GOVERNMENT LIVING UP TO IT'S REPUTATION

If you will remember, one of Barack Obama's consistent claims since becoming president is that "green" energy is the wave of the future.  He has been so dogmatic on this that you might imagine that Obama feels that green energy is going to single-handedly turn the tide for our economy.  Do you remember Obama's stimuls weatherization program?  Is this all ringing a bell?  Millions of dollars were allocated to these weatherization programs to make houses more "green" and energy efficient.  We are talking some serious cash.  In fact, Illinois ALONE was awarded $242 million to weatherize 27,000 homes.  That would be the total federal income tax payments of 24,000 American households. 

Fast-forward to today, and what do we have to show for this weatherization experiment, at the expense of your tax dollars?  A new report by the Department of Energy found problems with Obama's weatherization program "so severe" that homes are not only no more energy efficient but are actually dangerous for people to live in.

I'll give you a little taste of their findings, as highlighted in this column in the Washington Examiner.

The findings are grim. "Our testing revealed substandard performance in weatherization workmanship, initial assessments, and contractor billing," the inspector general report says. "These problems were of such significance that they put the integrity of the entire program at risk."

Department inspectors visited 15 homes that were being weatherized by CEDA and paid for by stimulus funds. "We found that 14 of the 15 homes...failed final inspection because of poor workmanship and/or inadequate initial assessments," the report says. In eight of the homes, CEDA had come up with unworkable and ineffective plans -- like putting attic insulation in a house with a leaky roof. In ten of the homes, "contractors billed for labor charges that had not been incurred and for materials that had not been installed." The report calls billing problems "pervasive," with seven of ten contractors being cited for erroneous invoicing. And the department found "a 62 percent final inspection error rate" when CEDA inspectors reviewed their own work.

Sounds like government work at its best.  What else did we really expect?  Unfortunately your tax dollars went to pay for this shoddy you-know-what.  And you want to put the government in charge of your healthcare?  Your house is bad enough, but what about your life or the life of people you love?  Oh ... and you continue to send your children to the government to be educated?  I want to smoke out of YOUR bong.