Posted on 10/26/2015 7:51:19 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Sixteen states (plus the District of Columbia) collected more than $5B to set up Obamacare exchanges after the Affordable Care Act kicked into action. But years later, much of that money was never directed toward the IT development costs for the exchanges or – in some cases – for any specified cost. And yet almost none of it has been returned. So what happened to all that sweet federal cash? That’s the question Fox News is asking today.
About $4.6 billion was given to these 17 recipients, including California, New York, Washington state and Kentucky.
But the GAO report found that so far, just $1.4 billion of that has been spent on IT projects, and a total of $3 billion has been “spent or drawn down,” though not all the spending is detailed.
That, then, leaves at least $1.6 billion unaccounted for. Yet only three states returned any portion of the money – a total of just over $1 million was given back.
“[T]he specific amount spent on marketplace-related projects was uncertain, as only a selected number of states reported to GAO that they tracked or estimated this information,” the report said.
Even though states were supposed to set up their marketplaces by the end of last year, they are not yet legally required to return unused funds.
They highlight a recent American Spectator report which identifies the missing funds which disappeared into the states’ coffers but offers few clues as to where all the money is now.
David Catron highlighted the monetary discrepancy and raised the question of whether Democratic officials improperly diverted or spent more than $3 billion in taxpayer grant money.
“It’s hard to know with any degree of certainty where the money went,” he told FoxNews.com. “So all we know with any confidence is how much was awarded, how much went to IT and what the difference is.”
Catron pointed out that 85 percent of federal funds went to Democrat-controlled states, and that only three states returned any money to CMS while the remaining 13 states and D.C. have yet to return any funds.
There’s a real puzzler for you, eh? 85% of the money went to states with Democrat controlled governments and they either didn’t use it for the intended purpose or it just disappeared. Shocking, I know. But how often do you see federal dollars going anywhere with the recipients turning around and saying, oh, that’s okay. We didn’t need that much. Take the rest back. That’s not how the system works, and frankly I’m not sure if Uncle Sam would know what to do with the cash if anyone actually gave it back. The operation of virtually every department in the federal government is based on a principle of asking for as much money as they can get and then spending every last dime of it before the end of the fiscal year so they can justify asking for more the following year. That was the founding premise of Jim Geraghty’s book, The Weed Agency and it’s even more true in real life than it appears in parody.
But don’t worry. I’m sure all those states will come up with receipts for where the money went or return the balance any day now. Yes we can, baby.
Color me surprised...
Thieves the lot. The more things hope and change the more they stay the same.
Working as Designed
UM, MAYBE THIS IS A WILD GUESS, BUT THE STATE DEMOCRATIC PARTY COMMITTEE MIGHT BE A GOOD PLACE TO START.
I just checked. Nope. None of it at my house.
“the question of whether Democratic officials improperly diverted or spent more than $3 billion in taxpayer grant money. “
HELLO, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!
His green energy scams are being used for money laundering. Why not Obamanocare?
I remember back in the time of oil price troubles. Clinton, I think, released some of the strategic oil reserve to help with heating oil prices in the northeast - to help out those homeowner voters who were struggling with high heating oil prices.
He, IIRC, releases oil, and he makes it available for certain people to become middlemen on the market to sell this oil. One such middleman was some black guy in a third floor walkup in NYC who didn’t know squat about oil. But he was able to rake off some of that profit from that oil supposed to help those poor beleaguered home owners in voting country.
It’s the same thing here, but the players are connected much higher up. They are becoming rich and the money will NEVER be found. And those Obama voters who have to look at the increased premiums, exchange failures and heartache they have to deal with are going to have to take their lumps.
The next president could use this to totally destroy the Democrat party. Can you imagine 8 years of investigations? Frog marching most (if not all) democrat politicians all across America, who were skimming funds. What about the trillion that was spent on “shovel ready” jobs?
If a patriot were to be elected, half of washington could be indicted.
None of reduced my premium or co-insurance or deductibles ormax out of pockecr. No sign of it from my friends and associates, either.
When Democrats are in charge of the Justice Department they know that they can get away with anything because of “selective enforcement”. This has been pushed into a whole new dimension with the Obama administration. Billions of dollars can just disappear and nothing is done about it; yet if someone speaks out against those in charge they will find themselves facing hard time for some seldom enforced statute.
There is no better example than Hillary’s classified emails. Of course it was illegal for her to have her correspondence as Secretary of State on a “private” server that could be easily hacked by any hostile foreign entity. Regardless of any individual emails security classification the entirety of the server’s contents should be considered top secret because a foreign entity could calculate her every likely move from a study of the entirety of the contents of her correspondence. As Trump said just the other day... if she were a Republican she would have found herself in federal prison a year ago.
We must crack the dam the holds these unAmerican one world order minions together.
Once testimonial waters start flowing, watch the results.
There are people with a conscience among them that are deeply troubled by what they have become a part of. Shame will bring repentance among them.
so i guess auditing same recipients is out of the question then
Ah shucks... We’re giving Iran 50 billion or 150 billion to fast track its reign of terror, so why is everyone getting wigged out about a measly 1.5 billion.
“Most transparent administration evah!”
Billions were divided up into millions...and given to Rats....
And those Rats gave thousands to little Rats...
FWIW-
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