Americans Get Poorer And Congress Gets Richer: Don’t Beg Them For Crumbs!

By Bob Allen, Political Outcast, January 11, 2014

So… a record number of Americans are out of work… take home income is plummeting, and when you factor in inflation, the average American’s buying-power is even weaker…

From USAToday:

In a week dominated by politicians’ talk about income inequality, a new tally shows that most members of Congress are millionaires.

Of 534 current lawmakers on Capitol Hill, at least 268 had an median net worth of $1 million or more in 2012, the analysis by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics found. That’s up from 257 members — or about 48% of lawmakers — in 2011 and marks the first time that a majority of politicians on Capitol Hill were in the millionaire’s club.

The richest lawmaker: Rep, Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who oversees the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and made a fortune in his car- alarms business. The center calculates his average net worth at $464 million.

Senators generally are better off than House members, with an average net worth of $2.7 million in the Senate compared with $896,000 in the House.

It’s impossible to know exactly how much money lawmakers have. They are required to report their assets in broad ranges only.

Read more.

Issa: FBI impeding inquiry into IRS targeting of conservative groups

The House’s chief investigator says the FBI is stonewalling his inquiry into whether the agency and the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative group True the Vote for special scrutiny, and Rep. Darrell E. Issa is now threatening subpoenas to pry loose the information from FBI Director James B. Comey Jr. 

Mr. Issa, California Republican, and Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, are leading the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s IRS inquiry. They also said the FBI is refusing to turn over any documents related to its own investigation into the IRS, which began in the days after an auditor’s report revealed the tax agency had improperly targeted tea party groups for special scrutiny.

Six months after it began, the FBI’s investigation has resulted in no release of information. The congressmen said the FBI even rescinded an offer for an in-person briefing with the assistant director in charge of the investigation. The reversal, after the FBI consulted with the Justice Department, suggests political meddling, the two investigators said.

READ MORE:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/2/lawmakers-suspect-fbi-is-impeding-irs-inquiry-targ/#ixzz2mQ3N32zJ

Monday, April 16, 2012: Today In Washington

THE SENATE: Convenes at 2 and at 5:30 will rebuff legislation to implement Obama’s “Buffett rule” — by creating a new alternative minimum income tax of 30 percent for about 210,000 people making at least $2 million annually, while phasing in the higher rate for those earning at least $1 million.

Sixty votes will be required to keep the measure alive, and there’s almost no chance the majority will be within five of that. (A pure 53-47 party-line result is the likeliest.) As will be the case on so many Senate votes over the next six months, the roll call is more about making a campaign ad than making a law, and the only suspense is whether any of the senators most vulnerable to defeat this fall — Claire McCaskill, Jon Tester and Bill Nelson among the Democrats, and Dean Heller and Scott Brown among the Republicans — go against the party line.

Senators also will confirm Stephanie Thacker, a former prosecutor who’s now partner at a firm in Charleston, W.Va., as a judge on the Fourth Circuit. She’ll be only the second new federal appellate judge seated this year; five other circuit court picks are awaiting floor votes.

THE HOUSE: Convenes at 2 and will be done no later than 6:30, after passing separate measures honoring Raoul Wallenberg, Lena Horne, Jack Nicklaus and Mark Twain.

THE WHITE HOUSE: Obama, who got back home from the Summit of the Americas in Colombia after midnight, has nothing on his public schedule.

His re-election campaign, meanwhile, announced this morning that he’d raised a combined $53 million for his own bid, the Democratic Party and other campaign funds in March — bringing his total haul this cycle to nearly $350 million.

Mitt Romney hasn’t reported his March numbers yet, but through February had raised $75 million for his campaign. (He only started raising money jointly with the Republican National Committee a few weeks ago.) The all-but-official GOP nominee began March with $7.2 million in the bank; the president’s cash on hand at the same time was $85 million.

LINE ’EM UP: With essentially no sustained and meaningful legislating in the offing during the two weeks before the next recess, Congress will while away the time with the sort of oversight efforts that make terrific television (and pretty good campaign rhetoric) but do almost nothing to shape public policy or limit governmental waste and federal employee misbehavior.


