The Obama administration and liberal policies look awfully bad in the face of the facts emerging about the Tsarnaev family's insertion into the United States.

The Boston Herald yesterday broke the story of the family having received welfare, after inquiries with the state government:

On Tuesday, Massachusetts Health and Human Services spokesperson Alec Loftus confirmed to the Boston Herald that deceased Boston bombing 'Suspect 1' Tamerlan Tsarnaev received welfare benefits from the state until 2012: State officials confirmed last night that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter. The state's Executive Office of Health and Human Services said those benefits ended in 2012 when the couple stopped meeting income eligibility limits.

This is mighty inconvenient for the Food Stamp President who has overseen a vast increase in the number of people receiving government aid while subtracting millions from the workforce.

Even more inconvenient is the level of incompetence in responding to two notifications to two separate security organizations that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was worth keeping an eye on, and his ability to travel to a hotbed of terrorism. The fact that the administration prematurely announced that there were no larger connections, as more and more evidence mounts that their bomb was too sophisticated to pull off of the web, that Tamerlan received training overseas, that the brothers attended a mosque with radical ties, and that they somehow obtained financing for this activity while also receiving money from the taxpayers, suggests that our national security is in the hands of the Keystone Kops.



You can tell they are worried because Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick yesterday clamped down on further release of information on the Tsarnaevs' helping themselves to money other people had to pay taxes for. Patrick is a long term friend and ally of Obama. Chris Cassidy, Laurel J. Sweet, Dave Wedge, Erin Smith and Richard Weir of the Boston Herald report:

The Patrick administration clamped down the lid yesterday on Herald requests for details of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's government benefits, citing the dead terror mastermind's right to privacy. Across the board, state agencies flatly refused to provide information about the taxpayer-funded lifestyle for the 26-year-old man and his brother and accused accomplice Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. On EBT card status or spending, state welfare spokesman Alec Loftus would only say Tamerlan Tsarnaev, his wife and 3-year-old daughter received benefits that ended in 2012. He declined further comment. On unemployment compensation, labor department spokesman Kevin Franck refused to say... (snip) On Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's college aid, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth spokesman Robert Connolly said, "It is our position - and I believe the accepted position in higher education - that student records including academic records and financial records (including financial aid) cannot under federal law be released without a student's consent." On cellphones, the Federal Communications Commission would not say whether either brother had a government-paid cellphone, also citing privacy laws. On housing, Cambridge officials and the family's landlord ducked questions on whether the brothers were ever on Section 8 assistance.

When you consider the amount of aid this clan could have collected, it could come to more than many families have to spend after taxes. Many immigrant communities, not just Russians, have help available for members to maximize their receipt of benefits, and it would not be surprising if the Tsarnaevs were relatively sophisticated in their abilities to milk the taxpayers for all they are worth.

Politically most inconvenient for Obama is that immigration was supposed to be the great wedge issue upon which to fracture the Republicans, add 11 million Democrats to the voter rolls, and solidify progressive control of America forever. Now we have an example of the dire consequences of letting just anyone at all into the country and being as compassionate toward them (as the liberals see it) as we were to the Tsarnaev clan.