March to Socialism - handling cash

February 25, 2009

GLENN: Well, one of the basic assumptions of socialism is that the government is able to handle conducting business better than the private sector. Well, Barack Obama is testing that with a stimulus package. Of course, he did say and so did Geithner that they were going to have to try out new things. Well, here we go. The Washington Post looked up exactly what that means. For example, you hear Barack Obama say the stimulus package is going to help the poor. Well, here's one of the ways that that's supposed to happen. Again think of the logistics of this. Processing the rush of money is complicated by the requirements unique to the stimulus act... this is quoting the post. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is getting $1.5 billion for homelessness prevention, a task in which it has never engaged. I'm just letting that sink in there. Homelessness prevention, $1.5 billion flooding into a government institution to accomplish something it's never even tried before. What could possibly go wrong with your money?

How about this one? The National Endowment For the Arts is receiving $50 million in stimulus money but must use criteria that it does not prioritize it giving out its $122 million in annual funding, whether a particular grant is likely to preserve jobs. Wait a minute. That means assessing the financial health of the arts organizations to determine which might cut back without a grant. Means assessing the financial health of art organizations to determine which would cut back without a grant. So in other words it's like a stress test for the banks except it's for the arts. I'm sure the business geniuses over at the National Endowment For the Arts will be analyzing the proper staffing of individual arts organizations on the fly. We might as well light that $50 million on fire. We can -- you know what? We could. I know it's got a picture of the flag and everything on the back, but that's art. If we're burning it, it's art.

Here's another classic example. The Maryland Energy Administration gets $1 million a year from the federal government to improve energy efficiency. The stimulus act is providing 57 times that amount on top of the $65.million the state is getting to weatherize individual homes. You think there may be a possibility of being overwhelmed when your organization goes from trying to spend a million dollars to between $57 and $122 million with just a flick of the president's pen? You think maybe the structure's not there for that? You are so cynical.

If you're skeptical and you think that it's easy to suddenly handle that flux of cash, just think of every single lottery winner you've ever heard of.

VOICE: That was even more overwhelming evidence that we are destined to be a bunch of socialist pigs very, very soon on the Glenn Beck Program.