Wasteful ways must change 11/24/2009 12:34 AM By Jane Page Thompson Wasteful ways must change
Change has been ushered into our nation's policy, and with that change all the Associated Press could report about the state of our economy is the change in the size of a Christmas tree. What about the stimulus funds that are being tracked by Recovery.gov and recently many states have found mistakes in the awarded amounts or locations where the money was sent to fund fewer jobs? For this poor accounting American tax dollars have been spent to report unsubstantiated figures that, had any citizen performed so poorly in their own job, they would have been fired. But not our government - they keep on letting the reporting mistakes be made. South Carolina is one of the states where millions have been assigned to non-existent districts.
Worse than the $40,729,993 given to an unassigned Congressional District in South Carolina and 52.4 supposed jobs reported on Recovery.gov is that the $18 million website reports $845,762,561 in stimulus money awarded to South Carolina that created no jobs at all. Beyond the lack of job creation is the awarding of funds attributed to South Carolina that went to businesses headquartered in other states like Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Texas and Utah.
Beyond the funds sent out-of-state, well over $300 million was awarded to government agencies that hire lobbyists to lobby government at the federal, state and local levels to get more of our tax dollars. The cycle continues to make government bigger, government supported special interests richer and lobbyists more powerful. Is this what American ingenuity has come to mean? Has the Land of the Free really become the Home of Government-funded business at the expense of the Pursuit of the Individuals' Happiness? Oh, Yeah! I forgot we own a car company, paid Wall Street CEOs larger year-end bonuses than the entire school budget of our town and our president keeps apologizing for America.
For a president that pledged transparency, Obama has really come through with the $18 million Recovery.gov website, however; next time Americans need to be clear. We want accurate transparency, not guesstimates and conjecture with the veil of transparency to be reported through a multi-million dollar website maintained by overpaid government employees which has been unable to track the Stimulus with any accountability. Better yet, I would like to see the logic behind awarding a Utah-based company millions of dollars to research how best for a Colorado-based company to hire a Virginia-based company to recruit employees for government jobs in South Carolina.
Recovery.gov is reporting fraudulent figures, the stimulus money has become the richest shell game in history and all the Associated Press has to say is that the South Carolina Statehouse Christmas tree will be smaller this year due to the economy. We need to wake up Aiken, wake up America and stop spending tax dollars on lobbyists, stop spending tax dollars on corporate pay raises that go to people not spending it in South Carolina and we need to keep informed about the big government things as well as the local things. As Thanksgiving approaches, I am grateful for living in Aiken, for being an American and for the freedom of speech, I just want to be grateful for the freedom of the press, too.
Jane Page Thompson
Aiken
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Comment Title:
Haha, Chase, are you calling yourself an idiot?
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Posted by: chas On: Monday, November 30, 2009 2:28 PM
Comment Title: Jane Page Thompson
Ms, Thompson, you know the old saying ‘be careful when arguing with idiots’.
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Posted by: Jane Page Thompson On: Monday, November 30, 2009 12:27 PM
Comment Title: My Reply
Should I be elected to any office, I would not accept the Health Plan provided I could keep my own. As an independent contractor, I pay my own Health Insurance and would want to keep the great coverage that I am willing to pay for myself.
As for Edgar, I am not playing dumb; I have NO idea who you are talking about.
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Posted by: On: Monday, November 30, 2009 9:58 AM
Comment Title:
Act dumb all you want Jane, we know Edgar is your boss...LOL
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Posted by: On: Monday, November 30, 2009 6:59 AM
Comment Title:
You are right, healthcare is not free. We all pay for elected officials healthcare. Even though some do not represent some of it's own constituents. Isn't that taking from us to give to them?
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Posted by: On: Monday, November 30, 2009 6:54 AM
Comment Title:
No one pulled your chain Chas. Besides WE all know what you think. This was not addressed to you.
