Feds cheer skyrocketing dependency on ‘free’ School Breakfast Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Federal officials are patting themselves on the back for increasing dependence on the national school breakfast program, citing explosive growth with free meals in particular.

Data released by the Economic Research Service shows the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s School Breakfast Program currently serves about 13.5 million students in about 90,000 schools nationwide, statistics that have more than doubled since 1996.

“Throughout the history of the School Breakfast Program, the number of participating children was considerably smaller than in the National School Lunch Program and is still less than half. Nevertheless, as the breakfast program finding increased – and grants to schools to help start up the program became more available – the number of schools participating in the breakfast program has steadily grown, making it available to more students,” according to a USDA blog.

The ERS data is displayed in a “Charts of Note” series that highlights research on food assistance and other topics, and was undoubtedly chosen because of the striking exponential rise in free and total lunches served to students since the program was founded in 1975.

The program launched with roughly 2 million total participants, with about 1.5 million going toward free food and the rest toward reduced or full priced meals. By 1995, total participation had eclipsed 6 million with about 5 million in free meals. Last year the program provided food to more than 13.5 million students, including more than 10 million free meals, according to the ERS chart.

“A notable increase in the free and reduced-price share in both (the breakfast and lunch) programs in recent years likely reflects more children qualifying and choosing to participate during the 2007-2009 recession, along with policy changes that have simplified the process of program qualification,” the USDA blog opines.

Those policy changes can have a profound impact on participation. In recent years the USDA has expanded eligibility qualifications to allow for “community eligibility” in places where a high proportion of students qualify for free or reduced priced meals.

In those places, all students receive free meals from the government, as long as schools comply with very strict regulations on calories, fat, sugar, sodium, whole grains, and nutrition restrictions championed by first lady Michelle Obama.

And there’s also the breakfast in the classroom program that’s becoming increasingly popular in many school districts. Teachers in some school districts, however, have resisted that program because it cuts into class time and creates sanitation issues with younger students.

Cynthis Schaefer, superintendent in Keyes, California told the Ceres Courier the district implemented the program for a year by she canceled breakfasts in the classroom after teachers complained and the local teachers union filed a grievance.

“There are a number of issues to be worked out regarding the program, including employment issues that need to be negotiated with the teachers union,” she said.

In other places, like the UCLA Community School, parents have lead a revolt against the breakfast in the classroom program because they believe it’s offensive to parents and wastes valuable instructional time.

“They say if kids don’t eat they won’t learn,” mother Lilian Ramos told the Associated Press. “The truth is that many of our kids come to school already having eaten. They come here to study.”

The federal school food programs are also getting a boost from liberal lawmakers who seem determined to steer their constituents toward dependency.

“State legislation in the form of AB 1240 authored by Asseblymen Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, and Tony Thurmond, D-Oakland, is seeking to take such issues out of local control by mandating that lower income districts be forced to participate in Breakfast in the Classroom,” the Ceres Courier reports.

And there’s little question why. As the Food Research and Action Center points out, “it pays” to serve government meals.

“For the 2015-2016 school year, CACFP sponsors receive $1.66 for each breakfast served, $3.07 per lunch or dinner served, and $0.84 per snack. CACFP sponsors can additionally choose to receive the value of commodities (or cash in lieu of commodities), $0.2375 for July 2015 through June 2016, for each lunch and dinner served, which would total about $3.31 per lunch or dinner served,” a FRAC fact sheet reads.

Via: EAG News

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Leave the Department of Education Behind

What has happened in the public schools since Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education? (AP File Photo)

Two weeks before the 1980 presidential election, the Associated Press published a story explaining that the two major-party candidates were "poles apart on education issues."

Carter, the story reminded readers, was the Founding Father of the federal Department of Education.

"The fate of the Department of Education, the $14-billion federal agency elevated to Cabinet status less than six months ago, may hang in the balance on Election Day," said the story.

"Republican Ronald Reagan," it said, "hopes to dismantle the agency, which was created following a promise that Jimmy Carter made to the National Education Association in seeking and winning the union's support four years ago."

