Lary Holland: Official Blog, Links, and Resources

Is the Coulee News suppressing the facts about Senator Herb Kohl wasting the taxpayers' money? I have to wonder since the moderators at Coulee News removed all the fact based comments from their online version of the biased opinion piece submitted by Senator Herb Kohl's office, where he supports reversing specific provisions of the Budget Deficit Reduction Act. It could be that the richest U.S. Senator (according to www.opensecrets.org) has a little pull with the Coulee News?

I have resubmitted the comments that are found in my post entitled "Senator Herb Kohl Aiming to Waste Taxpayer Money." Needless to say thousands of people have already seen the facts and know the truth about the wasteful Title IV-D program that Senator Kohl is blindly supporting. Wisconsin groups were already forwarded the information and action is being taken. Be sure to contact the Coulee News and ask them why they are suppressing the facts and preventing equal reporting of the facts about wasteful government programs.

Take the time to contact these people about truth in reporting the facts instead of blindly printing the propaganda of officials wanting to pad their budgets with YOUR tax dollars.

The West Salem Coulee News published an opinion piece by U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, "GUEST COLUMN: Reverse child support cuts," which aims to convince the public to support legislation to reverse specific provisions of the Budget Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 that closed a loophole that states were taking advantage of in their child support enforcement programs. (Source: West Coulee News March 22, 2007)

In July 2006, I took the time to write Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson, regarding plans that were being put into place to reverse the progress made in 2005 to close funding loopholes in the voluntary Title IV-D program that the states were taking advantage of.

In papers around the nation, government bureaucrats are busy starting the propaganda machine trying to convince the public that if funding cuts aren't reversed that children are going to be starving to death. These bureaucrats are leaving out some critical facts. What these bureaucrats are not telling you is that the majority of the cases being served by the affected programs are middle and upper income feuding families that have been placed into the program automatically to boost participation numbers and establish bigger reimbursement checks from the federal government.

The purpose of over participation being encouraged by state and county officials is to conceal program failure and bring in money for state bureaucracies, not needy families or children. By focusing on the higher income collections using Income Withholding Orders state and county officials are able to drown out and dilute the overwhelming failure of their collections that are supposed to benefit actual needy families that are near or below the poverty line.

The child support enforcement program focuses only on revenue generation for the state and county agencies, and the only numbers that should surprise Senator Herb Kohl is trying to explain how an agency that is reimbursed $66.00 of every $100.00 based on its expenditures can actually be on the verge of failing. To make it simple, an organization that only has to put up $1.00 and receives $2.00 back should have no excuse for having budget problems and should be seriously overhauled from the ground up to ensure that the families that need them are the ones that are serviced.

It’s time to reign in free for all welfare spending programs to ensure that programs are not abused by states for revenue generation and that the families that are supposed to benefit from the program don't have to compete with the ones that don't belong at all. Just say no to Senator Herb Kohl trying to solve state overspending problems with programs that were meant for the needy not the rich.

Darlene Zagata sees through the unstable foundations that are used to create certain government spending programs. "It's Not Welfare That Needs Reformed" appeared at hotfacts.com and I took the opportunity to discuss the Title IV Part D program and how, it too, was developed on an unstable foundation.

Here is my response to her article:

You reach an excellent set of points with “It’s Not Welfare That Needs Reformed” and that the “structure of all such programs needs a good hard evaluation and perhaps a complete reform from the bottom up since the foundation on which they were developed has been unstable right from the start.” I tend to agree full-heartedly with you on this point and it certainly does not only apply to SSI benefits.

Title IV Part D of the Social Security Act actually sets up a prepaid welfare scheme without any eligibility requirements at all. In fact the individual states have been abusing the program by now forcing the tax payers to foot the bill for the inclusion of the middle and upper-class income brackets into the program while the states leave the poor and needy behind.

Because the federal programs were developed on an unstable foundation like you indicate with SSI, we have a system of abuse and waste while the states focus on upper income collections to give the appearance that they are actually doing something with the taxpayer money they are really wasting on people that shouldn’t even be in the programs. Overparticipation definitely hurts the people that need the programs to survive.

Thanks for bringing these issues to the attention of the public. Feel free to contact me to discuss these issues further.

Lary Holland

The original article appears at: http://www.hotfact.com/it-is-not-welfare-that-needs-reformed.html

There is hope that people are becoming more aware of government waste and they are doing something about it.

The Gladwin County Record published a letter to the editor yesterday questioning, among other things, "Does the Friend of the Court or the judge ever wonder how the mother is taking care of the kids?" The quick answer is no, the writer of the letter was doing it "for a friend" and I took the time to let them know they can contact me anytime and I will point them to the grievance process because their problems are not the only ones that are happening to people statewide. The reality is that each of the county Friend of the Courts aren't focusing their programs on needy families at all, they have adopted a model of revenue generation for their own offices, saturating their caseload with middle and upper class families.

Revenue generation being the focus is a problem stemming with how the Title IV Part D program is currently being administered by the federal government and how the associated state agencies have implemented the program. The current model leaves needy families behind, while the agency workers focus on easy targets to give the appearance that there is program success. The appearance of program success allows the state agencies to keep increasing their staffing levels because there is currently no cap on the amount that a state can claim for reimbursements through the program. The program currently also forces the federal and local taxpayers to fund a welfare scheme for middle and upper-class families which shouldn't be in the program in the first place.

Changing how the program operates is actually pretty easy. Check out http://www.nationwideblueprint.com and find out how. Lets bring funding and program administration back in line with expectations and focus on needy families instead of revenue generation for the massive bureaucracies that are leaving the nation's poor behind.

