[They] “have no right to get this money but they are so indignant about the whole system they are going to complain about it.’’
Youuuuuuurrrrrrrr money, taxpayers of America!
"Earmark applicant’s complaint fuels critics; Passed over for funding, group cites inequities" by Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | October 29, 2009
WASHINGTON - They had no track record, no airplanes, no political sponsor, and they missed a deadline for requesting money. So it was hardly surprising that the founders of a nonprofit disaster relief organization were rejected this year when they lobbied for a $20 million earmark in a Senate defense budget.
But the lesson in earmark politics was not over for Paul Asmus, a former aviation executive, and Michael Coker, a veteran pilot from Hawaii. After being told it was too late to get money for their operation, they were stunned to learn that the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, Daniel Inouye, subsequently approved a $20 million earmark to build the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate, which will rise on the shore of Boston Harbor next to the John F. Kennedy Library.
See: Ted Kennedy Still Costing the Country
Contending they were treated unfairly, Asmus and Coker have written to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. They are accusing Inouye’s staff of unevenly applying earmark procedures by dispersing federal dollars to an institute honoring the late Massachusetts senator without giving their outfit, Humanitarian Air Logistics, what they consider a fair hearing....
The would-be airlift operators thought they had a good case when they sought their funding. They had won a modest signal of support from a four-star admiral commanding the Pacific Ocean fleet, and their mission was tangentially related to defense, because the US military conducts humanitarian airlifts, or contracts out the work.
You know, I would RATHER the MILITARY DO THAT instead of INVADING and OCCUPYING PLACES with MASS-MURDERING CARNAGE -- especially when SO MANY AREAS are DEVASTATED by weather!
The Kennedy Institute, though it lacked any relation to the defense budget, had far more political support, including the backing of Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts and a roster of influential former staffers....
Yeah, thanks, looters, 'er, senator and staffers.
Anyone tell these guys we are trillions in the hole?
Earmarks are expenditures added to budgets at the request of members of Congress, typically outside the budgeting system of federal departments and often used for pet projects in home states. The $360 billion defense appropriations bill pending in the Senate contains 778 earmarks worth $2.67 billion.
Well, a million here, a million there.... WOW, TWO BILLION!
And THAT is WRONG! It is $680 billion.
Just a "typo," right?
Inouye’s office declined to discuss how candidates for earmarks are selected, including who advocates for them, when they are filed, and who ultimately approves them. “We’re not going to talk about the committee’s internal deliberations,’’ said Lori Hamamoto, Inouye’s press secretary....
Also see: Oliver North questioned about Continuity of Government
How little times have changed 20 years later, huh?
The public complaints from Asmus and Coker are highly unusual because they contrast the rejection of their earmark with the success of another while seeking an egalitarian approach from an earmarking system that is notoriously political.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: MIC Captures Marcy Kaptur
The Liberal Looters of Massachusetts
Massachusetts Earmarks Money For Israel
To critics of earmarks, their grievances provide evidence of what is wrong with the entire practice. “It really exposes how intellectually bankrupt the system is,’’ said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington. Asmus and Coker “have no right to get this money but they are so indignant about the whole system they are going to complain about it.’’
************************
The Humanitarian Airlift Support Association, which is affiliated with Humanitarian Air Logistics, was lobbying for $20 million to jump-start the operation...
Asmus and Coker said they would have used part of the money to purchase or lease surplus military cargo planes or commercial aircraft. The organization says it wants to ease the burden on the US military, which has increasingly been called on to respond to natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes....
Yeah, media has been kind of quiet about those heroes, huh?
Did we say yes? I wouldn't know.
--more--"
Now KEEP the $2o MILLION in MIND, readers:
"Patrick to end nearly 1,000 jobs; Cuts would hit all of government; reduction plan spares local aid" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff | October 30, 2009
WORCESTER - Governor Deval Patrick intends to close a projected $600 million budget gap by eliminating nearly 1,000 state jobs, shaving millions from human service programs, reducing help for local school building projects, and possibly closing the State House library, the governor and his aides said yesterday....
Okay, in that context, it doesn't seem like much, but WAIT!
But Patrick’s budget cuts - which were met with a mixture of frustration, resignation, and even relief that they were not worse - were notable for what they did not touch: local aid, the money cities and towns rely on to run their schools, police, fire departments, and much more. Patrick made a point of saying he would fully protect that funding.
Need $$$, Bay-Staters?
Please see State Government On Probation (and related links within, thank you).
“We will not cut our record investment in our students and our schools. We will not shortchange our children’s future,’’ he said, in an address to the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. “Local communities are the front line of both our economic and our social life, and they are struggling as it is.’’
