Posted on 08/06/2007 6:46:46 PM PDT by Psycmeistr
When it comes to nabbing pork hard-earned taxpayer money and giving it to cronies, Murtha remains king!
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense panel, has secured the most earmarked dollars in the 2008 military spending bill, followed closely by the panel’s ranking member Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.).Even though Young secured 52 earmarks, worth $117.2 million — and co-sponsored at least $27 million worth of others — Murtha’s 48 earmarks amount to a total of $150.5 million, according to a database compiled by the watchdog organization Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS).
The House is expected to take up the $459.6 billion defense appropriations bill Friday. It contains 1,337 earmarks, costing $3.07 billion, which is less than half the number and value of earmarks in last year’s bill.
Keith Ashdown of TCS said, however, that the sum is derived from only the earmarks that the panel disclosed at the back of the bill’s report. He expects to find undisclosed projects as well.
[snip]
Murtha, the defense industry’s darling, has been known throughout his tenure on the defense panel to shell out a large number of earmarks. His biggest earmark in the bill is $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), a move that sparked a fierce fight with Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), who earlier this year voted in a private meeting to strip Murtha’s earmark.The Bush administration requested $16 million to shut down the center, which is in Murtha’s district, because it replicated the work of a similar center.
Murtha’s second highest earmark is for $15 million for a military molecular medicine initiative.
Young has several requests valued at $5 million for projects such as ballistic missile range safety technology, the Common Aero Vehicle (another missile program) and rapid-response counter-measures to chemical and biological weapons.
On spending for defense.
The three biggest Porkers, Murtha, Young and IN-NO-WAY.
“On spending for defense”
Defense of his own fiefdom.
Errr...pig sty—that is not referring to his district, only his treatment of it.
Ha! Very good graphic for the king of pork.
If that were the case his Congressional District would be the best defended in the country. :-)
BUMP!
So, Murtha buys his votes, by getting money for defense, when he is the biggest slug against the war against terror? Am I missing something?
Anyone who witnessed this shameless, arrogant asshat defending his waste of taxpayer money against Republican amendments to kill the spending should be offended to say the least. It’s too bad that he remains unindicted. The bastard should be in the cell next to Duke Cunningham.
Wonder how far behind are former Pork Kings Byrd and Stevens?
Murtha is the poster boy for every thing that’s wrong with Congress.
As long as it is spent in his district and the equipment built there he could give two hoots if we scrapped it or gave it to an enemy to make things fair. His is a card carrying asshole who is the only former Marine that my Marine friends either won’t talk about or if they do they refer to him as an ex Marine. That says it all to me.
I have an idea, let’s count all the earmark money toward the campaign spending limits of any senator or representaive who votes for it. THeat’s what it is being used for anyway...right?
The big contractors in the defense industry are against the WOT, too. (Coincidence that Murtha is leading the charge against the WOT?) The big money is in next generation weapon systems—not beans and bullets for a shooting war.
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