TwinCities.Com (St. Paul Pioneer Press March 19, 2007) published two letters pertaining to the child support system in Minnesota being broken.  The opinion pieces were "Fix Child Support System" and "One Size Doesn't Fit All." Both writings, appearing in the publication, were very well written and demonstrate even more people that are seeing through the smoke screen that has allowed the family courts to grow exponentially and invade our families.

Original Location: http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/editorial/16921436.htm

"All great change in America begins at the dinner table" was something that at one time was so very true for our society, until welfare reforms and changes in policy to "combat poverty" came into existence, effectively dissolving the family from within. Ronald Reagan said these great words because he enjoyed simple answers to the tough questions. 

Over the weekend I attended a Dad's and Mom's of Michigan Awards Gala and enjoyed dinner with many men and women, legislators, and professionals and had the opportunity to discuss change in this State as well as in America. It was a great event and my kudos for Dad's and Mom's of Michigan inviting me to receive an award. It was well worth the trip back to Southfield  on Saturday and tied nicely into my plans for participating in yet another seminar to advance the level of human understanding about many important issues on Sunday.

In a remote location, somewhere in Ypsilanti, Michigan, a team of invited professionals came together for the first advocacy training event on Sunday. This event was an all day event and was a great success.

About 15 people in all turned out for great food, training, discussions, and information sharing with almost half the participants driving over from Kent County, Michigan (Grand Rapids in particular). There is something very wrong with today's family court system and its going to take much effort to fix. A focus was on bringing closer many organizations through networking.

Professionals ranged from at least one Policy Study PhD major, electrical engineers, psychologist, religious leaders and many other fields of influence. This is the first of many invite only programs over the next several months nationwide.

I leave you with these three Reagan quotes:

"Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders." They can enslave you, they can take your family, they can take your money, but they cannot take your ideas.

"Man is not free unless government is limited." Limiting government begins with limiting funding. The rest falls into line.

"No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! " This is why you hear the Friend of the Court offices trying to increase funding again, as they too want to be immortal when all they are in reality is immoral.

In closing, the ideas begin with conversation, and flow through action. We are doing both.

If poor service delivery wasn't enough of a reason to opt out of free Family Court Welfare Services, Title IV Part D programs and child support services, then how about saving a thousand or more dollars and being secured against identity theft? Child Support customers in at least three states have already experienced serious breaches in their personal information, including social security numbers being compromised and potentially handed over to hackers that might want to steal identities in the last few months alone.

In Colorado, a computer was stolen from a Colorado state contractor which contained over 1.4 million names of people that made child support payments in the state as well as nearly a million more names of newly hired employees anywhere in the state. Additionally, receivers of support had their information compromised as well. ("Privatization, Identity Theft, and Crony Capitalism" http://www.unbossed.com/index.php?itemid=1186)

In Vermont,  a state computer containing names, social security numbers and bank account information for 70,000 vermont residents was hacked into by a remote user sometime before early December of 2006. ("Vermont Computer Hacked: 70,000 users at risk" Lock Down Your Identity January 30, 2007)

In California, the Department of Child Support Services improperly faxed a list of 1175 individuals, which contained their personal information, in error to an outside financial institution. (Press Release: California DCSS January 30, 2007)

Protecting your identity against theft begins with controlling who has access to your private information. By opting out of the Title IV-D program, Child Support Enforcement, and other family court services that are provided free of charge you are limiting access of who has access to your personal files. As with the majority of "free of charge" welfare programs remember the number one rule: you get what you pay for.

If you believe that your local family court has compromised your private data and personal information you can follow these steps:

1. Contact the fraud departments of any one of the three consumer reporting companies to place a fraud alert on your credit report. A fraud alert tells creditors to follow certain procedures before open any new accounts...

2. Close the accounts that you know or believe have been tampered with or opened fraudulently. Use the ID Theft Affidavit (PDF, 56KB) when disputing new unauthorized accounts...

3. File your complaint with the FTC. You may print a copy of your complaint to provide important standardized information for your police report...

4. File a report with your local police or police in the community where the identity theft took place. Give the police a copy of your FTC ID Theft complaint form. Get a copy of the police report (or, at least, the police report number)…

Identity Theft is a very serious issue, control who has your information, and opt out of welfare programs that have bad track records with handling data. A large number of participants of family court welfare services have already had their information stolen, don't be the next victim.

Yet another Child Support Worker that has been arrested on criminal charges. Evidence is mounting of taxpayer waste, fraud, and criminal activity regarding the Title IV Part D Child Support Program.

"ORLANDO, Fla. -- A former employee of the Department of Revenue's Child Support Enforcement program was arrested Thursday on bribery charges." (Local6.Com "Child Support Worker Arrested In Bribery Scheme" March 8, 2007)

In the many States, Child Support Workers are funded through Title IV Part D of the Social Security Act if the State programs voluntarily comply with federal mandates on how to operate. In the beginning a program to help needy families, it has now turned into a free for all welfare spending program where the States focus on revenue generation instead of helping actual needy families.

Just last month another Child Support Worker embezzled a quarter of a million dollars in Child Support Enforcement money in California. See prior article.

Evidence is mounting against the Title IV-D Program, often coined "Child Support Enforcement," demonstrating several unintended outcomes, widespread abuse of authority, widespread taxpayer fraud, and widespread over-participation of middle and upper-class families in the programs.

You can see a video regarding the current story case at: http://www.local6.com/news/11203825/detail.html

It's time to reign in free for all welfare spending where over 45% of the participants in the Title IV-D welfare program are middle to upper-class families that should be paying for their own disputes not feuding on tax payer money. Shrink back the program for its intended beneficiaries and shave off nearly 30,000 government employees nationwide to help control taxpayer waste, fraud, and government sponsored criminal activity.