The opportunities for sound-bite mischief-making were presented on a pair of silver platters by two federal agencies — one that hardly anybody outside the Beltway knows about (the General Services Administration) and one that’s more fabled in pop culture than any other (the Secret Service). The story that broke two weeks ago about the lavish Las Vegas conference held by the GSA two years ago will be fodder for no fewer than four hearings in the next three days — starting at 1:30 in House Oversight and Government Reform, where Chairman Darrell Issa is sure to have a highly covered field day lambasting the you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up excesses that GSA bureaucrats even took the time to put on film. (The organizer of the conference, Jeff Neely, will invoke the Fifth Amendment when he testifies.) House Transportation’s John Mica will take his own shots tomorrow, while a pair of Senate Democratic chairmen, Barbara Boxer and Dick Durbin, will wait until Wednesday to chime in on the GSA’s $800,000 boondoggle. And by the end of the day, it’s a sure bet that Issa, House Homeland Security Chairman Pete King and probably a couple of Senate chairmen will announce hearings as well into the revelations this weekend that Secret Service agents hired prostitutes after finishing their advance work obligations for the Cartagena summit.

But it’s tough to predict that anything substantive will come from such hearings. Issa and the Republicans will work hard to tie both the bureaucrats’ and agents’ misbehavior to one of their favorite narratives — which is that Obama and the Democrats are all to willing to turn a blind eye to governmental waste and abuse. But the Democrats will be ready with a worthy rebuttal, which is that the people and their misdeeds are about as apolitical as it gets in the government, and that such patterns of misbehavior cannot readily be linked to this president’s policies. In fact, it’s a reasonable assumption that the same sort of advantage-taking went on long before Obama took office, including during the eight years of his GOP predecessor. (In fact, GSA spending on conferences looks to have increased steadily during the George W. Bush years.)

The best possible outcome, then, is that both parties agree that there’s a longstanding and trans-administration pattern of loose spending on professional development events and “conferences” at all manner of agencies — and that, similarly, maybe some lax oversight by both sides has allowed the Secret Service to take a little too much advantage of its rock-ribbed reputation for probity. But even a congressional agreement on that much, and a shared Republican and Democratic decision to do a little wing-clipping, is probably too much to expect at this year’s Capitol.


QUOTES OF NOTE: “I’m going to probably eliminate for high-income people the second-home mortgage deduction” while pushing to close HUD and dramatically shrink the Education Department, Mitt Romney told donors at a Palm Beach fundraiser last night — his uncharacteristically specific ideas broadcast so they could be heard by reporters on a nearby beach. Ann Romney, who turns 63 today, characterized last week’s “never worked a day in her life” comments from Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen this way: “It was my early birthday present from someone to be critical of me as a mother, and that was really a defining moment, and I loved it.”


David Hawkings

dailybriefing@cqrollcall.com

Issa: Obama Drafts Executive Order to Bypass Congress, Exempts Unions

Recently immediately after Congressman Darrell Issa finished giving a speech from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, I caught up with him for his most recent comments on the investigation into the ATF gunwalking scandal known as Projects “Fast and Furious” and “Gun Runner.”


The California Congressman, as many of you know, is Chairman of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is investigating the DOJ’s role in the selling of assault weapons to known drug cartel members. Below is an excerpt from the interview.

CONTINUED:    http://biggovernment.com/ramato/2011/05/16/issa-obama-drafts-executive-order-to-bypass-congress-exempts-unions/

Public Outrage Over Obama's Project Gunrunner Scandal Grows

April 7, 2011

CONTACT: Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC)
(866) 703-0864 Press@alipac.us

As the Obama administration continues to stonewall congressional inquiries regarding orders issued to ATF agents to allow the arming of drug and illegal alien importing paramilitary groups, the level of public concern and alarm is growing.

"We need to know how many assault rifles are currently pointed at American citizens courtesy of the Obama administration's assistance to these domestic terrorist groups," said William Gheen, President of ALIPAC. "How many thousands of illegal alien smuggling invaders are now armed thanks to these orders from the top?"

The scandal known as Project Gunrunner continues to sweep the nation, creating a groundswell of concern from American citizens of all races, political parties, and walks of life.

The Project Gunrunner, also called Fast and Furious, will likely become as big of a scandal as Watergate and Iran Contra!

The ATF, Justice Department, Secretary of State Offices, and White House are all refusing to answer questions or provide documents to members of Congress who are demanding more information.

According to the Washington Times, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has issued a subpoena for the ATF to turn over documents concerning “Project Gunrunner,” and records the agency has on the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

“The unwillingness of this administration, most specifically the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, to answer questions about this deadly serious matter is deeply troubling,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican. “Allegations surrounding this program are serious, and the ability of the Justice Department to conduct an impartial investigation is in question."

