Posted on 04/30/2016 8:12:41 AM PDT by rktman
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials have accumulated at least $6.3 billion in more than 1,300 obscure spending accounts akin to slush funds that are essentially beyond congressional, media and public scrutiny.
The accounts – which were created through EPA’s Superfund program – are not technically secret because the agency officially acknowledges their existence. But getting concrete details about deposits and expenditures is extremely difficult.
The EPA deposited more than $6.3 billion into an estimated 1,308 special accounts between 1990 and 2015, according to the agency’s website, and has spent more than half of the total. The agency doesn’t publicly report individual special account balances or expenses.
The “special accounts” are financed by legal settlements between the agency and parties responsible for polluting Superfund sites. Funds are deposited and spent without prior congressional approval.
“This is the very definition of an out-of-control agency, if they can raise their own money and not have to go to Congress to have it appropriated,” Myron Ebell, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment told TheDCNF.
An EPA spokeswoman told TheDCNF the agency manages the accounts “in accordance with the law, congressional intent, and EPA policy and guidance.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
Power corrupts.
The PEA is corrupt absolutely!
^EPA not PEA
Those people over at EPA need to consult with Hillary on how to make $6 billion “disappear”.
Obama’s stash.
Every House and Senate committee chairman would want to commence his or her own "independent investigation."
There would be leaks about EPA money finding its way into the hands of conservative politicians and activist groups.
At the very least, the head of EPA would be forced to resign immediately, and probably be indicted for any number of obvious crimes.
Then, as time went on, more allegations would surface. Questions would be asked about whether any of this money made its way to foreign fighting groups, or used to purchase weapons for those groups.
Questions would be asked about whether any of this money had been used to pay for transportation or expenses of protestors in Ferguson, Baltimore, or Miami. Questions would be asked about whether any of this money had been used by agencies other than EPA.
Of course, questions would also be asked about whether this practice of using hidden accounts was undertaken by other executive-branch agencies. Some elderly Senator - perhaps from Maine, or Vermont, or one of the Midwestern states - would opine that the left hand must have told the right hand about all the fun it was having in the taxpayer's pocket, or some such memorable line.
That is - as I say - some of what would happen. If this had been discovered to be taking place under a Republican President, with a Democrat congress.
Of course the situation today is the precise inverse of that. And, so, we all know exactly what will happen.
To practice my espanol, “Nada” will happen. Business as usual.
Golf will happen.
“Those people over at EPA need to consult with Hillary on how to make $6 billion “disappear”.”
I think they have.
This is just the first step in starting the backroom transfer to the Kenyan when he’s mustered out. He’ll need the cash to buy his own little island dictatorship...or build his own army to take over his “former” dictatorship.
Personally, I’m looking forward to his efforts in the latter situation.
Just another rogue federal agency that has no constitutional basis that needs to just “go away”.
The EPA leads up the 4th branch of gov’t, the regulatory branch. Presidents come and go, but regulators are forever.
And oh what power they wield with “mere” rules and regulations.
“Ya gonna pay the ‘Protection Agency, see?”
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials have accumulated at least $6.3 billion in more than 1,300 obscure spending accounts akin to slush funds that are essentially beyond congressional, media and public scrutiny.
...
Just like Hillary’s server. No wonder she’s touted by the criminal class as the most qualified to be president.
EPA is not the only agency with a “slush” fund.
I once wrote my Representative and both Senators asking about oversight over the multi-million dollar fines assessed and collected from banks, automakers, etc. Two did not respond and one gave a half answer regarding only one particular fine by the Justice Department.
The only reasonable conclusion - no one is watching the foxes in the hen house.
In particular, the issue of the President's nominee to fill the seat of Justice Scalia would be rendered moot, a flea's fart in a hurricane. The issue of 4-to-4 decisions and any difficulties they might cause would be seen as a tiny distraction, worth a derisive chuckle and not a penny more.
The issue would be used to further hobble Hillary Clinton, as questions of where the $6B that "disappeared" under her tenure as Secretary of State would resurface with renewed salience.
These funds, which are supposedly for “Superfund” purposes, never seem to cure or alleviate any of the string of problems that either are caused or exacerbated by negligence and malfeasance on the part of EPA. The agency has become a study in mismanagement and failure to address the expressed concerns of those parts of the public. A glaring recent example: the drinking water situation in Flint, Michigan.
For what they WASTE in patchwork “fixes”, they could excavate, lay new non-contaminating water mains all over the city, and do a flush on most of the distribution points, and patch the streets afterward. But that would be a quick, comparatively short-term activity, and would not assure continued employment of a number of relative incompetents to remain on the payroll for years.
Water supply districts have been notorious as a place to place patronage employees by the city government machines since they did away with local neighborhood wells. Sure, cholera and dysentery have ceased to be a continuing problem, but poisoning of the water supply by mineral contaminants (arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium and any number of organic compounds) seems to be much more prevalent.
Makes one long for good old red ocher in the well water.
It's not their fault taxpayers don't understand the rules.
That's my Cruzism for the day.
So if they already have so much money, defund them. Oh wait. Republicans are the majority. Never mind.
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