Free Republic

A House-Senate agreement on how to reform the broken Department of Veterans Affairs will let the VA hand out up to $360 million in bonuses to its employees each year, even though the House voted just weeks ago to strip all VA bonuses through 2016. The compromise bill announced Monday by the chairmen of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees says VA bonuses will be capped at $360 million annually for the next ten years. But that cap is just 10 percent below the $400 million in bonuses the VA has distributed in recent fiscal years, and will allow...

Open the Books — a good government and transparency-minded watchdog organization — does exactly what their name implies, and discovers that taxpayers showered officials at seven embattled VA locations with nearly $9 million in bonus pay between 2011 and 2013: Now, at least seven VA centers are being investigated for “secret” waiting lists. Here are the bonuses into these troubled facilities (2011-2013): Now, at least seven VA centers are being investigated for “secret” waiting lists. Here are the bonuses into these troubled facilities (2011-2013): 1. Edward Hines, JR Hospital, Cook County, IL ($4.1356 million) 2. Malcolm Randall VA Medical Center,...

A watchdog group has found that IRS employees who owed back taxes were still paid $1 million in bonuses. Read more about this story below, via FoxNews.com: The report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that while for the most part the reward program for IRS workers complied with federal regulations, employees who had themselves failed to pay their federal taxes and had discipline problems were also rewarded.

Senator Rebukes IRS Over Decision To Reinstate 2013 Employee Bonuses Published February 04, 2014 • FoxNews.com The IRS' announcement Monday that it will pay cancelled 2013 bonuses has infuriated Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, who wants to know why an agency with employees who “inappropriately” targeted conservative political groups would reinstate the rewards. “The IRS is accused of targeting conservative groups, with many of its employees having conducted themselves in a manner inappropriate for government officials, and the agency decides to reinstate employee bonuses?” asked Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. “This is outrageous.” The announcement was...

The Internal Revenue Service is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses despite an Obama administration directive to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts enacted this year, according to a GOP senator. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa says his office has learned that the IRS is executing an agreement with the employees' union on Wednesday to pay the bonuses. Grassley says the bonuses should be canceled under an April directive from the White House budget office.

While American taxpayers bail out failing companies via the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), behind the scenes the Obama Treasury Department is awarding their top executives with millions of dollars in raises even though Congress passed a law forbidding it. It’s an inconceivable scheme that rewards bad behavior with big bucks from taxpayers who have no say in the matter. In fact, the U.S. Treasury was forced by Congress to create rules against it yet a new federal audit reveals the agency repeatedly violates them to enrich the very people responsible for the companies’ failures (and need for...

Bloomberg reported last week that General Motors will be paying $12 million in additional bonuses to its UAW workers for meeting "quality targets." It's nice to see the holiday spirit of giving at GM. Unfortunately; US taxpayers are not faring as well as Government Motors' politically favored union members. The Obama Administration still refuses to exit its stake in GM with Treasury serving as Money Manager for the American taxpayers. Geithner and friends continue to gamble on a market-timing strategy to "maximize" taxpayers return on its GM bailout (sorry, "investment.") So, how are they doing? Back in July, I...

The swag hunt is on, but finding it is proving a lot harder than President Barack Obama might think. Obama signed an executive order Wednesday to promote cut costs and section seven, titled “extraneous promotional items,” states that “agencies should limit the promotional items (e.g., plaques, clothing, and commemorative items), in particular where they are not cost-effective.” The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the government regulator for Fannie and Freddie, approved $12.79 million in bonus pay after 10 executives from the two government-sponsored corporations last year met modest performance targets tied to modifying mortgages in jeopardy of foreclosure. The executives got...

Senior executives at Solyndra collected hefty bonuses -- ranging from $37,000 to $60,000 apiece -- as the Fremont company bled cash and careened toward bankruptcy this summer. Bankruptcy documents filed in Delaware earlier this week reveal that more than a dozen senior executives at the defunct solar manufacturing company were awarded sizable quarterly bonuses April 15 and again July 8. Solyndra ceased operations in late August and filed for bankruptcy Sept. 6. About 1,100 employees were laid off without severance pay. The bonuses, awarded to more than a dozen executives, came on top of what were already highly competitive salaries....

With approximately 85 hours remaining before contracts between the United Auto Workers union and Detroit’s Big Three expire, UAW members can expect a substantially higher signing bonus than in year’s past, according to reports. But, just how high the bonuses will be remains under speculation. Sept. 10, the Detroit News: “… Reports that it could be as high as $10,000, which is about three times what union members received for ratifying the last national contract in 2007 are being described as too high.

