Earmarks One of McCain's longstanding campaigns has been to eliminate the practice of earmarks and he is one of only 13 congressmen and senators that do not practice earmarking. It is the principle reason he was known as a "maverick". This article rather ironically shows how annoyed he is that the practice continues under the new administration of "change".
Earmarking is an American method of quick payments outside of normal budget processes for unexpected and worthy local needs. But it has become a principle expression of political corruption. The people and firms that get the money do not submit to competitive bid or even surveillance. Worse it was discovered by the Seattle Times that following the earmark awards, the receivers serious political contributions to the very politicians that gave them the money - an astonishing 55.000 coorelations!
This came particularly into view a year or so ago when a reporter at the Seattle Times first found these corrupt links. His editor gave him help and set him up to do a complete research. This work was compiled into a database "The Favour Factory" that can be queried in any was for any congressman, or senator or particular earmark details. Check it out.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment