I realize that pointing out a ridiculous stimulus expenditure is so 2009. Still, I can’t help but mention one overlooked, but completely outrageous, stimulus scheme.

You, as an American taxpayer, paid for a teenage kid to wrestle alligators.

No kidding.

The Miccosukee Corporation, the business arm of the Miccosukee Indian Tribe, pocketed a $20,785 stimulus handout to subsidize a summer youth employment program. The program hired five kids to perform jobs including cashier, handyman and alligator wrestler at the Tribe’s Miccosukee Indian Village.

While the Miccosukee Tribe gets most of its money from…wait for it…gambling, the Indian Village is another method the Tribe uses to extract money from dopey tourists. The Indian Village features a shabby museum, the occasional sewing display and, of course, an overpriced gift shop with some of the finest Native American souvenirs ever produced in China. But the village’s real draw, as it were, is an alligator wrestling show.

During the show, performers – like the kid whose paycheck was subsidized by taxpayers – poke an alligator with a stick to piss it off, then drag it around by the tail, smack it on the nose and stuff various body parts in the gator’s mouth.

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President Obama:

I am pleased that today, the House has joined the Senate in passing the Claims Settlement Act of 2010. This important legislation will fund the agreements reached in the Pigford II lawsuit, brought by African American farmers, and the Cobell lawsuit, brought by Native Americans over the management of Indian trust accounts and resources. I want to thank Attorney General Holder and Secretaries Salazar and Vilsack for all their work to reach this outcome, and I applaud Congress for acting in a bipartisan fashion to bring this painful chapter in our nation’s history to a close.

This bill also provides funding for settlements reached in four separate water rights suits brought by Native American tribes, and it represents a significant step forward in addressing the water needs of Indian Country. Yet, while today’s vote demonstrates important progress, we must remember that much work remains to be done. And my Administration will continue our efforts to resolve claims of past discrimination made by women and Hispanic farmers and others in a fair and timely manner.

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Speaker Pelosi:

Today vote in the House to pass legislation to provide funding to settle African  American farmers’ and Native Americans’ lawsuits against the federal government brings a much-delayed end to serious cases of discrimination. Settlements were reached in both of these class action lawsuits, and now we have finally ensured the federal government will honor its commitments. By compensating black farmers and Native Americans for past failures of judgment by the United States Department of Agriculture and Department of the Interior, we close the door on an old injustice. And we are proud to have done so in a fiscally responsible way, not adding a dime to the deficit. (more…)

Ten years ago, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)– currently chair of the Senate Ethics Committee– personally moved legislation that has financially benefited her son, Capitol Confidential has learned.

Boxer, then in her second term as a U.S. Senator, carried legislation restoring federal recognition to a Native American tribe, the Coastal Miwoks.  At the time, the Miwoks claimed to be a “nongaming tribe.”  However, Boxer’s legislation, as signed into law by President Bill Clinton, allowed for a casino to be constructed– a result that would specifically have been blocked under similar legislation introduced by Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA).

Now, with a major relevant condition having been met, local residents are bracing themselves for construction of a new casino, a project that has been pushed by none other than Boxer’s son, Doug Boxer.  Questions are being raised about the younger Boxer’s involvement and his mother’s legislative actions that paved the way for what looks like a financially lucrative deal benefiting him personally.

Less than a year after Boxer’s tribal bill was signed into law, Doug Boxer helped negotiate a casino partnership between the tribe and Station Casinos of Las Vegas.  Doug Boxer’s firm also acquired options on 2,000 acres of land that was later transferred to Station Casinos for an undisclosed price, but which some reports indicate could have been as much as $24 million.

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