2010.
John Murtha won’t be down for breakfast.
From the Washington Post
“Critics dubbed Murtha, the chairman of the powerful subcommittee that controls Pentagon spending, the “King of Pork” for the volume of taxpayer money he could direct to the area around his home town of Johnstown. Most of the largesse came in defense and military research contracts he steered to companies based in his district or with small offices there.
The former Marine became a mentor to lawmakers trying to learn how to work Washington’s power levers but also a symbol of the controversial congressional “earmarking.” In that process, lawmakers can add federal funds to the budget to give no-bid contracts to pet projects and companies of their choosing. Murtha faced a drumbeat of questions about possible ethical conflicts in his earmarks, as executives and lobbyists for the firms receiving the earmarks were among his most generous campaign contributors.
Murtha was firmly unapologetic, saying it was his duty to help his district create jobs and U.S. soldiers gain new research and tools to help them in battle. To a television crew following him in a House office building with questions about potential conflicts, he held up his miniature red, page-worn copy of the Constitution.
“What it says is the Congress of the United States appropriates the money,” he said. “Got that?”
We could really change everything if we reduced military spending and laid bare our industrial/scientific base for scrutiny.
That forward base that was overrun in Afghanistan, who was looking out for those guys? No real time images of 300 scarecrows converging on the base?”
We simply have lost our way and it only took 65 years. This fellow had simply grown well beyond any concept of a public servant. Go ahead, get elected and on your first day in Town they sit you down, and that’s it Mr Smith.
Term limits would break this quick.
This system currently in place is supporting everything. It has no future anymore.They are quite aware of the problem. A new study titled Fortresses and Icebergs tells the tale with lots of graphs, 600 pages. It’s for sale, it was partially funded by the Pentagon. The title reflects the penchant for drama in this arena.
We might really be in a tight place soon with no new wars and competition in international arms sales.
If you have some time pour a drink and sit through this entire presentation. Listen carefully, be ready to look up acronyms
Mike
The Exeter Town Crier 