Despite all the talk of belt-tightening in Washington, CNN’s Lisa Desjardins dug through many Congressional expense reports and discovered up to $6.1 million was paid out in bonuses to Congressional staff members during the beginning of the year, at the height of talks about a potential government shutdown.In the expense statements, bonuses are included within the broadly defined category of “other compensation.” After confirming with various offices, Desjardins reports the amount of bonuses handed out by Republicans in the time period was $908,000 and for Democrats it was $3.1 million in bonuses, while the remaining amount was awarded by Congressional...

For all of President Obama's rhetoric about "fat cat" investment bankers who gambled the country into economic decay, he sure seems to have a larger soft spot for big Wall Street than for average Americans. After all, his latest push to "remedy" 9.8 percent unemployment for the masses is an extension of unemployment benefits. Meanwhile, his policies aren't just making Wall Streeters rich, as bonuses are expected to hit record highs this year. They're also likely This divergence ought to be a big story -- but don't bet on it: The establishment media have been largely silent amid the multiple...

Wall Street bankers may want to hold off on those yachts, yellow Lamborghinis or Manhattan pied-a-terres, based on emerging bonus projections. Bonuses, which firms pay to attract and retain key talent, may be down by as much as 25 percent this year throughout the industry, according to analysts and market participants. Many of Wall Street's wheelers and dealers will see their total compensation, including salary, drop by as much as 20 percent, according to Wall Street recruiting specialist Options Group. Michael Karp, the group's president, said bankers will likely take it on the chin after Wall Street's revenue-generating engine slowed...

High ranking members of the banking industry met with the Obama Administration to urge it to “keep the spigots flowing” by continuing to pour federal money into financial markets. “Access to the federal treasury is crucial,” said a spokesman for the industry insisting on anonymity. “We’ve got a sh*tload of bad debt on our hands. Without government money our stock value goes in the toilet and we can kiss our million dollar bonuses goodbye. So, I think you can see why we’re highly incentivized to press for continued aid on this issue.”

Battered by massive losses, the Postal Service wants to raise rates to bring in more money. Postal officials scheduled a briefing Tuesday to discuss the amount of the increase, which will go to the independent Postal Regulatory Commission for review. The boost comes as no surprise. Postmaster General John Potter said March 2 that a rate increase would be necessary for the agency, which does not receive tax funds for its operations. The current 44-cent first-class rate took effect May 11, 2009. While that change will be the most visible, rates for other types of mail will also go...

The liberal media's favorite targets - Wall Street "fat cats" - have endured a firestorm of outrage and attack over bonuses since the financial meltdown. As some, like CNBC contributor Rick Santelli pointed out however, part of the screaming is the result of it is Obama and the White House whipping up political outrage. Now we'll have a chance to see if it's also selective outrage. Fox Business anchor Eric Bolling uncovered embarrassing and questionable bonuses being received by those charged with keeping an eye on banks - government regulators. But who watches the watchers? Bolling told FNC's "Happening Now"...

RUSH: An NBC reporter actually stumbled upon an economic truth. It was an accident. It wasn't intentional, but still the NBC reporter got it right. Andrea Mitchell was talking to the correspondent Rehema Ellis about schools closing in Kansas City and elsewhere because of budget shortfalls, and Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, said, "This is not just Kansas City. This is the most drastic case we've seen so far, but this is a ripple effect we're seeing from the recession. What is going to happen to the students there and elsewhere across the country?" ELLIS: It's simple, too, Andrea, you...

Politics: Another bank failure is nothing new these days — except if the bank is run by the family of a U.S. Senate candidate who profited handsomely and lent millions to a convicted felon. But then, that's the Chicago way. 'I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat-cat bankers on Wall Street," President Obama said in a recent interview with "60 Minutes." Speaking to those bankers, he said: "You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it's gone through in — in decades,...

Paul Krugman, a top columnist and liberal opinion-maker at The New York Times, sounded last week like he was tied to the tracks and saw a train coming around the bend. "We're doomed," he cried. "Oh. My. God." The melodramatic periods after each of the aforementioned words are Krugman's punctuation, conveying a picture of himself in a disastrous and rapidly developing meltdown at his keyboard. His problem was that President Obama failed to be sufficiently anti-rich, anti-Wall Street, anti-bonus and anti-banker in a recent interview with Bloomberg/BusinessWeek. Here was the interview question to Obama about the CEO bonuses coming at...

On January 21st, Lloyd Blankfein left a peculiar voicemail message on the work phones of his employees at Goldman Sachs. Fast becoming America's pre-eminent Marvel Comics supervillain, the CEO used the call to deploy his secret weapon: a pair of giant, nuclear-powered testicles. In his message, Blankfein addressed his plan to pay out gigantic year-end bonuses amid widespread controversy over Goldman's role in precipitating the global financial crisis. The bank had already set aside a tidy $16.2 billion for salaries and bonuses -- meaning that Goldman employees were each set to take home an average of $498,246, a number roughly...