The rest of the $600 million gap Patrick said he would close through $248 million in additional measures, including $62 million from the federal stimulus bill....
COVERING BUDGET DEBTS to PAY BANKS is NOT STIMULUS!
Although primary sources of local aid were spared, Patrick did eliminate tens of millions of dollars that directly affect cities and towns, including $18 million to help regional school districts run school buses and $5.2 million in charter school reimbursements.
Related:
"The state has offered incentives in the past, but has not always fulfilled the promises it made to communities that regionalized. Wachusett Regional, which was formed in 1955 and enrolls students from the towns of Holden, Paxton, Princeton, Rutland, and Sterling, never received all of the state money promised for increased transportation costs, said Cynthia Bazinet, a School Committee member there. Such experiences could deter other communities from regionalizing, she said. "Out transportation costs are enormous," she said. "And we've never been reimbursed in the manner promised"
Also related: Back-to-School Series: Massachusetts Charts a New Course
“The overall sense is that people were expecting a cut, and a cut came,’’ said Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. “But it was smaller in magnitude than they had feared.’’
Well, if you HOLLER the SKY is FALLING and it DOESN'T FALL, then you feel pretty good, right?
Yeah, NEVER MIND that it RAINED S*** DOWN on you!
What a GREAT "GAME" they have going, huh?
Beyond the State House, Patrick’s cuts received a mixed reaction. Advocates for the disabled applauded smaller cuts than they feared to human services, and even came to they Worcester to show their support.... “We’re psyched,’’ said Leo Sarkissian, executive director of The Arc, which advocates for 180,000 individuals and families with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “No one likes a cut, but this is good. Families and advocates are thrilled.’’
Yeah, because when the state LOPS OFF an ARM they have ANOTHER CLIENT, don't they? Tell me they DID NOT APPLAUD THIS!
But.... Shannon Grants, which help fund youth violence prevention programs, also saw a significant cut, on top of other cuts over the past few months. The program was funded at $13 million last year and was cut in half for this year. Patrick sliced another $2 million yesterday, bringing the program’s funding to $4.5 million.
So the VIOLENCE PREVENTION takes an $8 MILLION DOLLAR CUT, huh?
While a LIBRARY is built for the LIBERAL WAR LION!
Homelessness advocates said they felt their programs were singled out. Joe Finn, president and executive director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, sent an e-mail to supporters calling the 7.4 percent cut to homeless assistance “both unconscionable and bad policy.’’
See: Slow Saturday Special: Turning Off the Porch Light
“This is going to force people onto the street,’’ said Lyndia Downie, president and executive director of the Pine Street Inn. She said her shelter, which has a $34 million budget, will now lose $1.7 million in state funding. The shelter is still working on how to deal with the cut, she said, pointing out that it comes as the weather is getting colder and as the demand for shelter will increase....
Maybe they could... STAY at the LIBRARY?
It is the fourth time in the past year that Patrick has been forced to make emergency cuts because tax revenues came in lower than expected.... State revenues have yet to stabilize, and fiscal watchdogs warn that more cuts are probable, perhaps even later this fiscal year.
“There may have to be another round of cuts this year, and there certainly will be major cuts in the fiscal 2011 budget,’’ said Michael J. Widmer, executive director of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. One issue with Patrick’s approach to budget-balancing, Widmer said, is it relies in part on one-time revenue sources, including federal stimulus funds and money from the state’s reserve account....
What RESERVES? The state is SITTING ON MONEY while the locals bleed?
That means that next year, if that money is not available again, the state will be forced to cut further. “It just delays the day of reckoning,’’ Widmer said....
Not for Patrick: November, 2010!
Maybe he should ASK EXXON to FILL UP OUR TANK:
"Exxon Mobil profit off as oil prices fall
Then why is the price rising at the pump?
A worldwide supply glut may yet cool the latest surge in oil, squeezing refiners and keeping profits in oil patch well below their peak last year. Exxon Mobil Corp. reported profit from July to September dropped 68 percent to $4.73 billion, or 98 cents per share. The results were the best of the year so far, but they’re less than a third of what Exxon earned in the same period of 2008, when crude prices spiked above $147 a barrel....
Awww, poor price-gouging market-manipulators!!!!
ONLY MADE $4 BILLION in a QUARTER!
And HOW MUCH YOU NEED, Massachusetts, for the HOMELESS and YOUTH VIOLENCE PROGRAMS?
Also yesterday, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe’s largest oil company, reported a 62 percent fall in profit for the third quarter. Shell said profit was $3.25 billion, down from $8.45 billion in the same period a year ago....
Yeah, I'm crying a river of oil for them.
--more--"
