Opinion: Obama Is Trying To Buy The Hispanic And Female Vote With Another Government Giveaway
Now that the polls say that President Barack Obama’s poll numbers with women and the Hispanics in the United States aren’t as exceedingly high as they were previously, there is suddenly a new benefit to the farming – and rancher – community who are either female or Hispanic, who feel they were discriminated against in the not-so-distant past. How ironic that this benefit to females and Hispanics is being offered right before President Obama’s reelection date. One might logically think that the timing of this benefit to these groups – who vote – is planned to sway their presidential election vote on November 6. It’s just one of the many, many methods in which an incumbent president can grab some extra votes in the eleventh hour.
The problem is that any such measure of appeasing voters at this critical time before the election is taking yet more federal money out of Washington at a time when the nation is broke. Financially, this is a very bad time to be coming up with such programs that are going to cost the taxpayers again – a much too common occurrence during the Obama presidency.
The program is called the Hispanic and Women Farmers and Ranchers Claims Resolution. According to the website about the new program, the United States Government is establishing a Claims Process to make available up to $1.33 billion or more to farmers who alleged discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) based on being female, or based on being Hispanic, in making or servicing farm loans during certain periods between 1981 and 2000. You read that right – $1.33 billion with a “b”.
The documentation of the program goes on to say that if you qualify and submit a timely claim, you could receive an award of up to $50,000 or up to $250,000 in cash, depending on the evidence that you submit. USDA will also provide a total of up to $160 million in debt relief to successful claimants who currently owe USDA money for eligible farm loans.
Conveniently-timed for Obama in the nation’s the elective process that this resolution began September 24, 2012 – just a month-and-a-half before the election. No, apparently the Obama administration did not care about this alleged injustice to females and Hispanics any time in the past three-and-a-half years. It just happened to be thought about and addressed now – just before voters pull the lever.
It’s not a problem that people who may have been treated unfairly in our country are being financially assisted by the government. It’s the incredibly huge amount of money – $1.33 billion or more – in a time that the federal government and tax payers are unable to pay their bills – let alone start another “government program” that hands out more money. It will obviously increase the federal deficit more when the government cannot afford. And finally, the blatant shifty-timing of the program being put at a crucial time during President Obama’s reelection effort gives him yet another unfair advantage to get minority votes.
It’s using money to get votes without using campaign funds because it’s getting votes with our tax dollars via another federal pay-back program under the Obama administration. I don’t want my tax dollars being spent on anything that even suggests assisting any candidate get elected – including Obama. Even though this advantage to get minority votes is being had in a round-about way by Obama, candidates are supposed to pay for their election efforts on their own. And what’s more maddening is that he thought nobody would “notice” or “figure out” what he’s doing to get those female and Hispanic votes. It’s unethical.
About Scott Paulson
Scott Paulson writes political commentary for Examiner.com and teaches English at a community college in the Chicago area. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.
