All Power to the Bureaucrats!

On the 24th, I posted about the Stimulus Bill Section 1105 -- Bureaucrat Slush Fund which provides that any funds allocated under the bill, instead of going back to the Treasury, would be retained by the agency in question and spent as they see fit, without the need for Congressional approval or public input.

Now it is revealed that the new "Stimulus" proposal would reverse the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, once of President Clinton's real accomplishments. I wonder what else is hidden in the "Stimulus" proposal?

CHANGE FOR THE WORSE

The very heart of the widely applauded Welfare Reform Act of 1996 is a cap on the amount of federal cash that can be sent to states each year for welfare payments.
But, thanks to the simple phrase slipped into the legislation, the new "stimulus" bill abolishes the limits on the amount of federal money for the so-called Emergency Fund, which ships welfare cash to states.

"Out of any money in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, there are appropriated such sums as are necessary for payment to the Emergency Fund," Democrats wrote in Section 2101 on Page 354 of the $819 billion bill. In other words, the only limit on welfare payments would be the Treasury itself.

"This re-establishes the welfare state and creates dependency all over the place," said one startled budget analyst after reading the line.

In addition to reopening the floodgates of dependency on federal welfare programs, the change once again deepens the dependency of state governments on the federal government.

It's a return to big-government welfare that we will choke on.

Both of these changes shift the discretion to spend to the executive, outside the control of Congress.