Is It TRUE -or- Is It FALSE?

True -or- False?

1.) Approximately 70% of adult wage earners in households that received SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, formerly known as “Food Stamps”) and/or Medicaid worked full time hours (defined as 35+ hours weekly), and about 50% worked full time hours yearly.

2.) 90% of wage-earning adults participating in either SNAP or Medicaid worked in the Private Sector, compared to 81% of non-participants.

3.) When compared to adult wage earners not participating in SNAP or Medicaid, wage-earning adults in either or both programs were more likely to work in the Leisure and Hospitality industry, and in Food Service occupations.

4.) The single largest majority of adult wage earners who participated in SNAP and/or Medicaid worked for employers with

GAO: Trump Violated Law

Ukraine, schmookraine.

Who gives a rats rip what Trump did, eh?

Seriously.

And yet, that is precisely the attitude that some have about the matter in which the President has found himself placed, which has also led to his impeachment.

Some say, “Ukraine got their money. What’s the big deal?”

Yet others say, it’s all water under the bridge, or worse.

So, let’s examine the matter more fully in order to understand exactly what’s going on, and what’s at stake.

And, for the most part, we’re going to ignore many remarks the Democrats have been making. Well, at least much of them. We’re concerned with the basis for the claim. As it turns out, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is also concerned with that matter – that matter being the question, “Did the President of the United States violate any law in the Ukraine affair?”

But before we proceed further, let’s first answer a couple of important questions about the Government Accountability Office:

What is the GAO, what do they do, and what authority do they have?

The GAO states this about their agency:

“The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for

Alabama Governor Bentley signs Executive Order No.4 Creating Alabama Health Care Improvement Task Force

Yesterday, Monday, April 6, 2015, Alabama Governor Robert J. Bentley, MD signed Executive Order No.4 creating a 38-member “Alabama Health Care Improvement Task Force.”

Though the unspoken ostensible purpose of the task force is to likely make recommendations to the Governor for the expansion of Medicaid in Alabama, it’s being couched to the less-than-observant (or less-than-smart, take your pick), as a home-grown alternative to the big bad wolf of D.C. known as “ObamaCare.”

Again, for the benefit of the uneducated, in addition to decreasing fraud, waste and abuse, increasing efficiency, eliminating discrimination against women, children & people with “pre-existing” conditions, mandating numerous improvements to the quality of the delivery of healthcare from all states in order to receive payment (performance-based payment), the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (sometimes abbreviated as ACA, though popularly known as “ObamaCare”), contains a provision encouraging (but not requiring – that decision was made the U.S. Supreme Court) the state’s governors to expand Medicaid for their impoverished residents. The law provides for 100% payment for so doing, then gradually declines to 90%.

Governors in Kentucky and Arkansas have decided to Expand Medicaid in their states, and are already enjoying savings.

Currently, Alabama’s matching portion (the %age it pays to purchase Medicaid) is 32.4%; so to expand Medicaid, and have it ALL paid for, and then to pay a LOWER rate than is presently being paid is one of the smartest fiscal decisions the state could make.

Already, the Governors of Kentucky and Arkansas – both well-known Republican strongholds, with opposition to the ACA – have expanded Medicaid in their states, and are already reaping the rewards.

Here’s a chart showing the compensation plan to the states:

GAO Report: Pentagon spending out of control – Rumsfeld reported same in 2001

[UPDATE – Friday, September 4, 2020: The DOD link for SECDEF Rumsfeld’s remarks “DOD Acquisition and Logistics Excellence Week Kickoff — Bureaucracy to Battlefield” made Monday, September 10, 2001 has been relocated/obfuscated/archived. The PDF file of his remarks may now be found on/downloaded from this site, on Donald Rumsfeld’s archival site, or from the Homeland Security Digital Library, a site “sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Preparedness Directorate, FEMA and the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security.” Ed.]

• SECDEF Donald Rumsfeld remarks Monday September 10 2001 DOD Acquisition and Logistics Excellence Week Kickoff — Bureaucracy to Battlefield,

• http://library.rumsfeld.com/doclib/sp/115/Remarks%20Launching%20DoD%20Acquisition%20and%20Logistics%20Excellence%20Week%2009-10-2001.pdf#search=%22pentagon%20bureaucracy%22 ,

• or https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=2423 . Ed.]

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What does Alabama U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions think about the March 2012 Government Accountability Office report to Congress that found the 96 highest-priority defense programs in the Pentagon acquisitions system represented an estimated total cost of $1.58 trillion, and had actually “grown by over $74 billion or 5 percent in the past year”?

The report, entitled DEFENSE ACQUISITIONS: Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs – may be downloaded from the GAO website: http://www.gao.gov/assets/590/589695.pdf

Or from this blog internally: GAO 3/12 report – DEFENSE ACQUISITIONS Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs

And then, there are the Remarks as Delivered by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, The Pentagon, Monday, September 10, 2001 entitled “DOD Acquisition and Logistics Excellence Week Kickoff — Bureaucracy to Battlefield,” in which he said “According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions.”

How many variety of voices over an extended period of time do we need before we heed their warnings?

His speech, in its entirety follows.

More evidence that Government $pending boo$t$ economy

Recollect the brouhaha over Vice President Joe Biden‘s remark Thursday, July 16, 2009 in Alexandria, Virginia?

