Strike The Root

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

  Federal Register Watch

by Mike Powers

January 13 - 17, 2003

 What freedoms have you lost this week?

The Federal Register is the official daily publication for Rules, Proposed Rules, and Notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as Executive Orders and other Presidential Documents.  This column attempts to summarize the highlights (or lowlights) of the Federal Register during the preceding week.  

Instructions for subscribing to the Federal Register can be found at the end of the column.

JANUARY 13, 2003 :  

Department of the Interior – $6 Million in Federal Grants for Wildlife Conservation Available

The International Association of Fish and Wildlife Services (IAFWA), which represents the State fish and wildlife agencies, announces its priority list for projects eligible for $6 million in annual grants from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Programs Improvement Act of 2000.

The projects eligible for grants include the following:

- “Measuring Public Opinion of Fish and Wildlife Agencies in 13 Northeast States” (eligible for $350,000 in grants)

- “Wildlife Values In The West” (eligible for $447,922 in grants)

- “Becoming An Outdoors Woman” (eligible for $186,100 in grants)

- “Provide Adaptive Equipment to State Fish and Game Departments to Assist Physically Challenged Individuals in Traditional Outdoor Activities” (eligible for $44,000 in grants)

- Continued Support for State “Hooked On Fishing – Not On Drugs” Programs (eligible for $51,500 in grants)

- “Women In The Outdoors” (eligible for $155,000 in grants)

And you thought your tax dollars were being wasted!

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/03-565.htm

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – Announcement of $18 Million in Funding Awards for the Housing Counseling Program

HUD announces over $18 million in FY2002 grants to provide “housing counseling services” to low and moderate-income individuals and families.  The services include “providing information, advice and assistance to renters, first-time homebuyers, and homeowners.”  

Programs like this make housing more expensive for those of us who do not use these services.  Because we are forced to pay taxes to subsidize these programs, we have less income available to pay our own housing costs.   

Note that faith-based organizations are now participating in the theft as well.  Catholic Charities USA, for example, received $760,328.    

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/03-540.htm 

National Park Service – Pending Nominations for the National Register of Historic Places

These are properties being considered for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.  Properties listed in the Register include districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that are “significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture.”  

Of course, the big benefit to obtaining a prestigious National Register listing is money.  Taxpayer money, that is.  Federal funding for preservation efforts.  Free money is a powerful motivator.

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/03-587.htm  

Presidential Documents - $11 Million in Aid to African Refugees

According to President Bush, it is “important to the national interest” that $11 million in stolen taxpayer funds be made available to the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund to address “unexpected and urgent migration and refugee needs arising from the crises in Ivory Coast and Liberia, and from the return of refugees to Sierra Leone and Angola.”

Certainly, I am sympathetic to their plight, but what gives the President the moral authority to forcibly take my property to spend as he sees fit?  According to the politicians, the ends always justify the means.

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/03-725.htm  

JANUARY 17, 2003 :

Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) – Announcement of Emerging Markets Program

The CCC announces that proposals are being accepted for the 2003 Emerging Markets Program, which is designed to assist U.S. organizations, public and private, to improve market access and develop and promote U.S. agricultural products in “low to middle income countries” that offer emerging market opportunities.

Among the activities that may be funded are “projects designed specifically to improve market access in emerging markets.”  Huh?!? 

Apparently, the bureaucrats are too obtuse to see the detrimental effects of their own inane policies.  For example, the U.S. government strictly limits imports and imposes tariffs on foreign products that are sold for “less than fair value” in the American markets. Tariffs and quotas are placed on just about everything that enters the country -- from Mexican cement and canned Thai pineapples to Chinese garlic.  Besides really pissing off foreign producers, these acts usually result in retaliatory tariffs and quotas.  The natural result of any tariff or quota is that customers will pay more for all types of goods and services.

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/03-1120.htm  

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