The story ended with a direct quote from Reagan.

"I think that this Department of Education is hoping to make come true the dream of the National Education Association, which for many years has been that we should have a federal school system, a nationalized school system," said Reagan.

The Washington Post published a similar story in September 1980.

"And only Reagan speaks and writes about ending the public school 'monopoly,' a theme that fits in with his broad philosophical belief that the private sector can do most jobs better than the government," said the Post.

Via:  CNS News

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[VIDEO] CBS NEW: CHINESE HACK IS REALLY BAD, CAN’T PUT LIPSTICK ON THIS PIG

CBS News reported on the hack by the Chinese government, saying it’s an embarrassment for an administration that has made cyber security a top priority. One official told CBS News that the hack is really bad and there is no way to put lipstick on this pig.

Watch:

Via: The Right Scoop

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Tax Payers Fund Boston Bombers’ Family Flights To The US, Housing And Security During The Trial…

The family of convicted Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been flown to the US from their home in Chechnya, are being housed at a Hampton Inn outside of Boston, and are being guarded 24 hours a day by at least 3 federal agencies.

The taxpayer funded junket to the US for the family of a Muslim terrorist is costing well over $100,000, according to a former US attorney.

Survivors and their families are outraged:

“I think you’re probably talking about $100,000 plus in that neighborhood in terms of security and out of pocket costs associated with travel,” former US attorney Michael Sullivan said.

And that’s just for this trip.

Lawyer fees or even what all witnesses during the trial cost is still unclear. One defense witness, Mark Spencer of Arsenal Consulting, charged $375 per hour and billing taxpayers for $150,000.

Governor Charlie Baker said, “It’s a federal trial, it’s a federal case, the feds ultimately need to make the decisions about this.”

Baker was non-committal about how resources are being used, even state ones.

Sullivan told Sacchetti that while he understands taxpayer outrage, the whole point is to make sure it’s done right.

“The court wants to make sure that at the end of the day, the defendant gets a fair trial and would not want to add any potential issues on appeal in the penalty phase, prosecutors finished making their case yesterday,” he said.

Marathon survivor Marc Fucarile reached out to us Friday night, reacting to this news, saying that he’s outraged that Tsarnaev’s family’s expenses are being paid for when “myself and some of the other survivors and our families have to pay for our own parking at court, lunch, and we were told that if the trial was moved out of state, we’d have to pay for our own travel and lodging, there.”

The statement went on to say: “Why should our country pay for them when that family committed a violent act against our country? Not to mention, all of the free government services this family previously enjoyed on the backs of the taxpayers including government assistance and a free ride to UMass Dartmouth. In contrast, I was denied housing assistance I sought after the bombings, even though I needed a handicapped accessible apartment, and my wife lost her job as a result of the events.”

He ended by saying he feels badly for the taxpayers that have to pay for this after they were so generous to all the survivors and the One Fund.

Via: PJ Media

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Circuit Court Blocks NYPD Stop & Frisk Changes, Removes Manhattan Judge From Case

A federal appellate court on Thursday granted a stay in the landmark police stop-and-frisk ruling in New York City, and removed the trial judge, Shira A. Scheindlin, from the case.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that Judge Scheindlin “ran afoul” of the judiciary’s code of conduct by showing an “appearance of partiality surrounding this litigation.” The panel criticized how she had steered the lawsuit to her courtroom when it was filed in early 2008.

The ruling effectively puts off a battery of changes that Judge Scheindlin, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, had ordered for the Police Department. Those changes include postponing the operations of the monitor who was given the task to oversee reforms to the department’s stop-and-frisk practices, which Judge Scheindlin found violated the Fourth and 14th Amendments of the Constitution.

In a two-page order, the panel of three judges also criticized Judge Scheindlin for granting media interviews and for making public statements while the case was pending before her.

The judges ordered that the stop-and-frisk lawsuit be reassigned to another judge. The Second Circuit ruling instructs the new judge to put off to “all proceedings and otherwise await further action” from the Second Circuit.

