The Personal Price of Porkbarrel
If you think all this talk about lobbying reform has caused some of these congressmen and women to be, well, a bit more circumspect, what with it being an election year and all--think again.
According to the Washington Post, business in the Senate came to a "screeching halt" just the other day, when a debate over an emergency spending bill for the military was angrily interrupted by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden who furiously pointed out, in a one-man filibuster, that Republicans had secretly tacked onto the military spending bill, a key oil company subsidy--even though oil is going for $70 a barrel.
So, while professing patriotic concern for our men and women in uniform, the Republicans were still secretly sneaking in more giveaways to the oil industry.
When they holler in front of the cameras about cracking down on price-gouging by the oil industry? DON'T BELIEVE THEM. They're still up to their regular old business-as-usual tricks to benefit their cronies in the "all bidness."
Remember those early days of the Bush administration, when Vice President Dick Cheney invited the CEOs of major oil companies--his old running buddies--to secret meetings at the White House, where they then wrote legislation for the White House energy policy?
Yeah, we're still paying for those secret meetings, every time we fill up our gas tanks.
As recently as eight months ago, oil and gas subsidies were passed by the Republican Congress. Only now, when the American people are screaming loud and long, are they making public talk about rolling back those subsidies.
But as we saw in the earlier example, they are sneaking more subsidies in behind closed doors, late at night, by attaching them to such popular measures as emergency military spending bills.
By the way--this is exactly what happened when Senator John Kerry "voted for the military spending bill and then voted against it." Though he was ridiculed by Republicans and mocked by the media--what he meant was that the bill he voted against had been shackled with all kinds of pork barrel plunder that had nothing to do with the war. And since the bill had been fashioned in secret, he didn't see it until the up-or-down vote was required.
Just so you know.
"Republicans are torn between wanting to show their sympathy for consumers and maintaining their longstanding support for the oil industry…The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated Tuesday that oil and gas companies would receive about $10 billion in tax breaks over the next five years that are specifically aimed at their industry…Many Democrats had opposed the new tax breaks all along."
--Edmund L. Andrews and Michael Janofsky, "Second Thoughts in Congress on Oil Tax Breaks," New York Times, April 27, 2006.
That energy bill we were talking about earlier? The one ex-Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney wrote up with is oil bidness cronies? First of all, they got, outright, about $2 billion in tax breaks. And several hundred million dollars in subsidies went to an industry-run deepwater drilling research center…where, boys and girls?
Sugarland, Texas. Home to Representative Tom DeLay.
And Exxon-Mobil, for instance, reported $8.4 billion in profit, first-quarter ALONE, this year. So have they all.
So, when President Bush stages a photo-op at a gas station and pledges to help us all overcome our dreadful addiction to oil and pretends to care that it's going to cost some parts of the country up to $4 a gallon at the pump by summer…DON'T BELIEVE IT.
At this point, it was my intention to go into great detail, explaining just how corrupt people like Tom DeLay and Jack Abromoff were, how they set up fake "family values" organizations which did little more than funnel millions into their own pockets and that of their family, friends, and many, many Republican congressmen--no Democrat received ONE DIME from Jack Abromoff--but gosh, I'm beginning to see what Josh Marshall meant when he said that this administration was sooo corrupt and sold out to special interests that it was too much work for one little lonely blogger to handle, so he had to hire TWO FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES, TO DO NOTHING BUT INVESTIGATE SCANDAL, CORRUPTION, LIES, HYPOCRISY, AND THIEVING from the Republicans in Congress and the White House. So I shall postpone that part of my case for another day. Suffice it to say that an obscene amount of money was lavished on greedy Republican lawmakers, who then were only too happy to pass just about any little old law the lobbyists wanted.
Abramoff was also a Bush-Cheney re-election "pioneer"--meaning, he raised at least $100,000 for the campaign, in $2000 increments.
Oh--before I leave this part of the subject, let me point out that, THREE WEEKS before Abromoff was due to be sentenced, at which time he pledged to name names, many, many names, from Capitol Hill to the White House…the lead prosecutor in the case?
He was given a juicy federal judgeship.
By President Bush.
I would LOVE to see what the Republicans would have said if President Clinton had tried the same thing, under the same circumstances.
