Posted on 05/26/2016 4:16:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
The American people have shown us over the past decade that they will no longer put up with Washington’s back room deals and slush fund spending. There are no more Bridges to Nowhere, and bailouts using taxpayer dollars, such as those initially required by Obamacare, are met with ferocious opposition. While Washington still spends and taxes too much, the American people have made their opinion on these matters unmistakable.
But while the public has raised its collective voice against this irresponsible spending, the Obama Administration has found a new loophole for advancing its liberal agenda – legal settlements. These proceedings are not subject to the budget or appropriations processes, and new bureaucracies, such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), are using them to great effect to fund leftist activist groups.
So how does it work? For example, when the Department of Justice (DOJ) files suit against a bank for defrauding customers, instead of actually prosecuting executives or decision-makers who perpetrated the fraud, DOJ simply extracts an enormous settlement from the company - in some instances, billions of dollars. As part of the settlement, DOJ will require that the defendant donate large sums of money to outside groups, many of which are partisan activist organizations. Oftentimes DOJ will work with the new big government institutions created by the Obama Administration, such as the CFPB, to determine their own private wish list for how the money is spent. This amounts to a DOJ slush fund – hundreds of millions of dollars operating outside the system.
Make no mistake – this is not an attempt to defend those who misled and defrauded the American people. If those activities occurred, then the perpetrators must and should be punished. However, as a recent study by the U.S. House Judiciary and Financial Services Committees has shown, while the perpetrators are taking a financial hit, at the same time and through the same process third-party activist groups are being enriched. Approximately $880 million dollars have been directed to these groups in just the past 20 months, with nothing but the Obama Administration’s partisan whims to determine where it’s going.
As DOJ and other agencies operate outside of the budgeting system, there is no transparency and no accountability for how those dollars are spent. These deals are being made by the federal government on behalf of the American people, but the American people have no real way of knowing what all is going into them. So as the Obama Administration ramps up this new form of earmarking, it is clear that it is time for Congress to step in and enforce our oversight powers.
Recently, House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) introduced the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act, which simply bars settlements negotiated by the federal government from requiring donations to outside groups. I will also be introducing my own legislation in the near future to strengthen protections against the creation of these slush funds. Congress sets the spending priorities for our nation, not an Executive Branch that is so frustrated with the lack of support from the American people that it feels it needs to make up its own set of rules.
A government that serves its people must be transparent and accountable. Unfortunately, over the past seven years we have seen an administration that muddies the water unlike any before it. These settled slush funds are a significant part of that equation, and must be stopped. The American people deserve better.
Eric Holder was the king of this scam. He had it down to a science. The money trail is never really known which leads to Dem gains in various financial entities. IRS covers everyone’s A$$ and goes after the Conservatives. I hope DJT “goes there”.
I often wonder what ever happened to the billions of “stimulus” dollars given by a Democrat House and Senate for Obama to stimulate the economy early in Obama’s fiefdom. To the best of my memory there has never been a full accounting on how all that money was spent.
This is where the billions of dollars extracted from BP for the gulf oil spill went??
In numerous states, if you get a DUI one of your “fines” is listed as a mandatory “donation” to Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. This is the same premise. Dirtbags everywhere these days.
All settlement funds should go to a fund with the purpose of abolishing that govt department.
As a direct result of the “baseline-budgeting” part of that spending approach, the federal government re-spent the ’09 “Stimulus” (first spent in FY ’10) in all subsequent fiscal years: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 (started last October), and 2017 (December’s Paul Ryan Omnibus bill).
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/05/17/the-sixty-three-hundred-billion-dollar-question/
No worries. Joe Biden was going to keep track of EVERY PENNY!! I have full faith in him and obimbo. (do I need /s??)
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.....with the unsealing of documents this week (produced as part of a lawsuit filed against the government), new evidence surfaces on how intimately the Obama White House was involved in Treasury’s decision Aug 2012 to keep all the companies’ profits for the government. That move effectively maintained Fannie’s and Freddie’s status as wards of the state...
ADD THIS MUST-DO WHEN TRUMP GETS INTO THE OVAL OFFICE:
Soon as they occupied the WH, Obama and the kingpins of Chicago politics (a) took control of the US Census; (b) Obama placed his COS Rahm Emanuel in control of the US Dept of the Treasury (oversees the IRS).
PAUSE TO REFLECT First-term Obama had tight control of Treasury; Obama calculatedly placed his then-COS Rahm Emanuel in a dual role.......in the WH and at Treasury. Obama had a stranglehold on Treasury via COS Rahm Emanuel's dual role Read on.
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THE SMOKING GUN---WSJ REPORT--On Jan 20, 2009 Timothy Geithner was appointed Obama's Secy of the Treasury. But within three weeks, the Obama White House tightened its grip on Treasury. Obama put his COS, Rahm Emanuel, in charge of Treasury---Rahm Emanuel's dual role was an unusual move.
When he got to Treasury, WH COS Rahm Emanuel was so involved in the inner workings that the phrase "Rahm wants it" had become an unofficial mantra among subservient govt staffers, prostrate in obeisance, scurrying to accede to Rahm's wishes, according to Treasury government officials. Reported by WSJ / 05/31/09
More here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124113406528875137.html
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EXCERPT---FOURTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS Behind The Real Size of the Bailout; A guide to the abbreviations, acronyms, and obscure programs that make up the $14 trillion federal bailout of Wall Street
SOURCE motherjones.com
Mon Dec. 21, 2009 12:23 PM PST
The price tag for the Wall Street bailout is popularly put at $700 billion—---the actual size of TARP--the Troubled Assets Relief Program. But TARP is just the best known program in an array of more than 30 overseen by Treasury Department and Federal Reserve that have paid out or put aside untraceable money to bail out financial firms and inject money into the markets.
