Redistribution on steroids

[BoogyMan]

A 48 billion dollar earmark? Apparently the nitwits in Washington didn't hear what the American people had to say in this past election after all. Until clowns like this one are run rough shod out of Washington this garbage will never stop.



Link (http://www.semissourian.com/story/1687936.html)

Rep. Cleaver has proposed a $48 billion earmark
When absurdity gives way to hilarity, you must be talking about politics.

In the midst of a colossal global concern for the economic stability of our great nation, Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri's 5th Congressional District representative, has one small earmark on his wish list that deserves some attention.

Cleaver has listed a new earmark -- one of several -- and he promises to "fight for every one." But this is a whopping $48 billion package that must go down as the grandaddy of all earmarks.

Proposed by a gentleman named Lamar Mickens, president of the not-for-profit Quality Day Campus, the $48 billion earmark would funnel money into the inner cities to give money to the poor and thereby produce a much larger consumer class to buy the goods and services produced in this country.

Just call this redistribution on steroids.

.: Read the rest of this article :. (http://www.semissourian.com/story/1687936.html)

[fj1200]

Go big or go home.

[BoogyMan]

Here is the link to this rep's 2011 earmark requests. The 48 billion dollar request is the last request and is at the bottom of page 25.

http://www.house.gov/cleaver/pdf/earmarks.pdf

The text of the earmark request reads:


The Epicenter (E-Center) is a proposed / estimated / $48
billion dollar-(Phase One) mass /scale / urban
reclamation project for combating, reducing, reversing
and or eliminating poverty within underserved
communities--by utilizing mass / scale economic
redevelopment to bring about stability and self reliance.

Note this is only "phase 1."

[Gaffer]

Here is the link to this rep's 2011 earmark requests. The 48 billion dollar request is the last request and is at the bottom of page 25.

http://www.house.gov/cleaver/pdf/earmarks.pdf

The text of the earmark request reads:



Note this is only "phase 1."

If he can get it passed the biggest share will go into his pocket. And whatever people its suppose to be earmarked for won't see a cent.

[BoogyMan]

If he can get it passed the biggest share will go into his pocket. And whatever people its suppose to be earmarked for won't see a cent.

You should read through the list of earmarks at the link I posted earlier in the thread. This stuff has got to stop. The nuts are not just on the left either, the earmarking is rampant in nearly all parties in the congress.

[Gaffer]

You should read through the list of earmarks at the link I posted earlier in the thread. This stuff has got to stop. The nuts are not just on the left either, the earmarking is rampant in nearly all parties in the congress.

I know, that's why I want them all out. And earmarks should be made illegal.

[Kathianne]

Well those earmarks are in the past, for now. Links at site:

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/12/17/morning-bell-the-tea-party-is-back/


Morning Bell: The Tea Party is Back

Posted December 17th, 2010 at 9:12am

Two hundred and thirty-seven years ago last night, a group of colonists disguised as Indians boarded British merchant ships and dumped an estimated £10,000 worth of tea into Boston Harbor. This Boston Tea Party, which John Adams described as the “grandest event which has ever yet happened since the controversy with Britain opened,” was not just a protest about taxation. Our forefathers did not destroy tea because of a simple tax dispute. The 1773 Tea Party were protesting the process by which the British government taxed them. They were fundamentally rejecting the way the British were governing them.

Last night, the spirit of the Tea Party won another major victory when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) was forced to drop his $1.27 trillion, 1,924-page omnibus spending bill. The problem with Reid’s omnibus spending bill was not just its size—although our federal government does spend far too much of other people’s money—but the way it was drafted and forced on the American people...

[Kathianne]

And Pork Busters is getting some of the thanks too, well deserved for those that know that organization:

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/12/17/transparency-killed-the-earmarking-stars/


Transparency Killed The Earmarking Stars?
Share5
posted at 2:15 pm on December 17, 2010 by Ed Morrissey

How often do omnibus spending bills go down to defeat? Approximately … never, as Dave Weigel reminds us, and pork is usually the reason why. Not only do omnibus bills appear only when the budgeting process has failed and funding becomes an urgent issue, they also get so large and stuffed with perks that few dare to challenge them...


...If a two-month continuing resolution passes, as Republicans now want, it would fall to the new Republican House to create a budget very soon. That means the new Budget chairman, Paul Ryan, will get the opportunity to start cutting back the budget along the lines of the roadmap he’s been talking about since 2009. And there’s no question anymore as to whether Republicans will have the determination to make cuts, or whether transparency and exposure will keep them honest about this.

Two forces produced this outcome — transparency and public pressure. Porkbusters who pushed hard for the transparency reforms hoped to build momentum for the latter, which the Tea Party provided, perhaps more as a byproduct than a primary consideration. Tea Party activists want a reduction in overall spending and certainly see pork as a symptom of corrupt business practices. For years, though, we have been told that pork itself is irrelevant to spending and too small for rational consideration.

However, this result vindicates the efforts of Porkbusters. When the outrage became high enough and transparency identified the offenders, the porkers abandoned their earmarks...