THE STIMULAS SHELL GAME
By
Jon Christian Ryter
February 2, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
When the US House of Representatives passed President Barack Obama's stimulus package on Wed., Jan. 28, 2009 it was an $819 billion boondoggle (on top of another $800 billion taxpayer-funded bank-bailout on top of a $15 billion auto industry bailout) that will become an $890 billion bailout when the Senate version of the bill is enacted next week. In the second stimulus package in as many months, there is about $400 billion of actual money to stimulate the economy. The balance is pork. Not a single House Republican voted in favor of the legislation. In a bipartisan spirit, 11 Democrats crossed the aisle and voted against the Democratic leadership. The vote was 247 ayes, 188 nays.
Here's why. Sen. David Vitter [R-LA] revealed to the public on Jan. 29 that the Obama people inserted a $5.2 billion "stimulus" in the stimulus package that will reward the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now [ACORN] for flipping the traditionally Red States that Obama needed to become the 44th President of the United States. Nationwide, ACORN, using deliberately-created loopholes the Motor Voter Law (enacted by the Democratically-controlled Congress in 1993 to help Bill Clinton win reelection in 1996) that were tailored specifically for this type of vote fraud). ACORN, using the vetting flaws in the law, created from 9.5 to 15.2 million "new" voters who were not legally eligible to cast those votes in the Election of 2008 because many of them were illegal aliens or they simply didn't exist because they were the result of multiple registrations by the same people. Since 1993, the far left has created over 20 million registered voters from resident aliens, the Daly Dead (which, under Clinton, spread from Chicago to every urban center in the nation), to minors under the legal voting age, felons who could not legally vote, and illegal aliens.
For those who claim the voters gave Barack Hussein Obama a "mandate" to govern, let me say this: ACORN, which illegally employed known felons as voter registration workers, gave Obama a mandate to rule, and Obama is dutifully rewarding them. The media correctly reported that there was an overwhelming numbers of new voters in 2008, resulting in an unprecedented turnout at the polls. The media claimed most of the new voters were young people—18- to 24-year olds—who had never before voted.
In the Election of 2008, 125,225,901 votes were cast for the primary party candidates. Obama captured 66,882,230 votes in 2008 compared to the 59,028,109 votes taken by far left Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry in 2004. We're looking at a difference of 7,854,121 new Democratic votes (not necessarily new voters) that were tallied for Obama in 2008. The media attributes the "phenomenal increase" in voter turnout to ACORN's ability to motivate young people to come out and vote. Let's see if that's true. CNN voter tabulations for 2004 and 2008 indicate that 48% of the nation's 18 to 24 years turned out to vote in 2004. In 2008, that number rose to 52%, or a difference of 4%. An increase? Yes. A phenomenal increase? No. In 2004, 62,902,000 18 to 24-year old votes were cast for Kerry. That translates to 2,516,098 increased 18- to 24-year old votes for Obama. That leaves 6,022,461 other 25-plus year old Acorn votes tallied in the Election of 2008. In Philadelphia alone, 50,663 fraudulent ACORN registrations out of 57,435 rejected registrations were given to the US Attorney. In August, 2008, 12 States raises the red flag about rampant Motor Voter registration fraud from Project Vote, Acorn's voter mobilization unit. Nothing was done about the allegations.
The Democrats know that ACORN was singularly responsible for their regaining control of Congress in 2006 and securing a virtually veto-proof majority in 2008 (which technically means the Republicans can't stop them from doing whatever they want). Political pundits, looking at the known instances of vote fraud, estimate that only 3 to 5 million, or 30% to 35% of the registrations generated by ACORN and other civil rights community activists, were actually legitimate. ACORN's voter advocacy in 2007-08 was accomplished with about $5.8 million—with a "M." Imagine how much damage to honest elections ACORN could generate with $5.2 billion—with a "B." It's understandable why Obama and the far left wants to endow ACORN. With a $5 billion "get-out-the-vote" nest egg for the far left voter advocacy group that has shown it can magically multiply the value of the ballots cast by the voters it registers through the Motor Voter Law, ACORN will be able to manipulate the texture of the vote in almost evenly Congressional district in the country, virtually guaranteeing that conservatives will never again be able to control Congress, and only with great difficulty, succeed in winning the White House.
