Many people who work in private enterprise have been forced to depend on public servants from time to time. While there are some conscientious and diligent public servants, it seems there are many more who could do with s swift kick in the rear end, to get them moving.
Now things are so bad that the public servants themselves are willing to report it and laugh about it.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch interviewed workers hired to process Obamacare applications. They described their work days being filled with sleeping, playing board games, reading, or fighting with each other when there was little or no work.
The Post-Dispatch quoted one Kentucky worker, who said, “I walk out every day feeling as if I have contributed nothing.” A worker in Missouri said she and other workers played games or slept because there was nothing for them to do. Company and government supervisors knew they were being paid to do little or no work at all.
It remains to be seen whether lawmakers in Washington will do anything about this. Some say these government jobs were only offered to reduce unemployment numbers in an election year. Democrats probably don’t care if it is a waste of money. They only care about their own reelection, and no one really expects a thorough investigation in scandal-prone Washington.
These stories would be bad enough, but worse is to come.
Last year Serco, the Virginia-based company that is part of Britain’s Serco Group was awarded a five-year, $1.2 billion contract to process paper applications for health insurance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the implementation of Obamacare.
Serco employees were not allowed to have access to the Internet or cell phones. They weren’t even permitted pens and paper, but when the workers had nothing to do, they became bored.
Duh!
So supervisors began supplying them with various things just to keep bored workers busy. Eventually, Serco began supplying books for workers to read, but officials Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services became aware that people were reading on the job, and they had the practice stopped immediately.
You can’t make this stuff up!
The Kentucky worker who was interviewed by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said, “When the highlight of employees’ days is playing Pictionary in the training room, and you get paid decent money to go to work to talk to your friends, something is wrong,” he told The Post-Dispatch in an email. “It was like I was stealing money from people.”
Obamacare has been a massive waste of money, from the moment it was conceived, but the waste really got started going in October. See Where is American Anger Over Bankrupt Obamacare Exchanges?
Now at least, it isn’t only republicans questioning the waste. Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, who skillfully dodged her close association with Obama for her 2012 re-election campaign, called for a federal inspector general’s investigation after hearing “allegations of wrongdoing” in the Wentzville, MO workplace. Even if she is serious, that will likely amounting to exactly zero if Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have anything to do with it.
Senator Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, told The Post-Dispatch his office has heard of other cases of employees who were doing little work. “I have heard that there have been allegations from other facilities, and we are looking into that,” he said.
Sen. Blunt and Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., sent a letter to the head of the CMS. It appears it will take more than a letter to fix this situation, but Washington is swamped with Benghazi, IRS, “Fast and Furious,” and a host of other more immediate scandals that are still unresolved and probably will be until Barack Obama leaves office.
CMS officials say Serco employees continue to process Obamacare mail and work with customers.
The Obama Administration and Democrats are still convinced that government is the answer to every problem. Taxpayers, not so much. In the video below, the employees of a small business discover what the so-called Affordable Care Act is doing to their health insurance – and it isn’t good.