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Posted by: chas On: Sunday, November 29, 2009 1:51 PM
Comment Title: Forgo Free Health Care
Why should an elected official pass up health care until everyone has it? At least they are doing something to earn it. It is amazing how many people want it given to them. But it is not free; somebody has to pay for it. The government don’t have any money so they must take (steal) it from someone else to pay for it. Some or later Osama and the idiots in congress will run out of somebody else’s money to spread around.
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Posted by: On: Sunday, November 29, 2009 11:51 AM
Comment Title: Not a Liberal
You being rather voluptuous in size Jane. What is your opinion with Senator Ryberg on making State employees pay more for the state's health plan? And If you did run for a political position, would you go along with Mr. Ryberg? Or Would you Forgo Free Health Care until everyone had it?
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Posted by: Charles Cushman On: Saturday, November 28, 2009 8:29 AM
Comment Title: Jane
Good letter, keep up the good work.
The liberals call names because that is all they know how to do.
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Posted by: Jane Page Thompson On: Friday, November 27, 2009 1:40 PM
Comment Title: A bit of Clarification
I would love to know who Edgar is and why it would require any Axel grease for me to do anything. I expect the comments about horse manure and my size, but to be so rude to other posters just because you obviously have issues with me shows just how petty you are and I am sorry that I bring that out in you. Thanks to everyone else that has made a valuable comment or supportive one and to the rest I am sorry that by commenting you were the victim of a cyber attack from those unwilling to make their comments relative to the issues.
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Posted by: Bruce On: Thursday, November 26, 2009 10:53 PM
Comment Title:
Imagine the cost of the Axel grease just to get her into the office.
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Posted by: On: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 8:46 PM
Comment Title:
Jane would need Edgar's permission to run for office.
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Posted by: Grateful Someone's Paying Attention On: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 6:10 PM
Comment Title: The Truth
Excellent article and thank you for speaking some honest truths. - Ignore the rabble; they denigrate anyone that doesn't bow down to zero.
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Posted by: Bruce On: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 5:12 PM
Comment Title:
If you don't like the comments do something about it, wait that's right you can't. And to Chas, nobody I mean nobody, can play a skin flute as beautifully as you.
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Posted by: chas On: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 2:27 PM
Comment Title: A kind of Turkey- must be
You are correct; Bruce is a ‘Knob Gobbler’. As you say ‘it takes one to know one’. Bruce is a 'knob gobbler' for Osama.
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Posted by: On: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 10:54 AM
Comment Title:
Who is this Bruce? And What is a Knob Gobbler? A kind of Turkey- must be- since it takes one to know one. How Childish these "boring" & "rude" comments are, can't you guys stay on topic anywhere you comment? You attack the people who care enough to express an intelligent thought and I do not know Jet Beckum, but his comments did not merit such a negative attack. You claim to be Patriotic Americans in some of your posts, but clearly you do not grasp the concept of Civil discourse.
Regardless of political bias, the missing, misattributed and sheer amount of stimulus money is disconcerting to most thinking Americans. I wonder if China is not already planning to replace the dollar as the international standard, since we can not keep tabs on our money or what we borrowed from them for the stimulus.
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Posted by: On: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 10:40 AM
Comment Title: Comments should be germane
The comments left here that cast dispersions on Thompson are petty and inaccurate to boot. Why must people make personal attacks when comments had been germane to the issue of Millions of dollars going unaccounted for and the press ignoring the issue and replacing it with Holiday fluff articles. Good point, too, about the Billions lost and unaccounted for in Iraq. Lets keep our comments germane to the topic and out of the mire.
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Posted by: On: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 7:54 AM
Comment Title:
I want a thorough accounting of where the stimulus dollars have gone as much as anyone, but I also realize that 6.7 million out of 3.4 BILLION is a drop in the bucket. This is most likely a stupid error made by local government workers.
I'd like to hear a little more outrage over the 23 BILLION, give or take, that was lost in Iraq: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7444083.stm
The bank bailouts passed under Bush and Obama have misplaced tens of billions of dollars as well.
