AmeriCorps at 20 is a wasteful flop : A Fascist Movement Turns 20

USA Today reports:

One of AmeriCorps' key "performance measures" for itself is boosting "the number of uninsured and economically disadvantaged individuals connected to or utilizing health care services." AmeriCorps co-sponsored National Youth Enrollment Day on February 15 to boost ObamaCare sign-ups prior to the deadline this year for coverage.

Congress recently enacted a law prohibiting federally-funded food stamp recruiting but AmeriCorps continues paying scores of members to entice people onto the dole. AmeriCorps, along with USDA, is bankrolling the National Anti-Hunger and Opportunity Corps whose primary goal is "increasing participation" in food stamps. Joel Berg, the director of that program, pockets a six-figure salary while issuing apocalyptic statements about America's injustice to the poor. USDA denies bankrolling recruitment campaigns -- but also insists that it is only recruitment if someone seeks "to persuade an individual who has made an informed choice not to apply for food stamps to change his or her decision and apply."

AmeriCorps headquarters does little or no oversight to assure that grantees obey the federal ban on political advocacy. AmeriCorps is also scorning a federal law passed in 2010 to curb improper payments, instead simply ignoring whether grantees make proper use of the hundreds of millions of dollars they receive. A June 2014 Inspector General report condemned the agency for "shocking waste of taxpayer funds, lax oversight, unauthorized contractual commitments and widespread noncompliance with rules, regulations and sound contracting practices." AmeriCorps failed to even use almost a third of the products for which it paid contractors. While AmeriCorps boasts that their time "serving" radically changes AmeriCorps members' lives, it canceled a long term study of former members' civic engagement and life skills after spending more than $3 million for the project.

What a scam.