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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.
