[ancient_geezer]

If the HHS declared the poverty level was anywhere near $150,000 is would be a completely obvious fraud.

Again, that is irrelevant, since there is no mechanism to prevent them from doing so.

Not true, such officers and government are subject to both civil action from private citizens harmed and criminal penalty for submitting false documents and reports:

To mention two statutes which touch upon the subject of malfeasance and fraud of officials:

Title 28 United States Code Sec. 1346. - United States as defendant (b)(1)

Subject to the provisions of chapter 171 of this title, the district courts, together with the United States District Court for the District of the Canal Zone and the District Court of the Virgin Islands, shall have exclusive jurisdiction of civil actions on claims against the United States, for money damages, accruing on and after January 1, 1945, for injury or loss of property, or personal injury or death caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government while acting within the scope of his office or employment, under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred.

 

Title 18 United States Code Section 2073

False entries and reports of moneys or securities

      Whoever, being an officer, clerk, agent, or other employee of the
    United States or any of its agencies, charged with the duty of
    keeping accounts or records of any kind, with intent to deceive,
    mislead, injure, or defraud, makes in any such account or record
    any false or fictitious entry or record of any matter relating to
    or connected with his duties; or
      Whoever, being an officer, clerk, agent, or other employee of the
    United States or any of its agencies, charged with the duty of
    receiving, holding, or paying over moneys or securities to, for, or
    on behalf of the United States, or of receiving or holding in trust
    for any person any moneys or securities, with like intent, makes a
    false report of such moneys or securities -
      Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten
    years, or both.

[Technogeeb]

Not true, such officers and government are subject to both civil action from private citizens harmed and criminal penalty for submitting false documents and reports:

But it would not be a "false" report. "Poverty" is an arbitrary value, the poorest among the citizens of the United States live better than the kings of a century ago (air conditioning, medical care, etc., that were unavailable to even the wealthy). Since the bureaucracy is itself responsible for the definition in law of "poverty level", whatever it claims is the poverty level IS the poverty level for the relevant legislation.

In the 1990s, the Clinton administration deliberately kept the definition of the "poverty level" lower than historical trends in order to make the statistics for the Clinton administration look better. Get a conviction in a court under the laws you have cited for those "offenses" and I might consider that they have some relevance to the current flaw in the proposed legislation.

[Zon]

Thanks for posting that information, geezer. I very strongly suspected that government officials didn't get a constitutionally-permitted free ride, so to speak. After all, all high ranking government officials -- congress persons, alphabet agency commissioners, etcetera -- take an oath to uphold the constitution. So it was reasonable that I thought there must be some mechanism for dealing with them when they commit on-the-job fraud.