By Rod Pennington
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced Tuesday ten states and the District of Columbia will be getting part of $3.4 billion in cash in President Obama’s “Race to the Top”. Ten of the eleven just happened to go for the president in the last election. What are the odds?
With the application process so skewed toward big eastern states many states didn’t even bother to submit applications. Vermont, despite being surrounded by other states with their snouts in the federal cash trough, didn’t bother to send in an application. “This whole effort had more of an urban than a rural flavor,” said Armando Vilaseca, commissioner of education of Vermont.
The reliable Democratic state of Hawaii was the only one to receive funding outside of the Eastern Time zone. The only “Red State” to get a grant was Georgia. New Jersey, which went for Obama in 2008 but has since elected a Republican governor, was the only Northeastern state to appy and not receive money.
The results are hardly surprising. Pres. Obama and his administration have routinely granted favors to their financial supporters. Reining in personal injury lawyers was never mention during the health care reform debate. Trial lawyers are the Democrats number 1 source of campaign cash.
Over one third of the over $800 billion in “Stimulus” spending went directly into the pockets of teachers and public employees – number 2 & number 3 on the list of biggest Democratic donors.
That the mainstream media will not report this obvious quid pro quo by the Democrats is embarrassing.
