Question to Cummings: Where did the Billions in Missing Federal Money Go?
Why Trump was right to ask.
August 22, 2019 ~ Matthew Vadum
President Trump went after purported congressional watchdog Elijah Cummings recently, slamming the Democrat congressman for failing to improve his troubled Baltimore, Maryland, district despite the inflow of billions of dollars in federal aid during and in the years leading up to Trump’s administration.
The evidence suggests
Trump was right on the money, as usual. Local Democrat leaders in Baltimore,
especially Elijah Cummings, have some explaining to do.
About Matthew Vadum
Matthew Vadum, formerly senior vice president at the investigative think tank Capital Research Center, is an award-winning investigative reporter and author of the book, "Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts Are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers."
President Trump went after purported congressional watchdog Elijah Cummings recently, slamming the Democrat congressman for failing to improve his troubled Baltimore, Maryland, district despite the inflow of billions of dollars in federal aid during and in the years leading up to Trump’s administration.
Cummings came to the
attention of conservatives as he zealously defended the IRS throughout the Lois
Lerner saga. Lerner is the corrupt IRS tax-exempt division executive who
engineered the tax agency’s targeting of conservative nonprofits during the
Obama administration. Cummings also apparently conspired with Lerner to sabotage
True the Vote, a leading grassroots electoral integrity group. In 2012, Cummings
falsely claimed the group would “do almost anything to stop people from
voting.”
“Baltimore’s numbers are
the worst in the United States on Crime and the Economy. Billions of dollars
have been pumped in over the years, but to no avail[,]” the president wrote on Twitter July 29. “The money was
stolen or wasted. Ask Elijah Cummings where it went. He should investigate
himself with his Oversight Committee!”
“Baltimore, under the
leadership of Elijah Cummings, has the worst Crime Statistics in the Nation. 25
years of all talk, no action! So tired of listening to the same old Bull…Next,
Reverend Al will show up to complain & protest. Nothing will get done for
the people in need. Sad!” Trump tweeted.
Trump was responding to
taunts by RINO Michael Steele, who used to run the Republican National
Committee and was Maryland’s lieutenant governor from 2003 to 2007, Baltimore
Mayor Bernard Young (D), and racial arsonist Al Sharpton, who accused the
president of not spending enough federal money on Baltimore.
Two days before his
tweets, Trump took Cummings to task on Twitter after the congressmen lobbed
harsh criticisms about the conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Rep. Elijah Cummings has
been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of
Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his
Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered
the Worst in the USA......” Trump tweeted.
“....As proven last week
during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run,
just very crowded[,]” Trump added. “Cumming[s’] District is a disgusting,
rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he
could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place[.]”
Naturally, Democrats in
the media and the political establishment responded with indignation, defending
the squalor of Baltimore, even though just a few years ago, they had admitted
Charm City was in bad shape.
In 2015, presidential
candidate Bernie Sanders blasted West Baltimore, likening it to a
“Third World country.” The next year the socialist senator from Vermont
lamented in a tweet: “Residents of Baltimore’s poorest boroughs have lifespans
shorter than people living under dictatorship in North Korea. That is a
disgrace.”
Lynne Patton, a regional
administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, defended Trump, saying that $16 billion in
grants was directed to Cummings’s congressional district in 2018 alone.
“I want to say this expressly to Mayor Young
and Michael Steele and Al Sharpton, who today called out the president and said
let President Trump put his money where his mouth is. Well, boys and girls, I
have a message for you, President Trump has given $16 billion in 2018 alone to
Elijah Cummings’s district in federal grants,” she said.
Newsweek verified that Cummings’s home
turf, the 7th Congressional District, which includes portions of Maryland
outside Baltimore, took in a little under $15.7 billion in grants and other
funding from the U.S. government in fiscal 2018.
“We have given more money
in homeless funds to Baltimore than the last administration. We have given more
money in community development grants than the last administration to
Baltimore. My question to you guys is this, what are you actually doing with
the money so that it benefits residents in the community for once instead of
deep-pocket crooked politicians?” Patton said.
Baltimore has the highest
homicide rate among America’s 50 largest cities and the second-highest violent
crime rate overall, according to FBI data released in September 2018. There
were 342 homicides in Baltimore in 2017, which works out to 56 per 100,000
people residing in the city. On 24/7 Wall Street’s list of the most dangerous
cities in the country, Baltimore ranked 3rd, behind 1st-place
St. Louis, Missouri and 2nd-place Detroit, Michigan.
Baltimore’s economic data
are nothing to brag about, either, according to a summary prepared by Fox Business.
The median home there is
valued at $113,500. Home values have fallen 3.2 percent over the last year.
Zillow expects they will tumble another 4.2 percent over the coming year.
Census Bureau data show Baltimore had retail sales of $5,871 per capita in
2012, which was well below the national average of $13,443.
Baltimore’s unemployment
rate in May was 5.1 percent, which is above Maryland’s state rate of 3.8
percent and the national average of 3.7 percent. Average household income in
Baltimore was $46,641 in 2017, well below the average household income nationally
of $57,652. The poverty rate in Baltimore is 22.4 percent, which is
dramatically higher than the national average of 12.3 percent.
On WalletHub’s list of 150 best-run cities, Baltimore weighed in at the 129th spot in terms of city leadership.
About Matthew Vadum
Matthew Vadum, formerly senior vice president at the investigative think tank Capital Research Center, is an award-winning investigative reporter and author of the book, "Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts Are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers."
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