Judge Scheindlin’s decision, issued in August, found that the stop-and-frisk tactics violated the rights of minorities in the city. With that decision, which came at the conclusion of a lengthy trial that began in the spring, she repudiated a major element of the crime-fighting legacy of the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

But the panel, citing an article by The New York Times in a footnote in the ruling, found fault with how the judge improperly applied a “related-case rule” to bring the stop-and-frisk case under her purview.

Via: New York Times

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IRS released preliminary report on ObamaCare inquiries

The IRS on Saturday reported handling more than 330,000 requests from ObamaCare exchanges to calculate whether Americans are eligible for federal tax credits when purchasing insurance through the program.

The release provides some indication on how many people are attempting to buy insurance through the exchanges in their first four weeks of operation and how many are seeking federal financial assistance.

The agency said it is receiving about 80,000 data requests daily.

The IRS said it “remains on track with implementing its portion of the Affordable Care Act and continues actively supporting the Health Insurance Marketplaces,” amid widespread problems with the online exchanges and resulting backlash.

The Obama administration has yet to release information on the number of Americans who have bought insurance through the exchange, perhaps the best indicator of public interest and the success of the program, but has vowed to in the coming months.

The IRS also reported that it has received and responded to more than 1.3 million requests from the marketplaces about household income and the size of families, which the agency called “critical” information in determining applicants’ eligibility for “income-based financial assistance.”

Via: Fox News

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Feds Paid Prisoners $1 million in Disability Payments

The Social Security Administration (SSA) gave more than $1 million in improper disability benefits to 440 prisoners, according to the inspector general.

The Inspector General for the SSA (IG) based its report on a sample of 100 beneficiaries, and found that one-fourth had improperly received disability while they were incarcerated.

“SSA issued improper DI benefit payments to beneficiaries for periods they were in correctional institutions,” the report said. “Of the 100 sample cases we reviewed, SSA appropriately took action to suspend DI benefit payments for 75 beneficiaries who had periods of conviction and incarceration, but overpaid DI benefits to the remaining 25 sample beneficiaries.”

“Based on this sample, we estimate SSA overpaid about $1 million to 440 beneficiaries,” the IG said.

Roughly 317 prisoners received $879,000 in disability insurance, and 123 more were paid $143,000 despite the SSA having suspended their benefits. A total of $1,022,000 erroneous payments were made.

One man was able to collect $22,056 in disability benefits while he was imprisoned in Staten Island, N.Y. from February 2009 to November 2010. Overall, the 440 prisoners received an average of $2,322 in payments.

Via: WFB

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IRS employee union: We don’t want Obamacare

IRS employees have a prominent role in Obamacare, but their union wants no part of the law.

National Treasury Employees Union officials are urging members to write their congressional representatives in opposition to receiving coverage through President Obama’s health care law.

The union leaders are providing members with a form letter to send to the congressmen that says “I am very concerned about legislation that has been introduced by Congressman Dave Camp to push federal employees out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and into the insurance exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act.”

The NTEU represents 150,000 federal employees overall, including most of the nearly 100,000 IRS workers.

Like most other federal workers, IRS employees currently get their health insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which also covers members of Congress.

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House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp offered the bill in response to reports of congressional negotiations that would exempt lawmakers and their staff from ObamaCare.

Via: Washington Examiner

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How Detroit Almost Killed My Business

Of all the depressing facts about the once great City of Detroit, this to me is the most upsetting:  In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit.  Today, there are less than 27,000 (Hat tip Zero Hedge Blog).

Government -- federal, state, and local -- made this happen. I know this from experience. Government corrupted the Detroit work force. That corruption drove away my company too.

Until 1984, I was a business owner in the city, employing about 20.  I moved my business 60 miles away.  I didn't want to leave, but I was, in effect, forced to. 

