Posts Tagged ‘Earmarks’

John Murtha Hands Government Money to His Relatives

Politics, State Politics | Posted by C.C.Mitchell
May 05 2009

Today it comes out that Congressman John Murtha may be using his political influence to help out his relatives.

A company owned by a nephew of Congressman John Murtha, Murtech Inc., received $4 million from the Defense Department last year.  Murtha has been known for getting government money for defense contractors in his home state.

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John Murtha, a former Marine is the chairman of the House appropriations defense subcommittee. A very powerful position for some one who wants to further the careers of friends and relatives. Last year Murthas’ Nephew, Robert Murtha, owner of Murtech Inc. was awarded a no bid contract. Murtech Inc. provides “necessary logistical support” to Pentagon testing programs” as put by Robert Murtha himself.

You may remember how much of an issue was made of alleged no bid contracts to Haliburton by Vice President Dick Cheney. What John Murtha is doing is no different but he thinks its alright because it’s him this time and not a Republican.

Don’t get me wrong I have never been shocked by the level of hypocrisy that a politician is capable of; but this is pretty blatant.

The New York Times reported that another nephew of John Murtha’s was given a congressional lobbying position, which raised concerns in Washington last week.  Col. Brian Murtha (United States Marine Corps)was appointed to a legislative liaison position that could allow him to make direct contact with his uncle. I thought Obama was going to put an end to lobbyists in Washington.

Guess not.

John Murtha also reportedly earmarked millions of dollars to  St. Vincent College, while his cousin, the Rev. John F. Murtha, was its president.

Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania has been a strong opponent of the Iraq war in stark contrast to his nephews defense contracting. He has been quoted as such:

“This is the thing that has worried me right along. We’re spending $8 billion dollars a month.”

Apparently he found a way to make some of that money back and keep it in the Family  as well. The  quotes above can be found here.

He doesn’t seem to have a problem with spending billions of dollars on earmarks for his own relatives but not for issues of national security. Of course these kinds of earmarks will be overlooked by The Obama administration when it comes to rooting out earmarks from bills in congress.

Surely Rep. Murtha will be calling in favors to the president when ever his relatives need a few bucks.

Its a Cracked World; Congressman Murtha doesn’t help.

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Omnibus Passes with a Rift and a Promise

Politics | Posted by C.C.Mitchell
Mar 11 2009
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The president signed the Omnibus Spending Bill today that President Bush had left hanging and unfinished. The 2008 budget is now set by the stroke of President Obamas’ pen. The controversial bill has already created a rift inside the Democrat Party between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The rift was created by a roll reversing statement from Speaker Pelosi that any changes to the omnibus bill would be unacceptable. Historically, the procedure is that The Senate makes the changes to bills to reconcile them with The House of Representatives.

While the Senate debated the elimination of an automatic pay raise for themselves Reid said there could be no changes to the bill or Pelosi would pull the plug.

According to The Christian Science Monitor, several spending bills were purposely held up until after the election under the assumption that they would more easily pass once the democrats held even more seats in Congress The CSM stated:

Last year, Congress delayed voting on 9 of 12 spending bills, thinking it would be easier to reach a consensus this year - with Democrats now holding a larger majority in both houses of Congress.

Yet it remained a tough slog for the bill, which has been criticized as filled with pork. Along with some 8,500 member projects, the bill raises spending for many agencies some 10 percent above 2008 levels.

According to The Heritage Foundation, these 8500+ “member projects”,why dont they just call them what they are earmarks,  total nearly $20 billion.  So much for going line- by-line through bills to eliminate government waste. “The future demands that we operate in a different way than we have in the past, so let there be no doubt: this piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business, and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability that the American people have every right to expect and to demand.” These are President Obamas’ words I hope he makes good on them; though it would be a day late and a dollar short (no pun intended), as far as I’m concerned. Remember the$787 billion Stimulus Bill?

EARMARK REFORM?

President Obama at the time of the bill signing also unveiled the key components of an anti-earmark initiative as follows:

  1. A requirement that earmarks be open to public scrutiny
  2. That no earmark ever be traded for political favors (good luck policing that!)
  3. That earmarks aimed at a for-profit private company should be subject to the same competitive bidding requirements as other federal contracts.

Here are the provisions I would like to see added:

  1. A requirement that no one votes on a bill of any sort until they’ve read the entire piece of legislation.(the omnibus budget for 2008 was 3417 pages)
  2. No longer will Congress vote themselves an automatic pay raise.
  3. Congress will take a pay cut equal in percentage to those of budgetary spending overages.

The president talked the talk but will he walk the walk?

Already the biggest spender of any president in history and a big getter of pork in his brief time as a senator Pr. Obamas track record doesn’t indicate that he will.

Only time will tell, but I’m not holding my breath.

It’s a Cracked World

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