Reason #5624 That Trump Was Elected

Dear Taxpayers: Thanks For Funding Housing For These “Nonexistent Tenants”

The federal government spends a massive amount of money either paying for or partially subsidizing public housing for lower income Americans. It’s a set of programs which have always been fraught with problems, but it does at least serve a very real need for some of the most vulnerable citizens. But if we’re going to be spending the money on paying the rent, it would be nice to know that the people benefiting from Uncle Sam’s largess at least… exist, right? Turns out you really can’t assume anything these days. (Free Beacon)

The Department of Housing and Urban Development spent over $500,000 on apartments for people who “did not exist,” according to the agency’s inspector general.
An audit released last month found that managers of Section 8 housing in Jefferson County, Texas, defrauded the government by stealing the identities of former tenants and falsifying incomes.
The government subsidizes the rent of 99 units at Beverly Place Apartments in Groves, Texas, and paid the complex $1.8 million between January 2013 and December 2015.

The HUD Inspector General’s office had a number of things to say about Beverly Place Apartments and other units like it, most of them phrased in rather low-key ways. They assert that the owner billed the government for 97 tenants who either “did not exist or whose income eligibility was either falsified or unsupported.” In other words, some of the residents of Beverly Place probably earned too much money to qualify for subsidized housing. And for the rest of the units, the people supposedly living there were entirely fictional or had moved out some time ago. But the owner was still billing Uncle Sam (or, in other words, billing you the taxpayers) and essentially just pocketing the cash.

Now multiply that times thousands of counties around the US where bureaucrats are judged for their ability to push money out the door than justifying that spending.

Reason #5615 That Trump Was Elected

HUD to “Reinterpret” AFFH; It Should Rescind the Rule:

I’ve been critical of President Trump today. But few days go by without me being happy he defeated Hillary Clinton.

Here’s a reminder of why. Yesterday, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson announced that his agency will “reinterpret” the ultra-instrusive Obama housing rule known as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH). The rule was designed by the Obama administration to seize federal control over local zoning for the purpose of creating neighborhoods that comply with the left’s race-based vision of where people should live. We discussed it here, among other places.

Secretary Carson didn’t say exactly how he plans to “reinterpret” AFFH. However, he told the Washington Examiner that he doesn’t believe in the “manipulation” associated with the rule or with the burdens it imposes on local communities. As a candidate for president, he called it “a doomed-to-fail attempt to “legislate racial equality.”

Carson’s announcement comes on the heels of a decision by HUD to accept Westchester County’s analysis of the impact its zoning rules have had in creating barriers to fair housing. The analysis concluded that its zoning rules are not the cause of the concentrations of white, hispanic, and black populations that exist in the County.

Reportedly, the analysis submitted by the County — its eleventh attempt to satisfy HUD — was basically the same as an analysis submitted to, and rejected by, the Obama administration. The difference, of course, is the new administration.

We’ve written about how Westchester County was ensnared by HUD. It occurred as the result of a lawsuit and a settlement agreement. The County entered into the settlement agreement because it thought it had a reasonable partner — the Bush HUD. It ended up dealing with Obama’s HUD, which was anything but reasonable.

Trump is trying to pull the Federal government's tentacles out of all the places they've gone that they don't belong.

HUD Fails to Honor Money Back Guarantee

Obama Appointees Must Repay Salaries After Enabling Fraud

A federal agency will be breaking the law unless two of its top Obama administration appointees repay many months of their salaries to taxpayers after barring another federal employee from telling Congress how higher-ups were allowing multi-million dollar frauds as part of a political deal.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined Tuesday that the two Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) political appointees refused to let an employee speak with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about a major scandal.

Most transparent administration evah!

The congressional watchdog agency cited a federal law barring the use of taxpayer dollars to pay executive branch officials to obstruct Congress:

No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other act shall be available for the payment of the salary of any officer or employee of the federal government, who … prohibits or prevents, or attempts or threatens to prohibit or prevent, any other officer or employee of the federal government from having any direct oral or written communication or contact with any Member, committee, or subcommittee of the Congress.

The GAO said that unless HUD’s associate general counsel and a deputy assistant secretary personally return their salaries, the department would be knowingly retaining “improper payments” on its books in violation of the law.

But this is the Obama administration and ignoring Congress and the law is it's most salient feature.

A HUD spokesman told The Daily Caller News Foundation that officials there have no plans to require the salary repayments despite the GAO opinion. The spokesman also said the GAO is “weighing a request that GAO reconsider its opinion of this 2013 case. 

I like this law; is there any hope of using it against Hillary Clinton for her conduct as Secretary of State? I can see widespread application of this principle.