Community organizing on a national scale

Often when you look into the early life of a president, you can get a pretty good idea how he'll serve as commander-in-chief. For instance, after Lyndon B. Johnson moved into the White House, he brought us the Great Society, a nationwide version of his efforts to improve life (which he did) for residents of his Texas 10th Congressional District.

The Great Society was less successful.

Unlike LBJ, Obama didn't have much to show for his four years in the legislative branch (two of which he spent running for president). But he was a community organizer. And we're going to have more community organizers, as Fox News reports:

The Senate on Thursday approved a major national service bill that triples the AmeriCorps program, despite concerns from some conservatives that it could allow politically charged groups to benefit from extra funding.

The Senate voted 78-20 to increase AmeriCorps to 250,000 from its current 75,000 positions. The legislation is expected to cost $6 billion over five years.

The House could take up the bill as early as Monday, sending it then to President Obama for his signature.

The package, called the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act, or GIVE Act, encourages a broad range of Americans to give back to their communities. It would create five groups to help poor people, improve education, encourage energy efficiency, strengthen access to health care and assist veterans.

Obama wants to drastically increase AmeriCorps during a recession. But will AmeriCorps be working for good causes?

Bill Wilson, of Americans for Limited Government, doesn't think so, and wants the House of Representatives the politicization of AmeriCorps, as this ALG press release explains:

ALG President Bill Wilson today strongly urged members of the House of Representatives to vote against amendments adopted by the Senate today that "will allow radical front groups to steal $5.7 billion under the guise of President Obama's national 'service' program."

"The Senate has voted to gut taxpayer protections in the GIVE Act that would have prohibited lobbyists, political organizations, for-profits and labor groups from taking money under the program," Wilson warned. "And now only the House can put a stop to it by voting to reject the Senate's amendments."

More...

"The House version of the GIVE Act was amended overwhelmingly to explicitly prohibit these groups from receiving tax dollars under the program," Wilson reminded House members in his statement.

"Now under the Senate version of the bill, the groups can receive the money, they just have to promise not to use it for the prohibited activities," Wilson explained.

There are Congressional elections next year.

Technorati tags: Obama Barack Obama LBJ politics Great Society americorps history alg