Obama promised that he would redistribute the wealth of what he described as the greedy white middle class in his book, "Dreams From My Father." Obama Economic Advisor Robert Reich met with the House Ways & Means Committee on Jan. 7, 2009 to detail how the President-elect wanted the first phase of the redistribution to take place. Only a President-elect who was extremely confident that he would be reelected before he was even sworn in as President would send his top Economic Advisor-designate to a public Congressional hearing to shape the tone of stimulus legislation by openly advocating that Congress stipulate that the job-stimulus money in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 contain language that would require the States and the local communities to funnel the job-stimulus money to black-owned companies which employ African-Americans and other unemployed minorities, women—and long-term unemployed people who are not qualified for the construction jobs that will be created under the Stimulus Package.
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Two days after the 111th Congress was installed, Reich sat before Ways & Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel detailing Obama's views how this should play out. "Infrastructure spending," he told Rangel, "will stimulate the economy..." and that stimulus dollars should be spent on projects that will "...have a high social return that also can be done with the greatest speed possible. I am concerned, as I'm sure many of you are, that these jobs simply not go to high-skilled people who are already professionals, or to white male construction workers. I have nothing against white male construction workers, I'm just saying there are other people who have needs as well...Criteria can be set so that the money does go to others, the long-term unemployed, minorities, women and people who are not necessarily construction workers or high-skilled professionals."
Rangel agreed that "...We're going to have to establish formulas where governors are going to have to find some formula to find out how to get the money where the hemorrhages are. At the end of the day we know where the joblessness is, where the fears are, and we can get the federal formulas to target the relief to those communities. We don't have to worry about what the middle class is going to do. Things are so bad they have to put food on the table [and] get clothes for their kids...I think we can get rid of some of the fears by mandating the criteria and formulas." Rangel felt that the white middle class workers were so wrapped up in the fear of of losing their jobs, their homes and their affluent way of life that they won't be paying attention to the fine print in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Republican Congressmen are.
The Democrats are in pig heaven. They've never seen a pork bill they didn't fall in love with, and they've never passed up an opportunity to enlarge government. It's not often they get both in the same bill...well...no...with the Democrats having a 1933 FDR majority in both Houses, we can expect that every piece of legislation coming out of Congress at least until 2010 will enlarge both the national debt and the size and scope of government. If this nation does not prosecute ACORN for vote fraud, repeal the Motor Voter Law and invalidate all registrations created under the bad law, and force those registrants to refile and prove their eligibility to vote, you will find the elections in Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and communist China will be more honest than those in the United States.
One of the provisions in the Senate version of this bill (originally introduced as S.1315 Veterans' Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007) will give $198 million in lump sum payments to aging Filipino veterans who fought in World War II—to protect their homeland which was invaded by the Japanese, and not a territory of the United States. How many US veterans received military pensions after serving four years? None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Other than the handful of Filipinos who live here and would spend that allotment here, the bulk of those who would be recipients of this largess of the taxpayers of the United States, those dollars would be spent to enhance the economy of the Philippines. The measure was sponsored by Sen. Daniel Akaka [D-HI].
The only "breathe of fresh air" measure in the legislation, already being attacked by the liberal press, was inserted in the House version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 by 13th term Congressman Peter Visclosky [D-IN]. The Senate version was proffered by Byron Dorgan [N-ND]. Dorgan's measure mandates that all construction projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 must use infrastructure materials, particularly steel, that were made in the United States. The "Buy American" provision came right out of the playbook of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. While FDR-student Obama privately eschews the Vischlosky-Dorgan amendment, publicly "Buy American" has a vote-getting patriotic ring to it.
The Obama Administration will fight hard to sabotage that provision in the Senate bill and, if necessary, to surreptitiously drop it out of the bill in joint conference when the patriotic public is no longer watching what they believe is "enacted law."
On Jan. 30 Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs said he would "...review that particular provision...[the president's advisers understand that]...all of the concerns that have been heard, not only in this room, but in newspapers produced both up north and down south." When asked by the press corp, Gibbs refused to say what Obama will do if the provision is still in the legislation when the bill hits his desk. I suspect the Solicitor General of the United States will file a lawsuit with the Supreme Court to remove it. After all, what could be worse in an American stimulus package than a measure that would require US government contractors to actually buy American products to stimulate the economy?
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The "Buy American" provision is already being attacked by the European Commission and the Canadian government. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is calling the measure a violation of NAFTA. The EU insists that the Visclosky-Dorgan provision flies in the face of a G-20 agreement reached in November, 2008. Thirteenth term Visclosky and 3rd term Dorgan have too much influence with other House and Senate members to be casually dismissed by the far left even though some of the most vocal opponents of the Buy American provision are the nation's biggest blue chip industrialists—and campaign contributors. Less than two weeks into what Obama said would be the most open presidency in history and the shell game has already begun.
