Porking Up The Pork
Pork with a glistening side of pork, smothered in pork gravy. That pretty well describes the budget bills the Democratic-controlled Congress are rolling out. One after another, the bills, bursting at the seams with pork, are coming out of Congress, some are vetoed, some not. All have very questionable earmarks for unnecessary or dangerous items requested by Congressional piggies who just coincidentally happen to get campaign contributions from the beneficiaries of the porky largess. Sometimes at about the same time that the earmark is filed.
Six of the top 10 senators in defense campaign contributions in the 2006 election cycle were Democrats - Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Clinton, Chris Dodd of Connecticut (another presidential candidate), Dianne Feinstein of California, Bill Nelson of Florida, and Democrat-turned-independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. Last summer, Kennedy requested $100 million for a General Electric fighter engine the Air Force said it did not need.
With the possibility that a Democrat will take the White House in 2008, the defense industry is already throwing its weight behind the Democrats. In the 1992 election of Bill Clinton, the industry gave 54 percent of its contributions to Democrats. But the industry soured on his administration, giving 68 percent to Republicans in 1996 and giving at least 60 percent to Republican causes up to and including the ill-fated (for Republicans) 2006 midterms.
In the 2008 election cycle, the industry is giving 52 percent of its contributions to Democrats. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Democrats now make up eight of the top 10 defense recipients. Dodd and Clinton are first and third, respectively, ahead of Republican presidential candidates John McCain (fifth), Mitt Romney (16th) and Rudy Giuliani (20th). Dodd and Clinton have taken in $171,300 and $125,583, respectively, to McCain's $118,450, Romney's $82,050, and Giuliani's $69,100…..
…..The Seattle Times detailed last month how Senator Patty Murray and Representatives Norm Dicks and Brian Baird, all Democrats, earmarked $17.65 million to a boat company for a vessel the Navy did not ask for and never used. Murray also earmarked $6 million to a company for battle gear the Army rejected. Representative David Wu, an Oregon Democrat, earmarked $2 million for combat T-shirts that were banned because their polyester was flammable……..
…….Of 20 leading domestic spending earmarkers in Congress listed by the Times, 12 are Democrats. The Democrats recently handed the Republicans a cultural cudgel when Clinton and Schumer were nailed trying to earmark $1 million for a museum commemorating the 1969 Woodstock concert. USA Today reported that the museum's sponsor gave the Clinton campaign $9,200 and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee $20,000 after the earmark was filed.
Pork is a bipartisan trough for the Washington lawmakers. It should also be a bipartisan issue that voters can come together on and help end. Regardless of party, this is wrong. Regardless of politician involved, the porkers should be condemned. Campaign contributions in exchange for Federal contracts is nothing but bribery, not matter what lipstick they put on it.
By Mwalimu Daudi, Saturday, 17 November , 2007 @ 5:32 pm
Remember, Gaius - it is not pork if Democrats do it!