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

Category: “Your Tax Dollars At Work”

  • Ending the 20-Year Military Retirement: Buyer’s Remorse?

    Jonn’s written previously here at TAH about that new military retirement plan the current       gang of fools and tools running the show in DC       Administration      conned Congress into passing        convinced Congress to approve.  The bottom line:  the former 20 year military retirement plan goes away, effective for people entering in 2018, in favor of a “blended” plan much like Federal civilian employees have today. (Ask most Federal civilians how much of a “good deal” the current Federal retirement system is compared to its predecessor, CSRS – which was somewhat similar to the military’s 20 year retirement. But you might want to be prepared to get an earful at high volume when you do so.)

    A major criticism of the “new plan” before it was approved was that it made early service too lucrative, and that this would lead more troops to bolt early  – resulting in a loss of experience/expertise. Well, guess what:  the Pentagon apparently is now having second thoughts for precisely that reason.

    In this year’s Defense Budget Request, DoD has proposed modifications to the changes implemented just last year.  Bottom line is that the newest proposed changes are designed to keep people in the service by making later service more attractive than earlier.

    Gee.   Seems to me that’s kinda exactly what the 20 year retirement did.  Except IMO it did it much better than either this new “blended system” or the latest changes DoD proposes to same will.

    But heaven forbid DoD admit it goofed and backtrack, even when it makes perfect sense to do so.  Just look at the F-35!

    The Army Times IMO has an article giving an overview of the Pentagon’s latest proposed changes.  It’s a bit longish, and the overall situation is somewhat complex.  But if you have interest it’s certainly worth a read.

  • “. . . a passive approach to identifying and preventing fraud.”

    Well, that      Patently Pathethic, Asininly Puerile Abomination      law called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA – AKA “ObamaCare” – is in the news again. And as usual, it’s not in the news in any good way.

    Essentially, it’s a huge fraud magnet. We already knew that, and I’ve written about that before. In fact, I’ve written about that as an ObamaCare issue more than once.

    Turns out the government knows all that. And you know what? The      clown krewe running DC today     current Administration doesn’t seem to give a sh!t that people are using ObamaCare to rob the American taxpayer blind.

    The GAO recently conducted a study of ObamaCare. The “money quote”? Here ya go:

    “CMS has assumed a passive approach to identifying and preventing fraud.”

    For those who might not recognize the acronym, CMS is the Federal entity that oversees Medicare, Medicaid . . . and the abomination known as ObamaCare.

    Fox News has an article today that gives a good overview of the situation. The full GAO report can be found here.

    Sheesh.  We really need to kill off this abomination of a law.  Now.  Then burn the remains, mix them with quicklime – and bury them in an abandoned mine shaft at least 1000′ deep.

  • Merit Systems Protection Board; We’re not coddling poorly performing federal employees

    The Washington Post reports that the Merit Systems Protection Board has released a statement in regards to their protections of the two Veterans’ Affairs employees whose jobs they saved when the VA demoted them. Essentially, the statement says that VA employees have always been poor performers, so the agency shouldn’t expect better. Like good little bureaucrats, they blame Congress;

    Like other judicial bodies, the MSPB typically does not comment on its decisions after issuing them. However, its posted statement says that it “is required to apply laws created by Congress and legal precedent, as established by Federal courts, when adjudicating appeals. With respect to burdens of proof applied by MSPB, they are contained in title 5 of the United States Code. Moreover, it should be noted that the 2014 Act made no changes to these burdens of proof.”

    “The 2014 Act did not change any statutory burden of proof to be applied in these appeals. Therefore, unless the law is changed, these statutory burdens of proof continue to apply, as they do in all other appeals filed at MSPB,” it said.

    The whole statement is on the front page of the MSPB’s website.

    The MSRB restored Linda Weiss to her job in the Albany VA hospital after she was fired by the VA for failing to properly treat veterans there. Kimberly Graves and Diana Rubens were demoted for scamming the VA out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, but MSPB administrative law judges restored them to their pay grades and salaries.

    So if you were hoping for cultural changes at the VA, well, that ship has sailed.

  • Another $750M Down the PPACA Toilet

    Remember that law called the        Piss-Poor and Amazingly Convoluted Abomination        Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) – AKA ObamaCare?  The 1,000+ page law where, as SanFranNan put it, “we (Congress) have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it”?

    Well, today we have some more “good news” about just how well that whole deal is going.  And that news is . . . interesting.

    Illegal immigrants aren’t eligible for health insurance subsidies under the PPACA, which are apparently given in the form of tax credits.  Yet some unqualified individuals have managed to “slip through” and receive those tax credits anyway.

    Whenever someone is found to have received those subsidies in error, the procedure is to notify the IRS of that fact.   The IRS then attempts to recoup the money.