Talk radio shows across America are buzzing with the news that the Obama administration has been caught arming paramilitary rebels who are importing illegal aliens and drugs into America. This news is especially alarming considering President Obama's refusal to secure the borders, adequately enforce existing immigration laws, or to honor his oath of office which requires him to enforce these laws and protect all states from invasion as the US Constitution demands.

"What we have here is a well organized and destructive invasion of America that is being fully supported from the highest office in our land," said William Gheen. "Americans have been betrayed at the top, first by Bush and now by Obama. Our enemies walk freely among us carrying elite armaments they have received with help from the Executive Branch. We have been betrayed! This is Treason! Congress must act!"

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC continues to call for US Citizens to call and write all members of Congress demanding full congressional investigations into this matter, including appropriate prosecutions and possible treason charges. Citizens are asked to give special attention to calling and writing Speaker John Boehner (202-225-0600) and his right hand man Representative Eric Cantor (202-225-2815)

For more information about ALIPAC, and the fight against the illegal immigration invasion of America, please visit http://www.alipac.us/

DISCUSS THIS NATIONAL PRESS RELEASE WITH OUR ONLINE ACTIVISTS AT...
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-1209322.html#1209322

Reps. Issa and Walsh Introduce Constitutional Protection Act to End ObamaCare Spending Until Constitutional Challenges are Resolved

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (OGR), and Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), a member of the OGR Subcommittee on Health Care, today announced the introduction of the Constitutional Protection Act – legislation that will delay the regulatory and administrative implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act until federal court challenges to its Constitutionality are resolved.


READ MORE:  http://randysright.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/reps-issa-and-walsh-introduce-constitutional-protection-act-to-end-obamacare-spending-until-constitutional-challenges-are-resolved/

Report: Obama used tax money for 'propaganda'

Report: Obama used tax money for 'propaganda'

Congressman says GAO needs to investigate 'pro-stimulus cheerleading'

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has called for a Government Accountability Office investigation into the legality of the Obama administration's use of taxpayer funds to conduct "a propaganda effort" to promote the president's partisan political agenda.  Read more @

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=192613

President charged with illegally using taxpayer money to manipulate public

Scathing Congress report slams Obama's 'covert, criminal activity'




President charged with illegally using taxpayer money to manipulate public

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted: August 16, 2010
12:01 am Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued a scathing staff report today charging that the White House has "used the machinery of the Obama campaign to tout the president's agenda through inappropriate and sometimes unlawful public relations and propaganda initiatives."

An advance pre-publication copy of the report, shared by Issa's Washington office with WND, accuses the White House of nothing short of criminal activity. It charges the Obama administration with violating federal laws to advance what the Government Accounting Office has characterized as an unlawful "covert campaign," using federal resources "to activate a sophisticated propaganda and lobbying campaign."

Pulling no punches, the Oversight Republican Report accuses the Obama White House of "violating federal law prohibiting the use of appropriated funds for publicity or propaganda purposes."

"The White house has failed to transition from campaign mode to leadership mode and is now inappropriately leveraging those campaign-trail relationships to unlawfully generate support for the president's agenda," the report concludes.

Read in its entirety, the Oversight Republican Report charges the Obama administration with the type of callous, unethical and possibly criminal manipulation of public opinion that is reminiscent of Watergate and the illegal campaign activities engineered by Donald Segretti on behalf of the Committee to Re-Elect the President during Richard Nixon's presidential election campaign of 1972.

In 1974, Donald Segretti pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of distributing illegal campaign materials, for which he served in federal prison four months of a six-month term.

The Obama administration's abuses alleged in the Oversight Republican Report can be summed up under the term "astro-turfing," a fraudulent public relations activity in which "the White House and the agency whose resources it is co-opting attempt to create the impression that grassroots support for a particular policy exists when in fact it has been fabricated using taxpayer dollars."

The report points to several instances of alleged, unlawful abuses:

The National Endowment for the Arts

On Aug. 6, 2009, on behalf of the White House Office of Public Engagement, NEA Director Yosi Sergent invited a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, marketers and other influencers of the arts to participate in a conference call designed to encourage involvement in President Obama's United We Serve program.

Nell Abernathy, director of outreach for United We Serve and Buffy Wicks, deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, identified the goal of the NEA program was to recruit artists to create art to support the president's agenda "with the same enthusiasm and with the same energy that we all saw in each other during the campaign."

The Oversight Republican Report, however, contends the initiative was illegal.

"The use of taxpayer dollars and federal employees to create an alliance whereby the NEA becomes the de facto strategic communications arm of the White House is unlawful," the report alleges. "Using a government e-mail account and government personnel and resources to host a call using artists and arts group to support the president's agenda is a clear violation of federal law."

