This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: “Your Tax Dollars At Work”

  • Another Chapter In That Continuing “Good News Story” Called ObamaCare

    We have some recent news about that        Patently Puerile, Asinine Current Administration concept       current Administration initiative called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) – AKA ObamaCare.  And, as usual, the news isn’t all that good.

    A few weeks ago, news articles surfaced saying that insurance carriers were worried about ObamaCare.  Specifically, they began warning the public that losses sustained by policies issued through state exchanges were unsustainable.

    Well, yesterday the other shoe fell.  UnitedHealth – the nation’s largest provider of health insurance – has announced it will pull out of most state ObamaCare exchanges next year.

    Why?  Simple.  They want to stay in business.  UnitedHealth estimates their losses due to policies issued through ObamaCare exchanges over the last two years at approximately $1 billion.

    Gee, who’d a thunk it?  I mean, insurance is only based on the market model that the insurer sells many policies, but pays out a comparatively small number of claims.  Specifically, over the long term an insurer must take in more in income than they pay out in claims and other expenses to stay in business.  Otherwise, over the long term they go belly-up.

    That’s a major reason why health insurance companies typically have an exclusionary period for preexisting conditions.  It’s also why truly bad drivers end up in the “shared risk” insurance pool in most states – and then pay through the nose for their auto insurance.  Both practices are designed to bring revenues above expected claims payouts; and both practices are supported by hard statistical data.

    ObamaCare’s prohibition on the exclusion of preexisting conditions radically changes the financial basis for ObamaCare insurance policies – it’s raised the amount paid out in claims hugely.  This means there are two options an ObamaCare insurance provider has if they want to stay in business:  raise premiums dramatically, or cease participation.  United Health has just begun the process of doing the latter.

    But wait – ObamaCare has made insurance cheaper, right?

    Yeah, right.  Now, tell me another shaggy dog story – this time one that’s funny.

    It turns out that both patient medical costs and health insurance premiums are rising under Obamacare.  Given basic economics, that was also eminently predictable.  A recent study by Blue Cross/Blue Shield found that on average ObamaCare policy holders are sicker and require more medical care, at larger cost, than people who obtain health insurance through their employers.  Wanna guess where the money for those extra costs comes from?

    If you guessed “increased premiums”, give yourself a gold star.  Well, that plus subsidies – which are paid out of your taxes.

    Gee.  What a surprise.

    Bottom line:  ObamaCare is based on flawed economic analysis, bad assumptions, and with wishful thinking.  It’s the equivalent of King Canute ordering the tide not to rise.

    However, there is a major difference.  King Canute didn’t expect the tide to obey him; he was making a point to his courtiers concerning the limits of his authority.  The imbeciles that brought us ObamaCare actually expected basic economics to change on command.

  • More Green Energy “Good News” for US Taxpayers

    Recently, Spanish “green” energy giant Abengoa went bankrupt.  For Abengoa’s stockholders, that’s unfortunate.

    It’s also unfortunate for US taxpayers.

    Why, you ask?  After all, isn’t Abengoa a foreign corporation?

    Well, yes it is.  But it also seems that Abengoa was a major recipient of the current US Administration’s “green energy”      irresponsible and wasteful giveaways      financial incentives.  Since 2010, they received approximately $2.7 billion in US subsidies – in the form of DoE loan guarantees.

    In fact, Abengoa is presently the single largest creditor of the Treasury Department’s Federal Financing Bank (FFB).  They currently owe the FFB $2.34 billion.  No word on who loaned them the other $360 million.

    That’s not all.  Abengoa also appears to have received an additional $605 million in tax credits and “green energy” grants – over and above their loan guarantees.

    Abengoa took the money, all right – while running up a total corporate debt of around $17 billion.  But their production – financial or actual – doesn’t seem to have exactly been stellar.  One of their star projects was a massive biofuel plant in the US that has yet to announce production levels or sell any products.  In fairness, Abengoa did indeed pay off the loan associated with that project – a loan that had been guaranteed by the US government.  But they elected to do so “from other revenues”, not from the proceeds of biofuel sales.  In fact, they paid of the loan before ever selling a drop of biofuel produced by the facility.  Any biofuels produced at that facility are apparently still all stored at the facility – or were at the time the loan was repaid.

    But hey – what’s $3.305 billion between friends, eh?  It’s all “for the cause”.  Its “saving the planet”!

