Free Republic

I have always hated the term “homeland security.” What are we part of Bismark’s Germany? That aside the name of the agency isn’t the only thing wrong with the agency. There’s the whole “that it exists at all” thing. Don’t misconstrue what I am saying as a belief that terrorism isn’t a legitimate threat. I think that it is. I actually buy that we are in a protracted battle, but that it is a low grade one with periodic flare-ups. Terrorism is not an existential threat to the USA. (The reaction to terrorism may be however.) The threat of a...

American officials have spent billions of tax dollars "setting up projects or programs that the Afghans cannot or will not sustain once international forces" leave Afghanistan, according to a government watchdog. "Afghanistan is a case study in projects and programs set up without considering" whether they can be continued, said John Sopko, Special Inspector-General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Sopko's comments came in a speech Friday to a meeting of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University. The problem is the sheer magnitude of the reconstruction effort, which is bigger than any ever before undertaken by the U.S. "Last year, the...

When Barack Obama and the Democrats on Capitol Hill forced the $800 billion stimulus bill into law, they insisted that waste, fraud, and abuse would not be tolerated. They put “Sheriff” Joe Biden on the case in March 2009, with Obama warning stimulus recipients that “around the White House, we call him the Sheriff — because if you’re misusing taxpayer money, you’ll have to answer to him.” The Department of Transportation employees gathered for the speech laughed at that statement, according to the White House transcript — and well they should have. An in-depth report from McClatchy and ProPublica...

The Obama administration has spent almost $11 billion to build a high-speed rail system that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Since 2009, the president has been pushing for the United States to have a bullet-train-like system similar to those found in Europe and Asia, but a combination of setbacks and dwindling support from states and Congress has slowed the project to a halt, The New York Times first reported. Just last month, Congress rejected the administration’s request for an additional $10 billion for high-speed rail and last year, three governors canceled their federal funding for the projects—deeming them too...

The White House budget office launched USASpending.gov in 2007 to track federal spending after scores of lawmakers, including then-Sen. Barack Obama, successfully pushed through a bipartisan bill to ensure greater transparency with the funding. At last check, less than 8 percent of the site’s spending information was accurate, and federal agencies had failed to report nearly $620 billion in grants, loans and other forms of assistance awards, according to a recent report from Congress’s nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.

After touching down around 3:15 p.m. at Boeing Field, Obama's first stop will be to a mansion in Seattle's Madrona neighborhood where 250 people will attend a fundraiser. From there, he'll head to former Costco CEO Jim Sinegal's Eastside home at Hunt's Point for a fundraiser there.

A program designed to help Rhode Island's older adult population prepare for climate change threats is one of several projects that will receive federal money as part of the state's disaster recovery action plan. This program will receive $150,000 over the next two years. Julia Gold, the health department's climate change program manager, said the agency and its partners will develop these plans during a pilot project to kick off this fall in Washington County. The grant to support this program comes from federal money designed to help long-term recovery efforts related to Hurricane Sandy.

In testimony before the Senate Budget Committee, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson shocked senators of both parties when he disclosed that it costs between $250 and $1,000 per day per person to house the illegal immigrants that have been surging across our border with Mexico. "There was an audible gasp, a bipartisan gasp," Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) recounted. "I could take a luxurious Caribbean cruise every day of the year for a lower total cost. I cannot fathom why the spartan accommodations we are providing for these people should cost so much." Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Patty...

WASHINGTON (AP) — By its own estimate, the government made about $100 billion in payments last year to people who may not have been entitled to receive them — tax credits to families that didn't qualify, unemployment benefits to people who had jobs and medical payments for treatments that might not have been necessary. Congressional investigators say the figure could be even higher. The Obama administration has reduced the amount of improper payments since they peaked in 2010. Still, estimates from federal agencies show that some are wasting big money at a time when Congress is squeezing agency budgets and...

Now that we have light rail, the progressives are ready to move on to the next step, streetcars along Seventh Street in St. Paul, with more lines to follow. The city council will vote Wednesday night to authorize a detailed study of a streetcar line between Arcade Street and Randolph Avenue on Seventh. That would be a second study, the first one being last year, your money paid out to a consulting firm from San Francisco. Progressives are dedicated to blocking the individual while encouraging the collective, but that offers no evidence of progress of any kind. There are already...

