Food stamp fraud increasingly sophisticated despite reports of drop in cases
By Doug McKelway
FoxNews.com
Despite several recent, well-documented cases of food stamp fraud -- including a couple in Washington State living in a $1.2 million home, 30,000 college students on the food stamp rolls in Michigan and Wisconsin beneficiaries selling their cards on Facebook -- an inspector from the U.S. Department of Agriculture told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday that food stamp fraud is decreasing.
When pressed about the trend by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Kevin Concannon, undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture said that fraud cases have dropped to an all time low record of less than 1 percent.
"It's one of the best records among federal programs," he said
What else he he going to say?  He gets two monster federal paychecks and his boss is up for re-election.
Even so, food stamp fraud has gotten more sophisticated, moving away from the simple petty crimes of coupon days, when recipients would trade coupons for cash in grocery store parking lots, to more elaborate schemes designed to swap easily traceable swipe cards for unauthorized goods.
Witnesses told the committee that food stamp fraud tends to proliferate, not in chain grocery stores, but in mom-and-pop stores. Statistics show, they said, that the more liquor and cigarettes sold, the greater the likelihood of food stamp fraud. Even when the fraud is investigated and stores are shut down - they're often re-opened by family, friends or the same person using a fraudulent application.
Even so, tougher enforcement in some impoverished areas presents its own problem.
"Do you really want to shut down the only source of groceries in a neighborhood? I think you ought to be very careful about that," says Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute, who's written extensively about food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
I love that bizarro world reasoning every time I see it. 'Yes, it's true that he is robbing banks and terrorizing people but he uses the money to help feed all his illegitimate children, so it's ok! 
'Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program'. Love the name, and garbagemen are 'Sanitation Engineers'.

Where's the liberal outrage?

In interview, Obama says he's not bluffing on Iran
By MARK S. SMITHWASHINGTON (AP) -
President Barack Obama says he means it when he insists it's unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. "I don't bluff," Obama said in an interview published Friday.
In his most expansive remarks on the issue, Obama told The Atlantic magazine that Iran and Israel both understand that "a military component" is one of a mix of many options for dealing with Iran, along with sanctions and diplomacy.
Obama plans to meet Monday at the White House with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and will try to convince Netanyahu to postpone any plans his government may have to attack Iran's nuclear facilities in coming months.
The president said he won't advertise any U.S. plans for Iran. At the same time, Obama has consistently refused to renounce a military option for U.S. strategists.
Didn't he get elected by promising to end wars? Where are all those liberal protesters?
Osama's people are aware that no US President has lost an election while conducting a war. They need one. That little conflict in Afghanistan doesn't have enough star power. 

Yes!

There are already a number of programs, both state and federal, taking money out of our pockets to assist the homeless and others. Most of that money does not go where it was intended, why would you want to give politicians more money to abuse?

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/02/kalamazoo_county_board_of_comm_5.html

Rare

Should Threats Against Legislators Have Stricter Penalties?

Some wonder why Legislators lives deemed more worthy than the lives of everyone else

http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/16483

This is one of the rare times I disagree with the Mackinac Center.
I agree with treating elected and appointed officials differently when it comes to threats and such. They obviously have more attention focused on a relatively small group which makes them more visible and attractive to nut-cases than the average guy on the street.  

Outstanding

Michigan governor signs bill aimed at capping health care costs for local governments, schools

ASSOCIATED PRESS
LANSING -- Many local government and public school employees in Michigan will be required to pay more toward their health insurance under a new law signed by Gov. Rick Snyder.
The legislation, which covers medical benefit plans starting Jan. 1, limits the amount of money a public employer can pay toward workers' health coverage, likely saving taxpayer money but raising costs for some workers. The caps for employers range from $5,500 for a single employee to $15,000 for a family.
Local governments and schools could opt to pay no more than 80 percent of the annual cost of medical benefits instead of a hard cap. That would leave employees on the hook for at least 20 percent of their coverage costs.
Elected officials including state lawmakers are covered by the new law, but many state employees and public university workers won't be affected by the plan unless the state constitution also is changed.
The Snyder administration cited a 2009 survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics saying that private sector employees in Michigan are responsible on average for more than 20 percent of their medical benefit costs. The Snyder administration said public employees cover an average of 10 percent to 15 percent, depending on whether the coverage is for individuals or families.
The Republican-led Legislature passed the final version of the legislation last month despite opposition from some public employee unions that consider the measure an attack on collective bargaining rights. Labor groups said the negotiation of health benefits should be left to the contract bargaining process.
If the law is inconsistent with the terms of an existing union contract, the law's requirements would not take effect until the contract expires, changes or is renewed. A local government could opt out of the plan in a given year with a two-thirds vote of its governing body.
The state's largest teachers union, the Michigan Education Association, has said "the real losers in the debate continue to be the employees who just got a greater burden of health care costs shifted onto their backs."