Let's demand transparency on the stimulus money, but let's also maintain a sense of perspective here.
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Posted by: Bruce On: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 7:40 PM
Comment Title:
Damn Jet how big of a knob gobbler can you get?
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Posted by: chas On: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 5:42 PM
Comment Title: Wasteful ways must change
Ms. Thompson, this is what the liberals are all about. Taking money from people that earns it and give to people that do not. When you point out the truth they turn ugly and start calling names. That’s all they know how to do.
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Posted by: On: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 4:29 PM
Comment Title:
Hey baron SHOVE IT!!!!!!
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Posted by: On: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 4:26 PM
Comment Title:
Jane Page Thompson you are just angry and upset that your "Equine Industry" has not received any money. As you stated in your previous boring comments, did you not make reference to the vast importance of your horses and boring comrades.
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Posted by: On: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 4:21 PM
Comment Title: Jane Jane
Oh Jane go back and muck your stalls.
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Posted by: Jet Beckum On: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 3:44 PM
Comment Title: Run for office
Dear Jane:
We need you to run for office. The school
board, City council, County Council, or any other
public governmental body. At present we have people in these positions, that only know one solution, higher taxes and unlimited irresponsible liberal government. OUR local
politicians minic the foolish federal and state
cronies.
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Posted by: On: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 12:38 PM
Comment Title: Aiken Standard- Thanks
Thanks for printing this letter. As has been told to the author: "My faith has been restored in this publication and its willingness to print hard truths."
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Posted by: On: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 12:26 PM
Comment Title: Economic Woes are taxing
South Carolina has fallen victim to the Stimulus round table but the best thing we need to change our government is the elimination of the Corporate Income Tax which would encourage job creation and give the corporations that own the newspapers in South Carolina more money to fund investigative reporters.
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Posted by: On: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 7:51 AM
Comment Title:
The problem is not whether you should allow a corporation to become too big to fail, the problem is our tax structure allows for massive fraud in wealth creation. If you reward fraudulent behavior and punish hard work, you get this kind of economy where middle class workers wages stagnate while banking and investment honchos ride the gravy train.
There is nothing wrong with real free enterprise and regulated capitalism. The problem lies in structuring a football game with no rules and no penalties. If you want to set things right, tax the top one percent at the level we did back in President Dwight D. Eisenhower's terms. We had a vibrant economy and a thriving middle class coming off the effects of the government programs of the 30's and 40's.
The rich sheltered their money in manufacturing and investments. They were putting money into tangible assets because they were worth something.
Now they don't need to because there is no incentive to do so. The rich no longer invest in small business ventures.
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Posted by: On: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 7:36 AM
Comment Title: Change
That, in truth, is what our political establishment has been giving us all along.
We used to have a strong dollar...Politicians changed that.
We used to be respected around the world... Politicians changed that.
We used to have a strong manufacturing economy... Politicians changed that.
We used to have a truly progressive tax structure... Politicians changed that.
We used to enjoy more freedoms. Politicians changed that.
We used to be a large exporter of American-made goods... Politicians changed that.
We used to educate children in schools.... Politicians changed that.
We used to enforce LEGAL citizenship... Politicians changed that.
We used to have affordable food & energy prices... Politicians changed that too.
One could go on and on with this list. Whatever hasn't been changed, politicians are promising to change that too if you will only elect them. In the meantime, we will see and ever increasing number of unemployed, over a million homeless children in the streets, healthcare reform legislation that looks more like a welfare program for the insurance industry, and the ever present partisan apologists for both sides of the aisle, one blaming the other for our social ills and neither giving a righteous damn about anything more than their favorite political party.
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Posted by: The Baron On: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 1:11 AM
Comment Title:
Too bad a large percentage of the masses are so dumb and gullible they don't know any better and are easily manipulated by empty suit politicians. That and the fact that half of them are tax takers and not tax payers.
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