[StBernard] 250,000 New Bureaucrats

Westley Annis Westley at da-parish.com
Wed Mar 4 18:32:38 EST 2009


March 4, 2009 | By Nathaniel Ward


250,000 new bureaucrats


Just how many new government officials will it take to administer the new
federal spending the Congress and administration are proposing?

It could be as many as 250,000
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=8O98cqP4BFFzzZ9XiJzahA..> , Heritage
Foundation experts tell the Washington Post.


What's really in the budget?


Despite the recession and the $1.4 trillion budget deficit, the House passed
a $410 billion "omnibus" spending bill
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=Z2TPTsOOh816TTYwdkzbjQ..> last
week. Combined with the colossal $1.1 trillion "stimulus" bill, the omnibus
increases spending for discretionary programs a staggering 80 percent --
from $378 billion in 2008 to $680 billion this year.

And President Barack Obama has now introduced his 2010 budget, which goes
even further. Heritage budget expert Brian Riedl analyzed this plan in depth
and reveals some hidden truths
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=6UhwF-__MqnYVHJHeD7eZQ..> .


> Read more of Riedl's analysis of the new tax-and-spend proposal

<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=SvTINxxbGQnsakK3Jz9ffA..>



> Other Heritage work of note



* The New York Times had this to say about The Heritage Foundation's
importance <http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=zxag6aIvea8F-Ndgq0dZsg..>
in its Sunday magazine: "And several blocks from the Capitol stands the
beast of them all, the almost mythical Heritage Foundation, with its $60
million budget and eight-story complex, complete with housing for 60
interns, two auditoriums and two broadcast studios. Heritage is the
Parthenon of the conservative metropolis, the names of its founding donors
inscribed on the lobby wall for history to remember."

* Heritage's Rory Cooper explains how the Obama tax plan is already
having an economic effect
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=q3Jasv91-NMVpYnvM0QpQQ..> :
"entrepreneurs, doctors and lawyers ... will cut back hours and eliminate
jobs to get under the President's threshold for redistribution." And the
proposed cuts to the charitable giving deduction will harm "the charities
that these Americans already gave to so generously."

* The Obama administration has offered to scrap the nation's critical
missile defense deployment in Europe in exchange for Russian promises to
help disarm Iran. "If hitting the 'reset' button on US-Russian relations
mean the United States has to make itself intentionally vulnerable to a
potential Iranian threat," Heritage's Conn Carroll argues
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=IqZgTTDcGlG_4MgLm6vbAA..> , "that's
a really bad deal."

* The administration has put forward its vision for health care
reform, but it avoids real, patient-centered reforms in favor of bigger
government. Heritage experts explain
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=eGo3DQQWpyYPk0WMFhzNcQ..> :
"President Obama's health care budget proposal is large but surprisingly
unimaginative. It depends on old-fashioned, populist, 'soak the rich' tax
hikes combined with technocratic tinkering with administrative payment and
new software in anticipation of program savings. It does very little to
change America's flawed public and private third-party payment arrangements,
where value is secured for 'payers,' not individual patients."

* An activist group has proposed new benchmarks for charitable
organizations. Among their criteria for "good" charities: devoting half
their resources to marginalized groups and another quarter to "equity,
opportunity and justice" advocacy. This report, says Heritage Vice President
John Von Kannon
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=_rW0diZ1udYd0Rfc9ZsdvA..> (link in
PDF), "uses the language of political correctness in an attempt to
intimidate philanthropists who may not share their worldview. Like all
attempts to impose political correctness, at the same time that it claims to
be calling for diversity, the result of imposing the NCRP's standards on
philanthropy in America would be a uniformity such as has never existed, nor
should ever exist in this country."



> In other news



* President Obama has promised labor special interest groups that he
will pass the Employee Free Choice Act
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=jbVANDUWByGFp0UVA4WgOQ..> , which
would abolish the secret ballot in union organizing elections.

* The massive federal spending spree could trigger increased
dependence on government
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=mvoP17rZSnS6cR-P2-RTyg..> , Reuters
warns, so much so "that cutting [recipients] off could trigger another
recession soon after the current one ends." This is not a new concern,
though: Heritage experts have compiled an Index of Dependency
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=iaolRFSnKqQ2UsgqJFxf8g..> to
demonstrate exactly this problem--which is sure to have grown worse with the
latest spending frenzy.

* Proposed legislation would give the Food and Drug Administration the
power to regulate tobacco
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=dsu40r80ew3JJbZ4NJK6Ug..> and give
the agency broad powers to micromanage the industry.

* The Obama administration is trying to restore economic confidence
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=q9PfwQ4c4Q20NwaxZ7AHxw..> , the
Washington Post reports. Perhaps it could do so by pushing for pro-growth
policies that will help recovery instead of harmful tax increases and a
return to redistributionist ideas.



> Coming up at Heritage



To attend these or any other events at Heritage please RSVP at Heritage's
website <http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=2kd0oPvxZfphixDZ8uCW6A..> .
Or you can view these events live online. All times are Eastern.

* On Monday, March 9 at 10:00 a.m., former British Conservative leader
Iain Duncan Smith explains how American conservatives can learn from their
UK counterparts.
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=cMuxZuJFHTWOuRVuhVcQmw..>

* On Wednesday, March 12 at noon, a panel of experts offers advice to
President Obama on judicial nominees.
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=F8qsK7m5JxaBmidCo94CsA..>

Nathaniel Ward
<http://members.myheritage.org/site/R?i=QRoU57KCK_IGdxNFQVfQMg..> is the
Editor of MyHeritage.org-a website for members and supporters of The
Heritage Foundation.




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