Praying for Oklahoma

Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the families in Oklahoma impacted by yesterday’s devastating tornado, and especially for those who lost loved ones.  As first responders and volunteers continue to search for survivors, Bankrupting America will be using our social media outlets to direct people to donate to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. In addition, NBC News is informing readers of a number of national and local charities providing relief here: How to Help Oklahoma Tornado Victims.  

Former IRS Commissioner to Be Questioned

According to the Associated Press, “Lawmakers are getting their first chance to question the former head of the Internal Revenue Service, the man who ran the agency when agents were improperly targeting tea party groups. Some of the questions on Tuesday will be direct: What did you know, and when did you know it? They also want to know why former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman didn’t tell Congress that agents had been singling out conservative political groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status – even after he was briefed. Shulman, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, left the IRS in November when his five-year term ended. He could prove to be a significant player in a scandal that has driven the Obama administration to distraction. Shulman is testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, which has launched a bipartisan investigation into the matter.”

Majority Believe IRS Scandal Was Political

POLITICO reports, “A majority of Americans believe the IRS scandal was part of a deliberate plan to harass conservative groups, according to a poll released Tuesday. Only 31 percent in the new Washington Post/ABC News poll think the IRS’s targeting was an honest administrative mistake, while 56 percent believe it was deliberate. And 45 percent say the administration is trying to cover up facts about the scandal, while 42 percent believe it is honestly disclosing what it knew. While there are sharp partisan divides on both of those questions, a wide majority of 74 percent of Americans believe the IRS’s actions were inappropriate. Fifty-one percent said the actions were likely illegal, and 44 percent said otherwise.”

“Fifth Iteration” from White House on IRS Scandal

POLITICO reports, “The White House on Monday once again added to the list of people who knew about the IRS investigation into its targeting of conservative groups — saying White House chief of staff Denis McDonough had been informed about a month ago. Press secretary Jay Carney said again that no one had told President Barack Obama ahead of the first news reports: not his top aide McDonough, nor his chief counsel Kathy Ruemmler, nor anyone from the Treasury Department. Monday’s revelation amounts to the fifth iteration of the Obama administration’s account of events, after initially saying that the White House had first learned of the controversy from the press.” Click here to read a timeline of the White House’s evolving account on the IRS scandal.

Chief of Staff Knew of IRS Audit

The Associated Press reports, “White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior advisers knew in late April that an impending report was likely to say the IRS had inappropriately targeted conservative groups, President Barack Obama’s spokesman disclosed Monday, expanding the circle of top officials who knew of the audit beyond those named earlier. But McDonough and the other advisers did not tell Obama, leaving him to learn about the politically perilous results of the internal investigation from news reports more than two weeks later, officials said. The Treasury Department also told the White House twice in the weeks leading up to the IRS disclosure that the tax agency planned to make the targeting public, a Treasury official said. The apparent decision to keep the president in the dark about the matter underscores the White House’s cautious legal approach to controversies and reflects a desire by top advisers to distance Obama from troubles threatening his administration.”

White House Urges Senate to Drop Insurance in Farm Bill

Reuters reports, “The Senate should cut crop insurance subsidies, the most expensive part of the farm safety net, by $1 billion a year before it passes the new farm bill, the White House said on Monday. The five-year farm bill would cost about $500 billion, with three-fourths of the money going to food stamps for the poor. Senators could vote on the bill within a week. The House was expected to debate its version in June. Both bills cut traditional subsidies by substantial amounts and put much of the savings into an expansion of federally subsidized crop insurance. They also cut conservation and food stamps. The House wouldmake the biggest food stamp cuts in a generation, $20 billion, compared to $4 billion in the Senate. … The administration also would limit insurers to a 12 percent rate of return, down 2 points, and lower the annual payment, now $1.3 billion, to defray overhead costs. Altogether, the reforms would save an estimated $1.1 billion a year.”

Some in GOP Aim to Equate Sebelius Fundraising as Another Scandal

Reuters reports, “With the White House already reeling from three major controversies, some Republican lawmakers are zeroing in on what they perceive is another possible scandal tied to President Barack Obama’s landmark health reform law just as it nears implementation. On top of the troubles the administration is facing over its handling of the attack on the Benghazi mission, the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups, and the Justice Department’s seizure of Associated Press phone records, Republicans hope to target Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. They are questioning her soliciting of funds on behalf of a non-profit group, called Enroll America, from two private entities, a practice which if not unprecedented is at the very least unusual. Federal law bars officials from soliciting any organization or individual with whom they do business or regulate.”

