Fake Anti-Waste Group, Wacky Jim DeMint Sound the Alarm: Congress is Spending the Stimulus Money!
By Susie Madrak Wednesday Jun 10, 2009 3:31pm
Wacky wingnut Sen. Jim "Your Conservative Voice in the Senate" DeMint (R-SC) is trying to raise a stink about this. Are people being put to work with the stimulus money? If yes, then shut your piehole, Jim:
WASHINGTON — President Obama and congressional Democrats have defended the $787 billion stimulus package against accusations of pork-barrel spending by saying the bill did not direct money to projects requested by members of Congress.
Still, that hasn't stopped lawmakers from working behind the scenes to try to influence how the money is spent, according to agency records.
Dozens of members of Congress from both parties have called, written or e-mailed agencies urging them to fund projects in their districts or states.
So freakin' what? As Barney Frank points out, isn't that their job?
Among the projects supported by members of Congress that have been funded: $116 million for a federal courthouse in Austin; $35 million to $60 million for toxic waste cleanups in Massachusetts and Colorado; and $5 million for the removal of pine trees killed by bark beetles in Colorado, records show.
Ten of 27 departments and agencies receiving stimulus money have released records of contacts by lawmakers under Freedom of Information Act requests USA TODAY filed in April. Those records detailed 53 letters, phone calls and e-mails recommending projects from 60 members from February through the end of May. Thirteen of those lawmakers voted against the stimulus package.
Seems to me that's the real story. Why doesn't USA Today list the lawmakers who voted against the stimulus but are still trying to grab the dough? Could it be because of their party affiliation, perhaps?
Budget watchdogs worry that political pressure from members of Congress could threaten the impartiality of agency decisions.
"This is really subverting the intent of the legislation, when members call an agency and say, 'Fund my project,' " says Thomas Schatz of the non-partisan Citizens Against Government Waste. "Especially if it's an appropriations committee member that's in charge of the agency's budget, it's likely the agency will accede to that request."
Oh, let's talk about Citizens Against Government Waste, shall we? A right-wing group funded by the usual suspects - the Olin Foundation, the Bradley Foundation - and Big Biz, like the tobacco lobby and Microsoft. Coincidentally, one of their biggest campaigns was against... open source software, that well-known threat to humanity. They also lobbied Congress on behalf of the tobacco industry. Hmm.
Lawmakers say they are just doing their jobs.
"One of the dumbest things I've ever heard is the notion that members of Congress should have no say on how government money is spent," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who successfully petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to use stimulus money to speed cleanup of a polluted harbor.
Congress enacted rules two years ago requiring lawmakers to disclose their requests for funding of projects inserted into annual spending bills and to certify that the projects would not directly benefit themselves or close relatives. The stimulus bill, however, contained no specific projects — known as earmarks — prompting lawmakers to seek other ways to direct spending.
Horrors! A bill gets passed that doesn't specify how it's spent - and Congress tries to lobby on behalf of projects! The sky is falling!
Sounds like a lazy reporter got a press release from Citizens Against Government Waste, is how it sounds to me. But what do I know?
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I may have to leave the site soon for a bit
Tornado on the way.
And let us know as soon as you can safely.
Be careful, and be sure to let us know when the coast is clear! :)
Good luck, hope it passes everyone by and hits a cornfield!
According to Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone, "This is the world we live in now...It's a gangster state, running on gangster economics..." Support HR 1207 to audit the Federal Reserve.
"Sounds like a lazy reporter got a press release from Citizens Against Government Waste, is how it sounds to me."
Or maybe Drudge & Rush whispered in his ear!
Governor Sanford, after he and Sanford both got caught demagoguing over funds for schools. Of all fights to pick and out of the entire stimulus, they both decided to wax apoplectic over money for schools. Hey, Jim! Two stupids don't make a smart.
