Posted on 03/14/2008 5:44:40 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has released a list of $740 million in earmark requests he made in the past three years, and it includes $1 million for the hospital where his wife Michelle is a vice president.
The request for $1 million for the University of Chicago Medical Center was to help pay for construction of a new pavilion.
“I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that Michelle Obama was not part of our lobbying over the request, not in any way,” Kelly Sullivan, another vice president at the medical center, told the New York Times.
In any case, the 2006 request for the hospital was not approved by the Senate, as was about $7 out of every $10 the Illinois senator asked for in earmarks.
Bud he did manage to secure $1.3 million for a high-explosive technology program for the Army’s Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The program was overseen by General Dynamics, and one of Obama’s top supporters, James Crown — a member of Obama’s national finance committee — serves on the board of General Dynamics.
Obama also secured a $750,000 earmark for renovation of a space center named for Crown’s grandfather, Henry Crown, at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
And Obama secured several million dollars for a project at Chicago State University. Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a close personal friend of Obama and one of his benefactors, has been a strong supporter of Chicago State, according to the Times.
Other earmarks sought and secured by Obama include more than $10 million for a military arsenal in Rock Island, several million dollars for research on soybean disease and livestock genes, and $100,000 for after-school programs at the Chicago Jesuit Academy.
Michelle Obama is on leave from her job while her husband campaigns for president, but after Barack was elected to congress, she received a big raise.
USA Today reports that officials at the University of Chicago Hospitals told the Chicago Tribune that Michelle is "worth her weight in gold."
"She's terrific," added Michael Riordan, who was president of the hospital in March 2005, when Michelle Obama was promoted to vice president for external affairs and had her annual salary increased from $121,910 to $316,962.
Hospitals spokesman John Easton told the Tribune that Michelle Obama's salary is in line with those of the 16 other vice presidents at the not-for-profit medical center.
A new pavilion sounds nice. But, it is simply not the job of the Federal Government, or should I say, the Federal Income Tax Payer to build it.
And, this is true for the rest of the billions spent in this way.
I find it unfortunate the total ignorance you see expressed on some of these threads.
The Pavilian is describe about here and I will add a little history as well. That proposed center would treat 1/3 more patients and be devoted to complex specialty care, with a focus on cancer and advanced surgical programs. These top hospitals in the country are used by patients from all over the country and other parts of the world. This is not, as I explained above another bridge to nowhere. We are tops in the world for research, new discoveries in medicine because of centers like the University of Chicago Hospitals. Their Department of Radiation and Cellular Oncology is one of the top in the world, where they doctors have written books used by Medical students in that field.
Many types of cancers are now curable, because of research centers like the one in discussion. There are approximately a dozen Cooperative Groups conducting over 5,000 clinical trials in the US. These Groups publish their cancer research results nationally and internationally. The Cooperative Groups, like at the University of Chicago Hospitals are part of a network of organizations comprised of leading academic medical facilities and cancer research physicians throughout the United States who collaborate on developing new cancer treatment strategies and conduct clinical trials.
The Comer Children's Hospital Comer-University of Chicago is a state-of-the-art children's hospital. Remember the Ronald McDonald's House for those visiting their children, etc? Well in 2007 they opened a grand new addition. A 22-bedroom, 30,000-square-foot House brought the end to the charity's three-year period of temporary residence while the University of Chicago Medical Center and the charity undertook expansion projects to enhance their ability to serve families and patients (neurology, oncology/hematology, cardiology, neonatology, transplantation..) with more complicated medical needs and long term hospital stays. Chidren heal better in environments such as this.
No more preaching. I hoped you learned something. Causes that I feel strongly about. Our children should have everything available so they can live a long healthy life.
But you would rather make jokes about a pavilion for your home and 5 bucks for Powerball. haaha..great joke.
I hope you have never lost a loved one to cancer. That is why I am sensitive on this point specifically. I hope all will donate when they can to projects such as these. Barbara Bush has a Children's cancer wing in Portland, Maine and Actor, Patrick Dempsey has just very generously supported another cancer wing in Lewiston, Maine with "time and money". Private donations through "experienced fund raising" professional individuals, appeals to the government is just part of the hope for help process. Whether the donations be 50 million from well known secured benefactors or just $1 in change from a little child, they all keep all these projects moving forward.
Hope you win at Powerball,(really) "life is good". Sadly, life will never be as good for others.
Please point out the passage in the United State Constitution that authorizes the federal government to build private hospitals with tax monies.