I don't know how I missed this when it passed last September, but this is huge. Snyder just jumped back up a few notches on my popularity poll. 

Slimeball

SEIU Sent Key GOP Senator $5K
on Day Bill to End 'Forced Unionization' Arrived in Senate

Home health care unionization continues to this day

By Jack Spencer | Feb. 6, 2012

Michigan Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Roger Khan, R-Saginaw, received $5,000 from the Service Employees International Union on June, 9, 2011. That was the day House Bill 4003 was sent to the Senate, one day after its passage in the House.

HB 4003 was drafted to end the Home Healthcare Dues Skim, under which the SEIU has received more than $28 million. These taxpayer dollars were, and continue to be, taken from home health care worker checks and given to the SEIU as union dues.
According to multiple sources, Sen. Kahn was put in charge of HB 4003 after it was sent to the Senate floor in late 2011. Delaying passage of HB 4003 in the Senate keeps the dues flowing to the SEIU.
This dues flow amounts to roughly $6 million annually, which the SEIU could use for political purposes
“It is unfortunate that both Mr. Kahn and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, have mistaken their term limits for integrity limits,” said John Daniele of the Metro Detroit Freedom Coalition. “We sincerely hope that they are able to remember that the reason they were elected to their positions included acting to protect the taxpayers of Michigan from funding leftist agendas aimed at destroying American values.”
Tom Stump of the Saginaw Tea Party pointed out that money seems to play a central role in the overall relationship between Senate Republicans and the SEIU
“Since 2006 SEIU has been gifted $28 million, most of which was from struggling families caring for a loved one. This is an excellent return on the few contributions, such as Kahn’s,” Stump said. “As one who has supported Republicans, I have to wonder why I or other conservatives would be on the same donors list as Obama’s shock troops. The Senate’s continued silence will come at a cost.”
Based on information available on the Michigan Secretary of State website, the $5,000 that the SEIU sent to Sen. Kahn was in the form of an in-kind campaign contribution.
About 43,000 home health care workers were unionized in 2006 under former Gov. Jennifer Granholm in a process hidden from the news media, the Legislature, the public and probably 80 percent the workers themselves. More recent statistics show that the number of workers now involved is closer to 60,000.
This process was a forced unionization. A dummy employer, the Michigan Quality Community Care Council, was used to facilitate an unpublicized statewide unionization election, in which less than 20 percent of those involved returned ballots.
Last spring the Legislature de-funded MQC3, but emails show that Kahn worked behind the scenes over the summer to keep the forced unionization structure intact, which, in turn, keep the deductions flowing to SEIU. Those emails were obtained by Mackinac Center for Public Policy through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Sen. Kahn's office did not respond to requests for comment.
This piece of dirt needs to be thrown out of office and arrested for taking bribes.

Snyder Sucks

Corporate Welfare to Increase $20M

Feb. 10, 2012

Corporate welfare, business subsidies and other handouts will increase $20 million, to $195 million, in Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed 2013 budget, according to MLive.com, causing concern for one Mackinac Center analyst.
“I hope that the governor doesn’t scale these programs up year after year as we’ve seen happen in the past two administrations,” Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, told MLive.com.
Funding for movie subsidies and the Pure Michigan tourism campaign that benefits an industry which refuses to help fund the service will remain at $25 million each, MLive.com reported.

I would like to see the details on the 'corporate welfare' charge because if we are talking about lowering tax burdens on businesses, I don't necessarily consider that 'welfare'. However, allowing that movie subsidy to survive is ridiculous. Snyder continues to show me he is a coward when it comes fighting liberal causes.