Do you recall the initiative unveiled last October by President Obama? It had a catch phrase “We Can’t Wait” and it was designed to put pressure on the Republicans, accused by the President of blocking his plans to get America back on track. Much of the initiative was centered around Obama’s use of Executive Orders, administrative rule making, and recess appointments to bypass Congress. Nothing really new with that, as we know the President would rather go it alone than have to deal with the oversight of Congress. What I find interesting is that many of the funds associated with “We Can’t Wait” have been waiting. Some of them for ten years.
(The Daily Caller) The administration has waited three years and seven months to implement a new “We Can’t Wait” project that redirects unspent appropriations to fund new construction projects.
The wait delayed the spending announcement until 11 weeks prior to the November election.
The announcement is part of the administration’s “We Can’t Wait” effort, which highlights the president’s authority to change spending, law enforcement priorities and regulations, independent of Congress and the courts.
The redirected $473 million includes funds from appropriation laws passed up to 10 years ago, Josh Easton, the White House’ deputy press secretary, announced Aug. 17.
“Instead of seeing these funds sit idle… we’ll use them to put Americans back to work,” he said. “Some of them are nearly 10 years old,” he announced.
There are a couple of things I want to highlight about this. First, the Obama administration is obviously playing political games with these funds. How many times have we heard the phrase “shovel ready jobs”? Yet, we have all seen the evidence of just how shovel ready the jobs really were. The stimulus was sold to the American public as a way to improve infrastructure and put people back to work, but little work was actually done. The money was allocated, but much of it was put on hold. Am I the only one who sees this releasing of funds as politically expedient for President Obama? Just 11 weeks before the election and funds that have been on hold for years are suddenly in play?
The second point is to highlight exactly why we do not need a federal government, such as we now have. That these funds have been on hold for so many years puts the inefficiency and ineptitude of the federal government on full display. The paperwork involved with allocating the funds is horrendous and shows why our federal government needs to be cut down to size. Even with the grand proclamation of “We Can’t Wait” by the Obama administration, it will still be several months before the funds hit the streets. By doing so, any possible economic impact they may have is greatly diminished.
How much longer do we have to wait before “We Can’t Wait” becomes a complete and total joke in Washington?
This is straight out of the FDR playbook. In 1936 WPA welfare recipients got massive raises a month before the election. The one thing you can say for this is that half a billion doesn’t amount to much. But it’s still a shameless attempt to buy votes.
In my way of thinking, the amount of money isn’t that important. It’s the spirit and the intent that counts.
Absolutely, it’s an outrage no matter how much money it is.
Great post, LD, and Steven is right on. This is why no matter how good Romney-Ryan do on the stump and in the debate, the election will be close.
Obama will leverage the power of incumbency the way no president has since FDR.
I am afraid it will only get worse as we draw closer to the election. This will be especially true if the polls start to show improvement for the GOP ticket.
I think that Obama is not only using this spending as a political tool to discredit Republicans in Congress, but he is also using it to further his political agenda, an unfortunate coincidence. He firmly believes that injecting government spending into the economy will truly spread the wealth around, which he believes will jump-start the economy. What he doesn’t understand is that government isn’t a separate entity; it’s just the voice of the people. Government doesn’t generate funds on its own. It relies heavily on taxes to garner revenue, among other things. So what Obama is doing is simply taking money from the people and then giving it back, at the same time saying that he’s trying to do something about the problem. The real problem is that he’s spending more than the government takes in, leading to increasing debt.
Furthermore, he’s simply a liar. He constantly talks about the “horrendous Bush tax cuts” that only help the wealthy, even though he himself extended them at one point.
Even if he had not extended them, his economic policy is severely flawed. Bush brought in more revenue in taxes per year than Clinton or Obama. And he did so by cutting taxes. Obama constantly rants that supply-side economics have failed, when it is that same type of economic policy that allows for greater economic growth
You’ll never be able to convince a liberal that government spending isn’t good. Most of them seem to think the only reason their economic policies haven’t worked is because they didn’t spend enough money. From listening to Obama and the things he wants to do, I have no doubt he is firmly in that camp.
For Obama,politics comes first, second, and third. Where the country and Americans fit in his list of priorities is anybody’s guess. “We can’t wait” for Obama to be history.
To make matters worse, there’s the question as to where those funds actually go. Here in California they’ve a approved a bullet train, literally to nowhere. Getting one penny of those funds would just be a waste of money.
They do love to spend our money.
Apparently we can’t wait is only an excuse Obama believes when he uses it to expand federal power through EO, other than that he is perfectly willing to wait. I won’t be surprised if we see this money released shortly before the election in order to make the unemployment numbers look a little better heading into the election.
This is actually a move by Obama to cement his hold on what he believes are legitimate powers of the Executive Branch of our government. That’s why we are seeing so many new policy directives and rule changes. This is how he is changing the shape of our government, without having to deal with Congress.
I have been told over and over Funds are good for 5 years only at the most.
http://books.google.com/books?id=1W5KmFGQOJgC&pg=PA228&lpg=PA228&dq=far+appropriated+funds+expire&source=bl&ots=y_d9EJCYGK&sig=BeOFZNeZaRVy750ql_hr5GX4Hec&hl=en&sa=X&ei=IJUxUJP6LsHG6wG39oCgAQ&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAjgU#v=onepage&q=far%20appropriated%20funds%20expire&f=false
B Hussein O is trying to be Dictatorish with his EO and changing Law only Congress should do only.
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