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Obamacare Grant Scandal: Congress Awakes!
American Spectator ^ | 11/11/2015 | David Catron

Posted on 11/11/2015 4:00:33 AM PST by rootin tootin

Last April, the HHS Office of Inspector General issued an alert concerning the misuse of Obamacare start-up grants by certain states. Congress yawned. Later, the Obama administration illegally rewrote the law’s limitations on how these funds could be spent. Our elected representatives remained inert. In August, a few Senators bestirred themselves enough to write to the Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) concerning how he planned to recoup grants from failed exchanges. The House still snored. Even after state skullduggery involving the grants was reported in this space on September 14, and subsequently by other publications, the House slumbered.

That body received its wake-up call from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO released a report showing that 16 states (all but one secure Democrat strongholds) and the District of Columbia were awarded $4.6 billion in grants to create Obamacare exchanges which cannot account for the vast gulf that exists between the amounts spent on their “marketplaces” and the grant money awarded. Of the $4.6 billion, only about $1.4 billion can be confidently reconciled with specific expenditures. This leaves a gap of $3.2 billion. It gets worse. These 17 exchanges are so far behind in their bookkeeping that every figure reported to the GAO is accompanied by a catalog of caveats.

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: congress; grants; obamacare; slavitt

1 posted on 11/11/2015 4:00:33 AM PST by rootin tootin
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To: rootin tootin
The unions were granted more than exemptions.
2 posted on 11/11/2015 4:09:35 AM PST by outofsalt ( If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
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To: rootin tootin

Like Dems in New Orleans spent money sent to fix the levis and then cried it’s Bush’s fault when Katrina pushed the levy down, the Dems will blame the next Republicans for the failure of the exchanges due to lack of funds, which of course the Dems spent on themselves and their supporters.


3 posted on 11/11/2015 4:13:16 AM PST by dblshot (I am John Galt.)
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To: rootin tootin

In 2018 it’s all going to be considered the FAULT of the next Republican president.

I’ve already been seeing ‘libertarians’ and Democrats on socialist media sites like Facebook blaming Republicans for not doing something to FIX Obamacare and that they should’ve been working to make it better in the first place.

Can’t fix stupid. Democrats passed this thing entirely on their own and it’s a huge tax. Sharing the blame isn’t honest.


4 posted on 11/11/2015 4:25:14 AM PST by a fool in paradise (The goal of Socialism is Communism. Marx and Lenin were in agreement on this.)
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To: dblshot

Obama was blaming Texas for not creating an exchange. Liberal states have since closed their exchanges. I guess that’s Texas’ fault too.


5 posted on 11/11/2015 4:26:11 AM PST by a fool in paradise (The goal of Socialism is Communism. Marx and Lenin were in agreement on this.)
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To: rootin tootin

...16 states and the District of Columbia were awarded $4.6 billion in grants to create Obamacare exchanges...

California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.


6 posted on 11/11/2015 4:26:46 AM PST by Repeal The 17th (I was conceived in liberty, how about you?)
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To: rootin tootin

bttt


7 posted on 11/11/2015 4:29:55 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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Where Would You Go Without FR.......


Click The Pic To Donate

Support FR, Donate

8 posted on 11/11/2015 4:30:28 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: rootin tootin

Elections are approaching and the GOP needs issues to glom on to.

They’ll act outraged and swear that we need them to address and fix the problems. They’ll go wild with email blasts, Facebook postings and TV appearances, whipping voters into a frenzy over how dire the situation is and how urgently the GOP is needed to end the abuses.

Then, after the elections are over, back to business as usual.


9 posted on 11/11/2015 4:35:10 AM PST by Nickname
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To: All
Nov. 10, 2015: ObamaCare architect Gruber at it again

"Jonathan Gruber is trying to blame the increasing the cost of health care on new drugs to treat hepatitis, instead of ObamaCare.

You Remember Gruber - one of ObamaCare’s chief architects? He helped draft ObamaCare while being paid nearly $400,000 by the Department of Health and Human Services. He is also the guy who admitted the Obama administration’s successful passage of the law was due to the "stupidity of the American voter."

In 2009, Gruber knew that ObamaCare would lead to increases in the cost of health care. At the time, Gruber even admitted that the only way to control costs is to effectively deny treatment. Nevertheless, he continued to claim the law would lead to lower premiums.................."

10 posted on 11/11/2015 4:37:16 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: rootin tootin

With progressives, all’s well that ends in the confiscation of tons of other people’s money, eh? Too bad some of those progressives wear an ‘R’ on their hat, and we’re not talking Rainier beer, folks. But, hopefully Ryan will shine some light on the mess.


11 posted on 11/11/2015 4:44:59 AM PST by Montana_Sam (Truth lives.)
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To: rootin tootin

Oops! Someone dipping into the trough again! Odd how that happens, isn’t it?

But we need to discuss more serious matters, like how to expand government so it can take in more money.


12 posted on 11/11/2015 5:38:12 AM PST by fruser1
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To: rootin tootin

Follow the money...


13 posted on 11/11/2015 6:36:37 AM PST by Hotlanta Mike ('You can avoid reality, but you can�t avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.�)
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To: a fool in paradise

Georgia refused to set up a state exchange...


14 posted on 11/11/2015 6:37:27 AM PST by Hotlanta Mike ('You can avoid reality, but you can�t avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.�)
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To: rootin tootin

Runaway inflation in the price of buying votes.


15 posted on 11/11/2015 4:54:13 PM PST by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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