Posted by Tina
Regarding comments about me being “irrationally resentful” I found another instance of wasted or mismanaged taxpayer money today that should make all taxpayers heads explode.
The incredibly mismanaged funds were wasted by the VA on advertising, “professional services,” and green energy directives:
An analysis of records on the government’s official spending website shows the VA spent $1.3 billion in the past five years for “support” and “professional services.” These contracts included millions of dollars for a campaign to put the VA in a positive light, lodging and training of employees, and energy programs to make VA facilities more sustainable.
A total of 10,171 contracts were awarded under the “professional service” code as the number of VA Medical Centers under investigation for unprofessional services and misconduct has continued to rise in recent weeks.
Records show several contracts awarded for two commercials that were part of the VA’s “National Messaging Campaign.” In a series of 10 transactions, the VA awarded Woodpile Studios $5 million on 9/29/10, $1.7 million on 7/15/10, $1.7 million on 7/14/11 and another $1.8 million on 6/27/12 for the message campaign.
Money was spent on just about everything but care. Some of the spending was bizarre but no doubt a result of the presidents green agenda:
One Free Beacon reader emailed us about a solar panel electric car charging station at the Grand Junction, Colorado VA facility installed for vets with electric cars that need charging.
It is unclear how many veterans who visit the Colorado facility have electric cars.
Do read the article, the particulars are extensive and 100,000 veterans are still waiting…some of them with deadly or debilitating problems.
So Libby, is your head finally exploding over the stupidity and waste associated with spending of our tax dollars by the VA…especially since we also find they aren’t even giving the Veterans the services they are being paid to deliver?
Off topic News Flash.
US spy agencies heard Benghazi attackers using State Dept. cell phones to call terrorist leaders:
“The terrorists who attacked the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 used cell phones, seized from State Department personnel during the attacks, and U.S. spy agencies overheard them contacting more senior terrorist leaders to report on the success of the operation, multiple sources confirmed to Fox News.
The disclosure is important because it adds to the body of evidence establishing that senior U.S. officials in the Obama administration knew early on that Benghazi was a terrorist attack, and not a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islam video that had gone awry, as the administration claimed for several weeks after the attacks.
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Eric Stahl, who recently retired as a major in the U.S. Air Force, served as commander and pilot of the C-17 aircraft that was used to transport the corpses of the four casualties from the Benghazi attacks – then-U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, information officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods – as well as the assault’s survivors from Tripoli to the safety of an American military base in Ramstein, Germany.
In an exclusive interview on Fox News’ “Special Report,” Stahl said members of a CIA-trained Global Response Staff who raced to the scene of the attacks were “confused” by the administration’s repeated implication of the video as a trigger for the attacks, because “they knew during the attack…who was doing the attacking.” Asked how, Stahl told anchor Bret Baier: “Right after they left the consulate in Benghazi and went to the [CIA] safehouse, they were getting reports that cell phones, consulate cell phones, were being used to make calls to the attackers’ higher ups.”
(In the video Stahl said they could have been to Benghazi from Ramstein, Germany in three hours.)
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/11/cia-heard-benghazi-attackers-using-state-dept-cell-phones-to-call-terrorist/
The future of Obamacare.
At the very least states are stuck with new hoards of medicaid/medical recipients…some that had private insurance they liked and now they’re stuck.
What a mess, and yes, I resent it. If you are not resentful you’re lying about the state of things.
Jon Stewart has a video out slamming the VA for having 1985 computer technology capabilities. I couldn’t find his video but I did find this article from 2013 saying the IG’s report identified the problems of long waiting times created by the computer system. (Sounds just like ObamaCare’s website problem.”
Instead of spending money to make the employees’ work environment better it should have gone to help the veterans receive the medical care they needed.
Anyone who suggest that VA employees are entitled to nicer workplace instead of the veterans is a mean, cruel, thoughtless individual who hates vets and all they did for our country.
Veterans Administration IG says new computer system riddled with gremlins:
By Mark Flatten | February 4, 2013
“Poor planning, slow software and cost overruns raise the spectre that the $500 million electronic document system being deployed by the Department of Veterans Affairs will not break the months-long delays to process disability compensation claims, according to a report released today by the agency’s Inspector General.
There are almost 900,000 disability and pension claims awaiting an initial rating in the VA’s 57 regional offices. More than 70 percent of them have lingered longer than 125 days, the arbitrary date at which the agency considers them backlogged.
It takes about nine months, on average, for VA to rate a claim filed by a veteran seeking payments for service-connected disabilities. At 11 VA offices, it takes longer than a year.”
http://washingtonexaminer.com/veterans-administration-ig-says-new-computer-system-riddled-with-gremlins/article/2520532
Another Off Topic Benghazi Update.
Hillary Says She Won’t Turn Over Benghazi Notes
“In an interview during a media tour to promote her latest memoir, Hillary Clinton acknowledged that she kept extensive notes during the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi but said that she won’t turn them over to congressional investigators if asked.
“Did you keep a diary during your time?” NBC News’ Cynthia McFadden asked Clinton in an interview on Tuesday.
“I kept a lot of notes,” said Clinton.
McFadden followed up, asking the former secretary of state what she would do with the notes if they were requested by a House Select Committee appointed to investigate the attack — which left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.
“If the committee wants your notes, would you turn those over?”
“They can read it in the book,” said Clinton, referencing her book “Hard Choices,” which was released amid much buzz on Tuesday.”
http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/10/hillary-says-she-wont-turn-over-benghazi-notes/#ixzz34T0tK2ns
We do not need nor could this nation survive another arrogant elitist president. Those notes were written while she was being paid to do her job. Therefore, they belong to us and are not her personal property.
Good grief! Hillary the invisible…she’s positive she can control the narrative with a book that won’t sell to anyone but her sycophants?
We don’t need another narcissist or another Clinton.