Drain the swamp!

[Admin]

Drain the swamp. Here are two guys who absolutely hate the agency they run (Mulvaney at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Scott Pruitt at the EPA. They both sabotage these agencies from within, but what they also have in common is appointing friends and giving them very high salaries..

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director Mick Mulvaney gave major pay raises to political appointees he hired at the agency, according to multiple media reports. Four of the political appointees are making $259,500 and another staffer is earning $239,595. The salaries far exceed those made by even the highest-ranking government staffers, including members of Congress and Cabinet secretaries, according to The Associated Press. Federal government employees can make up to $134,776, not including adjustments made for cities with high costs of living like D.C. CFPB staffers operate under the Federal Reserve’s pay scale, which caps salaries at $250,000.

Mulvaney gave pay raises to political appointees at consumer protection agency | TheHill

And here is Pruitt

In the same interview, he also denied responsibility for giving generous pay raises to two of his staff members that have also come under fire. The two aides, Sarah Greenwalt and Millan Hupp, had both worked for Mr. Pruitt in Oklahoma, where he served as attorney general before coming to the E.P.A. Ms. Greenwalt’s salary was raised to $164,200 from $107,435, while Ms. Hupp’s was raised to $114,590 from $86,460.

Growing Crisis Threatens Scott Pruitt, E.P.A. Chief, as Top Aides Eye the Exits - The New York Times

And people who complained internally about Pruitt, now embroiled in a host of dubious affairs:

Last year, Mr. Pruitt gained attention after requesting special privileges and protections including a full-time security detail and the installation of a $25,000 secure telephone booth in his office. At least five agency officials were demoted, reassigned or requested new assignments after raising objections to Mr. Pruitt’s spending and security decisions, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

Growing Crisis Threatens Scott Pruitt, E.P.A. Chief, as Top Aides Eye the Exits - The New York Times

[Admin]

More on Scott Pruitt..

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt reportedly cost taxpayers millions of dollars due to his extensive use of a security detail. EPA documents and sources revealed that the agency spent about $3 million on a 20-person, full-time security detail and travel expenses for Pruitt, according to a new analysis by The Associated Press.

The report comes as Pruitt is under intense scrutiny over reports that he paid $50 a night to stay in a condo owned by the wife of an energy lobbyist. Pruitt also come under fire for his use of a security detail that is three times the size of his predecessor's, as well as his first-class travel habits.

Pruitt’s security detail cost taxpayers millions: report | TheHill

[Admin]

There are at least five lies Pruitt has told in order to defend himself against a host of scandels

• Lie 1: “This agency has been a bastion of liberalism since day one”
  
• Lie 2: “This was like an Airbnb situation”
  
• Lie 3: “Mr. Hart has no clients that have business before this agency”
  
• Lie 4: “The two trips I took, Ed, were all in advancement of air quality issues, environmental issues to this country”
  
• Lie 5: “My staff did it. And I found out about it yesterday and I changed it”
  

5 lies Scott Pruitt told this week about his mounting scandals - Vox

But the real scam should be how he has engaged in widespread dismantling of environmental protections that will cost lives on the behest of the fossil fuel industry..

[Admin]

It's hard to keep up with all the Pruitt scandals:

Pruitt, famous for his profligate taxpayer-funded first-class travel, actually flew coach when the taxpayers weren’t footing the bill, according to an Associated Press report on Saturday. The rationale Pruitt’s defenders gave for spending thousands of dollars on first-class travel was an increased volume in security threats. When asked about the nature of these threats, EPA told Politico that someone approached Pruitt in an airport yelling “Scott Pruitt, you’re f—ing up the environment.” It remains unclear how flying first class would prevent people from approaching Pruitt in airports with or without expletive-laden environmental critiques.

The AP report from Saturday noted that there is no record of anyone being charged with or arrested for threatening the EPA administrator. Pruitt’s decision to fly coach when the cost of his travel is not covered with public money pokes a giant hole in the argument that he needed to fly first class for his own protection. Anyone threatening harm to the EPA administrator would not be able to distinguish between Pruitt’s personal and business travel. Taxpayers, however, still covered the cost of security detail that accompanied him on personal travel.

