Oh, what a gift to John McCain. We've all seen commercials/infomercials like this before. If you just fork up $1,000, you can learn how to realize all of your dreams by learning how to get rich by applying for government grants. The hawkers claim you can send your kids to the best schools, live in that big house you always wanted, and live your dreams for the low, low price of $1,000 to attend the only conference on the planet designed for YOU.
"In less than 30 days, one student had his first grant for $110,000.00"
Hayworth quite shamelessly claims that it's totally all right to do this, because the grant money isn't really the government's anyway, it's YOURS.
Hayworth: "The money is out there. The opportunities are out there. And it's not really the government's money, it's YOUR money...The government can invest in YOU."
On its face, Hayworth's participation is just a cynical money grab. But it points out just how hypocritical this faux-conservatism is. Hayworth has no problem quoting President Reagan, the New Jesus of the Right, even as he argues that it's perfectly okay to bilk the government because that money is YOURS. His argument is predicated on the idea that government just hands out money to anyone who asks for it, with no expectation that these grants would actually be used for the purpose they are intended.
If their sales claims were taken on their face, it would look, smell, and be something like fraud. However, rest easy. What this group does is get people to shell out $1000 to sit in a day-long seminar intended to convince the audience it's too complicated for ordinary people. Then they spend some time pitching their services.
Free enterprise at its best. Make a market where none exists on the back of taxpayer funds, then charge the greedy and the gullible for the privilege of telling them they're too stupid to actually learn how to do it, then rescue them by making them pay more.
Would Arizona actually elect this guy? I know AB1070 gives them cover for the crazies, but really? We need this kind of soulless shill in the Senate?
(h/t David Weigel, Washington Post)
