Author Archives: Admin

Welfare spending up 32% in 4-years

Staff Report

Welfare spending has grown substantially over the past four years, reaching $746 billion in 2011 — or more than Social Security, basic defense spending or any other single chunk of the federal government — according to a new memo by the Congressional Research Service.

The steady rise in welfare spending, which covers more than 80 programs
primarily designed to help low-income Americans, got a big boost from
the 2009 stimulus and has grown, albeit somewhat more slowly, in 2010
and 2011. One reason is that more people are qualifying in the weak
economy, but the federal government also has broadened eligibility so
that more people qualify for programs.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, who requested the Congressional Research Service report, said it underscores a fundamental shift in welfare, moving away from a Band-Aid and toward a more permanent crutch.

“No longer should we measure compassion by how much money the government spends but by how many people we help to rise out of poverty,” the Alabama conservative said. “Welfare assistance should be seen as temporary whenever possible and the goal must be to help more of our fellow citizens attain gainful employment and financial independence.”

Overall, welfare spending as measured by obligations has grown from $563 billion in fiscal 2008 to $746 billion in fiscal 2011, or a jump of 32 percent.

The CRS numbers tell a complex story of American taxpayers’ generosity in supporting a varied social safety net, ranging from food stamps to support for low-income AIDS patients to child-care payments to direct cash going from taxpayers to the poor.

Arvest Mortgage hits $2 billion

Staff Report

Arvest Bank today announced that for the first time, Arvest Mortgage Company has originated more than $2 billion in new mortgage loans. When the $1 billion mark was achieved in June of this year, it was the earliest month the milestone was reached in 10 consecutive years. This also is the first time that Arvest Mortgage has reached the $2 billion mark, indicating growing strength in the housing market, a robust environment for refinancing, and an improving purchase-money market.

“At Arvest, our mission statement is ‘People helping people find financial solutions for life,’ and right now the record low rates are providing thousands of families in our communities an opportunity to improve their current mortgage rate, shorten their term, or buy their first home or next home. We are customer-focused and, by having over 150 mortgage lenders and a dedicated operations team situated throughout our footprint, we are there for our customers each day,” said Steven Plaisance, president and chief operating officer of Arvest Mortgage Company.

Record low rates have continued to spur refinancing throughout the mortgage industry, and a new, improved version of the government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) has helped many people refinance who could not afford to in years past. The purchase-money market is also showing improvement. The industry continues to make corrections to ensure that there will be access to the long-term, fixed-rate mortgage money that mortgage companies have depended on for so many years.

Plaisance continued, “This milestone is exciting, and we look forward to working with all of our customers for years to come. At Arvest, we pride ourselves on being able to provide customers with service after the sale because we retain servicing on 99 percent of the loans we make. That means we maintain that close customer relationship after the loan closes, which allows us to help that customer again on a refinance or another home purchase.”

For three years in a row, Arvest Bank ranks “Highest Customer Satisfaction with Retail Banking in the Southwest Region” according to the recently released J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Retail Banking Satisfaction Study. Arvest Bank operates more than 240 bank branches in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas through a network of 16 locally managed banks, each with its own board of directors and management team. These banks serve customers in 90 communities with 12-hour weekday banking at most locations. Arvest also provides a wide range of banking services including loans, deposits, treasury management, asset and wealth management, life insurance, credit cards, mortgage loans and mortgage servicing. Arvest operates a mortgage company, asset management company, insurance division and mortgage servicing company. Arvest is an equal housing lender and member FDIC.

Obama lies about bailout

CNSNews.com is reporting that President Barack Obama said on Thursday that “we got back every dime we used to rescue the financial system." According to the Congressional Budget Office, however, the government will lose about $24 billion on the bailout.

“We got back every dime we used to rescue the financial system, but we also passed a historic law to end taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailouts for good,” Obama said in Miami Thursday.

The Congressional Budget Office–based on figures from Obama’s own Office of Management and Budget—gives a different assessment.

“The cost to the federal government of the TARP’s transactions (also referred to as the subsidy cost), including grants for mortgage programs that have not yet been made, will amount to $24 billion,” said the CBO report, which was released on the same day Obama spoke.

Click here for more with video from CNSNews.com.

Obama lies about bailout

“We got back every dime we used to rescue the financial system, but
we also passed a historic law to end taxpayer-funded Wall Street
bailouts for good,” Obama said in Miami Thursday.

The Congressional Budget Office–based on figures from Obama’s own Office of Management and Budget—gives a different assessment.

Click here for more with video from CNSNews.com.

Sen. Coburn releases Waste Book 2012

Staff Report

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) today released a new oversight report, “Wastebook 2012” that highlights more than $18 billion in examples of some of the most egregious ways your taxpayer dollars were wasted in 2012. This report highlights 100 of the year’s countless unnecessary, duplicative and low-priority projects spread throughout the federal government.

“The problem in Washington is politicians are very specific about what we should fund but not specific about what we should cut. As a result, we are chasing robotic squirrels and countless other low-priority projects over a fiscal cliff,” said Dr. Coburn.

“This report also exposes the folly of across-the-board-cuts or sequestration. There is no question we can find hundreds of billion dollars of waste in our budget. Yet, by not going through the budget line by line and setting priorities we are protecting ridiculous programs like caviar promotion and climate change musicals while cutting vital programs. Until Congress has the guts to cut specific programs we will never get our debt under control. As these examples illustrate, it is not nearly as hard to make those choices as many politicians claim. Instead of spending federal dollars to help golfers imagine a smaller hole we should be trying to shrink the hole in our budget,” Dr. Coburn said.

Examples of wasteful spending highlighted in “Wastebook 2012” include:

•   Tax loopholes for the National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL) and Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) – professional sports leagues that generate billions of dollars annually in profits ($91 million in taxes)
•   Moroccan pottery classes (part of a $27 million grant from U.S. Agency for International Development)
•   Efforts to promote caviar consumption and production ($300,000)
•   Robotic squirrel named “RoboSquirrel” (part of a $325,000 grant from the National Science Foundation)
•   Promotion of specialty shampoo and other beauty products for cats and dogs ($505,000)
•   Corporate welfare for the world’s largest snack food producer, PepsiCo Inc. ($1.3 million)
•   Government-funded study on how golfers might benefit from using their imagination, envisioning the hole is bigger than it actually is ($350,000)
•   “Prom Week,” a video game that allows taxpayers to relive prom night ($516,000)
•   Oklahoma’s layover boondoggle, a scarcely used airport in Oklahoma receiving nearly half-a-million in taxpayer dollars only to transfer funds elsewhere in the state ($450,000)
•   The 2012 Alabama Watermelon Queen tour paid for in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “to promote the consumption of Alabama’s watermelon through appearances of the Alabama Watermelon Queen at various events and locations” ($25,000)