it would gravely wound the fragile housing market.

White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said the administration has deployed every possible resource at its disposal to “pull our economy back from the brink.”

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While economy is down midterm campaign funds exceed $2 BILLION.

October 26th, 2010 · Congress, Deception, Economy, Government, Greed, Politics

House and Senate shatter fundraising records for midterm election and may exceed $2 billion

By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 26, 2010; 12:04 AM

House and Senate candidates have already shattered fundraising records for a midterm election and are on their way to surpassing $2 billion in spending for the first time, according to new campaign finance data.

To put it another way: That’s the equivalent of about $4 million for every congressional seat up for grabs this year.

The frantic fundraising by candidates has largely been overshadowed in recent weeks by a tide of spending by outside interest groups, most of it targeting vulnerable Democrats. Such groups could spend $400 million or more by Nov. 2.

But the latest Federal Election Commission data, along with a new study from a campaign watchdog group, show that most of the money sloshing around the 2010 elections is being raised and spent by the candidates themselves.

As of last week, House and Senate campaigns reported taking in more than $1.5 billion, exceeding the total collected by congressional candidates in 2006 and in 2008, FEC data show. Most of that money already has been put toward advertising and other expenses.

The Public Campaign Action Fund, a watchdog group, will release a study Tuesday predicting that House candidates alone could spend nearly $1.5 billion by the time the dust settles on Election Day. The calculation is based on previous elections in which about half of a campaign’s money was spent in the final month of the contest.

Senate campaigns are also on track to exceed the $550 million mark from 2006, bringing the likely total to $2 billion or more by the time the ballots are counted.

The surge is driven in part by the unusually broad battlefield in the House, where an estimated 90 seats are in play, almost all of them held by Democrats. Many Democratic incumbents are emptying their coffers in an attempt to win the message wars against GOP-allied interest groups.

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Obama’s Incoherent Closing Argument : While the economy is the No. 1 issue, the president constantly changes the subject.

October 21st, 2010 · Democrats, Economy, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US

Associated Press

By Karl Rove

At an April 2008 fund-raiser in San Francisco, Barack Obama let loose with his famous “they cling to guns or religion” line. Last Saturday at a West Newton, Mass., fund-raiser, the president said, “facts and science and argument [do] not seem to be winning . . . because we’re hard-wired not to always think clearly when we’re scared.”

Memo to White House: Calling voters stupid is not a winning strategy.

The economy and jobs are the No. 1 issue in every poll. Yet Mr. Obama of late has talked about immigration reform and weighed in (unprompted) on the Ground Zero mosque. He devoted Labor Day to an ineffective Mideast peace initiative. He demeans large blocs of voters and now is ending his midterm pitch with attacks on nonexistent foreign campaign contributions and weird assertions that “the Empire is striking back.”

Meanwhile, Republicans have talked about little else than the economy—drawing attention to lackluster job growth, the failed stimulus, out-of-control spending, escalating deficits and the dangers of ObamaCare.

On Sunday, White House senior adviser David Axelrod promised that the administration’s focus next year would be “to generate more growth and jobs” and “on our fiscal situation.” That must have left congressional Democrats—battered for months by the GOP’s message discipline—wondering why there’s been no focus on that up to now.

Much of the blame lies with the president, who has left his party with an incoherent closing argument 12 days before the election.

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Foreclosure freeze leads to uneasy politics for Democrats

October 19th, 2010 · Accountability, Banking Industry, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Fraud Alert, Government Control, Greed, Housing Industry, Money Lost, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Treasury

Another political factor: people struggling to keep paying their mortgages who are upset that deadbeat borrowers may get a break.

“I pay my mortgage every month; that was the deal I made,” Kevin McGrath, a Virginia realtor, wrote in an e-mail. “I know I am currently throwing money into a depreciating asset that every day feels more and more like the Black Hole of Calcutta, but that’s ok; I placed my bet, and I am willing to ride this pony until she breaks.

“But wait a minute; now I look over at my neighbor and I see he is in the same situation, upside down on his mortgage, except he has not made a payment in a year or so. He has multiple cars in his driveway, some of them newer than mine, he just got back from a trip to Best Buy, and he is still living in his house. There are all kinds of neat things to do with your money when your housing costs are zero. Where is my free rent?

By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 19, 2010; 7:26 AM

The details of the foreclosure mess are ugly and complicated. The politics of it are even worse.

The calculus is clear for most Democratic incumbents, especially those in tight races like Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid: Nothing could be worse on the eve of elections than images of people being booted out of their homes by big banks that have relied on sloppy, if not fraudulent, paperwork.

But reviving the economy requires repairing the housing market, which won’t happen until foreclosed properties and delinquent mortgages are dealt with. So the White House, which is looking past the midterm elections, has been restrained. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan wrote over the weekend that “a national, blanket moratorium on all foreclosure sales would do far more harm than good, hurting homeowners and home buyers alike.”

It’s a recipe for legislative inaction, especially with lawmakers busy campaigning. For a White House seen by Wall Street as too populist, and by many liberals as too close to Wall Street, that might not be a bad outcome. Democratic candidates can strike a populist note, letting the Obama administration take the economic high road while pressing banks to define the scope of the latest financial mess.

“There’s a problem here,” said one veteran Democratic political consultant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. “The politics are very attractive to say, ‘Let’s have a moratorium.’ But shutting down foreclosures has the potential of shutting down the whole housing market, which isn’t helpful to anybody.”

For now, most of the biggest banks, sensitive to political winds, have voluntarily frozen foreclosure sales. Some analysts believe the freeze could last until January. That gives banks until the end of the quarter to figure out the extent of their problems, and it delays foreclosures until after the election as well as the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

“I think that they’re trying to see how this is playing,” said one political consultant working for the financial services industry. “They’re trying to gauge the political intensity around the issue.”

