Joe Sonka November 4th, 2007

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

As we see in the NYT editorial this morning, the fringe Republicans in the Senate, led by Mitch McConnell, are obstructing the bipartisan plan to expand health care to more low income children. All so their insurance industry donors can squeeze that very last penny out of the working class:

Cynicism and hypocrisy were on full display in the Senate last week when Republican leaders refused to wait for a possible compromise on a bill that would provide health coverage for millions of uninsured children. Instead, they forced a vote on a bill that they know President Bush will veto, with no chance of being overridden.

For weeks now, the president and his Congressional allies have charged that the Democrats are unwilling to negotiate a compromise on expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or S-chip, because they want to use Republican opposition as a campaign issue. But it is the Senate’s Republican leaders who are doing their best to block any compromise.

They clearly would prefer to have no bill enacted — and provide ammunition for the president’s campaign to depict Congress as a failure — than do anything meaningful to help children.

The bill up for consideration in the Senate had already passed the House with substantial bipartisan support — but not quite enough votes to overcome another veto. As a result, a few prominent senators from both parties had been meeting with House Republicans to work out a compromise that could attract enough moderate Republicans to overcome a veto. Those talks, according to a key participant, were making “really good progress.”

That is when Senate Republican leaders stepped in and, under the rules, refused to postpone a scheduled vote to allow more negotiations. The result was predictable. The Senate, which has always been enthusiastic about expanding S-chip, approved the House-passed bill by a thumping 64-to-30 vote. But the bill lacks enough Republican support in the House for an override.

The efforts to find a compromise are expected to continue, and we can only hope they ultimately bear fruit. Surely there are enough Republicans in the House who are more concerned with children’s health than with ideological posturing and gamesmanship.

But who is worthy of receiving your tax dollars? How about foreign arms contractors who are under investigation all over the world, including our own Justice Dept., for BRIBERY? How about the same contractor under investigation for BRIBERY that has given Mitch McConnell $16,500 in the last 5 years and gave $500,000 to the “McConnell Center”? Oh yes, they beat out those kids in a landslide.

From James Carroll at the C-J (and a late welcome to the party C-J, I must add! Better late than never on this story…)

WASHINGTON — Over the past decade, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has secured more than $336 million for the building and refurbishing of naval guns in Louisville.

The next installment of $25 million is waiting in the fiscal 2008 defense spending bill.

But two government reform groups want to put a hold on the money because the company that does the work, BAE Systems, is under federal investigation over bribery allegations.

Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group, and the National Legal and Policy Center, which promotes ethics in government, have sent a letter to Senate and House chairmen of the appropriations committees, as well as to the ranking Republicans on those panels. It says the federal funding for BAE and for ProLogic Inc., another company under investigation, is “troubling.”

“If they are being investigated, lawmakers shouldn’t be directing taxpayer dollars to these companies until they’re cleared — or not,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense.

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Two years ago United Defense — which was not implicated in any alleged wrongdoing — was bought by the British-based BAE and absorbed into that firm.

United Defense contributed $500,000 to the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center for Leadership, created by the senator.

In addition, political action committees associated with United Defense and BAE have given a total of $16,500 to McConnell campaigns since 2002, records show.

According to published reports, BAE has been under investigation by the Department of Justice, as well as European authorities, for its dealings with Saudi Arabia and members of that nation’s royal family as far back as 1985.

BAE has denied that it bribed Saudi royalty as part of an $86 billion arms deal.

“BAE Systems … is proud of our very strong records of ethics, compliance and performance in service to America’s armed forces,” company spokesman Greg Caires said in a statement. “We continue to cooperate with the ongoing Department of Justice investigation, and it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this time.”

ProLogic is being investigated for allegedly using public money to develop commercial computer software, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company has denied any wrongdoing.

Taxpayers for Common Sense is a longtime critic of so-called earmarks, which are specific amounts of money inserted by lawmakers into congressional spending bills for hometown and home-state projects. The group contends the earmarks amount to special, no-bid contracts that receive little or no scrutiny and often are not requested by federal agencies. (A broader discussion of the issue is on Page A3.)

This is the first time that Taxpayers for Common Sense and the National Legal and Policy Center have requested suspension of earmarks because companies that could benefit were under investigation.

The idea, Ellis said, follows on what House Republicans did after some of their members came under investigation for alleged wrongdoing: The lawmakers were required to relinquish committee posts.

“The way we looked at it, this is now extending to contractors and companies” under the shadow of investigation, he said.

• BAE , Mitch McConnell , SCHIP
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