Scott Pruitt, fan of taxpayer-funded first class travel, flies coach when he has to pay for it – ThinkProgress

[Admin]

House Democrats want to know why the Trump administration is letting a former pharmaceutical industry insider oversee its plans to fulfill President Donald Trump’s promises to bring down drug prices. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), one of the top progressives in the House and deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, sent a letter Monday to HHS Secretary Alex Azar inquiring about the appointment of Daniel Best to oversee drug pricing reform. Best most recently worked at CVS CareMark before starting at HHS last week. He also worked at Pfizer for four years in the early 2000s. ”Given Mr. Best’s career working for the pharmaceutical and pharmacy industry, the decision to hire him poses significant potential for conflicts of interest, placing him in a position to make decisions that may pit the income of his former employers against the interests of patients in reducing prescription drug prices,” Ellison said in the letter, shared exclusively with Vox.

House Democrat wants to know why a pharma insider is overseeing Trump’s drug pricing reform - Vox

[Admin]

Self-dealing..

The rallying cry of Republicans during tax bill negotiations was that this legislation was created with the middle class in mind. It’s a lie the Trump administration told the American people time and time again —  over 84 times. In reality, the GOP tax bill will do very little for lower and middle income families. Study after study of the tax plan shows the plan will ultimately benefit the wealthiest Americans. The non-partisan Tax Policy Center found that after the tax plan has taken full effect in 2027, 80 percent of the benefits would go to the top 1 percent. When it comes to tax cuts, the top 1 percent will get an average cut of $1,022,120, while the middle 20 percent will get an average cut of $420, eviscerating any notion that the middle class are the key beneficiaries of the Republican’s “Unified Framework for Fixing Our Broken Tax Code.”

Those who will benefit the most from the tax bill, however, are the same the ones who helped construct it. A new report from the Center For American Progress Action Fund (ThinkProgress is an editorially independent news site housed at CAPAF) looked at the personal financial disclosure forms of the members in each chamber’s tax writing committee and identified all income from “pass-through” businesses — income that would be taxed at a significantly lower rate under the new tax law. 15 Republicans from tax writing committees in Congress will expect to receive an average tax windfall of $314,000 from the legislation they helped craft. This includes members of the House Ways and Means Committee like Reps. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Diane Black (R-TN), Jim Renacci (R-OH), and Vern Buchanan (R-FL) among others, and members of the Senate Finance Committee like Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Dean Heller (R-NV). There are 53 Republican members of Congress not from tax writing committees who will benefit from various provisions in the GOP tax plan. These members of Congress could see an average tax cut of $280,000 dollars.

Here are the massive tax cuts going to the Republicans who wrote the tax bill – ThinkProgress

[Admin]

Hidden in the 503-page final legislative text, however, was a new provision that had not been included in previous House or Senate versions. It specifically benefits real estate investors who operate “pass-through” businesses. This group includes people like Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), who “has millions of dollars of ownership stakes in real-estate related LLCs that could also benefit” from the new provision. And even though deficit-hawk Sen. Corker would like the country to believe that this bill could be “one of the worst votes [he’s] ever cast,” according to the data, Corker could see potential tax cut of $706,383.

President Donald Trump, himself an owner of a pass-through real estate empire, signed the legislation into law on December 22. Around 86 percent of actual small businesses — mom-and-pop Main Street Businesses — already pay a tax rate lower than 25 percent. This is because, under the current tax code, profits are taxed according to the owner’s individual tax rate, which, for the majority of small business owners, is lower than 25 percent. Regular employees are not eligible for the pass-through deduction, and while some small business owners can potentially claim it, they’re required to navigate a thicket of confusing new rules.

Here are the massive tax cuts going to the Republicans who wrote the tax bill – ThinkProgress

[Admin]

Multiple investigations going on against Scott Pruitt, the EPA boss:

The IG’s office confirmed to Vox that four audits related to Pruitt are underway:

• There is an expanded investigation of the “frequency, cost and extent of the Administrator’s travel” after reports of Pruitt’s penchant for first-class flights and nearly $200,000 in travel expenses.
  
