Obama Funneled Earmark Money To His Family

Coming on the heels of a report that Obama got a $20 million grant for his former boss and current supporter, Allison Davis, who also has strong ties to Tony Rezko, is this little gem.

Turns out there was an earmark free-for-all in Illinois for a few years, and Obama was loving it…

From Breitbart/AP

As a state senator, Democrat Barack Obama awarded $75,000 in government grants to a Chicago social service organization led by a rabbi who is also his wife’s cousin, records show.

In 1999, Obama arranged for $50,000 for adult literacy and counseling services offered on Chicago’s South Side by a group called Blue Gargoyle. A $25,000 grant for the group’s youth services followed the next year.

The group’s executive director when the grants were awarded was Capers Funnye, a South Side rabbi and Michelle Obama’s first cousin….

At the time, Illinois legislators were handing out hundreds of millions of dollars in grants. The money was part of a deal that legislative leaders cut with the governor to approve a major public-works program.

Each legislator could award money to favored groups and projects with basically no oversight. The grants were known as “member initiatives” and were similar to the congressional “earmarks” often criticized in Obama’s presidential campaign against Republican John McCain.

Obama awarded about $6 million for everything from literacy programs [that his cousin ran] and park improvements [for a park that never got built] to drill team uniforms and jazz appreciation events.

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Fantastic analysis from Hot Air

So Obama had no idea that his wife’s cousin ran this group when he earmarked the money?  That seems very, very difficult to believe.  Funnye had to apply for the grants, and his name would have been on the application.  Just the act of filing that application with Obama makes it clear that he sought favors from Obama, specifically Obama, and that Obama granted them.

Funnye claims that the earmarks (called “member initiatives” in Illinois) met legislative guidelines, but none existed during that period for earmarks….

Barack Obama reveled in that system.  He sent money to friends and family (Michael Pfleger and Jeremiah Wright were two more recipients of his largesse) as an Illinois state senator, and as a US Senator, he sent money to his wife’s employer.  Obama requested more than a million dollars a day in earmarks in his first three years in the Senate.  He’s not part of the solution to Washington’s corruption — he’s part of the problem.

I could not have said it better.  Hats off to hot air.