Conservative> Michelle Malkin> To Give And To Serve The 6 Billion National Service Boondoggle

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To GIVE and To SERVE: The $6 Billion National Service Boondoggle

Maybe it's just me, but I find federal legislation titled "The GIVE Act" and "The SERVE Act" downright creepy. Even more troubling: the $6 billion price tag on these bipartisan bills to expand government-funded national service efforts.

Volunteerism is a wonderful thing, which is why millions of Americans do it every day without a cent of taxpayer money. But the volunteerism packages on the Hill are less about promoting effective charity than about creating make-work, permanent bureaucracies and left-wing slush funds.

The House passed the "Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act" — or the GIVE Act — last week. The Senate took up the companion SERVE Act Tuesday afternoon. According to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Senate bill (S.277), it would cost "$418 million in 2010 and about $5.7 billion over the 2010-2014 period."

Like most federal programs, these would be sure to grow over time. The bills reauthorize the Clinton-era AmeriCorps boondoggle program and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973.

The programs have already been allocated $1.1 billion for fiscal year 2009, including $200 million from the porkulus package signed into law last month. In addition to recruiting up to 250,000 enrollees in AmeriCorps, the GIVE/SERVE bills would create new little armies of government volunteers, including a Clean Energy Corps, Education Corps, Healthy Futures Corps, Veterans Service Corps, and an expanded National Civilian Community Corps for disaster relief and energy conservation.

But that's not all. Spending would include new funds for:

— Foster Grandparent Program ($115 million);

— Learn and Serve America ($97 million);

— Retired and Senior Volunteer Program ($70 million);

— Senior Companion Program ($55 million);

— $12 million for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2014 for "the Silver Scholarships and Encore Fellowships programs";

— $10 million a year from 2010 through 2014 for a new "Volunteers for Prosperity" program at USAID to "award grants to fund opportunities for volunteering internationally in coordination with eligible organizations"; and

— Social Innovation Fund and Volunteer Generation Fund — $50 million in 2010; $60 million in 2011; $70 million in 2012; $80 million in 2013; and $100 million in 2014.

Social Innovation Fund? If that sounds familiar, it should.

I reported last fall on the Democratic Party platform's push to fund a "Social Investment Fund Network" that would reward "social entrepreneurs and leading nonprofit organizations" and "support results-oriented innovators." It is essentially a special taxpayer-funded pipeline for radical liberal groups backed by billionaire George Soros that masquerade as public-interest do-gooders.

Especially troublesome to parents' groups concerned about compulsory volunteerism requirements is a provision in the House version directing Congress to explore "whether a workable, fair and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic and educational backgrounds."

Those who have watched AmeriCorps from its inception are all too familiar with how government volunteerism programs have been used for propaganda and political purposes. AmeriCorps "volunteers" have been put to work lobbying against the voter-approved three-strikes anti-crime initiative in California and protesting Republican political events while working for the already heavily tax-subsidized liberal advocacy group ACORN.

D.C. watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste also documented national service volunteers lobbying for rent control, expanded federal housing subsidies and enrollment of more women in the Women, Infants and Children welfare program. AmeriCorps volunteers have also been paid to shuffle paper at the Department of Justice, the Department of Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Legal Services Corporation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

(Now, imagine Obama's troops being sent overseas — out of sight and unaccountable — as part of that $10 million a year USAID/Volunteers for Prosperity program. Egad.)

One vigilant House member, GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx, successfully attached an amendment to the GIVE Act to bar National Service participants from engaging in political lobbying; endorsing or opposing legislation; organizing petitions, protests, boycotts or strikes; providing or promoting abortions or referrals; or influencing union organizing.

Supporters of GIVE/SERVE are now fighting those restrictions tooth and nail, screaming censorship and demanding the provisions be dropped — which tells you everything you need to know about the true nature of this boondoggle. Taxpayers GIVE their money to SERVE a big government agenda under the guise of helping their fellow man. It's charity at the point of a gun.

