Posted on 06/05/2013 7:59:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON - President Obama is being hit by new scandals almost weekly in a growing web of investigations and revelations that have further damaged his troubled administration.
The U.S. Treasury's Inspector General released a new report Tuesday that the Internal Revenue Service spent $50 million on 220 conferences for IRS employees over a three year period beginning in 2010.
Despite annual federal budget deficits of more than $1 trillion throughout Obama's first term, the IG found many of the IRS's expenditures to be downright wasteful.
In one of its findings, the IRS focused on a conference in Anaheim, Calif. -- home of Disneyland -- where some 2,600 employees in the agency's small business division gathered for a little fun and relaxation paid for by the American people.
In a conference that cost taxpayers about $4.1 million, IRS workers were shown two training videos that cost at least $60,000 to produce. One of them was a parody of Star Trek in which employees, wearing Star Trek uniforms, talked about how to dig out tax fraud in a full-scale mock-up of the bridge of the starship Enterprise.
In the video, an IRS employee portraying the Russian character Pavel Chekov tells one of his colleagues, "Back in Russia, I dreamed someday I'd be rich and famous."
"Me, too. That's why I became a public servant," his starship colleague replies.
In the other video, IRS employees are seen dancing the "Cupid Shuffle," as a female IRS agent remarks, "They don't pay me enough to do this."
Two keynote speakers together at the conference were paid at least $44,000, plus $2,000 for first-class air travel. In a speech about how art influences leadership, the speaker painted six paintings and gave two to them to IRS employees attending the event.
"The outrage toward the IRS is only growing stronger. Clearly this is an agency where abuse and waste is the norm and not the exception," said Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. of Louisiana who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee oversight subcommittee.
This IRS scandal comes on the heels of the IG's bombshell disclosure that dozens of conservative groups who filed for tax-exempt status were targeted by the IRS for intensive, delay-provoking scrutiny.
It also forced the resignation of the IRS's acting commissioner and led to a wave of congressional hearings and investigations, a Justice Department criminal probe, and calls in Congress for a special prosecutor.
Then there was a troubling report from the U.S. Labor Department's Inspector General who charged that the Job Corps has badly mismanaged its budgeting operations by allowing program costs to rise far above its appropriations. The IG said out-of-control spending led to $60 million in red ink.
The Job Corps has been one of Obama's pet agencies over the course of his presidency as the White House has sought to boost its budget in the midst of persistently high unemployment over the past four and a half years.
The IG's report "sheds new light on the persistent failure to adequately budget, plan and monitor costs," said Sen. Robert Casey Jr., Pennsylvania Democrat, who asked for the audit. Jane Oates, the department official who headed the Job Corps when the budget deficit occurred, resigned last month.
More recently, a lengthy investigation by the Associated Press revealed Tuesday that a number of appointees in the Obama administration have been using "secret e-mail accounts" that raised suspicions they may be attempting to circumvent future investigations or public inquiries.
"The secret e-mail accounts complicate an agency's legal responsibilities to find and turn over e-mails in response to congressional or internal investigations, civil lawsuits or public records requests because employees assigned to compile such responses would necessarily need to know about the accounts to search them," the AP news wire service said. "Secret accounts also drive perceptions that government officials are trying to hide actions or decisions.”
One of the administration's top Cabinet officials using a secret government e-mail account is Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius who has been in the thick of Obama's continuing controversies and legal fights over his health care law.
How secret is Sebelius's off-the-books e-mail account? Google, the global search engine, said it could not find any reference on the Internet to her e-mail address.
Bear in mind, this is a tightly closed administration that zealously guards its secrets to the point where the Justice Department has secretly seized and searched the phone records of Washington journalists and the e-mails of a Fox News reporter -- another scandal that has triggered a rash of investigative hearings in the House and Senate.
Part of that widening investigation centers on Attorney General Eric Holder's sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on May 15 when he said he was not involved in the "potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material."
"This is not something I've ever been involved in, heard of, [or] would think would be wise policy," Holder said.
News accounts have reported that Holder signed off on the decision to obtain the Fox News reporter's e-mails and Republicans are looking into whether he lied under oath when he made that statement.
