defense bill, earmarks included
 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...rss=rss_nation


Cochran, the ranking Republican on the Appropriations subcommittee on defense, also added $12 million in earmarked spending for Raytheon Corp., whose officials have contributed $10,000 to his campaign since 2007. He earmarked nearly $6 million in military funding for Circadence Corp., whose officers -- including a former Cochran campaign aide -- contributed $10,000 in the same period.

In total, the spending bill for 2010 includes $132 million for Cochran's campaign donors, helping to make him the sponsor of more earmarked military spending than any other senator this year, according to an analysis by the nonprofit group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Cochran says his proposals are based only on "national security interests," not campaign cash. But in providing money for projects that the Defense Department says it did not request and does not want, he has joined a host of other senators on both sides of the aisle. The proposed $636 billion Senate bill includes $2.65 billion in earmarks


President Obama has repeatedly promised to fight "the special interests, contractors and entrenched lobbyists" that he says have distorted military priorities and bloated appropriations in the past.

But the White House instead sent a generally supportive message to the Senate about the pending defense bill on Friday, virtually ensuring that the earmarks will win final congressional approval.

The bill, however, would add $1.7 billion for an extra destroyer the Defense Department did not request and $2.5 billion for 10 C-17 cargo planes it did not want, at the behest of lawmakers representing the states where those items would be built.


Almost all of Inouye's earmarks are for programs in his home state, and 18 of the provisions -- totaling $68 million -- are for entities that have donated $340,000 to his campaign since 2007.

as sickening when a Rep does it

surely the earmarks can be removed but not in this lifetime. Wouldn't Raytheon have a specific job order? I know they make missles for one and are a large publically traded corp. Circadance I've never heard of and seems the more nteresting of the two to purue IMO.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...232891722.html

Money for District of Columbia to combat its forest fire problems. You cant make this stuff up.

Circadence provides internet security and program solutions and have been an established contractor since at least 2001. I now think these may not be 'earmarks' in the Acorn sense of the word.

.....does a tree still grow in D.C.?:D

must be those cherry trees.

oh, he's far from the only one doing it. i'm sure every senator is trying to make their donors happy so they can stay in office. classic case of why term limits are necessary.

More taxpayer money put to good use.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...ederal-agency/

..was never a fan of term limits, but there's definately too many entrenched politicians!

politicians that aren't beholden to anyone, won't allow their votes to be tainted. can't run more than once or twice and they won't have to worry about re-election campaigns.

lol

what a guy, only trying to help!



When finally caught, the NSF official retired. He even offered, among other explanations, a humanitarian defense, suggesting that he frequented the porn sites to provide a living to the poor overseas women.

and how do they get elected in the first place?

where it's implemented, the unintended consequence of term limits has been to strengthen the hand of lobbyists who, by default, are the only guys and gals that know what's going on when each new class of rookies appear. they are the institutional memory that each short termer has to lean on. who is state representative joe yokel going to hire as his staff for his 4-6 years? even if he doesn't hire them, who does he talk to for expertise on the myriad of obscure issues he has to vote on that he has no expertise on?

if you want corporate interests to rule, you definitely should support term limits. those interests can afford to spoon feed the doofus newbie legislator for his 4-8 years and by the time the sap has figured out what's going on, he's term limited out.

i'll take the bad that comes with professional politicians. it's not a perfect system but at least you occasionally get the good one's along with the bad.

if you want to eliminate politicians groveling for campaign funds from people that have an interest in legislation they vote on support public financing, not term limits.

This is funny. As if every member of Congress that comes in is like a country bumpkin on his first trip to the city. It wouldnt be that way without "professional politicians". Perhaps if these people had a limited shelf life they may actually live up to the platforms they were elected on and be LESS influenced by special interests who gain power mostly by helping influencing elections. The groveling for legislation is just the cherry on top.

how do they get elected? the party of course...that's why they're leaning on paterson not to run, so their pick of cuomo can run and most likely win. it's the system, and the system needs to change. a lot of people go up to d.c. with the best of intentions, and quickly find how the game is really played.
i think there could be some legit campaign finance reform...but i doubt those guys-the pols- will really and truly cut off the hand that feeds them. that would be like expecting tort reform from them.