He was speaking at an AARP-sponsored town hall meeting also attended by AARP CEO A. Barry Rand, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Nancy Ann DeParle, Director of the White House Office of Health Reform.

Vice President Biden said, “Now people, when I say that, look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’ The answer is ‘yes,’ that’s what I’m telling you.”

{ref: http://cnsnews.com/node/51162}

“And folks look, AARP knows – and the people with me here today know, the president knows, and I know – that the status quo is simply not acceptable. Its totally unacceptable. And its completely unsustainable. Even if we wanted to keep it the way we have it now. It can’t do it financially, Were going to go bankrupt as a nation. Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’ The answer is ‘yes,’ I’m telling you.”

Of course, Vice President Biden was speaking in context of the Affordable Care Act – also commonly known as “ObamaCare” – which the Government Accountability Office has shown has already demonstrated significant cost savings and proven to be business-stimulating legislation, and that to eliminate it’s protections would cost the federal government even more in the long-term.

Analogously, it’d be like having a fuel inefficient automobile – one that only got about 5 miles/gallon, or less. If you were to purchase even a used vehicle with twice the fuel economy – 10mpg – you could realize significant overall long-term savings. Simply ceasing driving will not solve any problem, but would rather create more problems.

Similarly, could you imagine having an inefficient Heating/Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) system? You gotta’ stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter – there’s no way around it. And to lower your average monthly utility bills by even 1/3 would be beneficial.

So, here’s a shocker for armchair philosophers, political pundits, amateur economists, Radical Republicans, TEA Party types and more: Government spending – in part – is a significant driver of our nation’s economy. And, spending on economic infrastructure is ALWAYS a most wise investment.

Why?

Because 1.) Materials and Manpower ALWAYS come from the PRIVATE SECTOR, and;

Inspector General uncovers Fraud, Waste & Abuse in Treasury Department

Now that the Wall Street fox is watching the financial hen house, is it any wonder?

Cases like these continue to demonstrate the NEED for fiscal 1.) Transparency; 2.) Accountability, and 3.) Ongoing publicly available agency reports.

It’s Fraud, Waste and Abuse – pure & simple.

And, it’s time to prosecute.

Not because of what it was used for – they could’ve bought jelly doughnuts – but for whose trust was betrayed, and who was abused.

The people.

—

Treasury staffer solicited prostitutes: report

1:47pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Treasury Department employee used government resources to solicit prostitutes and another employee accepted gifts from a bank he supervised in violation of conflict of interest rules, reports from Treasury’s internal watchdog said.

A Treasury staffer with the now defunct Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) used his government email to arrange sexual encounters with women advertised on Craigslist, viewed websites offering erotic services and met with prostitutes on three separate occasions, a report by Treasury’s inspector general said.

The OTS has since merged with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The OTS official, who

A: 1.4% Q: What is the annualized spending growth rate under Obama & lowest rate of any president since Reagan?

Who’s the Biggest Spender? Obama or Bush?

By BRUCE BARTLETT, The Fiscal Times June 1, 2012

Lately, there has been some controversy about the growth of spending under Barack Obama. It began on May 22 with a column by Rex Nutting of MarketWatch, which concluded that the rate of growth of federal spending under Obama has actually been trivial compared to the last 4 presidents.

According to Nutting’s calculations, spending has grown only 1.4 percent per year under Obama – one-fifth the rate under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Following is a chart accompanying the article.

There has been a considerable amount of debate about Nutting’s calculations, which fly in the face of Republican dogma. Much involves technical accounting issues, such as how to allocate spending during fiscal year 2009. This is important because fiscal year 2009 began on September 1, 2008 during Bush’s administration, reflecting his priorities. By the time Obama took office on January 20, 2009 the fiscal year was almost half over; he didn’t submit his first budget until February 26, 2009 and the fiscal year 2010 budget is really the first one that reflected his priorities.

Nutting assigned the bulk of fiscal year 2009 spending to Bush, an assumption that other analysts have questioned. Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post found that Nutting overstated his argument in various ways. But the PoliFact site of the Tampa Bay Times concluded that the Nutting column was essentially correct.

Aside from the political implications, the reason this debate is important is because there is a tendency for people to conflate spending, deficits and debt, as well as confusing rates of change with absolute levels.

The difference between

Alabama’s Certificate of Need Law

Wow!

With what I know about Alabama’s CON law, I could write volumes! And then, the title’s enough to get me started. I decided to use the “KISS” principle – Keep It Simple, Stupid.

If you’re a follower of Alabama politics – even casually – then you most likely have heard of, or remember former Governor Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy being convicted jointly of a “quid pro quo,” or more exactly, Siegelman was accused of accepting Scrushy’s bribe… to sit on the CON Board.

Never mind that the FBI extensively coached a known perjurer about what and how to testify – itself an illegal act – and never mind that Scrushy was appointed by two governors of two different parties to sit on the CON Board, and publicly expressed disdain for serving again. But that’s all water under the bridge. I only mentioned that because of its poignancy, and is relative to this post.

I sincerely doubt that most folks know that in Alabama, at least, not just anyone, or any organization can decide to build a hospital. For example, if Warren Buffett and Bill Gates decided that together, they wanted to gift the good people of Alabama with a hospital, they could NOT do it.

Why?

Read on to find out!