Friday, April 30, 2010

Funding the Recovery Act: Arrest, Try, Jail and Fine the Threateners

A confluence of events gave me a grand Idea that I need to share. I get ideas from time to time but every once in awhile it is a real humdinger (and I need to capitalize the I).

I was browsing through the Federal Recovery program website this evening, marveling at many of its aspects. That it had a state-by-state breakdown on how much of the Recovery Act funds are going to each state (Texas is getting a $13.2 billion slice of the pie) and you can even search by zip code. You get a map of that zip code and locations of businesses or organizations that are getting funds. You can even get a list of what the funds are supposed to be used for.

And you can even blow the whistle on fraud or abuse through the website.

As I said, it is truly marvelous.

Then I browsed at the Austin American-Statesman and noticed in an AP piece that a Dallas man had been arrested by the Feds for threatening our president’s life.

From AP (through the AA-S):

“Brian Dean Miller, 43, faces one count of making threats against the president, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.”

Oh my, I thought. I had no idea that included in the maximum sentence for this crime there was a fine that went along with 5 years in federal lockup.

A cool 250 large.

And then it suddenly dawned on me how we could, at least partially, recoup on some of the money we are doling out to the states in the Recovery Act.

Arrest each and every one of the haters who threaten the life of our president. If they do the crime, they must also do the time – and pay the fine.

This particular hater wanted to take our president’s life because he got healthcare reform passed – or he signed the bill that Congress passed. Or that he used 22 pens to sign the bill. Who knows what specifically tipped this guy over.

Who cares?

$250,000 pays the yearly salary of 5 teachers.

And get them all, even those that issue empty threats – like Brian Dean Miller.

“An Arlington resident reported the threats to the Secret Service. Agents tracked down Miller at his Dallas home, where he lives with his mother, according to the complaint. Police arrested Miller and seized his computer. They found no weapons in the residence.”

Get that? A 43-year old who lives with his mother and doesn’t own a weapon.

Probably because his mom wouldn’t let him bring one home.

Now it won’t pay for the whole program, but it would definitely be a nice chunk of change if we got the maximum sentence for these losers.

According to the London Telegraph, President Obama gets an average of 30 death threats per day. By the numbers then, since January 20, 2009 there have been 464 full days where Obama received 30 death threats (probably more some days than others, like after another brilliant speech or passage of laws that promote Obama’s Socialistic Communist Nazi agenda).

With that many threats, and the fine being what it is, that could bring in $116 million in funds to offset the cost of the Recovery Act.

And that’s just up until today. In 4 years, or one complete term, threats to Obama’s life means a total of $365 million.

Double that for the second term.

The down side is that all of these haters will see what is happening and stop it with the threats, idle or otherwise.

But that’s OK, too.

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