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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (79927)	5/24/2010 1:18:27 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

Congressional Democrats have violated paygo rules by 'nearly $1 trillion' By: Mark Hemingway Commentary Staff Writer 05/22/10 1:49 PM EDT Stephen Moore has an alarming commentary in the Wall Street Journal today about Democrats' willingness to circumvent paygo rules: <<< Pay-as-you-go, or paygo, rules require that new entitlement spending and new tax cuts must be paid for dollar-for-dollar with entitlement spending cuts or tax increases. As Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican member of the House Budget Committee has noted, the Democrats under Speaker Nancy Pelosi "have violated pay-as-you-go rules by nearly $1 trillion" over the past three years. And they're not done. In the coming weeks, say Congressional Republicans, we should expect some $300 billion of expenditures that Democrats will declare "emergency spending" and thus do not have to be offset by other spending cuts. The list includes $60 billion for a military supplemental spending bill; $23 billion for education; and $170 billion for jobless and other welfare benefits. All said, the deficit could climb to $1.7 trillion from the current record high $1.4 trillion. "I really can't think of the last time the Democrats paid for anything they want to spend money on," Mr. Ryan grumbles. >>> Read more at the Washington Examiner: washingtonexaminer.com

To: Sully- who wrote (79927)	5/24/2010 1:20:59 AM
From: ManyMoose	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 90947

The few guys who did stuff like that in the outfit I worked for went to jail.

To: Sully- who wrote (79927)	5/26/2010 8:19:03 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

According to the report the FBS workers have absolutely had no consequences. And by consequences I mean punitive but also restitution No Consequences for Government Employees Who Charged Massive Shopping Spree to Taxpayers By Diane Macedo FOXNews.com Twenty one employees of the Federal Protective Service spent more than $100,000 in government funds for clothing and flat-screen TVs, gym memberships and tuition payments, according to a General Services Administration inspector general report, but none has faced disciplinary action. Most employees caught stealing from a company would expect to be fired, forced to return what they took or worse. But a group of government employees accused of going on a massive shopping spree with taxpayer money have yet to face any disciplinary action. During an 18-month period while the Federal Protective Service was moved from the General Services Administration to the Department of Homeland Security, employees spent thousands of government dollars on everything from clothing and flat-screen TVs to gym memberships and tuition payments, according to the General Services Administration inspector general's office. But two referrals to federal prosecutors have resulted in no criminal charges in the case, The Washington Times reported Monday. Investigators said the 21 employees hid more than $100,000 worth of "unauthorized" purchases made with government cards in 2003 and 2004 by not logging them into the computer system that processes the agency's financial transactions. After the findings of the five-year investigation into the matter were revealed in September, three employees resigned, four retired and five employees faced possible reprimand. No action was taken against nine others, the Times reported. The abuse of government charge cards is hardly a new problem. A March 2008 report issued by Government Accountability Office estimated that “nearly 41 percent” of purchase card transactions made from July 1, 2005, through June 30, 2006 failed to meet “basic internal control standards.” One cardholder embezzled more than $642,000 over 6 years from the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service firefighting fund “for personal expenditures, such as gambling, car and mortgage payments” but wasn’t caught until a whistleblower turned her in, the GAO report said. That cardholder was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of more than $642,000. In addition, the report said agencies were unable to locate 458 of the 1,058 expensed items the GAO had selected for testing, totaling over $1.8 million in missing goods like “computer servers, laptop computers, iPods, and digital cameras.” Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for the nonpartisan Citizens Against Government Waste, says more needs to be done to stop this kind of abuse. "According to the report the FBS workers have absolutely had no consequences. And by consequences I mean punitive but also restitution,” Paige told FoxNews.com. “I don’t know why Congress is not moving to force them to claw the money back. There should be a claw back measure for sure when people have transgressed in this kind of a way whether it rises to the level of criminal prosecution or not." Paige said since the last GAO report on the issue there’s been an “explosion” in the number of government purchase cards, with 300,000 federal employees currently carrying them. By turning a blind eye when they are abused, she says, the government is inviting more of the behavior. “If the worst you get is not even a slap on the wrist, you’re not made to pay the money back, you don’t have your name published, you don’t get drummed out of your job, if there are no consequences for this behavior, you’re going to see more and more of it,” Paige said. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment over the phone and has not yet responded to emails from FoxNews.com regarding this issue. .