EXCLUSIVE: Feds are building a detective squad to target consumers and companies that don't follow Obamacare's rules

Post-Obamacare law hiring at the Department of Health and Human Services included 86 'criminal investigators,' but just two 'consumer safety' officers.

On the day President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010, HHS received authority to make 1,814 new hires. 

The authorization included positions for 50 criminal investigators. The agency increased that number to 86.

 

The agency was also authorized to hire  261 'consumer safety officers.' Only two such employees were hired

More than 1,600 new employees hired by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources in the aftermath of Obamacare's passage include just two described as 'consumer safety' officers, but 86 tasked with 'criminal investigating' – indicating that the agency is building an army of detectives to sleuth out violations of a law that many in Congress who supported it still find confusing.

On the day President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010, HHS received authority from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to make as many as 1,814 new hires under an emergency 'Direct Hiring Authority' order.

The Obama administration ordered that employment expansion despite a government-wide hiring freeze.

A total of 1,684 of those positions were filled. An analysis by MailOnline shows that at 2010 federal government salary rates, the new employees' salaries alone cost the U.S. at least $138.8 million every year.

Had the agency filled all its available jobs, that cost would have been a minimum of $159 million.

The hiring began in May 2010 and continued through June 2013, making the later hires eligible for higher salaries as a result of annual cost-of-living increases. 

The difference between what HHS spent on new Obamacare-related employees and what it was authorized to spend is explained by its failure to hire most of the 261 'consumer safety officers' it was authorized to bring aboard. Only two such employees were hired.

But while OPM authorized HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources Denise Carter -- later renamed Denise Wells -- to hire 50 criminal investigators, the agency increased that number to 86 on its own.

After MailOnline lodged a Freedom Of Information Request with HHS, the agency sent a spreadsheet containing records of the positions it filled, along with the salary level for each one on the government's 'GS' hiring scale.

Via: Mail Online

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Obama campaign blames Congress for school shootings...

Hope and change: Obama’s Organizing for Action drags out Columbine for gun control

Organizing for Action, the Obama-themed organization dedicated to promoting the administration’s agenda, has sent an email to its distribution list exploiting the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre.

The stated purpose of the email is to drum up support in Congress for new federal gun control measures.

“My son, Daniel, was a smart, quiet kid,” the missive signed by Littleton, Colo. resident Tom Mauser begins.

“On April 20th, 1999, my beautiful and bright 15-year-old son was killed by two teenagers with guns in the library of Columbine High School — one of 12 innocent kids who lost their lives for no reason at all.”

The email then goes on to argue that Congress is to blame for Columbine and other school shootings since 1999 because it “has failed to take common-sense action to stop them — even though nine in 10 Americans have agreed that expanding background checks would help close the loopholes that put guns in the hands of dangerous people and prevent future violence.”

The Columbine killers, seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, had formulated a complex plan involving a firefighter-diverting fire bomb, exploding propane bombs in the cafeteria and some 99 other bombs.

Harris and Klebold also had several guns, at least some of which they acquired illegally.

“Today, OFA and allied organizations are standing up for a national Day of Action to ask members of Congress: What will it take to finally act to prevent gun violence?” the Obama email continues.

Via: Daily Caller

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[MUST READ] This Homeland Security Employee Is Preparing for a Coming Race War

A Department of Homeland Security employee who works on, among other things, the procurement of guns and ammunition for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spends his nights and weekends preparing for a coming race war and advocating for anti-gay causes, according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Meet Ayo Kimathi, a.k.a. “the Irritated Genie," who told his bosses at the DHS that his anti-white, anti-gay site, "War is on the Horizon," was just an entertainment site that sells concert and lecture videos. 

You see, DHS employees, even those with office jobs like Kimathi's, have to get outside activities approved by their supervisors, according to the SPLC. Kimathi's former supervisor told the watchdog group, which tracks hate speech and groups in the U.S., that despite her former employee's banal description of his extracurricular activities, the actual content of the site left her "stunned." She continued: “To see the hate, to know that he is a federal employee, it bothered me." She added that had Kimathi's site been accurately described to the agency, there's no way the DHS would have signed off on it. Possibly to keep his bosses from looking up his work, Kimathi used only the site's acronym, WOH, in his permission request. In addition to his involvement in the purchase of ICE supplies, Kimathi also had a public profile for the agency, speaking at vendor events. As "Irritated Genie," Kimathi also has a public profile as a black supremacist advocate. 

Via: The Atlantic Wire

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Teachers Unions and School Boards Must Disconnect

Two powerful entities in public education have very different agendas. The teachers unions’ goal is to derive every benefit possible and to protect every last one of its dues paying members no matter how incompetent they are. School boards are governing bodies that are mandated to be responsive to children and to the values, beliefs and priorities of its community. Together, in most states, the two bodies must join to hammer out a “collective bargaining” agreement that regulates working conditions. (A future post will go into detail about collective bargaining issues.) As former Secretary of EducationRod Paige says, “Organizations can’t serve two gods … They serve one. And in the case of teachers’ unions, it is the interests of their members.” Period.

