Quote: Cincinnatus wrote in post #1

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Your tax dollars at work.

"Dozens of employees working for an obscure federal agency went years with little work to do, allowing them to collect salaries and bonuses while they shopped online, caught up on chores, watched television or walked the dog, an investigation revealed Tuesday.

The probe by the Commerce Department’s inspector general found that paralegals at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s appeals board were paid more than $5 million for their time even though there was so little work for them to do that supervisors didn’t care how they used it.

“I almost don’t blame [paralegals] for watching TV because, I mean, you’re sitting around for 800 hours,” one chief judge told the investigators, who found that supervisors not only tolerated the problem but in one instance admonished an employee who complained about the lack of work.

The idle paralegals nonetheless managed to take home more than a half-million dollars in performance bonuses from 2009 to 2013, before the agency hired enough judges to increase the workload, according to the report.

The underworked paralegals and supervisors concealed non-work activities by recording hours under the pay code as “other time.”

One official told investigators it was an open secret that “other time” was code for “I don’t have to work, but I’m going to get paid.”

Investigators said the practice continued until last year when agency officials got word that the inspector general's office was looking into complaints from whistleblowers.

Todd Elmer, chief communications officer for the Patent and Trademark Office, said the agency is reviewing the report and plans to issue a formal response within 60 days.

“Many of the OIG’s recommendations for improvements at the PTAB are already underway or have been implemented,” Mr. Elmer said in an email statement.

He said the agency conducted its own study after it was informed of the problem.

Asked why they had logged so much “other time,” paralegals and their supervisors blamed a lack of work. One paralegal told a supervisor that she didn’t have any work, but the supervisor didn’t seem bothered.

“There is not much work and I know there is not much work, and you can stop calling me every day and telling me you have nothing to do because I know you have nothing to do,” the paralegal recalled being told.

Still, the paralegals received such high performance ratings that supervisors doled out generous bonuses.

One senior manager recalled a meeting in which managers stated “although we’re not obligated to provide bonuses, we’re still going to.”

The review released Tuesday also found that some managers were fearful of antagonizing labor union officials, so efforts to assign “special projects” to the paralegals were “feeble, half-hearted and ineffective.”

From 2009 through 2013, the agency spent more than $4.3 million overall to reimburse “other time,” and many of those paralegals took home nearly $700,000 in bonuses."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014.../#ixzz39uPkkpuX [emphasis added]

This is but the tip of the iceberg, I suspect. Recall the bonuses the VA awarded itself for just showing up (assuming they did show up)? This is really one of the most frustrating and anger inducing aspects of federal spending and taxation. Nobody in government, and I mean nobody, seems to give a flip as to whether the money is wisely spent, or is even needed. It is Congress' responsibility to provide oversight but few if any really care. Personally I am sick of it.

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It is just the tip.

Here are a few more:

Anchor babies, illegals, new immigrants, and their respective extended families cost taxpayers NET Hundreds of Billions per year. Depending upon whose count of illegals one uses that was the total NET cost is between $ 113 Billion and $1/3 trillion NET per year. Study July, 2010

Low wage immigrant households cost tax payers NET ~$ 20,000 Net per household).
At 4,550,000 [households] x $19,588 [net deficit per household] = $ 89,125,400,000 in 2004 i.e. ~$ 90 Billion. 2007 Study.

Blatant fraud in Medicare and Medicaid costs $ 900 Billion per year. IBM's offer to fix for free was turned down. Blatant fraud includes unscrupulous doctors billing for over 24 hours per day of procedures, phony companies invoicing for phantom services, pharmacists filling prescriptions for dead patients, home health-care companies demanding payment for treating clients actually in the hospital, routine double billing. 2010

UN budget 300 -500 million annually.

$ 4.2 Billion in tax credits for illegals from the IRS through ACTC {Additional Child Tax Credit} 2011

The entire Department of Education ($ 71,333,000,000) 2006
The entire Department of Housing and Urban Development ($ 46,277,000,000) 2006
International Assistance Programs ($ 25,502,000,000) 2006
The entire Department of Energy ($ 34,215,000,000) 2006

Paying college tuition for students from China ($ 8 Billion per year) 2005

Fixing up ramshackle Mexican trucks that will put Americans out of work. Funding through the EPA

Sponsoring green technology overseas. Funded through the EPA.

Paying for post doctoral degrees for Indian scientists. Funding through the CDC.

Unknown $$$ on job fairs for illegals funded by DHS.

Over $ 100 Million for environmental program in like China, Thailand and Indonesia .Funding by the EPA.

Unknown $$$ Setting up at least 7 CDC labs overseas. Funded by the CDC.

Nation building / aka setting up the Moslem Brotherhood, al-Quaeda, ISIS in Libya, Egypt, Syria.