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Wednesday, January 5, 2011 

Issa puts himself up for bid

 

One of the hallmarks of the tea party gains in the GOP has been virulent opposition to earmarks. Their newfound influence within the Republican Party has led to a strong push to eliminate the practice of earmarks altogether, and Darrell Issa hasn't missed a beat jumping on board that train.
 
Issa was among the first Republicans to suspend his earmark requests, and even went so far as to declare "Mr. Speaker, I make a point of order that an earmark is tantamount to a bribe." Yet that never prevented Issa from requesting earmarks before Fiscal year 2010. And not just a few here and there- hundreds of millions of dollars worth.
 
In FY 2007, Issa requested a total of $260,738,955 in what he later called "tantamount to a bribe." It dipped a bit in FY 2008 to $112,570,000, but he rebounded strongly for FY 2009 with earmark requests totalling $214,367,000. And let's remember that it was just a few weeks after submitting those FY2009 earmark requests that he was trying to block health care for 9/11 first responders, saying "I have to ask ... why the firefighters who went there and everybody in the city of New York needs to come to the federal government for the dollars versus this being primarily a state consideration."
 
As though he felt compelled to shine even more light on his hypocrisy with respect to earmarks, it’s worth noting that Issa requested a $5 million earmark in FY 2007 for a project submitted by the giant defense contractor SAIC. Interestingly, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, SAIC has been Issa's single largest source of campaign contributions throughout his Congressional career. Between FY 2007 and 2008, Issa submitted $13 million in earmark requests to benefit another defense contractor, BAE Systems. BAE clocks in at fifth on Issa's career top contributor list.
 
The conflicts and the hypocrisy are a troubling pattern--especially in light of yesterday’s news that Issa has now asked corporate lobbyists to tell him what to investigate.

11 comments

posted by Lucas O’Connor at 8:14 am

Reader Discussion

Lots of accusations, probably true because Issa is a member of congress and members of congress are there to funnel tax dollars to large corporations. BUT can you be more specific and disclose your sources too?

at 12:46 pm on Wed, Jan 5, 2011Posted by Urs

Scares me that such an ill-spoken person would be heading up the government oversight committee, especially when he evidently has never heard of Robert’s Rules of Order.

at 1:17 pm on Wed, Jan 5, 2011Posted by Anon

Issa is one more charlatan in the army of them that make up the GOP. This witch-hunt noise is just that. It’s a loud distraction to take eyes off the fact that they’re doing nhothing of substance other than trying to paint Obama and the Dems in a bad light. As they’d put it: “doing the peoples work”. Since corporations are now on equal footing with voters, those corporations are “the people” they’re speaking of.

at 1:29 pm on Wed, Jan 5, 2011Posted by Arcade

It just shows how corrupted US politicians are ... all of them ... more or less ... it is like who pays more ...

at 1:30 pm on Wed, Jan 5, 2011Posted by Bush

What does Speaker Boehner say to his his sending letters to the corporations when his program is to legislate for the people?

at 2:56 pm on Wed, Jan 5, 2011Posted by Blake Byrne

We need to have an Issa-O-Meter in order to keep a running tab on how much of our money he spends on all of the investigations.  Just the cost for all of the witnesses who will be subpoenaed and need to hire attorneys for representation is going to be huge.  Administrative and support costs, etc. will add up quickly.  Let’s oversight “Mr. Oversight”.

at 5:01 pm on Wed, Jan 5, 2011Posted by Debra Hobbs

Someone needs to investigate the car alarm company that made him the richest member of Congress. I believe he stole the idea- he doesn’t seem bright enough to have come up with it himself- especially when his record of criminal charges are taken into account. He had a Federal Attorney fired because she did her job. He is a dangerous guy and Lebanese- served in the military twice but still doesn’t seem American to me. Claims Obama is corrupt- seems to excel at projection.

at 5:09 pm on Wed, Jan 5, 2011Posted by JimC

It is a great thing to see a website unafraid of sharing the truth about what is happening in congress. 

It is a sad thing when we have political groups that will freely spend taxpayer money and secret corporate donations to destroy the America we have known since the 1950’s and to eliminate a positive future for our children just so that they have power and control over others.

at 6:16 pm on Wed, Jan 5, 2011Posted by michele

ASTOUNDING…. the very Republicans who enthusiastically voted for years of HELACIOUS SPENDING that DROVE THIS NATION ALMOST OVER THE CLIFF ... are now acting like they GIVE A DAMN.  WHAT BS! 

WHAT’S WORSE:  THEY DON’T EVEN BLINK WHEN THEY LIE, LIE, LIE.  THEY THINK WE BELIEVE IT.  But they are emboldened knowing they have bamboozled and exploited the IGNORANT Americans who now vote AGAINST THEMSELVES. 

THEY RIGHT WING IS INSANE… AND EVIL.  And, yes, we can say the word EVIL.

at 12:08 am on Thu, Jan 6, 2011Posted by AlwaysAskWHY

I have had this arguement with a cousin of mine, along with saying it for many years, that I consider campaign “donations” (of the obscenely huge amount ones), nothing more than corporate written and bought, legalized govt BRIBERY!

I also had a more recent arguement with him, about the latest SCOTUS disasterous opinion, that corporations are “people”. I don’t consider money, the same thing as “Free Speech”, that is in the 1st Amendmant. I’m not saying that all campaign donations should be eliminated, just that it is NOT a form of Free Speech. It is something that while a little similar to it, is still not the same.

  As I asked him, how can you expect me, or any other reasonable, thinking, intelligent, common sense person, to believe that these mega- corps, along with other big money, are going to “donate” these obscene amounts of money, and not be expecting something back in return for their “investment”? You can’t, because the money isn’t “given” just because they like the person running for office. Again, nothing more than legalized govt bribery.

at 3:58 am on Thu, Jan 6, 2011Posted by TCannon

Comment removed here for violent language. No comments involving violent rhetoric or threats will be tolerated at any time.

at 7:58 am on Tue, Jan 11, 2011Posted by Lucas O'Connor

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