“BILLION-DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE” THREATENS OUR BOTTOM LINE, NATIONAL SECURITY
|| By RON TAMACCIO || People fleeing their homes in fear for their lives deserve help. However, the knowledgeable, thoughtful, and cautious among the compassionate think it’s better if that help comes in the form of temporary assistance, i.e., a “safe haven,” in their own, or nearby countries, with similar values and customs. Those who take the time to “think” instead of “react” also know that what these unfortunate people do not need – and, in most cases, do not even want – is a permanent relocation to another continent!
Regrettably, as with nearly all disasters, the charlatans and profiteers arrive. In this case, we have nine groups of “voluntary agencies” (VOLAGS), with names that sound like they are associated with a church or some other religious entity, competing for extremely lucrative government contracts, in 181 US cities, to assist the US State Department in carrying out the reckless and dangerous UN mandate to resettle refugees from the Middle East.
Sadly, most of these VOLAGS (and their 350 subcontractors) only get involved with resettlement programs because they are paid very well for their “charitable services.” Usually, their compensation comes in the form of a per-capita fee for each refugee they relocate. These are not altruistic, well-intentioned entities. They are opportunists seeking to profit from the unfortunate circumstances of others, and the unbelievably naïve largesse of the U.S. Government! Once they get their “payday”, they will disappear, leaving behind the problems they helped create. The cost to correct them, is, of course, left to the taxpayers!
Unfortunately, even some of the traditional charitable organizations are succumbing to the temptation of “fee-for-service” reimbursements for their humanitarian efforts. When compensation is involved, “charity” becomes “enterprise.” “Good works” become “jobs,” and the “mission” becomes a high-stakes confidence game! Real “charity” requires using your own resources, not someone else’s! If all the Federal dollars disappeared from this program, most of the VOLAGS would disappear as well.
This is a billion-dollar boondoggle. To be precise, it had a $1.059 billion price tag for FY 2015, and that does not include subsidized housing, most health care, food stamps, cash assistance, public education, or the costs to the criminal justice system! These outrageous costs are directly attributable to a group of unscrupulous scammers who are using the unfortunate situation in the Middle East to enrich themselves and their organizations.
Shame on them and shame on the elected officials and government bureaucrats who accept their irrational arguments without challenge, and provide outrageous amounts of money to support their imprudent programs.
Furthermore, these VOLAGS, and their supporters, cleverly orchestrated a false-choice scenario to support their profiteering. Arguments like “If we don’t relocate the refugees, they will all be killed,” obviously ignore other, much less expensive alternatives.
Next, add things like: fraudulent security reports, a wholly ineffective vetting process, and totally inadequate, or, in some cases, completely nonexistent medical screenings for communicable diseases, and you have a dangerously flawed strategy for allowing refugees from the Middle East to settle in our communities.
So, what’s the solution? One, increasingly popular, proposal is to temporarily P A U S E the entire refugee resettlement program. It’s not that hard to understand or implement.
Pause it. Audit it. Uncover the role of the UN in it. Suspend all funding for it. Explore other options.
Once again, just a few weeks ago, political leaders in Washington failed to take serious action to protect us from the dangerous threat of terror attacks from jihadists imbedded in the refugee population. Instead of withholding funding from the current program, they provided 100 percent funding for it in the Omnibus Budget Bill!
Finally, the ultimate irony: funding for this UN mandate is more than double the total amount of discretionary spending the Veteran’s Administration requested to treat the needs of our military veterans forall of FY 2016.
Outrageous, yes; disgraceful, absolutely!
Ron Tamaccio is a retired professional airline pilot and senior military officer. After leaving those professions, he worked with the USDOT as a Regional Administrative Officer in Atlanta. He now lives in Greenville with his wife, Patricia.
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37 comments
I doubt there were any Tamaccios on the Mayflower.
And Pause of course really means End here, a common ploy, just as with the scam to “delay” the decision on the flag
… and who was or was not on The Mayflower has exactly what to do with our current situation? Ditto the tired “argument” about, “unless you’re Native American…”
In the here and now, so-called “leaders” throughout the western world are selling their countries, their peoples, and their cultures, down the river in the name of humanitarianism and politicsl correctness. They are welcoming a quarrelsome and violent people, religion, and culture, into their countries, where they will displace those with long-term roots in those countries. They introduce people and ideologies into their countries who despise the long-term residents and their way of life to the point of advocating and the murder of those long term residents, as well as acting on such rhetoric.
Yeah, it does sound a lot like what the white man did to the red man on coming to North America. Does thst mean that we should somehow repeat the same mistakes the red man made in acquiescing in the invasion of a hostile element, until it is too late? I think not. This is one lesdon of history we better heed and heed quickly, lest we wind up as the American Undian did.
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
Who said anything about fear? I call it common sense. A thinking person wouldn’t open their door and hold it so that a rabid dog or a rattle snake might enter their home. Likewise, a thinking person will not hold the door for people from a culture that is wholly incompatible with our culture and our way of life , who wish death and destruction upon us.
Funny how ignorant Americans reframe situations like this, as if the U.S. did not cause much of the current situation by illegally attacking Iraq and effectively creating Isis.
Dude, you will get no argument from me on this post! We have allowed a rogue government to install itself. It takes actions and makes decisions on a regular basis which are contrary to the good of the people and our interests. This has been going on for at least three decades, now.
I believe it’s been going on longer than three decades.
You’re probably right, my friend!
How many refugees will you take into your home? It will prove how great an American you are.