Many think that crime spurred the exodus of business out of Detroit.  Not in my case.  To combat crime we would build a stronger "fort." We called it "fort building" because if my neighbor put heavy wire screen on his windows, the thieves would break into my shop.  If I bricked up my windows in response, my neighbor might be broken into.  This escalated to the point where many businesses eventually put fencing topped with barbed wire around their buildings.  Still, although "fort building" was expensive, it was far cheaper than moving. 

Detroit's abysmal educational system did not drive me away either. As it happens, my particular business did not require highly educated people. So I could hire high school graduates not literate enough to fill out an application form.

Via: American Thinker

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American Workers Collecting Federal Disability Hits Another Record High

(CNSNews.com) - The number of American workers collecting federal disability insurance benefits hit yet another record high in October, according to the Social Security Administration.

This month 8,803,335 disabled workers are collecting benefits, up from the previous record of 8,786,049 set in September.

In February 2009, the first full month after President Barack Obama took office, there were 7,469,240 workers collecting federal disability insurance. Thus, so far in Obama’s term, the number of workers collecting disability has increased by 1,334,095. That works out to a net increase of about 29,646 per month (1,334,095 divided by 45 months), or an average increase of about 975 per day (1,334,095 divided by 1,369 days).

During George Bush’s eight years as president, the number of workers collecting federal disability insurance increased by 2,375,258, rising from 5,067,119 in February 2001 to 7,442,377 in January 2009. That equaled an average net increase of about 24,742 per month and 813 per day. In Bush’s second term alone, the number of workers on disability increased by 1,198,575, equaling an average monthly increase of about 24,970 and an average daily increase of about 820.

Via: CNS News

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Claire McCaskill Camp Rocked By Shocking Allegations

Feds paid $40M to firms tied to McCaskill's spouse 

BY DAVID A. LIEB
ASSOCIATED PRESS

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Businesses affiliated with the husband of Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill have received almost $40 million in federal subsidies for low-income housing developments during her first five years in office, though it appears only fraction of that has made it to the family's bank accounts, according to an Associated Press analysis.

McCaskill's Republican challenger, Rep. Todd Akin, says the federal payments should be a cause for concern among voters. He's attempting to portray the Democratic senator's family as a prime beneficiary of government largesse.

"There is a conflict of interest and a breach of trust with the citizens of our state," Akin said in an interview with the AP.

McCaskill campaign spokesman Caitlin Legacki called such assertions "flat-out wrong."

There is no evidence that McCaskill personally routed the money to her husband's businesses. But she voted for some - and against other - bills that funded the federal housing and agriculture departments, which in turn provide subsidies to businesses with federal contracts to provide low-income housing.

The AP reviewed five years' worth of federal personal financial disclosure statements filed by McCaskill, which list more than 300 "affordable housing" businesses in which her husband, Joseph Shepard, had at least a partial ownership during the time she has been in office. At least one-third of those businesses also appear to be listed as recipients of federal payments in an online government database that tracks spending.

VIa: The Miami Herald

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How Public Unions Exploit the Ruse of 'Official Time'

Imagine thousands of government employees reporting to work each morning at their government offices and then doing no government work. They use government workspace, government telephones and government computers, all while working on projects unknown and unidentified to their government employers. They receive hefty taxpayer-funded salaries, promotions, bonuses and benefits, plus generous government pensions when they retire—all without doing any work on behalf of the taxpayer. Instead, they work as paid political operatives for powerful government unions.

Welcome to the common practice of "official time." Sometimes called "release time," it's a mechanism by which the government pays union officials to work on union matters during their government workdays. This mechanism—enshrined in law and contracts—is an enormous subsidy to public-employee unions, who defend it fiercely.

The Office of Personnel Management reports that federal employees spent over three million hours on official time in 2010, costing the taxpayers about $137 million in salary and benefits costs.

At the federal level, about 77% of official time (as reported to the OPM) is spent on "general labor-management," a broad catchall for union activity other than contract negotiations or dispute resolution, which are the activities most directly related to employee representation. But when more than three-quarters of all official time is used for unspecified activities, red flags should be raised.

