ObamaFest

Senator Mark Leno: "It's not fraud as long as I get my share."

Every so often California State Senator Mark Leno stops dying his gray hairs just long enough to say something imbecilic. 

Case in point:  The L.A. Times Evan Halper did a fine investigation of the rampant fraud in California's $5.5 billion program for in home health care for seniors:

"Loose oversight and bureaucratic inertia have allowed fraud to fester in a rapidly expanding multibillion-dollar state program that provides personal caregivers to the impoverished elderly and disabled. Hundreds of reports of scams and swindles are going without investigation.

Prosecutors and program administrators across the state say they are alarmed by the ease with which people are taking advantage of the program, In Home Supportive Services.

Government funds are flowing in so quickly, with such limited oversight, that prosecutors say it is common for the state to send paychecks to scam artists claiming to be caring for someone who is dead. Or claiming to be caring for a relative or friend faking a disability. Or claiming to be providing care during the same hours they are working elsewhere."

So at this point any politician with an ounce of integrity would say something like, "With all of the taxes that we require our citizens to pay,it is incumbent upon us to make sure that that money is spent wisely and honestly." 

But what does Leno say about the rampant abuses: "Seeing as we seemed to have misplaced $50 billion in the rebuilding of Iraq, it's an amazingly low figure."

The ObamaFest Team just barfed in our throats.  To call Leno a scumbag would be an insult to both scum and to bags.  His excuse for fucking over health care is cost overruns in Iraq?!?   Great non sequitur, douche face.

The real meat of the story, of course, is the union angle:

"Some critics of the program say politics has blocked efforts to combat fraud. The program has become a steady source of revenue for the Service Employees International Union, among the most powerful interest groups in the Capitol, as well as a second union, the United Domestic Workers of America.

Under the program, people receiving care are entitled to hire whom they wish at government expense. Most hire their relatives, because family members are often the most appropriate to provide the needed round-the-clock feeding, changing, bathing and other care. Wages range from $8 to $14.68 an hour, depending on the county. Those workers are required to pay monthly union dues that total millions of dollars. The SEIU, for example, collects nearly $5 million a month from its 223,000 In Home system members.

The unions donate heavily to the campaigns of Democrats who control the Legislature and organize get-out-the-vote efforts on their behalf."

Senator Leno should just come out and admit that there's nothing better than a program that, under the guise of helping...

...actually pads the bank accounts of:

...and eventually finances the re-election of: