Democrats Delay Bill Release To Conceal Hidden Agenda, Uploaded It In Non-Searchable Format

Whatever happened to the promise of making bills public for at least 48 hours before a vote so that the bill can be reviewed before debate begins? Apparently, the Dems had no intention of keeping that promise. Nor did they want the public to be able to do key-word searches on the porkulus/spendulus package going before a vote today.

From Connie Hair at Human Events:

Democratic staffers released the final version of the stimulus bill at about 11 p.m. last night after delaying the release for hours to put it into a format which people cannot “search” on their home computers. Instead of publishing the bill as a regular internet document — which people can search by “key words” and otherwise, the Dems took hours to convert the final bill from the regular searchable format into “pdf” files, which can be read but not searched. Three of the four .pdf files had no text embedded, just images of the text, which did not permit text searches of the bill. That move to conceal the bill’s provisions had not been remedied this morning at the time of publication of this article.

Why did the Democrats go to such lengths to conceal what is in this bill? Why are they making it so difficult for people to research and study its contents? It is almost like a little child trying to hide a piece of food that he/she doesn’t want to eat while not knowing that Mom and Dad are watching them search for a hiding place.

There is alot the Dems want to hide. The aforementioned Health Care provisions that allow the Federal government to step in and reverse your doctor’s decisions are among them. But, there are some more sinister ones that may even be unconstitutional:

We found one provision that may be a good example of why the Democrats are desperate to stop any exposure of what is in this bill. Like this gem: SEC. 1607. (a) CERTIFICATION BY GOVERNOR — Not later than 45 days after the date of enactment of this Act, for funds provided to any State or agency thereof, the Governor of the State shall certify that: 1) the State request and use funds provided by this Act , and; 2) funds be used to create jobs and promote economic growth. (b) ACCEPTANCE BY STATE LEGISLATURE — If funds provided to any State in any division of this Act are not accepted for use by the Governor, then acceptance by the State legislature, by means of the adoption of a concurrent resolution, shall be sufficient to provide funding to such State. This provision — apparently aimed at conservative governors such as South Carolina’s Mark Sanford who does not want the federal money — would overturn state laws and constitutions, intervening directly in the state’s government to give the legislature the power to overturn a government’s decision. This provision probably violates the U.S. Constitution, a matter which will be of no concern to Congressional Democrats.

That’s right. The Constitution of the United States guarantees each state a “Republican form of government” and the 10th Amendment relegates all powers not enumerated in that document to the several states.

Pretty easy to see why the Dems are trying to slip this one past us hoping that we wouldn’t notice.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Democrats Delay Bill Release To Conceal Details
Connie Hair
Human Event Online
February 13, 2009

Excellent On-Line Essay: Blue-State Bailout Blues

By Jay Henderson over at American Sentinel.

So, which states are the first in line to ask for federal bailouts? Those states with the largest entitlement spending programs. They are New York, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Illinois.

From Jay’s on-line essay:

There is a dangerous tipping point in politics. When 50.1% of the voters pay no taxes but expect and rely on “entitlements” from the government, then they will tax to infinity the remaining 49.9% of the polity. The Blue States now begging for bailouts give us a good look at what happens as that tipping point approaches. The rush for Federal bailout bucks began in November, led by California and New York. In early January, Democratic governors from Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Ohio pitched their case to the Obama transition team, proposing a $1 trillion bailout of state governments. The needy Blue States of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and California provided 134 Obama electoral votes last November – - more than half of his total. Other states on the bailout list include Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, 47 more Democratic electoral votes. The political pressure on the Obama administration is obvious.

Your tax dollars, money you need to take care of your own family, are going to go for paying off political allies and propping up socialist entitlement programs that are destined to bankrupt those who fund them, no matter how many ways they are taxed.

But of interesting note here is that those states are also among the wealthiest in terms of per capita income:

Ironically, the governors travelling to Washington with begging bowls represent some of the wealthiest states in the U.S. Measured in terms of per capita income, they include New Jersey (ranked number 2), Massachusetts (ranked number 3), New York (number 4), California (number 7), and Illinois (number 16), as of 2007 statistics. Per Capita Personal Income By State. How can this be? Well, these same states are at the forefront of “entitlement” spending and social engineering projects.

Finally:

While Red State America, sustained by blue collar, working class, and small business taxpayers, is called upon to bail out the wealthy but profligate Blues – - the Congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration are planning to expand or adopt the same kinds of “entitlement” spending programs and social engineering projects that are breaking the backs of Blue State taxpayers. Because they work so well, right? This is a chilling insight into our national future – - if we don’t derail the Obamacrat train.

So, who is going to bailout the small businesses, blue-collar workers and the working class when the U.S. government bankrupts itself by wasting trillions of dollars on the same foolish programs that bankrupted the states that are looking for bailout dollars?

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Blue-State Bailout Blues
Jay Henderson
American Sentinel
February 4, 2009

Other links here:

Next Federal Bailout May Go To States; Democratic Governors Seek $1 Trillion
FoxNews.com
January 3, 2009

Facing Shortfalls, States Seek Emergency Aid From Washington
Keith B. Richburg and Ashley Surdin
Washington Post
November 16, 2008

Local Zeroes: Cities And States Are Facing Big Budget Deficits
The Economist
November 13, 2008