Posted on 07/04/2009 9:07:56 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington -- The Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center, a job-training facility in one of Los Angeles' poorest neighborhoods, is threatened with receiving no federal money at a time of high unemployment -- simply because of its name.
The center has become a victim of a move on Capitol Hill to block funding for projects that bear the monikers of sitting lawmakers.
"It doesn't seem fair that rich private entities can get funded and this poor school cannot," said Rep. Waters (D-Los Angeles), who had a heated confrontation with Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) on the House floor last week over his refusal to grant her $1-million request.
The decision to deny funding for what critics call "monuments to me" comes as the number of projects named after their congressional benefactors has grown in recent years.
It used to be buildings were named after deceased lawmakers. But now all kinds of projects can be found named for the living: the Jerry Lewis Family Swim Center in San Bernardino, the Congressman David Dreier Water Treatment Facility in Baldwin Park and the James E. Clyburn Pedestrian Overpass in South Carolina, to name a few. West Virginia has dozens of projects named for Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a master of pork-barrel politics: roads, schools, a courthouse, even a dam and a telescope.
"Too many lawmakers suffer from an edifice complex, where they direct taxpayer funds to projects or programs that burnish their legacy," said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense. "It would be one thing if it was their money, but it isn't. The public is right to be skeptical, thinking that these projects are more about lawmakers' egos than the highest and best use of our precious taxpayer dollars."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Only in America would living folk hanker over having their names on things. Geesh. the shutzpah!
Doncha just love RAT in house fighting?
Time to look at Fat Jack Murtha airport too! This stuff is getting to be a joke.
It is incredible, the absolute garbage that gets re elected in CA over & over again. If ever we needed a case for term limits, Moonbat Maxie is a good poster child along with too many others.
No public structure or work should be named for a living politician. If their legacy stands the test of time..then OK, but the faster they die..the sooner they are elgible.
I don’t care if it is Rat or GOP.
And everything in West Virginia named after Robert “KKK” Byrd.
I feel the same way. It’s very irritating to see “teachers” everywhere telling their little mushrooms to demand that the name of their school be changed to Baracko Hussein Obama Prepartory School. It all sounds so Communistic.
Is this not another example of Democrats, the Left and their complete lack of ability to persue potential consequences of action before they shoot the moon?
For years Loud Mouth Soup Maxine has been running her scams pretty much free of scrutiny. It’s about time to lift up the rock she climbed out from under and expose her for the scum bag she is.
We actually have a Jimmy Carter middle school in my city. Gags me every time I have to drive by it. How about a David Patraeus elementary school instead?
Funny that the Jimmy Carter school is right across the street from Ronald Reagan Elementary.
Now that is hilarious. I know which one I'd be sending my kids to.
And Reagan is next to Liberty Park.
One of the first things I saw when my family visited Alaska was the Ted Stevens Airport. Gag me!
This is the Sonny Callahan (R) highway interchange on I-10. (BTW, Bayou La Batre is the location of Gump Shrimp Company from the Forrest Gump movie)
Isn't this outrageous!!!
It is the job of ACORN (paid for by you) to herd her voters to the polls and tell them what to do each election cycle.
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