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Chris Wysocki
Caldwell, NJ
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." - Ronald Reagan
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Your tax dollars at work play:
A nonprofit backed by U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) spent more than $2 million in federal funds to provide environmental education to Philadelphia high school students — including trips to a resort in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
For three years, the Caribbean-American Mission for Research, Education, and Action ran an exchange program for students at Overbrook High School and two island high schools.
The Philadelphia students and their adult chaperones stayed at the Marriott Frenchman's Reef beachfront resort, on what the hotel website calls a "luminous white sand beach framed with the majestic turquoise waters of the Caribbean."
Fattah's longtime friend James P. Baker Jr. was paid as much as $142,000 annually to run the organization, far more than usual for charities of that size. One federal audit said students on one trip spent "less than half" their time learning about the environment.
(h/t Robert Stacy McCain)
I'll bet that for every Democrat who says government spending can't be cut I can find a thousand of these boondoggles scattered hither and yon within the federal leviathon.
Is sending inner city kids on a tropical vacation a cool idea? Absolutely.
Is it something we can afford to do given the current economic and budgetary outlook? Um, no.
So before anybody starts prattling on again about "raising revenues" how about we first scour the budget and purge each and every one of these potentially worthy but non-essential line items. The times, they have a-changed. Caribbean vacations are a luxury, and the luxury fund is bone dry.
But there might be a way for those Philly high-schoolers to still enjoy a week of educational beachfront seminars, if they're willing to work a little. Ask the band kids how it's done. They sell candy, wash cars, mow lawns, rake leaves, and pretty much do whatever it takes to raise the cash to finance their trips. And you know what, they appreciate it more because they earned it.
Hey, that's a lesson that just might come in handy later on in life!
Posted at 14:37 by Chris Wysocki
[/education]
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