Read #22..then compare that to the billions we send overseas, never to be seen again-to little punk dictators, and at one time-up until 9/11, the Taliban with $43 million in aid for its actions in banning the cultivation of poppy used to produce heroin and opium, etc. Obama has helped sponsored a bill to do just that. The bill, called the Global Poverty Act, is the type of legislation, "We can – and must – make … a priority," as OB, a co-sponsor. The cost? $845 billion over the next 13 years above what we already spend on foreign aid.
Remember his newly visited African village was flooded by diversions of swamp-water by an American Company Dominion and there were pleas for his help. Humanitarian groups took up their cause.
"The current flooding in south Bunyala was reported in the media a result of "the diversion of water" from Dominion swamp.
Obama never mentioned this again after returning from his visit to his native homeland (sic). I have always wondered if Dominion Group was anyway connected with Obama financially..but have not had the time to do the research.
Dominion Farms Ltd, an affiliate of the USA-based Dominion Group, based in Oklahoma, USA moved into the swamp through an arrangement with the Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA). Dominion Group controls investments across the globe. The company operates luxury corporate hotels, is involved in modification of corporate aircrafts, ownership and operation of corporate aircraft, construction of houses and offices to be leased by the US government, manufacture of athletic dress and socks, correctional services and other businesses spanning several countries."
"The initial proposal was that Dominion would engage in rice production, in part of the swamp covering about 2,300 ha. This land portion had been reclaimed before 1970, and previously used by LBDA for agricultural activity. Dominion embarked on large-scale agricultural activities in the swamp following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Councils of Siaya and Bondo in May 2003."
I replied to you separately, as you might understand WHY after reading "my attitude" comment #22. ;)
Have a good day,
Fight_Truth_Decay
“No more preaching. I hoped you learned something.
But you would rather make jokes about a pavilion for your home and 5 bucks for Powerball. haaha..great joke.
I hope you have never lost a loved one to cancer.”
Yes, I have lost multiple ppl to cancer. No, I didn’t learn anything from your lengthy sermon, because I only read the parts insulting me. Yes, I would like to make a silly joke and be flippant without being preached at - now, because I am so callous, all medical research will cease!? (And I thought Michell Obama had a chip on her shoulder!)
You know the answer to that, so why ask? Is that the best you got?
Not the point, which you completely miss. This project, like so many others, will get build from the help of people who understand the needs of others in this country, no matter what their race, creed, status in life may be. We are just so accustomed to having billions of our tax money thrown down some meaningless "spider hole" that many of our self serving politicians pick.
Sometimes they might pick on the side of the angels, but most times they do not.
If you don't get it, you don't get it.
Earmarks should be eliminated, we would all agree. However to my point aforementioned, medical research funding seems to be ignored as H.R. 2764 included only a small increase of 0.46% for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), even though the President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2008.
Have a good day.
Regardless that Obama's request for the hospital was not approved, it remains that constitutional "expert" Obama is clueless that his request was based on non-existent federal government powers in the first place.
This post (<-click), although addressing a tax-related issue, explains in more detail why misguided politicians like Obama are actually in contempt of the Constitution that they have sworn to defend, a consequence of unthinkingly following in the footsteps of FDR's dirty federal spending politics.
The bottom line is that the people need to reconnect with the intentions of the Founders as reflected by the Constitution and its history. The people need to wise up to the very serious problem that the federal government is not operating within the restraints of the federal Constitution as evidenced by constitutionally unauthorized federal spending. The people need to quit sitting on their hands and petition big-shot federal spenders like Obama to resign from their jobs as opposed to trying to put people like him in the Oval Office.
Yes, I understand, you do not read in depth. I hate to say it was in very small part about YOU. But I will take with me, if you had known the "facts" you would not have been as flippant about Powerball and what the pavilion was about...adding to one's deck.
Sorry for your losses. I want the best possible care for all of us in the country. I do not mean to insult you, but you started with a chip, only because you could not see past the name OBAMA.
Politics, on both sides, can so easily blind from all the twisted (new and old) media rhetoric day dished out 24/7; and takes away from the enormous importance of many pressing issues.
When facts are distorted on our side, it makes us no better than our adversary.
"..proposals to allocate $400 billion to purchase foreclosed-upon and now-abandoned homes" ;)
..See what happens when one starts out with " A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" promise? (Herbert Hoover Campaign)
Yeah, $317,000/yr works out to only about $152/hour.
ROTFLOL! :~)
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