U.S. Senators Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) and John McCain (R-AZ) today released a new oversight report: “Summertime Blues: 100 Stimulus Projects that Give Taxpayers the Blues.”
The report, a third in a series, highlights questionable stimulus projects that are wasteful, mismanaged, and overall unsuccessful in creating jobs. The projects featured in the report cannot be considered as an investment in long-term priorities to create and sustain economic growth that the Stimulus was designed to do.
During a bipartisan education seminar for congressional interns last week, Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown told a crowd of young people that those who opposed the Democrats’ health-care reform plan were on the wrong side of history, much like segregationists who opposed the Civil Rights movement.
While most speakers who participate in the summer lecture series discuss what it’s like working in Washington or use the time to motivate the internship class, some who were present during the Tuesday meeting said Brown took the opportunity to launch what they considered to be “a partisan attack.”
“He said that people who were opposed to health-care reform were similar to the bigots and racists that were against desegregation reform,” a Republican congressional intern who attended the lecture told The Daily Caller. The intern requested not to be named. “It was ridiculous,” he added.
A spokeswoman for Brown’s office confirmed that the senator discussed how Republicans use the filibuster, but clarified that he did not intend to compare opponents of the recent health-care law passed in May to supporters of segregation. (Daily Caller)
The Honorable Eric Holder
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20530
Dear Mr. Attorney General,
While you have filed suit against the state of Arizona for fighting illegal immigration, it has been brought to our attention that valuable state and local law enforcement dollars used to fight illegal immigration are wastefully being distributed to cities that encourage and provide safe harbor for illegal aliens.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) administers the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), which provides federal payments to states and localities that incurred correctional officer costs for incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens.
This program is essentially providing room and board for illegal aliens and potential terrorists in Sanctuary Cities. Localities who hypocritically request SCAAP funding are providing sanctuary and safe havens for criminal aliens. Sanctuary Cities bar law enforcement from doing their job of asking the people they come into contact with about their immigration status, thus mandating an evasion of their legal responsibilities to share immigration information with federal authorities. The results are safe havens for illegal aliens and potential terrorists where essentially the
rule of law does not apply in these cities.
The Department of Justice should not be providing law enforcement dollars to cities that provide safe haven to criminal aliens and potential terrorists, as these tax dollars could be used more wisely and efficiently in cities that are legitimately fighting the battle against illegal immigration.We understand that DOJ does not support SCAAP, as it has not been officially requested by DOJ in the past seven budget requests. SCAAP was airdropped into DOJ’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget request for $330 million by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as seen in the official budget pass-back from OMB to DOJ. Since 2000, five states have disproportionately received $2.2 billion of the $2.8 billion (77 percent) in funding this program has received, with some of these states having Sanctuary Cities.
We request that DOJ and the Inspector General immediately identify cities that have sanctuary policies, show sincerity in the fight against illegal immigration, and immediately re-evaluate the process and formula through which SCAAP is administered. The reauthorization of SCAAP is currently pending before Congress so we would appreciate your expedited response so we may better assist you and the Department of Justice in addressing this matter.
Sincerely,
Richard Shelby & David Vitter
A Government Accountability Office report released Thursday shows that the Department of Energy has spent more than $1.9 billion in so-called stimulus funds to create 10,018 jobs through May, an average of $194,213 spent per full-time job created.
“It looks like the Department of Energy got in over its head when it was handed $6 billion in stimulus money to create jobs by accelerating environmental cleanup work. This report says that DOE managed its timetables well enough, but it also indicates that so far, the jobs that DOE created cost $194,213 each,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis/Arlington, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “It’s hard to believe that the Energy Department isn’t creating a lesson in how to waste a lot of money in a hurry, with taxpayers joining the jobless as the latest victims of the recession. Americans need dramatically better thinking from the department’s leaders so the rest of their stimulus funding is more effectively used, too.”
DOE also reports it created 10,018 jobs through May of this year. However, the department has also used a more unorthodox methodology to inflate job creation in some of its reports, a methodology the GAO says may mislead the public. For example, using the method GAO was critical of, the agency reports roughly 20,000 jobs created through May of this year, counting the number of “lives touched” in some documents. More....
“If you fail to support efforts to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with real reform that puts patients first; vote yes to cap-and-trade energy taxes or fail to stop any related EPA regulation; vote yes to any more bailouts; or fail to stop any attempts to regulate the Internet.”Activists will be encouraged to go door-to-door and do at-home phone banking as part of a citizen education effort to let people know where Congress members Boccieri and Sutton stand on the issues and to encourage them to contact Boccieri and Sutton to tell them to stop the out-of-control spending and big government policies.
Faced with expensive legal challenges, officials in the eastern Nebraska town of Fremont are considering suspending a voter-approved ban on hiring or renting property to illegal immigrants until the lawsuits are resolved.
The City Council narrowly rejected the ban in 2008, prompting supporters to gather enough signatures for the ballot measure. The ordinance, which was approved by voters last month, has divided the community. Supporters say it was necessary to make up for what they see as lax federal law enforcement and opponents argue that it could fuel discrimination.
But the council's president, Scott Getzschman, insisted the elected body was concerned about money, not about any lack of support for the ordinance. The City Council is scheduled to vote on suspending the ban on Tuesday night, a day before the city goes to court over the measure.
The city faces lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund. City officials have estimated that Fremont's costs of implementing the ordinance -- including legal fees, employee overtime and improved computer software -- would average $1 million a year. More....