MIAMI, Florida—once again is getting a hefty bonus from the feds “saving” taxpayer’s money. This year, the state’s Department of Children and Families managed to misspent only $47,829,887 in food stamp benefits. That’s out of almost $6 billion the state received from the federal government. Nevertheless, Florida’s error rate of .81 percent the second lowest in the nation, and only a slight dip from the previous year when the state received $8 million for having the lowest in the nation at 0.7 percent. Vermont had the highest waste rate at 9.66 percent, while the national average was 3.2 percent. “We...

President Obama is seeking to make being employed by the federal government a more pleasant experience. Along these lines he is introducing more flexible work hours. “Analysis by the best work management experts shows that it doesn’t really matter how many hours government employees spend on the job,” Obama said. “Whether they’re at their desks or not doesn’t seem to make any difference in the output of meaningful work. So why not reduce the burden of reporting to work?” Not being required to actually go in to work in order to earn a federal paycheck was described as “a major...

The Iraqi soldiers tell of how they can hardly live with the shame of their rout under the onslaught of the Islamic militants. Their commanders disappeared. Pleas for more ammunition went unanswered. Troops ran from post to post only to find them already taken by gunmen, forcing them to flee. “I see it in the eyes of my family, relatives and neighbors,” one lieutenant-colonel who escaped the militants’ sweep over the northern city of Mosul told The Associated Press. “I am as broken and ashamed as a bride who is not a virgin on her wedding night.”

Thank you for contacting me about U.S. Marine Corps veteran Andrew Tahmooressi. As you may know, on March 31, 2014, Andrew Tahmooressi was arrested on weapons charges in Mexico after arriving at a border crossing point with a pistol, shotgun, and rifle in his truck. Possession of a firearm is a federal crime in Mexico, and Sergeant Tahmooressi is currently being detained while he awaits hearings concerning his case. Sergeant Tahmooressi maintains that he took a wrong turn and had no intention of crossing the Mexican border or trafficking arms. Although this affair is a matter for the Mexican judiciary,...

The United States spent more than $3 million on eight patrol boats for the Afghan police, according to an internal audit released Thursday. That sentence is surprising for a few reasons: 1. Afghanistan is landlocked. 2. Not a single boat has arrived in Afghanistan, even though the purchase was made in 2010. 3. That works out to be more than $375,000 per boat. Similar boats in the United States are typically sold for about $50,000.

Officials at all levels of government are banking that Metro Transit's $957 million investment will do more than simply shuttle existing bus riders in fancier vehicles between the downtowns of St. Paul and Minneapolis when it debuts June 14. They are counting on light rail to be a catalyst -- an economic game-changer for downtown St. Paul and much of University Avenue. Both areas have lost industry since the 1970s. The city as a whole lost 13.4 percent of its employment from 2000 to 2011, a period during which the U.S. shed 2.2 percent of its jobs, according to Wilder...

Taxpayers paid more than $5 million to create climate change games, including voicemails from the future warning that “neo-luddites” will kill global warming enthusiasts by 2035. Columbia University’s Climate Center has received $5.7 million from the National Science Foundation for the university’s “PoLAR Climate Change Education Partnership,” to “engage adult learners and inform public understanding and response to climate change.” Based on the theory that games “motivate exploration and learning of complex material,” the school created “Future Coast,” a website that features hundreds of made up voicemails painting a dire picture of the future as a result of climate change....

JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s biggest bank, will provide $100 million to help debt-ridden Detroit with housing repairs, blight removal, job training and economic development projects over the next five years, according to two people with direct knowledge of the plans. The investment, a mix of loans and grants, will add to a growing pile of money from outside private institutions as the city nears the final, painful stages of the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy proceeding. Detroit filed for bankruptcy protection in July, with an estimated $18 billion in long-term debt. This summer, a federal judge will decide whether to approve...

As soon as the mushrooming scandal at the Veterans Affairs Department erupted, blame focused on budget shortfalls for chronic delays in treatment. Several VA hospitals have been accused of falsifying records to cover up delays in treating patients in desperate need. In Phoenix, as many as 40 veterans may have died as a result. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., argued that the main cause of the delays is money: "If the VA does not have enough doctors to see these patients, then these problems are a result of a lack of funding." [snip] It sounds good. And it would seem to...

As the embattled agency faces charges of record tampering and neglect of veterans, records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show the VA has not neglected upgrading and decorating its offices throughout the country. The VA has spent a total of $489 million to upgrade conference rooms, buy draperies, and purchase new office furniture during the past four-and-a-half years. A total of 15,010 contracts were awarded solely for office furniture by the VA for Fiscal Years 2010 through 2014.