March 01, 2007

Darrell Steinberg, Bob Dutton: give every child born in California $500 (anchor babies, bank boondoggle)

California Senators Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) have introduced a bill that would given every child born in California from 2008 on a savings account with an initial deposit of $500 (AP link). The two Senators are either very high or very corrupt, perhaps both.

First of all, the program is open to every child, and makes absolutely no distinction as far as residency, citizenship status, or the like. While people from Korea probably aren't going to spend $1000 on a plane ticket to come here just for $500, this will reduce the costs of such birth tourism. And, needless to say, the government of Mexico is probably printing up comic books as I type showing their citizens how to take advantage of Steinberg/Dutton's largesse.

And, it doesn't take much to see where we might also "follow the money": what type of business makes money when the state deposits close to $300 million per year? Hint to the AP: it's not mattress manufacturers.

If any citizen journalists want to make a name for themselves, look into whether Steinberg and Dutton (or NAF; see below) have received donations or have links to the banking industry.

The program does have some restrictions: they probably can't get at the money until they reach 18, at which time they can only spend it on good things (not crack or anything): an education, a house, or funding a retirement account. However, none of those have to be in California.

This bill appears to have been pushed by the CFR-linked New America Foundation; one of their fellows is Gregory Rodriguez of the Los Angeles Times. Whether he's involved is not known, but this NAF page identifies another fellow, Anne Stuhldreher, as "a key player in sponsoring the legislation" and another person quoted is "Ray Boshara, New America Foundation Vice President and Director of the Asset Building Program". They also state:

Legislation that would implement KIDS Accounts throughout the U.S. is currently pending in Congress. Known as the ASPIRE Act, the federal bill is co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of lawmakers that the New America Foundation works closely with.

The latest version of that I could find is H.R.1767 and S.868, both from 2005.

The California bill is SB 752 (link), and these are the only requirements:

There is hereby established in the State Treasury the California Kids Investment and Development Savings (KIDS) Account for every child born in California on or after January 1, 2008.

There's nothing else in there regarding residency or legal status.

The bill also race-baits and tries to trigger guilt reflexes:

Across the country, one-quarter of Caucasian children and one-half of non-Caucasian children grow up in households without any significant savings or resources available for investment.

Shouldn't that be "Caucasian-American"? And, it contains unclear language:

An individual who is 18 years or older may withdraw funds from the account for the following purposes

Which "individual" and which "account" they're refering to isn't clear. That's certainly a minor point and will probably be cleared up, but it helps illustrate their muddled thinking.

The principal coauthors are: Dean Florez and Jenny Oropeza in the Senate and Patty Berg, Dave Jones, Ted Lieu, and Tony Mendoza in the Assembly.

I'll outsource discussing the idiocy in the rest of the bill to others, but I'd suggest using the points highlighted above to drive the idiots involved in this out of office.

UPDATE: Bob Dutton has dropped his name from the bill.

Posted to California at March 1, 2007 12:22 AM

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