These investigations -- plus ongoing inquiries into the administration's misinformation about the deadly terrorist attacks at our consulate in Benghazi, where four Americans were killed, including the ambassador -- casts a darkening cloud of scandal and possibly criminal activity over Obama's second term.
Sen. John McCain says Obama has become "mired" in a swamp of scandals and that "the president's credibility obviously is at stake here."
The Gallup Poll said Monday that Obama's job approval score has sunk to 47 percent, a 12 month low, and, lately, the West Wing is increasingly sounding like it's coming unglued.
As McCain observed Monday on CBS's "This Morning" in a delicious bit of understatement, administration officials are "not covering themselves with distinction here."
As the Bible says, “when you sow in the wind, you reap the whirlwind.”
"We give the Media kickbacks, payoffs, and protection from the IRS.
THEY will NEVER desert me for stupid, worthless Americans."
Keep in mind that whatever is visible is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Ras has lost all veracity, in my opinion.
Says the man who barely put up a fight in the general election and famously said we have nothing to fear from an Obama presidency.
I wonder if he still believes that. Do any pressies have the guts to ask???
I hate to sound like debbie downer but I really think obama will survive all of it. I mean fast and furious bounced off of him like a rubber ball..............Hope I’m wrong but I dunno.
The Today show actually mentioned the mounting scandals and their effect on his poll numbers. Low Information Voters may catch on.
47% of the American People would kiss his ass for an EBT card............
I would venture to guess that anything beyond "surface scratching" level scrutiny of ANY federal agency run by political appointees will reveal a complete lack of ethics, morals and/or competency among those in charge of said agency.
Most of them probably do not even know the real purpose or function of the agencies they have been appointed to run - they know only how to use the powers of said agencies against Barack Obama's "enemies".
The headline seems racist.
I agree with your cynicism.
If the American people were paying a lick of attention, his poll numbers would be low 30’s.
He simply needs to ride it out until the MSM goes on to new stories, then things will be back to the normal propoganda on how great he is.
SIGNIFICANT Remember that the Obamatons also took over the census. When Rahm Emanuel landed at Treasury, he had all the tools at his disposal to target individuals, tea parties, patriot groups, and so on.
=======================================
NOW HEAR THIS---CONTACT YOUR CONGRSSMAN AND THE LOCAL MEDIA WITH THIS MESSAGE: All of the Treasury factotums doing Rahm's bidding need to be identified and brought before Congress to testify under oath. We need to know the specifics WRT Emanuel's activities at Treasury including dates and times when Emanuel consorted w/ the IRS.
===========================================
REFERENCE--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, White House COS Rahm Emanuel was so involved in the inner workings of the Treasury 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
=================================================
MOMENTS TO REMEMBER Obama was fond of saying "Tea Parties are a threat to democracy."
Valerie Jarrett ominously warned, they "would not forget" which Americans dd not worship Obama.
So what? His imbecilic 48% of voters don’t know or care. Plus, critics are racists.
Indeed, LIV's will catch on... but not because they dig and drill and learn and explore the ins and outs of this scandal plethora... but because the soundbites are negative at the top of each hour and half-hour on the enemedia.
...and never forget some of the old ones....
They hide everything they think is damaging to them....
MICHELLE O MEETS THE HECKLERS: LISTEN, OR I’M LEAVING!
WH deletes exchange from official transcript...
Dubs heckling ‘inaudible audience interruption’...
AUDIO...
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/audio-michelle-obama-being-interrupted-heckler_733821.html
Those that didn’t do a disappearing act revved up SEIU goons to intimidate Tea Party folks. That didn’t work because a good many Tea Partiers were crusty veterans who had faced off against much more fearful enemies than goons in purple shirts. And people started bringing cameras and capturing the fisticuffs (initiated by the SEIU goons).
Many of the cowardly pols went into hiding---resorting to telephone town hall meetings.
2010 Republic election victories was a disaster for Democrats. They couldn’t take the chance that the Tea Party momentum would continue into 2012. The IRS was seeing huge numbers of Tea Party and conservative issue advocacy groups applying for 501(c) status. They had to be stopped at the gate before the ticket was purchased.
Ridiculing and demeaning the Tea Party was not enough. Stronger measures had to be taken to snuff out active participation leading to 2012.......(thus the demonic Obamatons set the IRS targeting in motion).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.