Democratic pollster Peter Hart says intensity runs high. “There are two things of critical importance to American households,” he said. “One is their job and two is their house.”

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Obama may be on his own if he wants big changes: Still grasping at straws.

October 18th, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Dissention, Federal Spending, Government Control, Obama Exposed, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US

By Scott Wilson Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 17, 2010; 12:31 AM

As the tumultuous first two years of Barack Obama‘s presidency draw to a close, the president and his advisers have begun to puzzle over a difficult question: Now what?

There are many things Obama has said he would like to accomplish in the next two years of his term – overhauling the nation’s immigration laws, passing energy and climate-change legislation, and shrinking the federal deficit, to name a few. Yet doing so may be exceptionally challenging, if even possible, given the skeptical mood of the public and the coming shake-up in Washington.

Next month’s midterm elections will leave the president with fewer friends in Congress, and possibly a Republican majority in one or both chambers emboldened to thwart his plans.

In White House strategy sessions, Obama’s senior staffers are debating their options. They have not yet settled on a specific plan, and the president has not spelled one out. How Obama approaches the coming years will depend in part on whether Democrats lose Congress or survive with narrower majorities. Yet no matter how the elections turn out, a consensus has emerged in the West Wing that Obama will have to set out goals that do not rely as much on Congress to advance his unfinished reform agenda. Even with his party now in control on Capitol Hill, Obama has had difficulty winning approval for big initiatives such as health care and financial regulation. After the grueling midterms, and with diminished ranks, Democrats will probably return for the new Congress in January more cautious.

“Clearly the agenda carried out by the administration in the first two years – the agenda that it wanted to do rather than had to do – will be smaller these next two years,” said William A. Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who was a policy adviser in the Clinton administration. “But there is still an agenda of necessity with Congress and the administration will not be able to just avoid it entirely.”

One senior administration official said that the courts may play an expanded role in the next two years, as the president defends his health-care and financial-regulation reform laws against legal challenges brought by opponents who hope to undo them or dial them back.

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GAO: Contractors get federal business despite violations

October 14th, 2010 · Accountability, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Greed, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within

By Joe Davidson Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 13, 2010; 11:31 PM

When Uncle Sam dishes out billions of dollars in contracts to companies doing the government’s work, you’d think he’d want to deal with firms that don’t break his laws.

But a Government Accountability Office report says numerous contractors received government business even after they had been cited for violating laws designed to protect workers.

Consider this example:

The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hit a large petroleum company with $55 million in fines for labor law violations between fiscal 2005 and 2009.

A big chunk of the fines followed health and safety inspections “after a massive refinery explosion where there were 15 deaths and almost 200 injuries,” GAO reported.

Yet in 2009, Sam awarded the firm’s parent company more than $2 billion worth of work.

Perhaps he wanted to make sure it had enough money to pay the fines.

Here’s another case:

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The 2010 Spending Record: In two years, a 21.4% increase.

October 12th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Federal Spending, Greed, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within

Perhaps you missed it, but then so did the Washington press corps. Late last week the Congressional Budget Office released its preliminary budget tallies for fiscal year 2010, and the news is that the U.S. government had another fabulous year—in spending your money. We didn’t expect President Obama to hold a press conference, but why are Republicans so quiet?

Spending rolled in for the year that ended September 30 at $3.45 trillion, second only to 2009′s $3.52 trillion in the record books. But don’t think this means Washington was relatively less spendthrift. CBO reports that the modest overall spending decline results from three one-time events.

The costs of TARP declined by $262 billion from 2009 as banks repaid their bailout cash, payments to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were $51 billion lower (though still a $40 billion net loser for the taxpayer), and deposit insurance payments fell by $55 billion year over year. “Excluding those three programs, spending rose by about 9 percent in 2010, somewhat faster than in recent years,” CBO says.

Somewhat faster. You’ve got to laugh, or cry, when a 9% annual increase qualifies as only “somewhat faster” than normal.

What did Washington spend more money on? Well, despite two wars, defense spending rose by 4.7% to $667 billion, down from an annual average increase of 8% from 2005 to 2009.

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Government had been warned for months about troubles in mortgage servicer industry

October 11th, 2010 · Banking Industry, Deception, Democrats, Economy, Ethics, Federal Spending, Government, Government Control, Housing Industry, Obama's Scheme, Real Estate, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Unemployment

By Zachary A. Goldfarb Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 10, 2010; 12:45 AM

Consumer advocates and lawyers warned federal officials in recent years that the U.S. foreclosure system was designed to seize people’s homes as fast as possible, often without regard to the rights of homeowners.

In recent days, amid reports that major lenders have used improper procedures and fraudulent paperwork to seize properties, some Obama administration officials have acknowledged they had been aware of flaws in how the mortgage industry pursues foreclosures.

But the officials said they could take only limited action to address the danger. In part, this was because they wanted lenders’ help carrying out federal programs to modify mortgages that had fallen into default or were poised to do so.

New concerns about improper practices – such as those involving faked documents or “robo-signers” who signed tens of thousands of documents without reviewing them – have prompted the mortgage servicing arms of the country’s largest banks to freeze millions of foreclosures. As momentum builds for a national moratorium, the administration has begun assessing the potential impact, examining the threat it could pose for the ailing housing market and the wider financial system.

There is no evidence so far that the specific abuses made public in the past few weeks were known to government officials. Nor is it clear whether they were aware that the process of the selling and reselling of mortgages among financial firms – which became extremely common and highly profitable during the housing boom – was raising legal questions about who actually owned the loans and had the right to foreclose if they went bad.

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