Emanuel Cleaver Denies Requesting $48 Billion Earmark… But It’s Still Listed As a Request On His Government Website
Posted by Jim Hoft on Friday, December 17, 2010, 6:04 AM
On Wednesday it was reported that far left Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) proposed a $48 billion earmark to redistribute taxpayer money to the inner city.
It was the Mother of All Earmarks…
Liberal Rep. Emanuel Cleaver proposed a whopping $48 BILLION EARMARK that would redistribute wealth to the inner cities and gift money to the poor and thereby produce a much larger consumer class to buy the goods and services produced in this country.
Rep. Cleaver will lead the Congressional Black Caucus next year. (CBC Blog)
Now get this…
The $48 billion would go to Cleaver’s friend, a gentleman named Lamar Mickens, president of the not-for-profit Quality Day Campus who runs a day care center out of his Kansas City home. Mickens is the president and secretary of the day care center. His wife is vice president.
The $48 Billion ought to help them out with their daily operations, no?
After this story broke Rep. Cleaver told the Southeast Missourian that the story was false.
“I think it would be hilarious if thousands of people did not believe it,” said Cleaver, who is serving his third term representing the 5th District of Missouri in the House of Representatives. “It’s the most bizarre thing I’ve ever experienced in my years in politics.”
…The project is one of 127 proposals that were submitted to Cleaver via his website earlier this year for fiscal year 2011 and were posted on the site. But he posts every proposal he receives from constituents, he said, and not those that he actually chooses to send to Congressional appropriations committees.
“I post those that are ridiculous and those that are sound,” Cleaver said. “But I have never submitted a request for a $48 billion earmark to do anything. If I ever asked for $48 billion, I would vote against myself. Anybody who asked for that much ought to be removed from Congress. It didn’t happen. It didn’t almost happen. I’ve done what I’ve always done.”
But, it certainly does not look that way from his government website.
Check it out yourself.
Click on Cleaver’s government website:
Then move your mouse over the “legislation” link and select “Appropriations”:
You will see a link named: “FY2011 earmark request”
(circled in red)
Now go to page 25 and look at the last earmark requested from his office:
(Click to Enlarge)
It’s a $48 Billion requested earmark for his pals at the Quality Day Campus.
Emanuel Cleaver did not expect us to actually fact-check his words.
He’s not used to that from the state-run media.
UPDATE: Business Wire reported that Cleaver was not following the rules on earmarks:
Instead of posting what he requests of the Appropriations Committee as required, Rep. Cleaver posts “all earmarks requested of the Congressman.” Presumably some but not all of these earmarks are submitted to the Committee. One of the earmarks requests on the Congressman’s web site is $48 billion for Quality Day Campus, Inc. After conversation with the office, it is unclear whether this request was actually submitted to the Committee. Given this, and considering the extremely large size of the request, it was excluded from both the total and the member data so as not skew the results with an outlier.
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Muffin commented:
Clearly this requires JAIL TIME.
Missy8s commented:
Curses!
Taken down by that “pesky” internet thingy and I would’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those darned kids!
Baraq Hasan al-Bama commented:
Isn’t it o.k. since it’s coming from my stash?
Bobbi commented:
He is supposed to be a man of God. He is still pastor at his church.
olm commented:
Hilarious, I guess he should be removed, by his own words.
Please, someone, ask when we can expect his resignation.
joe commented:
so I will now wait for his resignation?
TenderVittles commented:
That kinda lying’ll get ya spat on!
gastorgrab commented:
That racist Tea Party must have put those documents there.
gastorgrab commented:
Just because his own constituents cant read, it doesn’t mean that the rest of us cant.
I cant wait to see what racist-spin that ‘Progressives’ put on this.
.
DINORight commented:
I agree with @olm and @joe – when do we hold him to his cavalier words about resigning?! I didn’t go to the links, but I wonder if this has been scrubbed yet….
BTW – the reason the amount column has #### signs is that, in an Excel spreadsheet, a number too large to display will automatically fill with these # signs. That explains why someone has to go to the description to find out the amount – of Phase 1. Heh.
Ginger commented:
Here comes the trolls from his church and community!
Hey Jim they are going help with your post count!
Emanuel Cleaver commented:
And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids!
(And that mangy mutt…)
Chip Bennett commented:
Hey Jim,
While the amount of the earmark is clearly quite large (the total number of digits in the number exceeds the width of the spreadsheet column, leading to the “#” character-replacement), because of that character-replacement, we don’t know the exact amount of the requested earmark.
To wit:
1) The number could be less than 48 billion. Note that the description indicates that the 48 billion is the total cost of “Phase I”. We don’t know that the earmark is the sole source of funding for Phase I.
2) The number could be more than 48 billion. We don’t know how many Phases there are, or how many Phases the earmark is intended to fund.
That said: looking at the spreadsheet, in order for the character-replacement to kick in, I think it’s safe to assume that the requested earmark is at least in the billion-dollar order of magnitude, if not in the ten-billion-dollar order of magnitude. (It appears that two more characters could easily fit in the provided space.)
Finncrisp commented:
Some low level staffer may get the Keith Oberman “suspension” and be back on the job in a jiff.
Mainstream will call it an honest mistake and move on.
I guess the distinguished representative did not realize that his party got clobbered in the last election, or that his party that got clobbered had spent the country into oblivion thrice over on it’s way to getting clobbered. Cookie jar is empty, powder is dry.
Jim commented:
I am surprised it is still up on his website. Just because we have the capture doesn’t mean they won’t try to hide it anyway. But I just went to the website and it is still there. Somebody and Cleaver’s office is really falling down on the job.
IOpian commented:
Be careful, he may find common cause with the right Revrund Al to have the FCC shut you down for revealing their inner workings.
Jim commented:
“in” Cleaver’s office, not “and”- Sorry.
Henry Hawkins commented:
Now hold on a dang minute here. Cleaver, I believe, is in his third term in the US House. This means he was first elected in.. what.. 2004? And who was president in 2004? That’s right… George W. Bush. Well, George W. Bush made NO attempts to get this man out of office, which clearly indicates Bush’s approval of Cleaver, and so, there Cleaver still sits, lying to his constituency, indeed, to all of America, all the while trying to fleece us to the tune of $48 billion for the benefit of his hometwon cronies. Thanks, George. Thanks a lot.
IT’S GEORGE BUSH’S FAULT.
[See? This is easy. I could make some righteous bucks with the Democrats.]
theBuckWheat commented:
Notice the amount field on Cleaver’s web site. For this line item it is all #####, meaning it has more digits than the web design was designed to handle. Not if that isn’t a metaphor for the last few years and why I supported the Tea Party– government was using more digits of our wealth than the Constitution was designed to handle.
Beth just south of Berkeley and just east of San Francisco commented:
And look who’s at his right hand: “Red Barbara” Lee, by whom I have the great misfortunte to be represented(?) in Congress.
Depressing.
Could somebody please wish me a good old-fashioned politically incorrect MERRY CHRISTMAS?
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