Lame Duck Democrat Congress shovels Federal money to minorities as fast as they can

Washington DC. Nov 20, 2010. The U.S. Senate yesterday approved spending $4.6 billion to settle two lawsuits.

One by black farmers who alleged racial discrimination by government lenders and the other by 300,000 American Indians who said they had been cheated out of land royalties.

The lawsuit from black farmers filed in 1996 alleged that not enough bad loans were made by banks during Bill Clinton's administration to black farmers.

This is seen as a clear violation of Jimmy Carter's Community Reinvestment Act, which mandated that banks make bad loans to minorities. The CRA was the direct cause of the real estate market meltdown in 2007.

The lawsuit from Native Americans filed in 1997 alleged that Bill Clinton's Interior Department mismanaged trust funds that collected royalties for grazing rights and the extraction of minerals, oil and natural gas from tribal lands.

Passage of the measure, by voice vote, unblocks a legislative logjam that has thwarted payouts, negotiated by the Obama administration, of $1.15 billion to the black farmers and $3.4 billion to the American Indians.

“We are one step closer to ensuring that the black farmers and Native Americans in these suits are fully compensated for past failures of judgment by the government,” U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, said in a statement after the Senate vote.

Ms Pelosi reminded everyone that "the clock is ticking on us, we have to make hay while the sun shines" referring to the Democrats losing their majority next January. "We have to spend as much taxpayer money as we can, in order to reward our special interest groups."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-MD, said he hopes to seek a vote after Congress returns from a week-long recess on Nov. 29. President Barack Hussein Obama, D-Kenya, praised the Senate action and urged the House to move forward with the bill “as they did last year.”

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV,  said in a statement that "justice will finally be served. And we can count on their votes in 2012.”