    Yeah, right.  “Scam designed to enrich a select few” sounds far more like what’s going on here.

    Don’t get me wrong; I’m in favor of basic research on how to make energy production cleaner and more efficient.  “Cleaner” is definitely good; add “more efficient” and eventually that translates into “economically viable clean energy sources”.  Mankind does have the responsibility to be a good caretaker for planet Earth – if for no other reason than self-preservation.

    But regarding economically-viable “green” energy:  in general we’re simply not there today.  I do have a problem with a group of conceited fools in DC thinking that they can order the laws of physics, engineering, and economics to change overnight simply because they say so.  And I have a huge problem with those same arrogant fools p!ssing away literally billions of the US taxpayer’s money in a Quixotic effort to do just that.

    Oh, and it turns out that Abengoa might not be the only “hit” the taxpayer takes on the “green energy company goes belly-up” ledger this year.

    Another huge player in the current Administration’s “green energy subsidy giveaway      scams      games” may well declare bankruptcy soon.  That would be SunEdison – which has received nearly $650 million in Federal “green energy” subsidies and tax credits.  They’re the 13th most heavily subsidized corporation in the US.  And they are facing a serious liquidity crisis that many experts expect will force them to declare bankruptcy.

    Hmm.  First Solyndra.  Then Abound Solar.  Then Abengoa.  Now, possibly, SunEdison.

    I’m seeing a couple of trends here.  The first trend isn’t any indication that economically viable green energy is “just around the corner”.  And the second indication isn’t that the Administration’s officials managing the Administration’s solar giveaway sweepstakes seem to know their butts from a hole in the ground.

  • More ObamaPhone “Good News”

    I’ve previously written about the “Lifeline” program here at TAH, now commonly referred to as “ObamaPhones”.  Well, the program is back in the news.  And as was the case previously . . . it’s not exactly in the news for the right reasons.

    When I last wrote about the program around 2 1/2 years ago, it was riddled with fraud.  Indicators at the time were that the program’s fraud rate appeared to be about 40%.

    As you might recall:  the program is funded by fees collected by the FCC on telecommunications services.  Yeah, you’re reading that correctly:  that means you and I pay for it whenever we pay our phone or Internet service bill.  And since it’s effectively funded by a revolving “slush fund” collected from paying telecommunications users, the program doesn’t get that much visibility – or Congressional oversight.

    So, how are things 2 1/2 years later?

    BLUF:  the program still appears to be rife with fraud and abuse.  The FCC recently caught one of the program’s service providers – Total Call – internally duplicating sign-up records and collecting excess funds based on those duplicated records (as well as bypassing other program rules).  The FCC is asking Total Call to return around $9.7M worth of those improper fees, plus has assessed them a whopping fine.

    Gee, great!  That means the FCC is really “raking them over the coals”– right?

    Well, not really.  The FCC is indeed hitting Total Call for $51M – $9.7M to recover fees paid for duplicate claims, plus around $41.3M in fines.  But even including the fines, it appears the FCC will only recover a fraction of the total fees paid to Total Call for their duplicative and bogus claims.

    The nearly $10M in bogus fees referenced above represents what Total Call collected from the FCC for 2,587 duplicate claims.  The actual total of duplicate claims paid was 32,498.  The FCC apparently is simply going to ignore the other almost 30,000 bogus duplicate submissions – and recover nothing for those.

    Estimates are that the actual loss to the government due to all of those bogus claims was over $84M – not $9.7M.  That means the government is collecting less than 12% or so of what was wrongfully paid to Total Call.  Even including the fines, the FCC is only recovering around 60% or so of the actual loss.

    Gee – collect $84+M in bogus fees, then return $9.7M and pay $41.3M in fines.  Doing the math, that means Total Call is somewhere around $39M ahead.  Sounds like a real deterrent to future similar schemes, doesn’t it?

    But as bad as that is, that’s not the worst “stinker” here.

    The FCC recently voted to expand the “ObanaPhone” program (Lifeline) yet again.  On 1 April 2016, the FCC – in a 3-2 vote – approved expansion of the program to include 3G wireless broadband.

    Yeah, you read that right.  Now, not only with ObamaPhone users be able to “phone home” on the taxpayer’s dime – they’ll also have subsidized data services, too.  Can you say “web surfing”?

