Posted on 10/11/2009 9:46:37 AM PDT by rabscuttle385
Gov. Charlie Crist and his ``stimulus czar'' said Friday that a recent federal report supports Florida's go-slow approach to spending federal recovery money earmarked for highway projects and schools.
Even so, Florida's overall stimulus spending is a bit ahead of schedule, said czar Don Winstead, whose official title is special advisor to the governor on economic stimulus. Federal officials in February said they expected the state to spend about 20 percent of its estimated $15 billion in stimulus money by the end of September.
``I think we will be ahead of that schedule,'' Winstead said. ``We are seeing rapid deployment and we'll see over the next couple of months additional rapid deployment of some of the larger projects.''
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Santorum: Obama’s Czars on the ‘Liberal Fringe’
Former Sen. Rick Santorum said President Barack Obama’s appointments of so-called czars from the “liberal fringe” demonstrate who Obama “really is.”
The Pennsylvania Republican spoke at a gathering sponsored by the American Future Fund at the University of Dubuque in Iowa. During a Q & A session, he was asked about the czars — special advisors or envoys who have relatively few restrictions on their authority or salary, most of whom do not have to win confirmation in the Senate as Cabinet secretaries do.
“We’re going to have a fight about that,” Santorum said.
“It’s something members of Congress are starting to pay attention to. If you want to understand who Barack Obama really is, look at who he appoints as czars. That’s who this man is.
“These are the people who are completely unaccountable, who can articulate his vision of government. Look at who these people are. I know a couple of them who are reasonably decent people. Reasonably. I don’t want to overstate the case here.
“But there are some pretty fringe actors out there. And if a Republican would put a fringe conservative in positions like that, where Obama has put fringe liberals, I can’t even imagine the hell that would be being paid right now by that president.
“Bottom line: This is the most liberal president we’ve ever had in the office.”
Among the several dozen czars appointed by Obama are John Holdren, the White House “science czar,” who has espoused controversial theories on climate change and overpopulation; Cass Sunstein, “regulatory czar,” who has sought to ban hunting; and Mark Lloyd, “diversity czar,” who has sought to stymie conservative voices in the media by strictly regulating the public airwaves.
Another appointee, “green jobs czar” Van Jones, resigned after a spate of inflammatory remarks.
House Minority Leader John Boehner recently told Newsmax that Obama is “circumventing the Constitution” by appointing czars who are not subject to Senate confirmation or scrutiny.
He also said: “To have this many people at the White House who have really more control than the Cabinet secretaries, I think is a subversion of the Constitution.”
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