Hot Air | 07/02/10 | Howard Portnoy
FR Posted July 02, 2010 by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
So this is what Barack Obama meant when he promised to change the way business was done in Washington: Take a bad situation and make it immeasurably worse. AP reports that the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, a federal program designed to help poor families heat and cool their homes, wasted more than $100 million of taxpayers’ money paying the electric bills of people who were (a) dead, (b) in prison, or (c) living in million-dollar mansions.
According to the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, the program, which is under the aegis of the Department of Health and Human Services, spent $5 billion in 2009, distributing funds to states. The operation was carried out with almost no oversight. As a result, your tax dollars helped, for example, to defray the electricity costs of a woman who lives in a $2 million home in a tony Chicago suburb and drives a Mercedes.
The GAO got wind of the problem following an investigation by Pennsylvania’s state auditor in 2007, which revealed that 429 applicants received more than $162,000 by using the Social Security numbers of dead people. Similarly improper payments have since been uncovered in seven other states, including Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Virginia. All told, about 9 percent of funds from the program totaling $116 million ended up in the pockets of unqualified individuals.
Although individual states bear the brunt of the responsibility for ensuring that federal funds are properly allocated, the study determined that lax supervision by HHS was a key contributing factor in the scam.
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REFERENCE /Here's how Obama "Stimulated" the Economy......by run-away spending
The US Treasury entry must be seen in this context. COS Rahm Emanuel took control of the US Treasury when he crept into our WH. "Professor" Obama knows nothing about high finance----but Rahm toiled on Wall Street before coming into government (4 term-Congressman, Clinton henchman and Fannie Mae looter).
Behind The Real Size of the Wall Street Bailout (more like $14 trillion)
Mother Jones | Dec. 21, 2009 / FR Posted January 04, 2010 by E. Pluribus Unum
A guide to the abbreviations, acronyms, and obscure programs that make up the $14 trillion federal bailout of Wall Street.
The price tag for the Wall Street bailout is often put at $700 billion—the size of 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 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 our chart here. Below, a guide to the pieces of the puzzle:
Treasury Department bailout programs (controlled by Rahm Emanuel)
Money Market Mutual Fund: In September 2008, the Treasury 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 has 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 has 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 may buy mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to SIGTARP, these purchases could cost as much as $314 billion [PDF].
--SNIP--- long read
Federal Reserve bailout programs
Commercial Paper Funding Facility: With the support from the Treasury, the Fed established the CPFF in October 2008 to increase the availability of short-term debt (commercial paper) funding. Up to $1.8 trillion [PDF] was earmarked for the program.
Mortgage-backed securities purchase: In 2009, the Fed earmarked up to $1.25 trillion to buy investments based on home loans.
Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility: TALF provides financing to investors who are buying asset-backed securities. In February 2009, the Fed and Treasury announced an expansion of the program to generate up to $1 trillion in new lending.
Foreign Central Bank Currency Liquidity Swaps: The Fed has provided $755 billion [PDF] for currency liquidity swaps with foreign central banks.
--SNIP--- long read
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DID GANGSTER GOVERNMENT SCAM $14 TRILLION USING THE MADOFF MO? Madoff created a supersecret labyrinth of interrelated international funds, institutions and financial entities of almost unparalleled complexity and breadth......with assets and businesses in multiple places overseas that hid thievery, money launderering and tax evasion.
At least half a dozen people in the Obama admin are going to walk away from “ Public Service “ living like the Sultan of Brunei.