Michelle Malkin is author of "Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild." Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.

Comments

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All very good points Michelle, but unfortunately since Bo won the WH, this is only the beginning of a much deeper and sinister plot to destroy the America of the founding fathers via the change mantra. Most people are accepting and chairitable of most things by nature and they have historically given willingly and self-lessly, however, they do not always know all the details of DC laws until it is too late, wherein lies the devil. I heard a liberal thinker say yesterday on TV that no one on the hill (particularly the conservative repubs) reads any of the stuff they vote on. Amazing! I would characterise his comment as insulting to the many congress people who do read these proposals, on both sides of the ailse! These people are merely looking for that devil in those details, which is why we sent them to DC. When they find that devil they're expected to speak out which causes them to become targets of scorn from those who wish to grow that devil! A rather sad state for America shall become the administration needed (along with the associated funding costs!) to "organize" GIVE/SERVE. Through being kind and inclusive, from undersanding and accepting, from attempting to be receptive to all the possibilities, of all things, America has opened the floodgates to her own peril. Shame on all the people who allowed it to happen!

Comment: #1
Posted by: bill s
Wed Mar 25, 2009 6:49 AM

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Spread some more fear Michelle Malkin.

Disgusting!

Comment: #2
Posted by: Mick
Wed Mar 25, 2009 9:55 AM

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In her recent column, “To Give and to Serve,” Michelle Malkin makes an unfounded and inaccurate attack on the service legislation that is currently being discussed on the Senate floor. This legislation, called The Serve America Act, is a bipartisan bill being sponsored by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ted Kennedy (D-MA), and co-sponsored by leading Republican Senators such as John McCain (R-AZ), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), and others.
The Serve America Act creates more opportunities for citizens of all ages to serve their communities. Far from creating “permanent bureaucracies,” this bill invests in our nation's citizens. It harnesses the growing interest people have in national service and volunteerism, and provides the architecture necessary to channel this service where our country needs it most.
This effort couldn't be more timely. Contrary to what Ms. Malkin says, there is hardly a need to “force” people to serve. Just ask the 35,000 young people who applied for just 4,000 slots at Teach For America last year. Or the young people who have driven City Year applications up by 180%. Or the three people who are turned away from AmeriCorps for every one person who is accepted. People are serving their communities at unprecedented rates.
As she has done in the past, Ms. Malkin also erred in her description of the Social Innovation Fund, which invests in high-impact community organizations that are working to solve America's social problems. A far cry from a “liberal slush fund,” this relatively small Fund would support results-driven, proven organizations that are making a real difference in communities, none of which resemble anything like the “liberal radical groups” Malkin describes.
Now more than ever, our nation needs people who are willing to help their neighbors tackle challenges involving employment, health care, education, and other issues. What better way to help those in need than to encourage volunteerism and support the community-based organizations that provide these critical services? This approach is, in fact, the opposite of big government. Which is why some of our nation's leading Republicans are supporting this bill.
In truth, The Serve America Act defies traditional partisan labels and represents a departure from business as usual in Washington. It is a bill that even a conservative like Malkin could love – if she would, for once, try examining its intent through something other than a partisan lens.
Kelly Ward
Director, America Forward

Comment: #3
Posted by: Kelly Ward
Thu Mar 26, 2009 7:58 AM

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Re: Mick. Tell more lies. You're the disgusting one.

Comment: #4
Posted by: Matt
Sun Mar 29, 2009 11:43 PM

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Re: Kelly Ward. In the past, as well as today, , the laudable goals you describe, such as "help their neighbors tackle challenges involving employment, health care, education, and other issues" were accomplished by volunteers...not students serving the government as indentured servants under penalty of having their student loan application denied. Funny how liberals come out of the woodwork to get all over Malkin for criticizing this horrid piece of brown-shirt legislation (frighteningly recalling of the Hitler Youth), but fail to explain how America somehow got by without it for over two centuries.

Comment: #5
Posted by: Matt
Sun Mar 29, 2009 11:46 PM

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