$3,000,000 New York City College of New York for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service to prepare individuals for careers in public service, which may include establishing an endowment, library and archives for such center
$1,000,000 Helen Keller Worldwide, for the ChildSight Vision Screening Program and to provide eyeglasses to children whose educational performance may be hindered because of poor vision
$1,000,000 New York ReadNet Foundation, for an online literacy program for at-risk youth in Hudson, NY
$1,000,000 Yonkers Yonkers Public Schools for after-school programs, which may include youth scholarships
$800,000 Newark Via Health of Wayne for facilities and equipment for the Newark-Wayne Community Hospital
$750,000 Syracuse Loretto, for facilities and equipment for their elderly health care and skilled nursing facilities
$750,000 New York City The Aging in New York Fund, Inc., of the New York City Department for the Aging, to develop best practices in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease
$750,000 Cortlandt Manor Hudson Valley Hospital, to construct a cancer care center

Money for education, cancer research, equipment for the elderly, hospital funding, funding to help blind children…
Yea, these guys are really out of control… Would you deny funding for blind children and cancer victims?!?!? If its not governments RESPONSIBILITY to fund these things, then who’s is it?

[…] Do they think we are idiots? By admin Thanks to Albanys Insanity for posting Congress is considering a bill. Congress is considering a bill — the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations measure — that presently contains 1,867 earmarks worth more than a half-billion tax dollars and averaging nearly $268,000 each. Many are for things that sound like worthy causes such as “hospital facilities and equipment,” yet none of the sponsoring congressmen put their names on their earmarks. […]

You know Adam, you are the conmans’s dream, the Kleptocrats’s perfect dupe. Put a high sounding purpose to any largess, and you buy it hook line and sinker. I hope you never take up a career in law enforcement; detective work is not your thing.

I don’t know what’s more suspicious or more despicable, an anonymous earmark or a sponsored earmark that has no defined purpose at all.
Either way the tax payers are just an all-day sucker for these men and woman with no moral bearings.

The highest marginal federal tax rate is 37%…it used to be 90%. Taking your blood? give me a break! We have had tax break after tax break. We now pay a fraction in income taxes that other developed nations do. Nothing will satisfy you people untill we have a federal government that consists of nothing but a military. Do you take public transportation, collect social security, travel on an airplane, enjoy cheaper gasoline than any other developed counrty in the world, travel on highways, etc.? guess what, the federal government pays for these things with tax dollars. You libertarians are crazy, the only thing we can be assured of are death and taxes. Get over it! You want to live in the most prosperous country in the world? you have to pay for it, nothing is free.

Rus, Adam thinks it’s the government’s RESPONSIBILITY to fund EVERYTHING! He must of read it in the Constitution.
If it ain’t some Fascist program they’re for, then it’s a Socialist program. What would Adam do without the government nanny-state to control his life and pick his pocket?

Thanks for the lesson Adam on Socialism and Fascism, but I think I know more about it then you, since you don’t recognise it, even though it’s right in front of your face!

As a big government-loving nut, how do you account for it’s destructive effects on NYS, or do you just ignore that too?

for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States

Adam, the phrase refers to the enumerated powers, the vast majority of the programs of the federal government do not fit into that category. All of the worthwhile programs would be funded privately and more efficiently without stealing from our pockets and creating unnecessary layers of bureaucracy. The government isn’t looking out for your good, it is perpetuating a fraud that constitutes a massive jobs creating program that maintains the elegant lifestyle of the favored class.

Regarding the “government nanny-state” issue, I think we need to take a look at the other “nanny” in the room, one that’s been taking care of Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and the rest for centuries: white privilege.

One of the problems I’m having with this conversation is that it seems like a grand assumption is being made: all taxpayers are treated equal. I understand that it might be a difficult thing for a white, male like Rus Thompson to have to “fund everything under the sun” but let’s not forget how much easier it’s been for him to take the position that government’s too big, too meddling, too involved. He and his family–despite whatever prejudices they may have faced in the past–have NOT been the victims of institutinalized racism for going on 250 years. If so, he may have a different position on social programs, welfare funding, and public schooling.

I’m not suggesting that our government doesn’t need reform–it does–but a political ideology that seems to have its heart set on protecting white, male privilege is not the route of which I’m supportive. And considering the constituents in the 144th Assembly district, they probably aren’t either.

One more thing: could any of you libertarians out there explain to me why your clubs are always so darned white-washed? (I don’t think I’ve ever met a libertarian that wasn’t a white male, or sleeping with one…)

Thanks for sharing