Posted by Tina
Apparently HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has a hefty personal piggy bank. She can spend it however she likes…and in future years it will grow to $2 billion per year. This cash will always be available to HHS Secretaries to use however they want! Wow…how is the secretary using this pocket money…why does she need it? Shouldn’t this expense have been be included in estimates of the cost of healthcare? Is it smart to give taxpayer cash to a bureaucrat without direction and in such large amounts? What the hell is going on?
According to The American Spectator this piggy bank was authorized as part of the Obamacare legislation. It’s one of those things we had to pass the bill to find out! The slush fund is called the “Prevention and Public Health Fund” and it was allotted without a provision to account for how the money is spent. Congressional approval and oversight is also bypassed on this yearly $2 billion in taxpayer monies!
Vigilance Pilgrims! We are obliged to demand…how has the first holder of the HHS piggy bank, HHS Secretry, Kathleen Sebelius, spent this money?
Would you believe illegal lobbying and “goofy” grants (redistribution for health!)? What do you want to bet that those granted taxpayer monies for their little businesses will gladly hand over a few bucks to Democrats come election time!!!
A linked report from CATO adds specifics:
…goofy-sounding grant activities ranging “from ‘pickleball’ (a racquet sport) in Carteret County, N.C. to Zumba (a dance fitness program), kayaking and kickboxing in Waco, TX.”
It’s tailor-made for log-rolling and rewarding local friends, but the dangers go beyond that. In particular, as outraged Republicans from Fred Upton (R-Mich.) in the House to Susan Collins (R-Me.) in the Senate have been documenting, large sums from the program have been devoted to the purpose of lobbying for the passage of legislation at the local and state level — notwithstanding specific statutory language making that an unlawful way of spending money raised from federal taxpayers. (emphasis mine)
Forbes fills in the blanks:
…some of that money is going for everything from massage therapists who offer “calming techniques,” to groups advocating higher state and local taxes on tobacco and soda, and stricter zoning restrictions on fast-food restaurants… some of the federal money went to groups who described their own activities as contacting state, city and county lawmakers to urge higher taxes on high-calorie sodas and tobacco, or to call for bans on fast-food restaurants within 1,000-feet of a school, or total bans on smoking in outdoor venues, such as beaches or parks. In a May 9 letter to HHS Secretary Sebelius, Rep. Fred Upton (R,Mich) wrote that HHS grants “appear to fund lobbying activities contrary to the laws, regulations, and guidance governing the use of federal funds.” His letter included the latest in a series of requests for more documents and complaints about responses to previous requests.
Some Democrats, including Obamacare champion Sen. Tom Harkin (D, Iowa), are extremely unhappy with another use of Prevention Fund money. The Obama Administration plans to divert $453.8 million this year from that fund to use for administrative and promotional efforts to enroll millions of people in health insurance exchanges that are said to be vital to Obamacare’s success. Harkin calls this shift, which has not been authorized by Congress, “an outrageous attack on an investment fund that is saving lives.” (emphasis mine)
How can health care costs for every individual American ever be reasonable when our government continues to waste so much on bureaucratic fancy and whim?
Health insurance premiums will rise from 65% to 145% for individual Americans next year! Added expenses like this slush fund in the bureaucracy will either add to our public debt or drive taxes higher on the middle and lower classes. These groups have already seen their opportunities for economic advancement curtailed and dashed…how much more must this segment endure so that progressives can play at being god in the big government machine?