Corruption in Our Capitol – The “Bad Barrel” Seduces Others

In an article titled In the Democratic Congress, Pork Still Gets Served, the Washington Post reported last Thursday that Congressman David R. Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, “told fellow lawmakers that he intends to keep requests for earmarks out of pending spending bills, at least for now. Obey said the committee will deal with them at the end of the appropriations process in the closed-door meetings between House and Senate negotiators known as conference committees.” This is one of the ways earmarks are added to appropriation bills without approval or a link to its author, and was discussed in my previous article.

The WP article went on to report, “Obey’s spokeswoman, Kirstin Brost, said his intention is not to keep the projects secret. Rather, she said, so many requests for spending were made to the appropriations panel — more than 30,000 this year — that its staff has been unable to study them and decide their validity.”

Another approach used by congressmen to get funding for their pet projects is referred to as phonemarking. This occurs when a congressman either calls or writes to the Secretary of an executive department and suggests or demands such funding.

The Washington Post article quoted Anne Womack of the Energy Department, “Certainly, we have heard from various members of Congress this year to express their support for various projects and groups seeking funding from the department. There’s no difference from previous years.”

Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay lead our Congress down this road to corruption and our new leaders are being seduced by the “bad barrel” those two created.