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posted by janrinok on Friday September 06 2019, @09:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the how-your-tax-dollars-are-spent dept.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), chairman of the Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management (FSO) Subcommittee for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), continued his efforts to reform the big-spending status quo with the release of a Summer 2019 edition of The Waste Report.

Once again, Dr. Paul's Waste Report turns the spotlight on just some of the ways the federal government spends the American people's hard-earned money, with this edition including stories of building up Tunisia's political system and the Pakistani film industry, supporting "green growth" in Peru, teaching English and IT skills at madrassas, studying frog mating calls, making improper payments, and more.

https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/dr-rand-paul-releases-summer-2019-edition-%E2%80%98-waste-report%E2%80%99

The biggest seem to be:

Converted an abandoned mental hospital into DHS HQ (GSA and DHS) .......... $2,120,040,355.35
Paid out billions from Medicare in improper payments (CMS) ....................... $48,000,000,000

[Editor's Comment: The full 15-page report is found in a Scribd display on the given link.]


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday September 07 2019, @03:18PM (3 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday September 07 2019, @03:18PM (#890989) Journal

    Third party is dead for now.

    Donald Trump showed that you can muscle into a major party and win despite major resistance from the party insiders. There was even resistance after he won the nomination and calls for him to drop out following scandals that would have obliterated other candidates.

    Bernie Sanders didn't win the nomination, but performed much better than expected for someone who has the appearance and temperament of a "crazy old SOCIALIST man" (it doesn't matter how socialist/capitalist he actually is, only the label matters). He was not the annointed one, he was opposed by party insiders, and he received less media coverage, but he still performed well. Sanders has been able to influence the party platform leftward even after his loss and later HRC's loss.

    It's likely that some third party candidates will go viral and become successful in future elections, cutting through traditional media blackouts on fringe candidates. But it looks much easier to parasitize one of the two major parties and utilize its resources to spread your message. That's exactly why Libertarians should run as Republicans (or Democrats, if they think they can get away with it).

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 07 2019, @04:11PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 07 2019, @04:11PM (#890998)

    I don't think the democrat party is in any way affected by Sanders' run in 2016. The party stands for retaining the status quo in the nation's ghettos and at the border to retain an uncritical voter pool. What's left about them? When have they last cared about US jobs and tried to get people out of poverty?
    Their public appearance since Trump's win has been pure theatrics. Congress is powerless, so they let a menagerie of clowns talk wild shit as if there were a serious opposition to the inner party represented by Pelosi. Next year it will be apparent quickly who the party chooses to field for president: Establishment people like Biden, or Pocahontas if Biden is untenable by then.
    Both parties were internally weakened in 2016. Trump ploughed through to the nomination with his money and shamelessness. Sanders had a chance, but failed to counter the establishment control of the lumpen proletariat.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 07 2019, @06:09PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 07 2019, @06:09PM (#891043)

    When you say "would have obliterated" you basically mean that his enablers in the Republican party chose not to make a fuss and lower their standards instead. So this is what the Republican party stands for now - and Trump is bringing them even lower. Family members in key positions? Directing tax money to his private business? Coarseness at every level of discussion? Hanging with dictators? Literally faking weather reports - he doesn't even have to pretend, you guys will just go down another notch.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday September 07 2019, @09:14PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday September 07 2019, @09:14PM (#891084) Journal

      "would have obliterated" refers to the conventional wisdom (among the media and many others) that the various scandals/gaffes and resulting media firestorms would necessarily force the candidate to quit the primary or even give up being the nominee. Trump's "I like people who weren't captured" line was one of those early moments. The release of the Hollywood Access tape was late in the campaign, causing some Republicans to withdraw support and sending the morale of the Trump campaign into the gutter. The fact that enablers continued to support Trump doesn't mean that they thought he would win.

      There was serious resistance to Trump during and after the primaries, but also an expectation that he would lose to Clinton. According to some, Trump and his crew didn't even expect to win and Trump was angling for a television network and other business deals following his loss. That didn't happen, Trump became the most powerful human being on the planet, and Republicans eventually fell in line.

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