Given the Democrat Congress and its reckless spending, Swalwell took advantage of the return of “earmarks” in 2021 to direct money to the district. The practice was banned for a decade after the Tea Party gave Republicans control of the House after two years of the Obama Administration. The earmarks and the obvious pork associated with them demonstrated the waste in the federal government.
Given the spending proclivity of Congress and the Biden Administration, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders decided to bring them back.
Swalwell dished out about $15 million in his district, with about $4.1 targeted to Tri-Valley agencies and non-profits. Pleasanton will receive $2 million for its project to clean up plastic pollution in its groundwater wells. The Chabot-Las Positas district’s partnership with Cal State East Bay to improve coordination and outcomes for students will receive $1 million.
Goodness Village, the tiny home community at Crosswinds Church in Livermore, will receive $1 million. Livermore based One Nation Dream Makers’ last mile delivery program also received funding.
Swalwell was joined by many other members of Congress in dishing out the earmarks which, to my local knowledge, went to organizations during important work. The long-term challenge is that this money can be used for operations and what will happen in the next fiscal year when the federal largess may not be available with the Republicans controlling the House as of today.
Many new laws took effect Jan. 1, including some pretty awful ones passed by Democrats who dominate Sacramento.
One of the more dubious ones was authored by Assemblyman Evan Low, D-San Jose, that makes it easier to “discipline” physicians for spreading mis-information about Covid-19. It empowers the state medical board to discipline doctors by terming the misinformation “unprofessional conduct,” even suspending their license to practice.
This is an egregious affront to both free speech and physicians’ professional standing. It assumes that there is true information about the vaccines and Covid-19 and there’s plenty of evidence that questions some claims.
Given the “performance” of what I previously thought was the gold standard at the Centers for Disease Control and the efforts to shut down any speech that disagreed with their opinion, it has no credibility. The lies coming from doctors Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins and their effort to discredit the Great Barrington Declaration destroyed whatever vestige of credibility they may once have had,
It will be interesting to see what the Republicans uncover about the Covid origins and response now that they’re back in control of the House.