You’re missing the point. It is people like you who need to be taking in refugees, as your blind faith in authority is what creates situations like this in the first place. Many of us attempt to understand why certain things happen as they do. Bush said ‘Bring it on’ and they brought it on. Get it?
I didn’t miss you point. You are the one that needs to take in the refugees, the rest of us are ignorant.
Bush may have been wrong, just as Obama may be wrong but then 9-11 changed everything. Get it.
I certainly agree about your ignorance, but try to stay on point.
It’s obvious you think Americans are ignorant, you’ve already said so.
” Likewise, a thinking person will not hold the door for people from a culture that is wholly incompatible with our culture and our way of life , who wish death and destruction upon us.”
Is that why the Iraqis did not welcome us a liberators, as Dick promised they would?
Again, you won’t get an argument from me on that point. The sandbox wars have been a very costly mistake. They have cost lives, the mental and physical health of thousands of good men and women, and a lot of money.
I got the uneasy feeling that we were heading in to Vietnam Part II (another war that our “leaders” would not allow our troops to win) when “W”, in that smarmy, lisping, voice of his kept talking about how “Islam is a religion of peace”. I knew it was over before it began for our side when he changed the name of the original attack on Iraq from “Operation Infinite Justice” to “Operation Enduring Freedom” (or whatever), because the original name was offensive to Islam since, “only Allah can dispense infinite justice”.
We have so been buggered.
Well Yoda, maybe you should address your comment to the Middle East Nations.
I don’t think radical Muslims fear us; they have already crossed over to the dark side. I hope peaceful Muslims do not fear us. But I can’t say the same for our side as to either radical or peaceful Muslims. We even fear those fleeing the oppression of the radicals.
Oh, you mean those (completely coincidentally) majority combat aged males?
Since Yoda originated in the land of make believe his hopes and fears are irrelevant.
Nor Muslims for that matter.
— only in the crew?
Just guessing Tamaccio is perhaps Italian and not a descended from blue bloods from the Mayflower, but more likely immigrants. There is a BIG difference between immigrants and refugees.
The folks on the Mayflower were not blue bloods, and many were in fact refugees, fleeing religious persecution in their homeland.
Most people would say refugees should be given preference over normal immigrants, given that they typically lack adequate food, clothing and shelter. We have typically given refugees preference in this country.
Okay. You know what I meant! People descended from the Mayflower are the blue bloods.
AND these Muslim refugees should not be given preference over normal immigrants bc there are terrorist hidden within the groups AND bc they are not coming here bc the love America and our way of life. Reread the article Bobby.
Mr. Tamaccio has been reading the ULTRA SECRET FILES kept hidden in Lil’ Benito’s sock drawer……
These “faith-based”, “charitable” organizations are the same ones who were provided the same sweetheart grants to provide “services” last year for the “Unaccompanied Alien Children” ruse on the border. The CEO of Baptist Child and Family Services was paid nearly a half a million in salary directly from money, which would be money that came directly from President Obama’s request for $3.7 billion in supplemental budget appropriations. This money was directed to HHS to be distributed to these (essentially) shell organizations, doing nothing more than expand all sorts of services to deal with the immigrant “crisis”, even though there was no crisis except what was deliberately manufactured by the gov’t.
Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse has been sucking off the govt teat for decades. He is also double dipping his salary with another “faith based” operation raking in a million dollar salary. The public has been footing all these religious organization’s “charity” for a long time.
Agreed!
If everyone who says they are Christians were simply following the teachings of their Savior as to what he expects of Christians, there would be no room for charlatans, like this guy and Franklin Graham.
As for no crisis, millions dying of starvation, disease, and war every year is a crisis.
Closet Muslim pResident always finds stooges to push forward his agenda of destroying America and transforming it into a third world Mecca for misery.
It’s becoming so damn obvious, can we still say he’s in the closet, anymore?
:-)
Excellent point.
“it’s better if that help comes in the form of temporary assistance, i.e., a “safe haven,” in their own, or nearby countries, with similar values and customs.”
In the long run, the United States and all the countries of Western Europe that are being over-whelmed by these refugees would have been much better off if we would have set up and defended refugee re-settlement in safe zones somewhere in the Middle East.
This sets a dangerous precedent that any time revolution or strife occurs, that we will open our doors for unlimited numbers of people that could be supported and protected in other places. It is an economic and cultural shock that could have been avoided.
I really believe the oversight of your option to assist them “over there” was intentional and by design.
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We dumped vast tonnages of money on bringing economic refugees here from Communist lands, with fake humanitarianism and actual propaganda goals. Where was the protest through the years when all those Cubans arrived and then were abundantly aided for years and years. Is anyone promising free university education to the beleaguered Syrian rabble? How many charlatans collected from that Cold War largess? And some of those Cubans did bomb things here, though we forget that. What we mostly forget is that nearly all refugee and immigrant groups, most certainly including the Cubans, become worthy and valued Americans.
And this part, what a laugh: “shame on the elected officials and government bureaucrats who accept their irrational arguments without challenge, and provide outrageous amounts of money to support their imprudent programs.” Good God, what proportion of state and federal programs does that describe. Start with the Iraq War . . . and proceed to the I-73 extension.
I think this guy is mostly tightwad and scaredy cat, with a big dose of irresponsibility thrown in considering our neocons’ role in upending that region and creating the refugees.
Why aren’t we accepting refugees from war-ravaged Ukraine? I guess they don’t tend to vote Democrat so welcome for them…