« Public works 'investment' hasn't worked so well in Japan | Tribune Company prepares for bankruptcy? »
PrintDecember 7, 2008
Earmarks vs protecting our soldiers?
The Seattle Times has a disturbing story. A superior lotion for chemical weapon decontamination was on the DoD wishlist, but the company which made a less efficacious powder currently in use liberally paid off Congress with campaign donations, and they and their inferior product were earmarked so that the troops had to use the less good product.
After being lobbied by the companies making the powder, several members of Congress pushed through two earmarks worth $7.6 million that forced the military for the past two years to keep buying the inferior product.The product, known as M291, is made from a resin sold exclusively by a Pennsylvania chemical company, which is then processed into powder by a New York company, then assembled into individual kits at a facility in Arkansas.
Among the lawmakers who championed the earmarks are Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.; Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
Clinton, who is poised to become secretary of state, received nearly $7,000 in campaign donations from the beneficiaries of these earmarks in recent years. Specter got more than $47,000.
Imagine the possibilities when the president-elect's new Pharonic public works projects get going! We aren't even factoring in the new union dues campaign contribution bonanza of all these new Davis Bacon (union scale) jobs being created in the hope that the more sane members of Congress will insist that law be waived before approving any more frittering away of taxpayer money on this foolishness and corruption greenlight.
To comment on this or any other American Thinker article or blog, you must be a subscriber to our ad-free service. Login to your subscription to access the comments section. You can subscribe on a monthly basis for $6.79 a month or for a year at $69.99
Login
Subscribe / Change PwdAd Free / Commenting Login
FOLLOW US ON
Recent Articles
- How the Fate of the West is Tied to the Fate of the Jewish Nation
- Green Cards, Student Visas and Domestic Terrorists
- Maybe the Little Things and Little People Matter
- The FBI Must Investigate Itself And, Once Cleaned, Several Other Political Crimes
- The Danger of Going Hungry
- The Tariff Is a Weapon
- Trump-O-Phobia Drives Some Americans to Questionable Greener Pastures Overseas
- A Businessman and a Brilliant Strategist
- A Remarkable Headline for a Fascinating Story
- Democrats Unmask Themselves
Blog Posts
- At Columbia, the janitors held hostage by pro-Hamas mobs strike back
- San Francisco Pride hemorrhages corporate dollars, will ‘make do’ with tight budget
- California's Newsom asks for a second bailout of $2.8 billion to cover 'free' health care for illegal aliens
- Screaming into the void
- Null and void: Autopen misstep means arrests are now on the table
- Stephen Miller’s interview with Kasie Hunt reveals Dem’s abysmal constitutional ignorance
- RICO must make its debut in the Holy Land
- Looking for votes in all the wrong places
- A brief historical view of tariffs
- Will Trump be the next Andrew Jackson?
- Miserable Dems at the Kennedy Center
- Leftists are dragging us through the worst parts of their ‘Groundhog Day’
- Democrats smashed on the rocks
- Britain's lamest hour
- Illegals working for Congress — addendum