Wasteful spending spree
By now, most voters in the country know Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton could list very few foreign policy accomplishments as secretary of state in President Barack Obama’s first term except traveling to 112 countries. She has a much longer list of policy failures.
The Republican National Committee admitted last week, though, that she’d accomplished a little more than most people knew.
During her four-year tenure, the State Department spent $5.4 million on a “no-bid contract for crystal stemware,” $630,000 to “increase Facebook likes on four State Department pages,” $79,000 to purchase copies of President Obama’s book and $53,004 on “marble polishing services” at the U.S. embassy in Brasilia “during the summer of 2010.”
The RNC’s 21-page memo also listed more than $600 million the State Department spent on failed projects in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among them were a $3.6 million fleet of “unused broadcast TV trucks” in Afghanistan and $167.5 million on “preventable cost overruns while expanding embassy Kabul.”
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump mentioned during his third debate with Clinton about $6 billion going missing during her tenure at State. Where that came from, the Washington Examiner reported, was likely a March 2014 memo from the State Department inspector general which noted contract files for projects since 2008 worth $6 billion had disappeared with no paper trail.
So, going forward, never let it be said Clinton didn’t accomplish anything when she was the nation’s top diplomat.
Obamacare? Higher fines needed
Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber, he of the “stupidity of the American voter” comment on getting the health care law passed, is back to explain to us that the Affordable Care Act is “working as designed.”
He’s right in a sense. The administration would never say so, but its likely intention was to have people who didn’t choose Obamacare lose their doctor, lose their insurance plan or see coverage decrease, and see premium prices soar. All that has happened. The idea was that those people then would beg for a completely government-run program. However, that hasn’t happened.
But Gruber pooh-poohed the recent average 25 percent rate hikes for people using the national exchange. No, he said, “Obamacare’s not imploding” because 85 percent of people buying insurance on the exchanges get subsidies, and the subsidies increase with the premium hikes.
In other words, he’s saying consumers who get the subsidies don’t have to worry. The government will take care of it. Of course, that’s the whole problem, isn’t it? A broke government can’t continue to pay more and more.
The only fix needed? Those who pay fines for not buying coverage need to pay more, Gruber said.
“It could work better,” he said, “and I think probably the most important thing the experts would agree on is that we need a larger mandate penalty.”
Millennials, those of you considering vote for Hillary Clinton, he’s talking directly to you. Ponder that.
Pander, thy name is Hillary
Earlier this year, Hillary Clinton opined on a hip-hop radio show that she carries “hot sauce” in her purse – wherever she goes. The remark, analysts said, was supposed to be a shout-out to the black voters she was courting.
In an article earlier this year for “Thrillist,” naming her favorite restaurants in New York, she listed Rao’s (Italian), Northern Lights Creamery (gelato ice cream), Lange’s Little Store (sandwiches), Charlie the Butcher’s and others, none Hispanic.
But last week Clinton confessed on Univision’s “El Gordo y La Flaca” (“The Fat Man and the Thin Lady”) that her most recent favorite is Mexican food.
“I have to watch portions,” she told the network, trolling for Hispanic votes. “I have to watch what I eat. The problem never goes away.”
As if her food comments weren’t enough, she also explained to the host that her 2-year-old granddaughter, Charlotte, was learning Spanish.
What’s left? Locking down the millennial vote by naming her favorite beer and flavored coffee?
It didn’t matter
The woman scheduled to sing the national anthem at last week’s Philadelphia 76ers opening NBA game got the hook because of a “We Matter” jersey.
Sevyn Streeter reported in a tweet she was banned from singing because of the message on her outfit, according to the Associated Press.
The Sixers issued a news release full of weasel words.
“The Philadelphia 76ers organization encourages meaningful actions to drive social change,” the statement read. “We use our games to bring people together, to build trust and to strengthen our communities. As we move from symbolic gestures to action, we will continue to leverage our platform to positively impact our community.”
A member of the 76ers’ dance team sang the anthem, instead.
Elsewhere, the NBA apparently has started down the road the NFL took after San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand in a preseason game while “The Star Spangled Banner” was played.
In one Miami preseason game, for instance, a woman singing the anthem opened her jacket before starting to sing, revealing a Black Lives Matter shirt, then dropped to her left knee and performed the song.
She said she was protesting racial oppression.