I saw an elderly woman in my favorite market, staring at some nice-looking $12.99 a pound steaks.
I wasn’t quite sure if she was ok, so I approached her.
Now the normal question would have been, “are you ok?”
But I am not normal.
I asked her instead if she was familiar with the recently passed OMNIBUS SPENDING BILL, passed by Congress on essentially Christmas eve.
Amazingly….she was not. Even asked me why the hell I asked her.
Simple answer: the money that she needed to buy those steaks would belong to her if either
1. Congress did its job and kept its spending within a legitimate budget or
2. she read the dam thing and realized that the federal government would buy those steaks for her.
So question to all those out there struggling to feed themselves and their loved ones: are you like her?
Have you read the omnibus spending bill?
Yikes! NO?
The federal government is reaching into your pocket, taking your money that you earned and spending it for you.
Should you not at least find out what they are spending it on?
What? No time to do that? Don’t know where to look?
That’s fair. Shouldn’t your congress rep or your senator let you know? or the press?
Yea, they should.
Theoretically, your elected federal officials are supposed to represent you, and you would think the least they can do is let you know what they are spending money on and why?
And the press. Isn’t that their job?
Good luck on waiting for either one of those to inform you.
How about a retired nerd with free time on his chicken-raising hands? Yup!
I read the whole thing. I cannot possibly tell you all the stuff, but I can start by telling the big stuff. Here you go:
OMNIBUS SPENDING BILL-PART 1: AGRICULTURE
The first thing to know is that the word omnibus explains the structure of the bill. This is not one budget that applies to the entire Federal government. It is a series of separate budgets that apply to the major agencies of the federal government. Agriculture has its budget. The Department of Justice has its. The Department of Homeland security has its and so on.
I will deal with each budget separately in the upcoming articles. I start with the budget that pertains to Agriculture.
The overall title to this “budget” with all the different component parts is called the “CONSOLIDATED APPROPRIATIONS ACT,2022. H. R 2471(principal sponsor Hakeem Jeffries)
Three top spending items:
1.$140,440,868,000 for “necessary expenses to carry out the Food and Nutrition act of 2008(7 u.s.c.2011 et seq)”
That’s it. 140 billion dollars allocated by Congress to the Department of Agriculture to spend in support of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008. Congress just turned over a ton of money without limitations to be spent by the folks at the Department of Agriculture according to whatever they feel they have discretion to-do.
Can you name a single person at the Department of agriculture who has been given the authority to do this?
In perspective, NHPR, on June 22, 2021, stated that the entire New Hampshire state budget “over the biennium” is $13.5 billion. Our Governor set forth the details of this budget in a detailed report. Our General court held hearings and voted on the budget. The Executive council did its review and approval.
The Department of Agriculture got 140 billion plus with no hearings, No budget detail, and not a single member of congress read any specifics as to how the money was to be spent. Nor will they.
So, what is the FOOD AND NUTRITION ACT OF 2008?
Yea, I read that too.
This law is designated as 7 USC 2011 et seq. (et seq is a lawyer’s way of saying that 2011 is the first in a series of numbers. In this case, the last number is 2036.)
This law, to summarize, says that “low-income “people suffer from bad nutrition, and that fact is bad for the country as a whole. Therefore, the Government is going to improve the nutrition of poor people by supplementing their food budgets. ( i. e. give them money to buy food.)
Not everybody is eligible. People whose income is below the poverty level are eligible. Disabled people are eligible. That includes people with mental disabilities. (I exaggerate when i say that half of Palm Springs is on mental disability. I employed an expert brain damage expert on one of my many brain damage cases who rewrote the definition of mental disability for SSI purposes: it’s basically anyone who feels they cannot work because they have anxiety or fear, or God knows what mental issue.)
You might ask: how many such poor people are there? 140 billion dollars would feed a ton of people. Do we really have that many?
I cannot find any data to answer that but I do know this:
When I lived in California, I figured that the State had about 45 million illegal aliens. Illegal, meaning they came into the USA without going thru the legal processes.
Many of these folks had been there for ten years, Twenty years. One guy I knew was 78 and came there when he was 6. I got to know quite a few, and I have to say that, by and large most of them were better Americans than those born here: hard-working, industrious, self-taught, self-motivated, and skilled.
But a ton of them were getting Government payments that boggled my mind. The day an illegal sets forth on California soil, he or she got a check for $3600 dollars. Yea, I saw the check.
Nearly every illegal I interacted with had an EBT card–which is essentially a money-loaded atm type card that they could use for food purchases.
One of my clients in Compton, California, was a Greek businessman who ran a stand-alone hamburger stand. He thrived because he took EBT(you are not supposed to use them at restaurants unless you prove that there is no available market etc., nearby.) This was Compton–every one of the markets got shut down by riots and crime.
If you go back to the Food and Nutrition act and take a look, Illegal aliens are eligible to receive food assistance under the act if the Attorney General has decided not to deport them or they are in the USA under 207/208 of the Immigration and Nationalization act( i e they claim asylum or are a refugee.)
Checking the most current official records, there are 11 million old and 5 million new illegals (since Biden took office). Unofficially, I have seen estimates of double and even triple the official numbers. I tend to think the unofficial numbers more accurate.
Ok, so I guess 140 billion divided up among 40-45 million folks who walked into our country illegally explains why we need 140 billion dollars for food supplements. Thank God we have some folks in Washington looking out for the needs of the country.