Stanford professor and education reformer Terry Moe describes the conflict:

School-board elections are supposed to be the democratic means by which ordinary citizens govern their own schools. The board is supposed to represent “the people.” But in many districts it really doesn’t. For with unions so powerful, employee interests are given far more weight in personnel and policy decisions than warranted, and school boards are partially captured by their own employees. Democracy threatens to be little more than a charade, serving less as a mechanism of popular control than as a means by which employees promote their own special interests.

Via: CA Political Review

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Guess the MSNBC Show: Answer to Higher Education Costs, ‘Nationalize Colleges’

Loyal readers of this space will know that the “art of trolling” was long ago perfected by one MSNBC program. That show has developed such an aptitude for advancing provocative notions for their own sake that an earnest, circumspect, and pragmatic segment would be seen as a disingenuous and contrived attempt at unpredictability.

On Thursday, reacting to President Barack Obama’s campaign speech before an audience of college students in which he touched briefly on proposals to control of costs of college amid rhetoric about the accomplishments of his admiration, MSNBC’s Now panel guests were nonplussed.

Not sweeping or extra-constitutional enough, they grieved. The Guardian columnist and Wonkette founder Ana Marie Cox did the network proud when she insisted that the only solution to the bloated costs of America’s college was to create a government monopoly on colleges by nationalizing them. This suggestion inspired groans from her fellow panel guests. Not because it was a bad idea, but such a solution remains politically unrealistic.

Now’s efforts to gratify progressives’ wildest fantasies, the ones they only allow themselves to verbalize in the most forgiving company, is admirable. You have to be impressed with Now‘s unashamed insularity. While the liberal pep talk isn’t what it used to be, it probably does not get any better than this show.

Watch the clip below via MSNBC:

Via: Mediaite.com

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What happens when a conservative journalist runs for Congress

This is what happens when a conservative journalist runs for Congress.

Quin Hillyer, a longtime writer who most recently was an editor at The American Spectator, is running in the special election to fill the Alabama’s open congressional seat left vacant with the resignation of Republican Rep. Jo Bonner.

When asked to sign a pledge on gay marriage from opponent Dean Young, a businessman and former Republican congressional candidate, Hillyer sent Young’s pledge back with several edits.

Those edits included changes in substance. Hillyer disagrees with Young on whether the state’s Republican Executive Committee should expel the college Republican chairwoman for espousing a pro-gay marriage stance.

But Hillyer also played copy editor, gently dinging Young for his phrase, “The tenants of my church oppose gay marriage.”

As Hillyer bolded in his revision sent to reporters, the correct word there would be “tenets.”

Hillyer and Dean are both in a crowded field of Republicans and Democrats running for the seat. The primary is set for Sept. 24.

Hillyer was endorsed by former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, while Young boasts of support from Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, also known as the “Ten Commandments Judge.”

Via: The Daily Caller

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MUST WATCH: Epic Speech Given By a College Sophomore

Becket Adams
Georgia Tech sophomore Nick Selby on Sunday delivered quite possibly the craziest and most impassioned “welcome back” pep talk in the history of ever. And if it doesn’t excite or inspire you, you made need to check your pulse and make sure you’re breathing.

“Georgia Tech is proud of its many traditions,” Selby said during his 2013 Freshman Convocation address, “but the one I find most exciting is our tradition of excellence.”

Via: Fox News

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Federal government plans to sue Texas over voter ID law, intervene in redistricting case

The Department of Justice announced today that it plans to sue Texas over its voter ID law and will intervene in the ongoing case over the state’s redistricting laws.

“Today’s action marks another step forward in the Justice Department’s continuing effort to protect the voting rights of all eligible Americans,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a written release. “The Department will take action against jurisdictions that attempt to hinder access to the ballot box, no matter where it occurs.”

It’s the second time this summer that the federal government has singled out Texas in a lawsuit seeking to protect voter rights.

The suits follow a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that found that requiring some states, including Texas, to get federal clearance before making changes to existing voting rules was unconstitutional because it relies on outdated data.

The court left it up to Congress to decide which states should be subject to pre-emptive scrutiny.

After that ruling, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the voter ID law would immediately go into effect. The feds countered the following month with a suit that sought to force the state to continue clearing any changes to voting laws (on the grounds that Texas continues to discriminate against voters).

This month, Dallas County commissioners narrowly agreed to join a lawsuit against Gov. Rick Perry over his intentions to implement the law requiring voters to show ID at the polls.

Via: Dallas Morning News

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Morning Bell: When You Can’t Actually Keep Your Health Care Plan

President Obama has said that his health care law largely doesn’t impact anyone who already has coverage. Tell that to all the people who are being dropped from their health plans.

UPS made a news splash yesterday when it announced it is dropping coverage for spouses of employees if they are offered coverage through their own employers. The delivery company expects to remove 15,000 working spouses from its health coverage next year, saving the company about $60 million a year.

And UPS isn’t the only one. Dropping spousal coverage has become a trend among employers due to continually rising health care costs. Obamacare’s wide variety of benefit and coverage mandates combined with new fees, taxes, and penalties of course all increase the cost of coverage, intensifying the trend. The University of Virginia made a similar announcement yesterday.

According to a new survey by consultants Towers Watson, in 2013, 4 percent of surveyed employers excluded working spouses from coverage and another 8 percent plan to do so in 2014.

Via: The Foundry

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