    That’s the theory.  But in actual practice . . . well, “That don’t seem t’be a workin’ out too damn good, Cletus.”

    Predictably, since this was “oh so well” thought out before hand it now looks like Uncle Sam has indeed been taken it in the shorts.  It’s estimated that somewhere over 500,000 ineligible individuals – most believed to be illegal immigrants – have gotten subsidies they don’t rate.

    So, in total how much did they scam from Uncle Sam?  Best estimate is somewhere around $750 million.

    It also looks like the IRS isn’t going to have much luck in getting much if any of the money back, either.  Which, in turn, means that the US taxpayer (that would be you and me) are out around $750 million.

    Wonderful.  Just freaking wonderful.

    Another example of “Your tax dollars at work” from the current Administration.  Or maybe that should read “Your tax dollars at waste.”

    The linked Fox News article (2nd link above) has more details.  It’s worth reading.

    Well, it’s worth reading unless you have high blood pressure.  Then maybe give it a pass.

    Sheesh.  We need to kill that asinine excuse for a law called the PPCA immediately.  Then burn its remains, and afterwards mix the well-sifted ashes with quicklime – and bury them.  Deeply.

  • Oh . . . Sh!t.

    Like the perhaps-apocryphal “Chinese Water Torture”, more details about the classified information found on that unauthorized, unsecured Clintoon “private email server” keeps steadily drip . . . drip . . . dripping out.  In fact, it’s kinda like the movie Groundhog Day:  it more-or-less keeps repeating itself over and over – with respect to revealing more and more new “good news”, anyway.

    But this latest drip of “good news” concerning the information found – and presumably, now known by the Russians, Chinese, and Iranians – on Clintoon’s server is bad.   Extraordinarily bad.

    How bad? Allegedly, as in “compromised the identities of US spies and foreign sources” bad.

    This article from New York Observer’s website gives more details. If even part of what that article alleges happened is true . . . well, we could literally be talking lives at stake. Or already lost.

    Someone should already be doing time for this.  Serious time.

     

    (Hat tip to TAH reader/commenter “Climb to Glory” for bringing the Observer link above to my attention.)

  • A Quick WWP Update

    It appears that questions regarding Wounded Warrior Project’s spending have begun to have an effect.  Charity Navigator has now apparently placed the WWP on their “watch list”.

    This article from CBS News has more details.  It’s short, but it’s IMO definitely worth reading.  It also includes links to their previous 3 articles regarding their investigation of WWP.

  • Yer Latest Clintoon Email Fiasco Update

    The other day I mentioned that we’d likely never see some of Clintoon’s so-called “private” email.  Well, the New York Times reported yesterday that that is indeed the case.

    It appears we’ll never see as many as 40 of them, and possibly even more.

    We won’t see at least 22 because they are “too classified to be made public”, even in redacted form.  Another 18 were emails between Clintoon and her boss, the POTUS – and are being withheld under the “longstanding practice of presidential communications for future release”.  We might or might not ever see those.

    Plus, there are more emails awaiting review.  Who knows how many of them will end up being “too sensitive” to release publicly?

    State also for the first time publicly admitted that information classified Top Secret had indeed been sent to and stored on Clintoon’s private server.  I guess they finally ran out of ways to deny reality – whether the reasons for denial were plausible or not.

    I’m thinking Clintoon should brush up on the US Code, AKA Federal law – starting with 18 USC 793(f), and continuing with 18 USC 4 and 18 USC 371.  Looks to me like at least two of those three sections of Federal law might be of interest to her and her close associates.  Hell, all 3 might be in play.

    And I’m also thinking their lawyers might all have an interest in becoming really familiar with them, too.

  • Some Clintoon Email May Be “Too Damaging” to Release

    Well, we have yet another bit of “good news” about Ms. Clintoon’s “private email server” and its security issues.

    Another batch of Clintoon “private” emails were scheduled to be publicly released by State this past Friday. However, that won’t be all of them.

    Why? First, State says they recently uncovered a previously unknown stash of several thousand emails that need review. Second, the recent snowstorm on the East Coast also delayed the review process.

    But it now also appears that the public may never see some number of emails stored on that unauthorized and poorly-secured privately-owned server.

    Why not, you ask? It appears that the Intelligence Community has determined that some of those emails are potentially so damaging they cannot be publicly released at all – not even in redacted form. It rather goes without saying that information that sensitive and highly classified is never allowed to be stored on an unauthorized, poorly-secured, and privately-owned and operated email server.

    Fox News published an article recently with more details concerning this latest development. It’s IMO certainly worth reading.

    And remember: these emails were stored on a server that – per former SECDEF and CIA Director Gates – was likely accessed by Russian, Chinese, and Iranian intelligence.

    At the risk of repeating myself: great. Just freaking great.

    Someone really should do time for this. Serious time.