• Pruitt has surrounded himself with an unprecedented 24-hour security detail with as many as 20 members. Newer concerns about the cost Pruitt’s security arrangement were rolled into a previous IG audit started in 2016 looking into overpayments to security detail staff.
  
• Building on the previous audit, the IG is also looking into the ongoing cost of Pruitt’s bodyguards and potential overbilling in how the team recorded their hours.
  
• The IG is also examining Pruitt’s use of administrative hiring under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which allows the EPA to bring on staff without approval from Congress or the White House. The audit includes the report that two close aides to Pruitt received huge raises after the White House declined to grant the pay bumps.
  

There are other audits gaining momentum as well:

• Samantha Dravis, an associate administrator for policy at the EPA who traveled abroad with Pruitt, abruptly resigned earlier this month from her $179,700-a-year job. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) asked the IG last month to verify a report that she did not show up to work for much of the time between November 2017 through January 2018. The IG’s office confirmed to Vox that a review is underway that has not been formally announced.
  
• The IG is also considering whether to investigate Pruitt’s housing arrangements. Pruitt leased a cushy condo close to Capitol Hill last year at the too-good-to-be-true rate of $50 a night, and only for the nights he stayed there. The condo belongs to the wife of a prominent lobbyist who petitioned the EPA on behalf of an energy utility and whose firm represents major oil and gas interests.
  
• House Democrats report that the IG is examining whether Pruitt violated anti-lobbying rules during an April 2017 meeting with the National Mining Association where he encouraged the group to press President Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord.
  

The EPA’s Scott Pruitt is now facing several legal and ethical investigations - Vox

And this isn't even everything, see the article..

[Admin]

We were mostly criticizing Scott Pruitt for his destruction of the EPA and its mission, to protect the environment (and people's health, as foul air and stuff is a major health hazard and silent killer).

Turns out, the guy is also a first class A-hole, running the EPA as his personal fiefdom. Anyone criticizing him on his extravagant use of funds for himself got demoted or worked out, for instance..

A former top aide to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt is accusing him of extravagant spending, unnecessary security, employee retaliation and more, according to congressional Democrats. Kevin Chmielewski, who was formerly Pruitt’s deputy chief of staff for operations, spoke this week to both Democratic and Republican congressional staff and, according to them, corroborated much of the recent reporting about Pruitt’s spending and ethics controversies while providing some new details.  “Mr. Chmielewski provided new details and corroborated other reports regarding allegations of wasteful spending of taxpayer funds and your disregard for the ethical and legal requirements of your position,” Democratic Sens. Tom Carper (Del.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) and Reps. Elijah Cummings (Md.), Gerry Connolly (Va.) and Don Beyer (Va.) wrote to Pruitt on Thursday. “Mr. Chmielewski described an environment in which you sought to marginalize, remove or otherwise retaliate against agency employees who advised you not to take these troubling actions, or refused to take or justify such actions at your direction,” they wrote. Chmielewski was put on leave from the EPA earlier this year, in what he said was retaliation for questioning or pushing back on Pruitt’s decisions.

Dems: Former Pruitt aide alleges more wasteful spending, retaliation at EPA | TheHill

The number of Pruitt scandals is quickly piling up..

[Admin]

And all the while railing against the "swamp"... This would be funny, if it wasn't so sad..

Fox News host Sean Hannity is linked to a group of shell companies that have spent $90 million buying hundreds of homes across the U.S through the help of foreclosures and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Guardian reported Sunday. More than 870 homes in seven different states have been purchased over the past decade, ranging from large mansions to rentals for low-income families, according to the newspaper. For some of the mortgages, Hannity reportedly obtained funding from HUD under the National Housing Act loan program, which was first guaranteed under President Obama’s administration. Secretary Ben Carson’s department recently increased Hannity’s original $17.9 million mortgage for purchases in Georgia by an additional $5 million, records obtained by the Guardian show.  Hannity did not disclose his cooperation with HUD when he had Carson on his show last June, the Guardian noted.

Sean Hannity linked to shell companies that spent $90M on property: report | TheHill