    But wait – I haven’t even told you the best part yet.  The issues with Total Call described above were known to the FCC in late March.  However, information concerning that apparent scam was not released to the public until after the FCC vote on whether to approve the broadband expansion on 1 April.  Further, FCC personnel – including the 5 FCC commission members – were told not to discuss the matter publicly until after the vote.

    Now, why might the FCC want to keep this under wraps until after they voted on the program’s expansion?  Well, “Avoiding public outcry and complaints” sounds like one rather obvious answer to me.  “Trying to ‘fly under the radar’ ” regarding the program’s expansion to include wireless broadband also comes to mind.

    However, we should be used to crap like this by now.  I mean, really:  based on the past 7+ years we should know to expect stuff like this from “the most transparent Administration in history”.

    The Washington Free Beacon has an excellent article that discusses the above.  Their article has more details on the about the FCC’s investigation; about Total Call and it’s checkered past history with the ObamaPhone (formally “Lifeline”) program; and the intentional hiding of the incident until after the recent FCC vote.  It’s IMO definitely worth a read.

    Sheesh.  This kind of crap simply needs to stop.  Yesterday.

  • Yeah, That’s Gonna Work Just Great

    I guess everyone has heard by now that we have a cease-fire in the Syrian civil war, albeit a rather shaky one.  And it also looks like       that gang of naive fools and clueless tools currently running the show in DC       the current Administration has a plan for what to do if that cease-fire doesn’t hold.

    Their “Plan B”?  Arm the “moderate” Syrian rebels, of course.

    Seriously.

    Gee.  Seems to me we already “saw that movie”.  We already tried one  program to train and arm those “moderate” Syrian rebels – a program with a $500M budget.  We also had other programs which provided alleged “moderate” Syrian rebel groups weapons and equipment.  Under the first program, we managed to train a huge army of those “moderate” Syrians.  I believe the total number trained was 5 or so – before we terminated the program because it was ineffective.

    Oh, and did I mention that at least some of the weapons and equipment we provided to those “moderate” Syrian rebels in the past were in turn later transferred by those “moderate” rebels to radical Jihadist organizations allied with al Qaeda?

    But fear not, Americans; it will be different this time around.  The plan will most assuredly work this time.  Our Fearless Leader’s and his minions say so!

    One description of insanity is repetitively doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different outcome.  Perhaps someone should explain that to this      DC Clown krewe       Administration.

    Sheesh.  I will be so freaking glad when this nation again has adult leadership that knows the difference between its butt and a hole in the ground.

  • Tell Me Again Why We’re Involved?

    During the last two months, there have been armed clashes between two Syrian rebel factions on the northern outskirts of Aleppo.  The area is contested territory, and apparently both factions want to possess it.

    One of the groups is called Fursan al Haq, or “Knights of Righteousness”. They previously controlled the territory, but in February were displaced by “Syrian Democratic Forces” that moved into the area from the east.

    This wasn’t an isolated occurrence, either.  Similar clashes have been reported earlier this month in the town of Azaz, and in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood.

    Here’s the “punch line”:  Fursan al Haq is backed – an armed – by the CIA.  The Syrian Democratic Forces?  They’re backed and armed by the Pentagon.

    Yeah, you read that correctly.  Two of the Syrian rebel groups the US has backed to oppose Assad are currently fighting each other instead.

    Sheesh.  When the factions we back start fighting each other, you really have to wonder if we’re backing the right groups – or if we even have a freaking clue about what’s really going on in Syria.

    As I’ve said repeatedly:  perhaps Syria is indeed a case of, “Better the Devil you know . . . than the Devil you don’t.”  IMO, other than countering Da’esh and its allies we have “no dog in the fight” in the Syrian Civil War.  And had we not involved ourselves in Syria, I suspect Assad’s regime would have done a much better job taking care of Da’esh and its allies than we’ve done so far – at least in Syrian territory.

    This article from The Virginian-Pilot gives more details.  IMO it’s worth a read.

  • Yet More Idiocy at DHS

    Remember the San Bernardino shootings? You know, that cold-blooded terrorist massacre perpetrated by a US citizen and his foreign-born spouse?  The spouse who DHS allowed to enter the country in in spite of the fact that she’d made social media postings supporting violent jihad; where DHS didn’t bother even to check her social media posts because it was against DHS policy to do so; and who DHS never interviewed in person as required under Federal law before allowing them to immigrate?

    Well, looks like this one gets “curiouser and curiouser” still with respect to DHS’s actions.

    The two dead terrorists who perpetrated that attack got their weapons from a straw buyer – Enrique Martinez – who was a friend of the husband. The FBI determined this shortly after the attack.

    Martinez had a scheduled interview at the San Bernardino US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office the day after the attack. FBI officials found out about that interview; they requested that their LE counterparts at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detain Martinez as a person of interest so that they could interview him about the matter.

    Unfortunately, that didn’t go too well.

    When the ICE agents went to the San Bernardino USICS office as requested by the FBI, they were refused entry. They were unable to detain Martinez.

    Yeah, you read that right.  The Federal personnel running that ICS office refused to allow Federal LE personnel acting at the request of the FBI to enter their facility and detain a person of interest in a terrorism case.

    Tell me that isn’t evidence of a seriously out-of-whack set of priorities.  In my book, when Federal immigration services personnel start ignoring requests from Federal LE to detain persons of interest in terrorist attacks something is seriously effed up.

    Fox News has an article with more details.  It’s worth reading.

    Sounds like “you got some ‘splainin’ to do”, Secretary Johnson.  Or maybe that should read “you got lots more ‘splainin’ to do”.

  • Getting Paid for Academic Idiocy

    At the University of Oregon, recently a professor conducted a study related to “climate change”.  In and of itself, that’s nothing newsworthy.

    But this one is a bit different.  As part of the project, the “research professor” in charge published a paper titled, “Glaciers, gender, and science.”  It urged other scientists “to take a ‘feminist political ecology and feminist postcolonial approach’ when researching glaciers and climate change.”

    Here’s the paper’s abstract; I’ve added emphasis to highlight some of the spectacular idiocy. (The full version of the paper can be viewed here; a PDF-format copy may be downloaded here.)

    Glaciers are key icons of climate change and global environmental change.  However, the relationships among gender, science, and glaciers – particularly related to epistemological questions about the production of glaciological knowledge – remain understudied.  This paper thus proposes a feminist glaciology framework with four key components: 1) knowledge producers; (2) gendered science and knowledge; (3) systems of scientific domination; and (4) alternative representations of glaciers. Merging feminist postcolonial science studies and feminist political ecology, the feminist glaciology framework generates robust analysis of gender, power, and epistemologies in dynamic social-ecological systems, thereby leading to more just and equitable science and human-ice interactions.

    Yep, you got it:  SWJ Propaganda 101, masquerading as “science”.  Or, alternatively: an example of someone who’s figured out how to ride the “grant gravy train” by producing intellectual garbage that panders to the prejudices of those providing the funding.

    If you’re waiting for the “punch line”, here it is.  A  $412,930  National Science Foundation grant apparently at least partially funded this trash.  So if you pay Federal taxes . . . looks like your Federal taxes funded part of this lunacy.

    And if you live in Oregon, your state taxes funded the rest of it.

    Fox News has an article with more details.  It’s worth a read – unless you’re having blood pressure issues.

    Relativism has been defined as the belief that intellectually there is no distinction between sh!t and Shinola.  Based on the above, it certainly appears that both the University of Oregon and the NSF have adopted that idiotic theory.

  • And the Hits Just Keep on Comin’ . . .

    . . . for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    By now, we all have heard about the problems at the VA with respect to “secret waiting lists” and retaliation against whistleblowers.  And we all know that the VA’s OIG has “thoroughly” investigated the problem.

    These problems were so bad and so widespread that they claimed one VA Secretary – Shinseki.  They’ve also been an albatross around his successor’s neck.

    Well, it appears that the US Office of Special Counsel has also looked into the matters of secret waiting lists and whistleblower retaliation – and at how well the VA is doing at finding the underlying problems and “cleaning up it’s act.”  The OSC is an investigative agency outside of the VA, and it reports to the POTUS.

    What did it find?  Well, let’s just cut to the chase:

    “The OIG investigations that the VA submitted in response to both referrals are incomplete.  They do not respond to the issues that the whistleblowers raised,” Lerner wrote to President Obama.

    Fox News has an article today with more details.  The OSC letter and report can be found here.

    Yeah, I think the VA Secretary has “some ‘splainin’ to do.”  Yet again.