In the
April 25, 2013 issue, it details how a class action lawsuit by black farmers alleging discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in its loan programs led to a massive fraud in which kids as young as 4 and 5 received $50,000 payments, in which people who had never farmed received payments, in which women, Hispanics, and Native Americans farmers who had no evidence of discrimination received payments:
On the heels of the Supreme Court’s ruling, interviews and records show,
the Obama administration’s political appointees at the Justice and
Agriculture Departments engineered a stunning turnabout: they committed
$1.33 billion to compensate not just the 91 plaintiffs but thousands of
Hispanic and female farmers who had never claimed bias in court.
The deal, several current and former government officials said, was
fashioned in White House meetings despite the vehement objections —
until now undisclosed — of career lawyers and agency officials who had
argued that there was no credible evidence of widespread discrimination.
What is more, some protested, the template for the deal — the $50,000
payouts to black farmers — had proved a magnet for fraud.
“I think a lot of people were disappointed,” said J. Michael Kelly, who
retired last year as the Agriculture Department’s associate general
counsel. “You can’t spend a lot of years trying to defend those cases
honestly, then have the tables turned on you and not question the wisdom
of settling them in a broad sweep.”
The compensation effort sprang from a desire to redress what the
government and a federal judge agreed was a painful legacy of bias
against African-Americans by the Agriculture Department. But an
examination by The New York Times shows that it became a runaway train,
driven by racial politics, pressure from influential members of Congress
and law firms that stand to gain more than $130 million in fees. In the
past five years, it has grown to encompass a second group of
African-Americans as well as Hispanic, female and Native American
farmers. In all, more than 90,000 people have filed claims. The total
cost could top $4.4 billion.
This is worth reading in full. It is a depressing reminder of how corrupt not just the Obama Administration is, but the federal government in general.
Even more depressing, Breitbart and others were on this story 3-4 years ago.
ReplyDeleteBig snore from the media.
I guess the good news is that little by little the media is beginning to stop covering Obama's butt for him.
John Henry