Legacy of Turpitude

Dick Baynton
Dick Baynton

You may not have noticed but the President’s last State of the Union Address (SOTU) on January 12 was not really a presentation of the ‘state of the union’ but one person’s vision of personal achievement.

You may have noticed that no mention was made of the national debt that has reached unsustainable heights. Increased healthcare costs were not discussed. We didn’t hear about student loan debt that has surpassed credit card and auto debt.

National debt is on the verge of tipping over $19 trillion. The budget deficit amounts to $445 billion although the President in his speech bragged about how much was accomplished while cutting deficits by ¾.

Not sure what he meant there, but deception would be one plausible answer. When Mr. Obama leaves office, entitlement commitments will detonate a fiscal implosion to be dealt with by the next administration.  The President mentioned the millions that now have healthcare insurance, not explaining that is because taxpayers are subsidizing the insurance of families of four that are making up to $94,000; welfare rises.

 The nation’s largest health insurer, United Healthcare announced a few days ago that their losses from serving the ACA state exchanges will amount to about $500 million in 2016. More than half of the 23 healthcare co-ops have failed to the tune of $1.5 billion of federal loan defaults. Healthcare subsidies are vulnerable to fraud as many applicants filed lower-than-actual incomes; thank you, loyal taxpayers.

While the President boasted of the pride in our military and veterans, not one senior executive has been fired and senior executives have kept their jobs and fraudulent incomes at mismanaged Veteran’s Administration according to recent reports. Robert McDonald was appointed Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs in July 2014 and lack of accountability remains an important government benefit at all levels of government.

Education loans and Pell Grants are offered to millions of high school graduates. In 2015, $31.4 billion was spent on Pell grants; $300 billion over the past 15 years. According to Richard Vedder, director of the non-profit center for College Affordability and Productivity reports that just 40% of Pell recipients earn a BS degree within six years of college entry.

Attempting to get reports on the success of the Pell program, Vedder was told no government reports are kept to verify the proficiency of the grant program; any suspicions of cover-up? Children of wealthy families are urged to also apply for student loans (FAFSA).

Here’s a story that should frustrate taxpayers. A small Arkansas college got a stern warning last year from the US Department of Education that the institution was at risk of losing access to federal aid due to high default rates; a school that reports default rates of 30% for three consecutive years or 40% for one year loses its federal aid.

In assisting the college to help ‘fix’ their default data, government auditors found  among other ‘errors’, that three students were murdered after leaving college. The default rate was lowered to just below 30% and the college continued its pursuit of increased enrollment despite the fact that 88% of the students were not making any payments. Murder victims can help their alma mater from the grave; remarkable.

That isn’t surprising considering that more than ½ the students of 108 four-year colleges that received $10 billion in student aid and grants last year had not paid a single dollar of their debt within three years of leaving campus.

Counselors in the U.S. Department of Education use every technique in the playbook to assure compliance for institutions that are at risk of losing federal access to funds. One Texas college hired a consultant when their default rate eclipsed 50%. Shirley Friar, VP of Texas Christian College charges that high loan default rates are a sign that more grants should be made available; languid logic? Ten colleges have default rates of from 75.9% to 88.1%. Student debt has grown to over $1.2 trillion with about $400 billion delinquent debt that will be subsidized by you and me.

The hallmark of the current federal government administration is corruption and scandal through waste and mismanagement. “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? “The Shadow Knows” as chronicled in books, magazines and radio in the 1930’s

Dick Baynton

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