IRS Consulted Treasury on Plans to Apologize

The Wall Street Journal reports, “The Internal Revenue Service briefed the Treasury Department extensively last month about a looming inspector general’s report that would find the agency had inappropriately targeted for extra scrutiny applications from conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, a new timeline of events shows. The IRS consulted Treasury in late April about its plans to pre-emptively apologize for its actions, and a flurry of conversations transpired that included White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and senior Treasury officials, Obama administration officials said Monday. Two people kept out of the loop, according to administration officials, were President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. Neither was consulted, administration officials said, because their staff wanted to ensure that it didn’t appear they had interfered in any way in the process. Mr. Lew is testifying before a Senate panel Tuesday, where the matter is certain to be raised.”

“Obama The Uniter? Not Really.”

The Washington Post reports, “Americans are deeply divided over President Obama’s ability to bring the country together in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, the latest sign that his pledge to end decades of partisan warfare in the nation’s capital is flagging. Forty-seven percent of Americans say that Obama has done more to unite the country during his time in office while 45 percent say he has done more to divide it — a statistically insignificant difference. Among registered voters, it’s 47 percent uniter and 47 percent divider. Look deeper into the numbers and partisanship quickly rears its head. Almost eight in 10 Democrats say Obama is more a uniter, about the same percentage of Republicans who call him a divider. … Still, that the country is split literally down the middle on Obama’s ability to unite/divide it is a telling indication that the man who pledged he could change Washington has struggled mightily to make good on that promise.”

“The Deficit Dip”

The Washington Times editorializes, “The deficit is shrinking, but it’s too soon to celebrate a return to sanity. America is still sinking more into debt by the minute and is still on a path to ruin. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported last week that the government will borrow just $642 billion from China, as opposed to the $845 billion previously expected. That’s about as good a bit of news as a homeowner learning he has ‘mostly maxed out’ his credit card instead of ‘totally maxing it out.’ America’s long-term fiscal situation remains as unsustainable as ever. … The crocodile tears that big-government advocates cry over sequestration cuts are meant to lend the impression that spending is coming under control. But it isn’t. Over the past seven months, the “cut” has amounted to 0.5 percent of total federal spending, but that reduction has nothing to with reducing the deficit. That deficit is shrinking because taxes are up, and the government housing giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are making repayments. Government revenues are up by about 15 percent, as almost every American who gets a paycheck was slammed by a 2 percentage point hike in the payroll tax at the start of this year. Wages that once showed up in their pockets went instead into the tax man’s pocket. Income-tax rates also went up for some this year, and the higher taxes are reflected in the declining deficit.”

DOE Overpaid Contractor Millions

The Washington Guardian reports, “The Energy Department paid the builder of its planned weapon-grade plutonium reprocessing plant millions of dollars in taxpayer money for unnecessary employee living expenses, government auditors concluded Monday. Read more…

$500k in Stimulus for Recycling Plant Never Built

The Washington Free Beacon reports, “A Richmond company which received $500,000 in federal stimulus money to build a recycling plant that would employ at least 50 people has built nothing and created no jobs, NBC 12 reports. Cephas Industries received the grant as part of the U.S. Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and it was overseen by the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy. When ground was broken in April 2010, Mayor Dwight Jones, Rep. Bobby Scott (D., Va.), and City Council members Reva Trammell and Kathy Graziano posed with hard hats and gold shovels. But nothing came of the investment of taxpayer dollars to build a multi-million dollar biomass manufacturing and recycling center meant to convert demolition and construction waste to fuel, even though the DMME insists Cephas was vetted properly. During a February visit, reporters discovered the ‘company was gone’ and a new one was moving in to clean up a mess of garbage Cephas left behind.”

Labor Unions Unhappy with Obamacare

The Hill reports, “Labor unions are breaking with President Obama on ObamaCare. Months after the president’s reelection, a variety of unions are publicly balking at how the administration plans to implement the landmark law. They warn that unless there are changes, the results could be catastrophic. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) — a 1.3 million-member labor group that twice endorsed Obama for president — is very worried about how the reform law will affect its members’ healthcare plans.  Last month, the president of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers released a statement calling ‘for repeal or complete reform of the Affordable Care Act.’ UNITE HERE, a prominent hotel workers’ union, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are also pushing for changes.  In a new op-ed published in The Hill, UFCW President Joe Hansen homed in on the president’s speech at the 2009 AFL-CIO convention. Obama at the time said union members could keep their insurance under the law, but Hansen writes ‘that the president’s statement to labor in 2009 is simply not true for millions of workers.’”

Obama Administration Cutting Payments to Doctors and Hospitals Following Cost Overruns

The New York Times reports, “The Obama administration said Monday that it was cutting payments to doctors and hospitals after finding that cost overruns are threatening to use up the money available in a health insurance program for people with cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses. The administration had predicted that up to 400,000 people would enroll in the program, created by the 2010 health care law. In fact, about 135,000 have enrolled, but the cost of their claims has far exceeded White House estimates, exhausting most of the $5 billion provided by Congress. Under a new policy issued by Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, ‘health care facilities and providers will get paid less’ for providing the same services to patients in the federal program, known as the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan.”