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National Service Programs Won't Serve Taxpayersby
Tom McClusky Feb 27, 2002 Some Americans may have been led to believe that expanding the federal AmeriCorps
program is just what the country needs after September 11. But in spite
of its patriotic name, AmeriCorps represents the worst, not the best, Washington
has to offer.
The Corporation for National Service (CNS, AmeriCorps’ parent) was
begun under President Clinton to serve as a "domestic Peace Corps" and helped to introduce the oxymoronic phrase "paid volunteer" into
the American vocabulary. CNS's bureaucracy oversees three separate programs,
Learn and Serve America, the National Senior Service Corps, and its best-known,
most-criticized program, AmeriCorps.
Since its inception AmeriCorps has not only
been financially corrupt, it has also allowed government-sponsored participants
to illegally lobby for numerous leftist causes, ranging from "defending" the environment to protesting against California's proposed "Three Strikes
and You're Out" law.
In April of 2000 the House of Representatives subcommittee that oversaw Clinton's
CNS tried to have independent auditors look at the bottom line. What
they found would have made Enron auditors proud. For the sixth time since its creation in 1993 the agency's books couldn't be reconciled
with reality.
The General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative
arm of Congress, has studied CNS programs seven times since
1995, yet cannot provide a definite cost per participant. The GAO studies
have found CNS "volunteers" costing taxpayers anywhere from a total
of $8,000 to a whopping $100,000 per participant.
With such a checkered history one would think that CNS and AmeriCorps would
join other federal follies in the dustbin of history. Yet AmeriCorps
is not just surviving under a Republican administration, it is thriving -
- and billions of tax dollars are at stake. President Bush has asked
for a large increase in Peace Corps and CNS funding, a vast new array of programs
under a big-brother like Citizen Corps, and a new bureaucracy called "Freedom
Corps" with its own White House office (a sure ticket to immortality),
all under the misguided notion of "national security."
Despite being a government entity hoping to
foster more volunteerism for non-profit organizations, Freedom Corps would
be overseen by a Director and a "Coordinating Council" consisting
of fourteen high ranking government officials, including the President - -
not one private citizen in the bunch.
Worse, under the Administration-backed legislation,
AmeriCorps "volunteers" would not only be allowed to receive tax
free education awards "but also options to use the funds for a down
payment on a home, job training, or health care costs" - - all luxuries real world volunteers would have to go out and
get a job to afford. In addition, included in the new Citizen Corps
is Operation TIPS, which would allow postal, transportation, and public utility
employees to spy on their fellow Americans, and report back to the government.
In one of his first Executive Orders as President, George W. Bush stated
"faith-based and other community organizations are indispensable in meeting
the needs of poor Americans and distressed neighborhoods. Government
cannot be replaced by such organizations, but it can and should welcome them
as partners." Agencies such as AmeriCorps take this "partnership" in the wrong direction, by trying to socialize the volunteering nature at
the heart of all United States citizens.
America has a noble history of volunteering, especially during times of war. This war is no different. The airline passengers on Flight 93, the majority
of rescue workers' support at the World Trade Center, the airline passengers
who took down the attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid, were all people who
saw others in need and became heroes - - without waiting for Washington to
"lead them."
To try to bottle that principled heroism under
an already poorly-run government program literally does a disservice to those
who serve our nation without tax subsidies.
Tom McClusky is a Senior Policy Analyst for the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. |
