we wants the money!!!
Posted on 12/18/2007 6:53:26 PM PST by LowCountryJoe
The Congressional Black Caucus demanded an “emergency meeting” with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Monday night to address concerns ranging from the unfair distribution of earmarks to the need for Gulf Coast reconstruction efforts.
In a letter to Pelosi last Thursday, Caucus Chairwoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.) said the caucus needed to discuss these “matters of extreme urgency” with the speaker as soon as possible.
Pelosi agreed to meet with the caucus, Kilpatrick said Monday.
But Kilpatrick would not elaborate on the specific requests she would make to the speaker.
“It’s the end of the year and we’ll be looking at the things that are coming. We were concerned that much would be going on and we are meeting as a caucus to discuss that with her,” Kilpatrick said.
In her letter, she singled out the unequal awarding of earmarks. A recent analysis of earmarks by Congressional Quarterly showed that white members received on average twice the funding that African-American lawmakers received for requests made by a single person.
Last week USA Today ran an article on earmarks that listed some of the top recipients of funding for pet projects. Not a single black lawmaker appeared on the list.
“The disparity of earmarks, and the lack of inclusion of any CBC members in this listing, is disconcerting, to say the very least,” Kilpatrick wrote.
She went on to say the Black Caucus understood that not everybody would receive the same amount in earmark funding. Appropriators generally receive more, as do lawmakers facing tight reelection races who need good publicity back home.
“Inherently, we understand that this earmark process is not equitable,” she wrote. But she still hoped that more earmarks would be doled out to black lawmakers who have competitive reelection contests. “There are a few examples of where your help could significantly assist a few members in highly contested races,” she wrote.
Few Black Caucus members face election threats from Republicans. Those that do have competitive races on their hands are Reps. Bill Jefferson (D-La.), Ed Towns (D-N.Y.) and Al Wynn (D-Md.), who all face primary challengers. Nearly all black lawmakers occupy strongly Democratic districts.
A House Democratic aide said that the Black Caucus was making requests late in the process with little chance of success. House Democrats expect to wrap up this year’s work by week’s end, and most earmark requests have been in the appropriations pipeline for months.
“I don’t think there is really a chance of making changes this year. The focus is on next year,” the aide said.
In October, the Black Caucus set up a special panel chaired by Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) to consider solutions to earmark disparities. Clyburn spokeswoman Kristie Greco said the panel had yet to issue recommendations.
“It’s still ongoing. They’re continuing to meet and will continue to meet next year and work out a recommendation or solution to the issue,” she said.
On Gulf Coast reconstruction, Kilpatrick asked that Pelosi insert language in the pending omnibus spending bill that would “allow homes being demolished or rehabilitated under federal housing programs in New Orleans…to be replaced or rehabilitated one-to-one.”
She went on to say the Black Caucus understood that not everybody would receive the same amount in earmark funding. Appropriators generally receive more, as do lawmakers facing tight reelection races who need good publicity back home.
Anybody that has ever defended a subsidy or a home-town project when the Republicans had control of the house, should see the folly in their past enthusiasm(s). Too many Americans love their pork and their government and they'll keep voting for the Bureaucrats who can deliver. The Democrats are not entirely the guilty ones either: you Huckabee supporters (amongst others, to be sure) should know exactly what I'm talking about.
we wants the money!!!
Translation: Mo money, mo money, mo money.
This is a 4 1/2 star barfer.
Nancy didn’t need to buy THEIR votes to pass her failed agenda.
Had to use that money for the wafflers and the RINOs
The CBC is an abuse of power. Here’s the rule of thumb: if a black organization could not have a white counterpart without shouts of racism being raised, that organization should not have taxpayer support. Pure and simple. In short: no CBC, no Black Student Unions, no black colleges — no black anything that cyphons off taxpayer money.
Oh that's just peachy !!! The taxpayer gets to foot the bill for the "renovations"...wonder if thats going to wind up like those wonderful debit cards FEMA handed out like beads at Mardi Gras !!
That's because the democrats really are racists. (Albert Gore Sr, George Wallace, Fritz Hollings, Klansman Byrd, Bull Connor, Lester Maddox etc)
I’ve been reading multiple articles railing against earmarks, the abuse of the earmarks for Political gains, abuse of the taxpayers, etc., and here we have this person from CBC demanding an emergency meeting with Pelosi for equal earmarks for black legislators.
I find it absolutely amazing. Cynically funny actually.
This is what happens when you become the “house slaves” on the Democratic Plantation, as Shrillary would call it — oh, wait she was talking about the Republican Congress.....
Let yourselves be the loyal appendage of the Demagogic Party and they soon realize they can buy you cheap.
How long is the U.S. government going to continue to pay for slavery reparations? How long are these people going to divide the nation not only in all aspects of our way of life but in the government as well?
When are American Blacks going to integrate and take responsibility for their own lives?
This has gone on far too long - for too many generations - and we have paid for and received a lower class of uneducated, ignorant, on-the-dole group of people who continue to perpetuate ignorance so they won’t have to expand their horizons and pay their own way, and who
think the world still owes them for past sins.
It isn’t working any more - the debt is beyond paid. If these people can play the snide game of ‘payoff’ - they would serve the nation more honestly by helping themselves instead of playing victim any longer.
The United States of America has become a most powerful nation because of individual responsibility and contribution. There is no excuse that some African Americans and their corrupt leadership continue to cling to their helpless role - it is no less than blackmail - legalized blackmail.
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