2.$30,000,000,000 for “UNSUBSIDIZED GUARNTEED LOANS.”(That’s the exact wording.)
Under the heading” Rural Housing Service,” the omnibus budget authorizes the Secretary, in his discretion, to fund title v of the “Housing act of 1949.”
Yea, I read the “Housing act of 1949.”
It was enacted under Truman. The intent was to modernize cities by tearing out slums and loaning money to families so they could buy houses where the slums used to be. Of course, it is a resounding success–just look at any of our cities. No slums there, and everybody owns their own home. Right?
But the pertinent section for this article is section 5. Keep in mind-$30,000,000,000 to section 5 of this act.
Section 5 says that anyone who is a farmer, who can show that he or she is living on a farm and whose house is “in need of repair” or is “unsanitary ” or their tenants or employees have either no homes to live or ARE LIVING IN HOUSES NEEDING REPAIR OR WHICH ARE UNSANITARY can get a 33-year loan at maximum 4 % interest to either build, repair or expand the residence. In addition, if a farmer wants to expand his/her property, the money can be used to buy new land. (Note: if the secretary of Agriculture determines that it makes sense to forgive the loan, he can turn it into a grant whenever he feels like it.)
Question: how much run-down farmland is there? $30,000,000,000?
Oh, wait. When I was in California, I represented a large number of cases where illegal aliens were brought in to work on California’s enormous farmlands.
Not atypical was the horrible nature of the housing provided. I really thought the system akin to a form of slavery: “if you want to work and provide for your family, shut up about anything you don’t like, or I will deport you” was the common report from most of the folks I knew.
In the city of Santa Ana, illegal alien families lived in garages attached to houses. The city said it was ok so long as there was a hose, a bucket, and one light bulb. The going rate for a two-car garage was $1100 dollars in 2017 dollars. But you could only have six people live there.
When you get out into the fields–the millions of acres of farmland-the employees (the farm workers) lived in camps. I defended two farmers in the Imperial Valley during the teamster/United Farmworkers strike-war. They had no place for their workers to live, so they just let them camp along tree lines or fence lines. No toilets. No stoves. No roofs to sleep under. Truly treated like third-class animals.
Could it possibly be that the $30,000,000,000 is earmarked for Farmers who, although quite wealthy, have tenants/farm workers (such as the 5 million recent aliens that just crossed the border looking for work.)?
Under this housing act, this money is to be spent in rural areas to bring modern, high-density housing to “poor people” who simply prove that they are homeless and cannot afford a home or that they live in a rundown house, and they don’t have the dough to fix it up. Hollis is rural. I think. Does that mean that the farmers in town can say that they need to fix their properties need to build high-density housing for their workers–maybe on Broad street?
Personally, I doubt that the “bigger” farmers in Hollis would do that. But I can think of a whole group of organizations that could be “third-party sponsors” who would not flinch as doing it.
Oh, and guess what: third-party sponsors can obtain the loans for the benefit of the recently arrived illegals.
The real import of this allocation is, I think, to allow big Corporations that own the ginormous farming operations to get subsidies for their businesses.
It’s $30,000,000,000 to fix run-down farmhouses. Or build new ones. Or buy more land.
Wait? Isn’t that the WEF agenda 21: buy up all the farmland and move all the “useless” idiots into high-density housing in the urban areas?
Yikes!
3.$6,500,000,000 for “rural direct electric loans” and $2,000,000,000 for “fossil fuel electric generating plants that have carbon subsurface utilization and storage”
Again–that is the language. The federal government is handing out 8 billion dollars on this language. No itemization. No accounting. No explanation–just here you go!
The $6.5 billion is allocated to fund the “Rural Electrification Act of 1936.” Yea, I read it.
It provides direct loans to individuals, corporations, or municipal/county/state agencies to build electricity distribution and generation in rural areas. It also extends the loan program to phone and broadband systems.
I see no requirement that an applicant be poor.
Why is the federal Government extending loan cost loans to big wealthy Corporations and to electrical utility companies just because they are in rural areas.
I don’t know.
What I do know is that Black Rock/Vanguard/ State Street (COLLECTIVELY MANAGING OVER 31 TRILLION IN ASSETS) HAVE BOUGHT UP AND ARE CONTINUING TO BUY UP UTILITY COMPANIES AND ELECTRICAL GENERATING PLANTS.
In a prior article re EVERSOURCE I explained how Eversource divested itself of all of its generating plants and now buys its electricity from Companies owned by these three entities. They own the nuclear power plant in New Hampshire. They own the three top providers of electricity available in New Hampshire.
In addition, take note that an additional $2,000,000,000 is allocated to create, expand, repair or upgrade “Fossil” burning fuel electrical generating plants that can utilize subsurface storage of carbon. The only entity that I know that has such underground carbon storage is Bill Gates. Remember, no need to show poverty to get this money.
Conclusion: At the start of this article, I suggested that by reading this article, you would discover a way for the elderly lady I mentioned to buy those expensive steaks. I have done that:
1. Divest yourself of all assets over the poverty line and get sick; or disabled.
2. Renounce your American citizenship. Cross into Mexico. Get a Mexican passport and return to the USA illegally, crying “Asylum! Asylum!”
3. Get adopted by Larry Fink or Bill Gates.
If those don’t work…well, maybe try chicken.
