Joe Sonka November 10th, 2007

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

Here’s my column in the current issue of Lexington’s W Weekly. I think it’s a nice welcome to the post-Ernie era for our pal Mitch. They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, right?

When one is presented with the opportunity to provide healthcare to an additional 10 million children from low-income families, most people believe that our government should take advantage of it. In fact, almost 2/3 of both houses of Congress and 80% in opinion polls agree.

Others say, tough luck kiddo. Pull yourself up by your own bootie straps like a real American.

Senator Mitch McConnell would be one of those people.

Though outnumbered in both Congress and public opinion for the past 2 months, Mitch McConnell and George W. Bush have been able to derail the overwhelmingly popular and bipartisan legislation to expand healthcare for such children under the already successful SCHIP program. Despite many Republicans breaking ranks to support and pass the expansion of SCHIP, there were not enough votes to overturn Bush’s veto of the bill. Last week, McConnell again sided with the fringe minority in the Senate by voting against a new version of the bill, which he regards as “wasteful spending” and a stepping stone to “socialized medicine”.

But the Lexington Herald-Leader has recently discovered other avenues for our tax dollars that Mitch McConnell does not regard as “wasteful spending”.

One such avenue would be providing $25 million to a foreign military arms contractor called BAE. This was not $25 million that the Defense Department requested, mind you, but rather money that McConnell snuck into a defense appropriations bill as an earmark (pork, as they say).

And who is BAE? Well, they are a foreign company that is currently under investigation from several different countries, including our own Justice Department, for bribing public officials with hundreds of millions of dollars in order to secure contracts.

It should also be noted that BAE’s PACs and employees have given McConnell at least $53,000 in contributions since 2002. BAE’s subsidiary has also donated $500,000 to the new “McConnell Center” at the University of Louisville.

But I’m sure those two facts have nothing to do with one another.

So what other recipients of our tax dollars are not considered “wasteful spending”? How about clients of powerful Washington, D.C. lobbyist Hunter Bates? He was a top level staffer for McConnell from 1997-2003, and now heads his own lobbying firm, Bates Capital.

Bates represents “Voice for Humanity”, an organization formed to “spread the word of Christ throughout the world”. From 2003-2005, McConnell earmarked $8.3 million dollars to Voice for Humanity, so that they could send small mp3 players to people in Afghanistan. Recordings on these devices were supposed to teach the Afghanis how to have a democracy.

No, seriously.

McConnell has also earmarked $2.5 million to e-Cavern, $2.1 million to Boardpoint LLC and $17 million to Appriss Inc., all of whom paid large fees to hire Bates Capital.

During that time, Bates’ clients have given McConnell a total of over $120,000 in campaign contributions.

Again, maybe it’s just a coincidence.

Or maybe this is just the standard operating procedure for Mitch McConnell. Maybe those who play the game get rewarded, and those who don’t are left behind. You scratch my back, I’ll put $5 million in earmarks in your back pocket.

This kind of behavior, awarding constituents and donors back in your home district, is supposed to be avoided like kryptonite according to the mantra of “fiscal conservativism” within the Republican Party. Republicans like John McCain have long railed against these earmarks slipped into legislation, blaming it for building up massive debt in our federal budget. House Republican leader John Boehner also decries earmarks, saying of his supporters, “if they wanted someone who would raid the federal treasury on their behalf, they should vote for someone else”. Mitch McConnell apparently has no such qualms.

McConnell was a very strong critic of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Bill passed a few years ago that set strict limits on the amount of soft money that individuals could contribute to campaigns. He argued that this was a violation of Americans’ “freedom of speech”. Indeed, money is speech to McConnell. And if you aren’t giving him money, he doesn’t hear you.

McConnell’s war chest for his re-election campaign next year is almost at $10 million, already. And this war chest is full of money from the health insurance industry. So when you see Mitch McConnell fighting so hard with the rest of the fringe minority to block the expansion of SCHIP, just know who is in his ear, whispering sweet nothings. Rest assured, it is not the children of low-income families who cannot afford health insurance.

Perhaps the only way for these kids to get through to Mitch McConnell is to repeal the child labor laws that we’ve had the past century. Hire them as big shot lobbyists, and let them wheel and deal with Mitch on the only level that he understands and respects.

Until then, poor kids who fall through the cracks and don’t have health insurance only have one option when they’re sick. Suck it up, walk it off, and keep pulling up on those bootie straps.

• BAE , Hunter Bates , Mitch McConnell , Pork Spending , SCHIP
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