Czar Obama demands YOUR money to fund his mini army to keep make sure you obey!
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To GIVE
and to SERVE:
The $6 billion
National Service
boondoggle
by Michelle Malkin
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March 25th, 2009
Maybe it’s just me,
but I find federal legislation
titled “The GIVE Act” and
“The SERVE Act”
downright creepy.
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Even more troubling:
The $6 billion price tag
on these bipartisan bills
to expand government-funded
national service efforts.
Volunteerism is a
wonderful thing,
which is why millions of
Americans do it every day
without a cent of
taxpayer money.
But the volunteerism packages
on the Hill are less about
promoting effective charity
than about creating make-work,
permanent bureaucracies,
and left-wing slush funds.
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The House passed the
“Generations Invigorating
Volunteerism and Education Act” –
or the GIVE Act – last week.
The Senate took up the companion
“SERVE Act” Tuesday afternoon.
According to a Congressional Budget
Office analysis of the Senate bill,
S. 277,
the bill would cost “$418 million
in 2010 and about $5.7 billion
over the 2010-2014 period.”
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And like most federal programs,
these would be sure to
grow over time.
The bills reauthorize the
Clinton-era Americorps boondoggle
program and an older law,
the Domestic Volunteer
Service Act of 1973.
The programs have already been
allocated $1.1 billion for fiscal 2009,
including $200 million from the
porkulus package signed into
law last month.
In addition to recruiting up to
250,000 enrollees in AmeriCorps,
the GIVE/SERVE bills would
create new little armies of
government volunteers,
including a Clean Energy Corps,
Education Corps,
Healthy Futures Corps,
Veterans Service Corps,
and an expanded
National Civilian
Community Corps for disaster
relief and energy conservation.
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And that’s not all.
Spending would
include new funds for:
*Foster Grandparent Program
($115 million);
*Learn and Serve America.
($97 million);
*Retired and Senior
Volunteer Program
($70 million);
*Senior Companion Program
($55 million);
*$12 million for each of
fiscal years 2010 through 2014
for “the Silver Scholarships
and Encore Fellowships
programs;”
*$10 million a year from
2010-2014
for a new “Volunteers
for Prosperity”
program at USAID to
“award grants to fund
opportunities for volunteering
internationally in coordination
with eligible organizations;
and
*Social Innovation Fund and
Volunteer Generation Fund-
$50 million in 2010;
$60 million in 2011;
$70 million in 2012;
$80 million in 2013; and
$100 million in 2014.
“Social Innovation Fund?”
If that sounds familiar,
it should.
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I reported last fall on the
Democratic Party
that would reward
“social entrepreneurs and
leading nonprofit organizations”
and
“support results-oriented innovators.”
It is essentially a special
taxpayer-funded pipeline for
radical liberal groups backed
by billionaire George Soros
that masquerade as
public-interest
do-gooders.
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GEORGE SOROS – Puppetmaster
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Especially troublesome to
parents’ groups concerned about
compulsory volunteerism
requirements is a provision
in the House version,
directing Congress to explore
“whether a workable, fair,
and reasonable mandatory service
requirement for all able young
people could be developed,
and how such a requirement
could be implemented in a
manner that would strengthen
the social fabric of the Nation
and overcome civic challenges
by bringing together people from
diverse economic, ethnic,
and educational backgrounds.”
Those who have watched
AmeriCorps from its inception are
all-too-familiar with how government
voluntarism programs have been used
for propaganda and political purposes.
AmeriCorps “volunteers”
have been put to work lobbying
against the voter-approved
three-strikes anti-crime initiative
in California and protesting
Republican political events while
working for the already
heavily-tax-subsidized liberal
advocacy group ACORN.
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the D.C. watchdog,
also documented national service
volunteers lobbying for rent control,
expanded federal housing subsidies,
and enrollment of more women
in the Women, Infants,
and Children welfare program.
AmeriCorps volunteers have also
been paid to shuffle paper at the
Department of Justice,
the Department of Interior,
the Environmental Protection Agency,
the Legal Services Corporation,
and the National Endowment
for the Arts.
(Now, imagine Obama’s
troops being sent overseas –
out of sight and unaccountable —
as part of that $10 million
a year USAID/”Volunteers for
Prosperity” program.
Egad.)
One vigilant House member,
GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx,
successfully attached an
amendment to the GIVE Act to
bar National Service recipients
from engaging in political lobbying,
endorsing or opposing legislation,
organizing petitions, protests,
boycotts, or strikes;
providing or promoting
abortions or referrals;
or influencing union organizing.
Supporters of GIVE/SERVE
are now fighting those
restrictions tooth and nail,
screaming censorship and
demanding that the provisions
be dropped.
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Which tells you everything
you need to know about the
true nature of this
boondoggle:
Taxpayers GIVE their money
to SERVE a big government
agenda under the guise of
helping their fellow man.
It’s charity at
the point of a gun.
Don’t know why,
but the creepy title
of the Senate bill
reminds me of that classic
Remember?
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