Treason Lobby Tapping Taxpayers For La Raza

http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5333

Last week, Congresswoman Michele http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2281 (R-MN) called for Congress to reconvene so it could take out parts of the recent Freddie Mac bailout that give $500 million in unmarked grants to far-Left “community development” groups, such as the National Council of La Raza.

Bachmann’s stand is symbolic but admirable. The Treason Lobby’s tentacles are reaching out to seize the American taxpayer.

When the bailout bill was passed at the end of July, there was little public comment on the money going to La Raza.  In May, Congressman http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4513 earmarked $15 million to La Raza in his Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act of 2008. The bill was killed—but a number of people on the Hill have told me that they expect La Raza to end up with even more money in the act that subsequently passed.

To put this grant in perspective: even $15 million dollars is greater than the total assets of the three biggest immigration control groups—Numbers USA, The Center for Immigration Studies, and The Federation for American Immigration Reform—combined.

It’s not as if La Raza needs taxpayer money. It currently has over $100 million dollars in assets, along with its Raza Development Fund, their “community development lending arm” that has another 53 million. This is before they got their housing bailout money, along with $1.3 million dollars it got from HUD earlier this year, and $16 million dollars that The Wachovia Foundation, associated with the http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=336 Corporation bank, pledged to them in June.Occasionally I get a call from supporters who suggest we organize a boycott of different companies that contribute to La Raza. The name I hear most is State Farm Insurance.

I tell them that as much I’d love to boycott them, right now there is pretty much nowhere to go. I looked up the sponsors La Raza’s last annual conference—there were over 200 of them—and just about every major insurance company was there including, Aetna, Nationwide, Geico, Sharp Healthcare, and Prudential! In addition there were over two dozen government and military agencies; the Republican Party (!); and, most shockingly, a number of charities. The March of Dimes, Foundation for the Advancement in Cancer Research, National Eye Institute, and Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and Paralysis Resource Center all were sponsors of the conference.

Many of these organizations will no doubt claim that their sponsorship was used for the purpose of recruiting affirmative action hires—not that it makes it any better. The government will insist that the money given to La Raza is given for specific projects like setting up Spanish Language Charter Schools or giving housing assistance to illegal aliens. Again, not like it makes it any better.

Besides, all funds are fungible.

So before La Raza get new grants, voters, consumers, and donors should ask what exactly La Raza is doing with this money from the U.S. taxpayer, big business, and the March of Dimes?

One of its major projects is a new website called “We Can Stop the Hate” designed to blacklist anyone who opposes their agenda. According to the New York Times, La Raza wants to silence haters “even if such censorship were a violation of First Amendment rights”.

http://www.vdare.com/epstein/080821_treason.htm

2008-08-22