SC

Barack Obama “Promise Zone” Comes To Palmetto State

DESIGNATION COULD MEAN MILLIONS IN FEDERAL GRANT MONEY … || By FITSNEWS || Progressives in South Carolina are giddy over a decision by the administration of Barack Obama to designate a sizable chunk of rural South Carolina as a federal “promise zone.” So after “hope and change” didn’t work out,…

DESIGNATION COULD MEAN MILLIONS IN FEDERAL GRANT MONEY …

|| By FITSNEWS || Progressives in South Carolina are giddy over a decision by the administration of Barack Obama to designate a sizable chunk of rural South Carolina as a federal “promise zone.”

So after “hope and change” didn’t work out, now we’ve got a promise … great.

“It’s a big deal,” insists Andy Brack, editor of the S.C. Statehouse Report.

According to an article posted to Brack’s website, the designation “brings two key tools to the impoverished southern tip of the state: a handful of trained federal workers to help counties apply for existing federal grants, and extra points for applications submitted in programs to improve education, grow jobs, boost safety and add affordable housing.”

Another rural “promise zone” in Kentucky has won $43 million in federal grant funding since receiving its designation, Brack said.

“South Carolina is only the nation’s second rural Promise Zone and the only one announced today,” Brack wrote on his foundation’s home page.  ” If the same kinds of things happen here that have happened in the other rural Zone in eastern Kentucky, we should be looking at an infusion of millions of dollars over time to grow jobs, improve the economy, have better schools, get more affordable housing and reduce crime.”

The zone – which would be administered by a nonprofit called the SouthernCarolina Alliance – lies west of Interstate 95 in the southern part of the Palmetto State.  It encompasses parts of six counties: Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper.

Take a look …

(Click to enlarge)

promise zone

(Pic: Via)

“The Promise Zone designation will catalyze an effort across the South Carolina Lowcountry to meet identified goals essential to increasing the quality of life and accelerating efforts to create comprehensive community revitalization in the region,” a release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) stated.

USDA is one of four federal agencies coordinating resources in the zone.  The others?  The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Education (DOE) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Unemployment in the six counties to be served by the “promise zone” is 14.7 percent, with a 28.1 percent poverty rate.  Oddly enough, efforts to bring two major private sector opportunities to this region – an Indian-run casino resort and a public-private deepwater port – were nixed by the administration of Nikki Haley, who grew up in Bamberg, S.C.

Do we think a bunch of new federal grants is going to turn this region around?

No.  The federal government has spent trillions of dollars over the last five decades ($22 trillion, to be precise) fighting poverty through bigger, more expansive and more invasive government programs.  None of them have worked.

“Continuing the War on Poverty is unlikely to further reduce poverty, increase self-sufficiency, or expand economic mobility,” a 2014 analysis from The Cato Institute concluded.  “More anti-poverty programs and more welfare spending are not the answer to continued poverty.  Fifty years of failure is enough.”

The best way to lift people out of poverty?  Economic growth … which America has seen precious little of over the past decade-and-a-half.

***

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20 comments

TroubleBaby April 28, 2015 at 3:33 pm

The Czars new 5 year plan will be called the “Broken Promise Zone” at it’s end.

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FastEddy23 April 28, 2015 at 3:35 pm

“Promise Zone”?? As in a promise to the Chinese?

(See FITs = Chinese buying SC real estate.)

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Rock April 28, 2015 at 3:36 pm

The way to help those people out – bus tickets to another place where there is economic growth.

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FastEddy23 April 28, 2015 at 3:36 pm

Texas would be good fur ’em.

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Crooner April 28, 2015 at 3:40 pm

Wrong Indians running the casino?

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FastEddy23 April 28, 2015 at 3:40 pm

“… The best way to lift people out of poverty? Economic growth …”

And the best way to economic growth? A whooping big permanent federal income tax cut.

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idiotwind April 28, 2015 at 3:41 pm

Fits, you confuse libertarian with couch-potato-anarchist. the government of a sophisticated country can’t just sit around hoping for things to happen.

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Jonny Logic April 28, 2015 at 3:53 pm

Exactly, since Nikki won’t let the ‘libertarian precious private sector business’ come in, what are the people supposed to do? Sit around waiting because the politics involved won’t get Nikki to the White House?

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shifty henry April 28, 2015 at 7:44 pm

Perhaps T-Rav can work with these folks to include them in his show.

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shifty henry April 28, 2015 at 4:32 pm

OOPS..!! Lil’ Barry found a wrinkled note in his desk in the Oval Office — it was dated March 15, 1933 and initialed ‘FDR’

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scguy2473 April 28, 2015 at 6:34 pm

What about that little hole in the middle of the “Promise Zone”? That little guy…don’t worry about that little guy…must be where the white people live….

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FastEddy23 April 28, 2015 at 6:50 pm

That may be a republicrat stronghold … You know, the guys in the senate that just voted you two new tax increases … And it ain’t to buy votes for democrats.

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GrandTango April 28, 2015 at 8:07 pm

Does that mean the riots he is responsible for…are coming here, too…???

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Big Hypocrite April 29, 2015 at 9:48 am

Why you ctying, Hoss? You’re already getting Medicaid, so why not milk some more off that teat?

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erneba April 29, 2015 at 12:36 am

I just can’t wait to miss him.

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Lexguy April 29, 2015 at 7:20 am

Just remember…’free’ federal money isn’t free!

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Dan Ruck April 29, 2015 at 9:47 am

Can Nikki block this in any way? You can bet she’ll try. And her cronies in the legislature will be looking to steal as much as they can.

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Nixie Trixie April 29, 2015 at 9:50 am

Maybe if she gets their money first…

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Oops! April 29, 2015 at 9:51 am

For Dan Ruck…

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