Instead…we didn't hear much about it, did we? So much for that pesky "liberal media."
According to the Washington Post, business in the Senate came to a "screeching halt" just the other day, when a debate over an emergency spending bill for the military was angrily interrupted by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden who furiously pointed out, in a one-man filibuster, that Republicans had secretly tacked onto the military spending bill, a key oil company subsidy--even though oil is going for $70 a barrel.
So, while professing patriotic concern for our men and women in uniform, the Republicans were still secretly sneaking in more giveaways to the oil industry.
When they holler in front of the cameras about cracking down on price-gouging by the oil industry? DON'T BELIEVE THEM. They're still up to their regular old business-as-usual tricks to benefit their cronies in the "all bidness."
Remember those early days of the Bush administration, when Vice President Dick Cheney invited the CEOs of major oil companies--his old running buddies--to secret meetings at the White House, where they then wrote legislation for the White House energy policy?
Yeah, we're still paying for those secret meetings, every time we fill up our gas tanks.
As recently as eight months ago, oil and gas subsidies were passed by the Republican Congress. Only now, when the American people are screaming loud and long, are they making public talk about rolling back those subsidies.
But as we saw in the earlier example, they are sneaking more subsidies in behind closed doors, late at night, by attaching them to such popular measures as emergency military spending bills.
By the way--this is exactly what happened when Senator John Kerry "voted for the military spending bill and then voted against it." Though he was ridiculed by Republicans and mocked by the media--what he meant was that the bill he voted against had been shackled with all kinds of pork barrel plunder that had nothing to do with the war. And since the bill had been fashioned in secret, he didn't see it until the up-or-down vote was required.
Just so you know.
"Republicans are torn between wanting to show their sympathy for consumers and maintaining their longstanding support for the oil industry…The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated Tuesday that oil and gas companies would receive about $10 billion in tax breaks over the next five years that are specifically aimed at their industry…Many Democrats had opposed the new tax breaks all along."
--Edmund L. Andrews and Michael Janofsky, "Second Thoughts in Congress on Oil Tax Breaks," New York Times, April 27, 2006.
That energy bill we were talking about earlier? The one ex-Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney wrote up with is oil bidness cronies? First of all, they got, outright, about $2 billion in tax breaks. And several hundred million dollars in subsidies went to an industry-run deepwater drilling research center…where, boys and girls?
Sugarland, Texas. Home to Representative Tom DeLay.
And Exxon-Mobil, for instance, reported $8.4 billion in profit, first-quarter ALONE, this year. So have they all.
So, when President Bush stages a photo-op at a gas station and pledges to help us all overcome our dreadful addiction to oil and pretends to care that it's going to cost some parts of the country up to $4 a gallon at the pump by summer…DON'T BELIEVE IT.
At this point, it was my intention to go into great detail, explaining just how corrupt people like Tom DeLay and Jack Abromoff were, how they set up fake "family values" organizations which did little more than funnel millions into their own pockets and that of their family, friends, and many, many Republican congressmen--no Democrat received ONE DIME from Jack Abromoff--but gosh, I'm beginning to see what Josh Marshall meant when he said that this administration was sooo corrupt and sold out to special interests that it was too much work for one little lonely blogger to handle, so he had to hire TWO FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES, TO DO NOTHING BUT INVESTIGATE SCANDAL, CORRUPTION, LIES, HYPOCRISY, AND THIEVING from the Republicans in Congress and the White House. So I shall postpone that part of my case for another day. Suffice it to say that an obscene amount of money was lavished on greedy Republican lawmakers, who then were only too happy to pass just about any little old law the lobbyists wanted.
Abramoff was also a Bush-Cheney re-election "pioneer"--meaning, he raised at least $100,000 for the campaign, in $2000 increments.
Oh--before I leave this part of the subject, let me point out that, THREE WEEKS before Abromoff was due to be sentenced, at which time he pledged to name names, many, many names, from Capitol Hill to the White House…the lead prosecutor in the case?
He was given a juicy federal judgeship.
By President Bush.
I would LOVE to see what the Republicans would have said if President Clinton had tried the same thing, under the same circumstances.
Instead…we didn't hear much about it, did we? So much for that pesky "liberal media."
posted by Deanie Mills at 3:13 PM
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