This is actually not new news.
The government spends billions on job training every year. Where does that money go? Well not to jobs and not to training. It might as well go down the sewer.
From Fox News:
A study commissioned by Sen. Tom Coburn is casting doubt on whether taxpayers' $18 billion annual investment in federal jobs training programs is paying off.
"The vast majority of money we spend in job training doesn't go to job training, it goes to employ people in those job training federal programs," Coburn told Fox News.
The 2011 Government Accountability Office study he commissioned, which examined programs in fiscal year 2009, found an overlapping and duplicative maze of 47 federal jobs programs run by nine agencies. Some were rife with mismanagement, waste, fraud, abuse and corruption.
The study found:
Some job training participants spent their days sitting on a bus.
Some were trained for jobs that didn't exist.
Others were paid to sit through educational sessions about jobs they already had.
High school students were knowingly exposed to the cancer-causing agent asbestos as part of a job training program.
Funds were misspent to pay a contractor for ghost employees and to purchase video games.
Job training administrators spent federal funds on extravagant meals and bonuses for themselves.
In one state, workforce agency employees took more than 100 gambling trips to casinos mostly during work hours.
Just in case anyone missed it, this study came out in 2011. It came out over a YEAR AGO. $18 billion dollars a year that is mostly blown!
That is pretty outrageous.
What is even more outrageous is nothing has been done about it. Tom Coburn trots out in front of the cameras every few months to complain about the spending, but what has he done?
Nothing!
What has John Boehner and the Republican leadership in the House done about this?
Not a damn thing.
Tom, if you are serious about this, then do something other than standing in front of the cameras, working on your tan.
Try bringing the Senate to a halt through parliamentary procedures until this money is removed from the budget and these programs are eliminated.
How much help could you get on this? I bet Rand Paul would jump in, along with Jim DeMint, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio and those are just the names that are coming in off the top of my head.
This is the mother of all no brainers. This is a 90% idea. Well over 90% of Americans are going to agree that this money should not be wasted.
When the hell are the Republicans going to start acting like they are serious about cutting spending?
With a $1.5 trillion dollar deficit, $18 billion is not a lot but it is a start.
To quote Clint Eastwood in the movie “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” “Are you going to pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?”
Well, Tom Coburn and the Republicans on Capitol Hill. Are you going to cut the spending or just sit there complaining to the cameras?
Tags: coburn, fraud, government, jobs, programs, spending, tom, waste
Permalink Reply by Debrajoe Smith-Beatty on Nothing will be done about this and more taxes will be levied on US citizens, so Chuckie Schumer and Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell can keep blowing money away.
Permalink Reply by Grace Kirby on And the answer is: "Where's the camera?"
Permalink Reply by Wordwaryor on To make it short and simple ....
THEY (the GOP) Won't do it simply because :
1. This is a National election year
2. It has the words "Job " .... in it as in "Job Training".
And pullling the plug on a "Job Training" bill or funding in this election climate would get whoever dared CRUCIFIED, after being Pilloried, Drawn and Quartered, and Banished from America forever.
THOSE are the simple reasons WHY this is NOT the year to tackle this problem.
Next year will be .... after we win the election.
Permalink Reply by Rich Knoch on Federal government job training programs are an outright fraud on American Taxpayer. They (generally) are Union machinations who are the primary benefactors.
If Federal Government agencies and departments operated under (honestly enforced) Zero-Based budgeting, actually proving and documenting their value we would readily have a streamlined government, balanced budget and a whole lot of ex-government employees learning a new skill; i.e., work that produced a product with value to humanity.
Corporations have long been in the training business as our Screwel System (borrowed from Rush☺) and universities generally do not produce employees that can hit the ground running in a newly acquired job. They first need to be trained for that job.
Permalink Reply by Michael Small on Right on Rich. Anything the government gives us costs us and therefore Government should be restricted to their Constitutional obligations and leave the people alone. If they don't want to work and participate in Capitalism let them go hungry.
Permalink Reply by John Gearhart on Dump the wasteful spending - too many people have seen the actual waste being exercised.
Permalink Reply by Michael Small on Yes John, the government needs to cut spending and the peoplel need to cut the size of government. Who will do that if they have the backing? Ron Paul and those running for Congress based upon their belief in the Constitution. Yet, most people think they have to stay in that Black Box where they belong; somewhere between Joe Biden and Mitt Romney.
Permalink Reply by Elaine Jex on Programs like this one is exactly why we are broke. This has gone on for decades. $18 billion is a lot of money when it goes on year after year and there are many. It adds up. If you looked at every government program you could find waste or fraud. If you looked at every government program a large percentage could be eliminated and "we the people" would not even notice they were gone. The only people who would miss them are government people.
Permalink Reply by Martin Gaal, Sr. on The Mississippi Rehabilitation Service is such a program. They take special ed kids with promises of training and a job, but only use them for janitorial services and MRS reaps the benefits. These kids get no training what-so-ever.
Permalink Reply by Ruth Hammons on So many of the programs are a cover for other things that money is spent on
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