The report stresses that it was inappropriate for representatives of the White House and the NEA to formally ask artists and entertainers to use their talents to support the president's agenda "because many of these people rely on NEA grants to subsidize their livelihoods."

The Department of Justice

In October 2008, the Justice Department's Office of Public Affairs added Tracy Russo, the chief blogger and deputy director for online communications for Sen. John Edwards' presidential campaign, to direct the Department's "new media efforts."

The Oversight Republican Report documents that Russo covertly attempted to shape public opinion by posting comments on the Internet anonymously, or through the use of a pseudonym, attacking authors or contents viewed as critical of the president, in an effort to shape debate online.

The report concludes, "The deployment of Justice Department resources to generate clandestine comments on message boards and blogs is a highly improper use of the Department's resources."

The report cites GAO rulings stating that covert propaganda violates Title 5 U.S.C. Section 3107 of federal law, which prohibits the use of publicity experts unless specifically appropriated for that purpose.

Office of Education

The Oversight Republican Report details that beginning on the morning of April 24, 2009, U.S. Department of Education Deputy Assistant Secretary for External Affairs and Outreach Massie Ritsch launched an e-mail campaign in coordination with the White House to promote President Obama's plan to begin a federal takeover of student loans.

The report again charges criminal abuses: "The intent of the e-mail is clearly to create grassroots support for the president's education agenda by inappropriately leveraging Ritsch's position as a Department of Education employee. Because it was drafted or intended to influence members of Congress while they consider the president's federal student loan plan, it is unlawful."

Federal workforce

The Oversight Republican Report charges that in March 2010, White House Office for Health Reform Director Nancy-Ann DeParle sent "overtly partisan, unsolicited health-reform e-mails to career civil servants in executive branch offices, suggesting to recipients that they were being officially instructed by the White House to support the president's health-care reform proposals."

Again, the report charges the Obama White House with illegal activity: "Criminal statutes prohibit executive branch officials from using appropriated funds to influence the legislative process. Title 18 of the United States Code, section 1913, prohibits federal employees from engaging in the very activities DeParle urges."

Department of Health and Human Resources

The Oversight Republican Report charges that the Department of Health and Human Resources contracted with Jonathan Gruber, a health-care economist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to provide "technical assistance" to support President Obama's health care reform proposals.

For this, Gruber was paid $297,600, plus another $95,000 for a second HHS job.

The Obama administration then relied upon and distributed Gruber's commentary and views to publications including Time, The Washington Post, the New York Times and the New Republic without revealing that Gruber was a paid HHS consultant.

"Using HHS appropriations to contract a highly visible health-care expert to advocate on behalf of administration policies under the guise of providing 'technical assistance' is inappropriate," the Oversight Republican Report concludes, while further alleging that the administration's failure to disclose Gruber's status while touting his work violates GAO's policy prohibiting covert propaganda.

Other abuses

Among the additional abuses, the Oversight Republican Report cites a cable television ad featuring 84-year-old Andy Griffith promoting Medicare and the Obama administration's health-care reform bill.

The Department of Health and Human Services paid $700,000 to make the cable television ad buy, and the report alleges the commercial – run in July 2010 – gave the appearance that it was "designed to affect general elections by convincing seniors to support one of the Democrat's major legislative initiatives."

The report further charges the White House of posting "fictitious and misleading" information about jobs "saved and created" on the White House-maintained website Recovery.gov.

Also criticized are signs the Federal Highway Administration has encouraged the states to post, announcing that new federal highway projects were being funded by stimulus dollars.

David Axelrod
Axelrod and astro-turfing

The practice of using covert propaganda to push political opinion is familiar to at least one administration official, Obama Senior Advisor David Axelrod.

Prior to joining then-Sen. Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, Axelrod was a partner in AKP&D Message & Media, a Chicago-based media and public relations firm that listed among its corporate clients Cablevision and AT&T.

According to a Business Week report published in 2008, AKP&D set up front organizations for corporations that wanted to run public issue ads without having the ads identified as having been paid for by the corporations.

Business Week cited as an example a television commercial Axelrod's firm created for Commonwealth Edison, the largest electric utility in Illinois. The ad warned a ComEd bankruptcy and blackouts could occur unless a rate hike was approved. The ad was sponsored by CORE, which described itself as "a coalition of individuals, businesses and organizations."

After a complaint was filed with state regulators, ComEd was forced to admit it had bankrolled the entire $15-million effort.