Remember the enron scandal?
guess who was in there, privatizing social security, on top of stock, tax evasion, and all sorts of legal mumbo jumbo, will make the nixon years watergate, look like he robbed a piggy bank...check this one out on enron...an follow the money..
http://www.cpusa.org/article/view/348/
Can't get away from them.
as part of the stimulus. It was a huge surprise, and a godsend. I bought clothing that would be appropriate for job interviews. I am going to be looking for work in fashion retail, so faded, worn clothing is a huge minus in trying to look for work. If I do find a job, I will owe part of it to the stimulus and this administration, and none of it to the likes of Jim DeMint!
timjoebillybob? I haven't seen him since he tried to lecture me on how I ought to manage my disability, that losing my needed medication would be an "incentive" for me to work, etc.
I feel bad if I somehow chased him off but I really didn't appreciate his comments...
And he is not missed!
Good luck with the job hunt, Annaleigh!
*
The problem I have - Pauslon's Plunder, now Obama's blunder included a stealth windfall tax giveaway of then reported, in WaPo, as $140 billion, but putting the pieces together later it probably came to be quite a bit more than that. Reported in WaPo but virtually nowhere else. Here
This was quietly made legal after the fact in the 'Stimulus' bill.
See of Part 4, section 1431 of the final bill:
They go on to say in effect, keep the money, without ever mentioning that it was hundreds of billions unlawfully transferred. That is the congress for you, bought and paid for by the wall street mobsters.
If the CFO of a corporation unilaterally, without authorization, gave away 10% of its anticipated revenue stream, he or she would be in the hoosegow. That is what should happen to crooks.
Not here because the crooks bought off the sheriff.
The 'Stimulus' should have been bigger. It could have been bigger, except for this stealth rip off. If they hadn't secretly given the banks hundreds of billions in a tax boondoggle that virtually no one seems to have noticed.
My first comment on it in November is here.
It was NOT pursued, not even mentioned in questioning of Geithner. Here is my comment on that.
Here is my comment on the thoroughly sanitized Frontline report of the
meltdowngreat swindle.Where are the journalists, all died, gone into hiding or been bought off. This was an enormous RIP OFF. Hardly anyone seems to have noticed.
Barney Frank knows the entire story but he has been captured by the Wall Street mafia just like the others.
Geithner directed Paulson so it is only understandable that it is now Obama's "blunder."
These people are committing some serious fraud under the guise of trying to stimulate the economy. That is precisely why they don't want the Federal Reserve audited. It would implicate many people in this administration and expose our economy for the sham that it is.
f
Barney is totally wrong on this. The stimulus is money raised on our kids backs to help us get out of a situation we got ourselves into. It is not to simply create work, like cleaning up a toxic mess, but to create works that bring jobs now and bring growth expansion and revenue which will further create jobs later. We have to be utterly precise with this money or it's more tax and spend on the backs of our kids, and that gives the Rethugs more deserved fuel for their fires.
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Looks like a bad idea to click on this one, folks. I wouldn't risk it.
Looks like there is a lot of left wing stupidity going around too.
Quote the author:
"Wacky wingnut Sen. Jim "Your Conservative Voice in the Senate" DeMint (R-SC) is trying to raise a stink about this. Are people being put to work with the stimulus money? If yes, then shut your piehole."
First off I am not a conservative or republican so I don't believe my answers to lean left or right as I see the left just as flawed and in equal partnership with the right to F#@K us out of money, property and civil liberties. .
Yes, Susie it does matter. Because all of the jobs listed are TEMPORARY meant to go away once the projects are completed. So much for sustainability that the left likes to preach.
Because the Federal Reserve is a private business like Federal Express. The only for profit business that does NOT pay taxes.
99 % of the money collected from your federal income tax goes to pay interest on the money they print - recklessly; which devalues the money currently in circulation.
Because my tax dollars are being spent recklessly on stupid sh!t that does not benefit anyone but the bureaucrats who use your funds to ensure their jobs, not yours.
Susie, you have no credibility because anyone who obviously shows any common sense is some how a quack because they are republican or they wear a different label than you do.
Why don't you explain to the readers how Obama is a liar , just like the liar in office before him. How he broke every campaign promise. How he told that he would not allow any lobbyists in Washington, but then went to hire more lobbyists than any other administration before him - and they are all from financial institutions such as Goldman-Sachs who are essentially running the Fed.
Perhaps you should place yourself on the list for being an establishment hack!
Audit the FED baby. HR 1207 !!
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