Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 19, 2010

VP Joe Biden's campaign owes Treasury $219,000

Who’s watchdogging the watchdog, Mr. President?

Recall that, in addition to now owing the Treasury $219,000 because of accounting sloppiness and excessive contributions, our bumbling, gaffing Vice President Joe Biden announced a year back last June that — oops — millions of dollars of stimulus money had already been lost, wasted, or scammed.

It’s positively cringe-worthy (and possibly criminal) to think how many more millions of taxpayers’ money this fiscally inept clown has “lost” or “wasted” or had “scammed” while he was supposedly guarding taxpayers’ money.

I refrain from saying “stolen” since that’s a pretty potent charge of which I have no proof, but one that nonetheless keeps dancing around in my head. We were assured that Team Obama would be “the most transparent administration ever” and would be good stewards of Americans’ hard-earned money.

Joke’s on us.

Arizona Daily Star, Biden campaign owes Treasury $219,000:

WASHINGTON – Election watchdogs have directed Joe Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign to pay the U.S Treasury more than $219,000 to resolve issues caused by sloppy bookkeeping and accepting excessive contributions, including a discounted flight on a private jet.

The audit was released Friday by the Federal Election Commission.

It determined that the Biden campaign accepted an improper corporate contribution in the form of a round-trip flight between New Hampshire and Iowa in June 2007 for three people. The Biden campaign paid GEH Air Transportation $7,911 for the first-class airfare, but regulators say the campaign should have paid the charter rate of $34,800.

The FEC also found that the Biden campaign could not document repaying at least $106,000 in donations that were over the limit, and the campaign was ordered to pay the U.S. Treasury more than $85,000 for stale-dated checks.

The Biden campaign also failed to disclose more than $3.7 million in payments and roughly $870,000 in debts.

The audit was conducted in part as a condition of Biden’s accepting taxpayer funds for his campaign through the presidential public financing system.

Biden, now the vice president, campaigned for president for nearly a year before dropping out in January 2008 after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses.

Elizabeth Alexander, a spokeswoman for Biden in the vice president’s office, on Saturday said the campaign would repay the money.

“Some repayment is commonplace after presidential campaign audits and the repayment ordered here is relatively small. Payment is due to the Treasury 30 days after the FEC issues its formal ruling and Biden for President will comply with that,” she said.

I posted this back in February… Biden’s Folly, 1 Year Later: What in the Heck Is Joe Doing with the Economic Stimulus/Porkulus Package? Check Out Joe’s Slide Show:

Slide 4 from VP Biden's stimulus slide show

Title on Slide 4: “Not only has it saved jobs, it’s created them.” What, no exclamation points, Joe? The stimulus/porkulus slide show is posted on Business Insider: Joe Biden: Let Me Tell You How The Stimulus Has Been A Raging Success. Under every graph, the source cited is the ambiguous “U.S. Government.” No department or agency listed, just “U.S. Government.” For all supporting text on the slides, the only source provided is “Joe Biden’s Annual Report To The President On The Recovery Act”. Pretty darn tricky, citing yourself and the government for your own report card on something that most of the country thinks is bogus, a failure and self-serving to Team Obama. But, hey, Joe’s slide show says the stimulus boondoggle worked, so there.

At this point, one wonders how many other government programs are still being funded with millions of dollars of wasted stimulus money… money that Pres. Obama promised would not go to earmarks, would be used to helping stimulate the economy. The voices of reason were out there — how many conservative talk show hosts and conservative journalists said this would be an unmitigated failure, that Team Obama was clueless about what it was doing, that tax cuts, not phony stimulus, would resurrect the economy?

Doug Powers, guest blogging at Malkin’s place, weighs in… Perfect: Campaign of Guy in Charge of Stimulus Accounting Fined $219,000 for ‘Sloppy Bookkeeping’:

In March of 2009, President Obama put Joe Biden in charge of making sure each and every stimulus dollar was accounted for and spent responsibly, and bestowed upon Plugs the title of “The Sheriff,” because “if you’re misusing taxpayer money, you’ll have to answer to him.”

Here’s the latest example of the laser-like focus on finances that made Biden the perfect choice for ensuring everything’s being done by the book as far as the “stimulus” goes…

Those FEC guys are such smartasses.

Additional:
Frugal Café Blog Zone: “Skin in the Game” Barack-Style– First Family’s Dog Bo Flies to Obamas’ Maine Vacation on a Separate Jet and Oh, Joy! Cocaine Addicts Studying Chinese Meditation, Team Obama Hands Over $410,625 of Tax Payers’ Money to Make It Happen and Clowns in DC: Team Obama Messes Up Unemployment Payments Again… Overpayments Have Doubled Since Last Year’s Overpayments and Stimulus Waste: Millions of Taxpayer Dollars Spent on Signs by Democrats, Team Obama (video) and Limbaugh Transcript: Obama Claims He Inherited “Decade of Economic Uncertainty”… What Decade Is POTUS Talking About? and Bloom off the Liberal Elitist Rose: Mort Zuckerman Clobbers Obama, Even Barbra Streisand Against POTUS on His Deficit Spending Disaster (video) and “Kicking the Dog” One Time Too Often… Wall Street Donations to Democratic Campaigns Drastically Drop and Outrageous: Congress Deemed $1.1 TRILLION Budget “As Passed” – Sneaked in Increased Spending Before 4th of July Weekend and Obama’s Secret to Cheering Himself Up When Faced with Failed Stimulus & Record Unemployment: Have a Danish! (video)
Gateway Pundit: As They Live off Us, Some Federal Workers Pocket Fraudulent SS Benefits and Obama Continues to Lie About Jobs; Says “I Expect to Be Held Accountable” (Video) and Thanks Barack. US Economy May Not Recover For 5 or 6 Years and White House Admits GOP Could Take House Back… But, Will Stick With Failed Policies Anyway and Dem’s Financial Bill Imposes Race & Gender Quotas on Financial Sector and Dem’s Financial Bill Imposes Race & Gender Quotas on Financial Sector and Figures. Obama Praises Electric Vehicle Manufacturer That Makes Trucks That Cost Twice as Much as Normal Truck and As Dem Policies Continue to Fail Miserably – November Thumpin Looks More Likely and Independent Voters Abandon Radical Obama in Droves and Obama’s Cloward-Piven Economic Strategy Working Out As Planned and Dems Refuse Compromise on Unemployment Benefits; Go On Vacation and After US Economy Loses Another 125,000 Jobs Obama Says: “We’re Heading in the Right Direction” (Video) and Unreal. Obama: “Unemployment’s at 9.6%… At Least It’s Not at 12, 13 or 15%” (Video) and Media Shocked to See “Unexpected” Rise in Jobless Rate and Nancy Pelosi: Unemployment Checks Are the Fastest Way to Create Jobs (Video)
Another Black Conservative: UPDATED: David Weigel just another fake, phony and fraud conservative
Nice Deb: Mark Levin On The New Financial Reform Law and Video: Obama Speech In KC – The Usual Mix of Bush-Blaming, Empty Promises, and Strawmen
No Runny Eggs: Monday Hot Read – Tom Blumer’s “The Most Depressing Numbers in Friday’s Employment Data”
Telegraph: With the US trapped in depression, this really is starting to feel like 1932
The Conservative Pup: Careening Down The Mountain Straight Toward The Cliff
Motor City Times: You Try And Fix The Federal Budget
USA Today: National debt soars to highest level since WWII
American Thinker: Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis

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