To get a sense of the size of the real $14 trillion bailout, see MJ chart at web site. A guide to the pieces of the puzzle includes massive untraceable Treasury Department bailout programs.
Money Market Mutual Fund: In September 2008, the Treasury controlled by Obama/Emanuel announced that it would insure the holdings of publicly offered money market mutual funds. According to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), these guarantees could have potentially cost the federal government more than $3 trillion [PDF].
Public-Private Investment Fund: This joint Treasury-Federal Reserve program bought toxic assets from banks and brokerages—as much as $5 billion of assets per firm. According to SIGTARP, the government's potential exposure from the PPIF is between $500 million and $1 trillion [PDF].
TARP: As part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Treasury controlled by Obama/Emanuel made loans to or investments more than 750 banks and financial institutions. $650 billion has been paid out (not including HAMP; see below). As of December 21, 2009, $117.5 billion of that has been repaid.
Government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) stock purchase: The Treasury controlled by Obama/Emanuel bought $200 million in preferred stock from Fannie Mae and another $200 million from Freddie Mac [PDF] to show that they "will remain viable entities critical to the functioning of the housing and mortgage markets."
GSE mortgage-backed securities purchase: Under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the Treasury controlled by Obama/Emanuel may buy mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to SIGTARP, these purchases could cost as much as $314 billion.
---SNIP---
LONG READ---go to web site to read more and checkout the shocking financial charts.
SOURCE http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/behind-real-size-bailout
Donald should also ask his banking pals what they think about the WH half-caste and his cronies inflicting these extortionate penalties on banks.
The details:
Obama and Congressional Democrats----with a huge assist from then-AG Eric Holder----have given NeighborWorks America (formerly ACORN) and La Raza a huge funding source of tax dollars to achieve Obama's dream of a permanent Democrat majority.
Obama/Holder/Dems are forcing taxpayers via DOJ litigation WRT bank settlements----into paying off these nefarious organizations.
DOJ went after CitiCorp and ordered them to pay $50 million to La Raza and NeighborWorks America as part of the settlement.
Another clause in the agreement makes it possible for La Raza and NeighborWorks America to rake in even larger amounts of money.
Of the remaining money the banks needed to pay in settlements, the banks were able to contribute additional money to La Raza and NeighborWorks America. For every dollar they contribute, it reduces their debt to the government by 2 dollars. That’s some mighty powerful incentive to give generously.
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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling have questioned why this money was sent to the ACORN clone and the blood-thirsty LaRaza----rather than to the alleged victims of the bank’s crime. The administration of course declined to answer.
Here's part of the Congressmen's letter to Holder: “It seems that the alleged victims are not the primary beneficiaries of these multi-billion dollar settlements. Instead, the terms in the Justice Department’s two latest settlements look less like consumer relief and more like a scheme to funnel money to politically favored special interest groups.”
“This makes donations to activist groups far more attractive to banks than providing direct relief to injured consumers. As a result, the settlements appear to serve as a vehicle for funding activist groups rather than as a means of securing relief for consumers actually harmed.”
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So now, with tons of money to fix the presidential election, the largest and most successful voter fraud campaign may alter the course of the elections not to mention the future of the United States.
NO WONDER HILLARY KEEPS SMILING.
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Obama bullied bank to pay racial settlement without proof: report
NY Post ^ | 2/7/2016 | Paul Sperry / FR Posted by DCdude
Newly uncovered internal memos reveal the Obama administration knowingly exaggerated charges of racial discrimination in probes of Ally Bank and other defendants in the $900 billion car-lending business as part of a racial justice campaign that's looking more like a massive government extortion and shakedown operation
Obama's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has reached more than $220 million in settlements with several auto lenders since the agency launched its anti- discrimination crusade against the industry in 2013. Several other banks are under active investigation. That's despite the fact that the CFPB had no actual complaints of racial discrimination--- it was all just based on half-baked statistics.
A 23-page internal report detailing CFPB's strategy for going after lenders shows why these companies are forking over millions of dollars in restitution and fines to the government despite denying any wrongdoing.
CFPB applied the screws to Ally, saying it had statistical evidence showing its participating dealers were œmarking up loan prices for blacks and Hispanics vs. whites (by an average of $3 a month). Ally fought back, insisting non-discriminatory factors, such as credit history, down payments, trade-ins, promotions and rate- shopping, explained differences in loan pricing. After conducting a preliminary regression analysis, the bank found these factors alone accounted for at least 70 percent of the “racial disparities†the government was claiming.
CFPB admits in the memo that it never considered these or other legitimate business aspects of the car deals it investigated
Also in its initial rebuttal, Ally complained CFPB's entire case was based on disparate impact statistics, not actual complaints by consumers, and that those estimates relied on guesswork about the race of the borrowers. (The auto industry does not report borrower race, so CFPB tried to ID race by last name and ZIP code, a so-called proxy method that is wildly inaccurate.)
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Placemark.
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