Via: Wall Street Union

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DeMint joins national effort to keep feds from bailing out state pension systems

Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is getting hit with a nationwide backlash over his suggestion that the federal government bail out the state employees’ pension program

.

Critics have in the past several days pounced on the suggestion, made last year when Quinn, in announcing the state’s fiscal 2012, said part of Illinois' long-term effort to reduce the estimate $167 billion in under-funded liabilities would be to seek “a federal guarantee of the debt.”

Among those leading the charge is Republican Sen. Jim DeMint. The South Carolina senator has joined the Illinois Policy Institute’s national “No Pension Bailout” campaign -- an effort to stop Congress from attempting to rescue failing state and municipal pension plans.

“Our greatest concern is states will assume they can run their pension systems into bankruptcy and then turn to the federal government for bailout,” DeMint said Thursday.

He also suggested the problem is the result of state legislators trying for decades to win over voters through pension promises based “on accounting methods that would put any business in jail.”

The conservative policy group estimates the total amount of under-funded pension liabilities in states is at least $2.5 trillion, with Illinois leading the nation.

The basic plan floated by Quinn would be for the federal government to rescue the pension program through buying the state’s bonds, which critics say are too financially risky to attract investors.  

Quinn said after announcing the budget that seeking the federal guarantee was only a precaution, then later called the related wording a “drafting error,” according the non-partisan Citizens Against Government Waste, which nevertheless gave the governor its September 2012 “Porker of the Month” award.

Via: Fox News

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8,786,049: Yet Another Record for Americans Collecting Disability

One person in sixteen collecting Disability Payments

(CNSNews.com) - The Social Security Administration has releasednew data revealing that 8,786,049 American workers are collecting federal disability insurance payments in September. That sets yet another record for the number of Americans on disability.

The 8,786,049 workers taking federal disability in September is a net increase of 18,108 from the 8,767,941 workers who took federal disability in August.

Over the past 45 years, the number of American workers taking federal disability payments has increased four-fold relative to the number actually working.

In August 1967, 74,767,000 Americans were working (according to theBureau of Labor Statistics) and 1,152,861 were taking federal disability insurance (according to the Social Security Administration). That means that at that time there were about 65 Americans working for each worker collecting disability.

In August 2012, 142,101,000 Americans were working and 8,767,941 were on disability--meaning there were only 16.2 people working for each person collecting disability.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a record 88,921,000 Americans were “not in the labor force” in August. These were Americans who were at least 16 years old, who were not in the military or in an institution such as a prison or a nursing home, and who did not have a job and had not actively sought one in the last four weeks.

Also in August, according to the BLS, only 63.5 percent of the civilian population (those over 16, who were not in the military or in an institution) participated in the labor force. That was the lowest level of labor force participation in 31 years. To participate in the labor force a person must either have a job or at least be actively trying to find one.

Via: CNS News

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Over 100 Million Americans on Federal Welfare

A new chart set to be released later today by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee details a startling statistic: "Over 100 Million People in U.S. Now Receiving Some Form Of Federal Welfare."

"The federal government administers nearly 80 different overlapping federal means-tested welfare programs," the Senate Budget Committee notes. However, the committee states, the figures used in the chart do not include those who are only benefiting from Social Security and/or Medicare. 

Food stamps and Medicaid make up a large--and growing--chunk of the more than 100 million recipients. "Among the major means tested welfare programs, since 2000 Medicaid has increased from 34 million people to 54 million in 2011 and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) from 17 million to 45 million in 2011," says the Senate Budget Committee. "Spending on food stamps alone is projected to reach $800 billion over the next decade."

The data come "from the U.S. Census’s Survey of Income and Program Participation shows that nearly 110,000 million individuals received a welfare benefit in 2011. (These figures do not include other means-tested benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit or the health insurance premium subsidies included in the President’s health care law. CBO estimates that the premium subsidies, scheduled to begin in 2014, will cover at least 25 million individuals by the end of the decade.)"

This is not just Americans, however. "These figures include not only citizens, but non-citizens as well," according to the committee.

Via: The Weekly Standard