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Soaking the Taxpayer: Aren't Kickbacks Illegal? Not for Congressmen.
The DC Writeup ^ | June 30, 2009 | AJ Fluehr

Posted on 07/16/2009 7:41:32 AM PDT by conservativeDC

...Recently, Roll Call highlighted the lobbying organization connected to Congressman Jack Murtha, D-Pa.—the PMA Group—and its efforts to sue its former clients for unpaid debts. They noted that a company called Badenoch LLC was countersuing PMA, claiming that the PMA had cheated it out of a $3 million earmark.

Badenoch LLC is a small defense contractor, which is developing an alternative to the military humvee, which it believes will be safer and more roadworthy. A little digging into public records reveals an interesting financial relationship between the president of Badenoch LLC and the Congressman who sponsored his company’s previous earmark requests.

Former Congressman Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., who lost reelection in 2008, had previously sponsored earmarks for Badenoch LLC totaling $2.8 million according to LegiStorm, a website that tracks earmarks.

Knollenberg received a good return on these earmarks. The company president, Scott Badenoch, gave $4,600 to Knolleberg since 2007, with his family members chipping in another $6,100 according to Open Secrets, a government watchdog website. Badenoch’s son listed his occupation as a student, but still managed to donate $1,400, while Badenoch’s wife, listed as a homemaker, has donated $4,600. Both Badenoch and his wife donated the maximum amount of money allowed by law to Knollenberg in 2007 and 2008.

Would Knollenberg have received these lucrative donations if he hadn’t sponsored Badenoch’s earmark?

There’s no way to know for sure, but the evidence indicates...

(Excerpt) Read more at thedcwriteup.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: badenoch; earmarks; knollenberg; pork

1 posted on 07/16/2009 7:41:33 AM PDT by conservativeDC
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“Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion—when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you—when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.”

- Ayn Rand


2 posted on 07/16/2009 7:43:17 AM PDT by villagerjoel (1. Implement socialist policies 2. ??? 3. Heaven on earth)
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