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The "Pork Barrel" King

Mike

Well-known member
In the massive 2008 military-spending bill now before Congress — which could go to a House-Senate conference as soon as Thursday — Mr. Murtha has steered more taxpayer funds to his congressional district than any other member. The Democratic lawmaker is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, which will oversee more than $459 billion in military spending this year.

Johnstown’s good fortune has come at the expense of taxpayers everywhere else. Defense contractors have found that if they open an office here and hire the right lobbyist, they can get lucrative, no-bid contracts. Over the past decade, Concurrent Technologies Corp., a defense-research firm that employs 800 here, got hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to Rep. Murtha despite poor reviews by Pentagon auditors. The National Drug Intelligence Center, with 300 workers, got $509 million, though the White House has tried for years to shut it down as wasteful and unnecessary. Another beneficiary: MTS Technologies, run by a man who got his start some 40 years ago shining shoes at Mr. Murtha’s Johnstown Minute Car Wash.

A review by The Wall Street Journal of dozens of such contracts funded by Mr. Murtha’s committee shows that many weren’t sought by the military or federal agencies they were intended to benefit. Some were inefficient or mismanaged, according to interviews, public records and previously unpublished Pentagon audits. One Murtha-backed firm, ProLogic Inc., is under federal investigation for allegedly diverting public funds to develop commercial software, people close to the case say. The company denies wrongdoing and is in line to get millions of dollars more in the pending defense bill…In addition to using taxpayer money to build a local defense industry, Mr. Murtha has funded by legislative fiat miles of new roads, water projects, medical facilities and federal offices for his district. He even brought a Marine attack-helicopter squadron here; it’s next to the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. Mr. Murtha has steered at least $600 million in earmarks to his district in the past four years, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan Washington group. The nonprofit group estimates he’s sent $2 billion or more to the district since joining the appropriations committee.


Mr. Murtha’s devotion to his district became clear 26 years ago, in an infamous encounter that would foreshadow the young congressman’s long career. He told an FBI agent — posing as a lawyer for a rich Arab sheik — that he was reluctant to take the $50,000 in cash the agent placed on a desk, supposedly in exchange for help getting the sheik a U.S. visa.

…”I expect to be in the f-ing leadership of the House,” he told the agent. “I’m delighted to do business with you. S-, I do business like this all the time to get companies into the area.”
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Even the left sees him as one of the most corrupt....But these folks will keep voting him back- since he has a (D) by his name and lives in a (D) cult following area.... :( :mad:

We saw the same here in Montana- when everyone continued to support old Conman Burns- even tho he was listed on everyones most corrupt list- and tied into scandal after scandal and stinky deal after stinky deal...
But finally enough Montanans woke up- quit following the cultist (R) - kicked his butt out- and things smelled better in the state...
Then McCain goes and drags him out of his cushy Lobbyist job in D.C. and brings him back to Montana to be his Campaign Chairman..... :roll: :(


In September 2006 the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) listed Murtha under Five Members to Watch in its Second Annual Most Corrupt Members of Congress Report. The report cited Murtha's steering of defense appropriations to clients of KSA Consulting, which employed his brother Robert, and the PMA Group, founded by Paul Magliocchetti, a former senior staffer on the Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense.
 
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