The Democrats may not have much to show for their vaunted agenda after taking control of the Congress last year, but they have excelled in at least one area: congressional pork. And no one was more successful at it than Abscam’s “unindicted co-conspirator,” the Round Mound of Money Found, the Plump Pony of Cronies, Rep. John Murtha, (D-PA). The New York Times dubs him “King of Pork”:
Mr. Murtha led all House members this year, securing $162 million in district favors, according to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. In all, eager members in both houses enacted 11,144 earmarks, worth $15 billion. Taxpayers may be inured to $113,000 for rodent control in Alaska or a million for Idaho’s weed management. Mr. Murtha’s universe is a far more complicated and costly creation of interlocking contractors who continue to feed at the public trough despite reviews questioning their performance.
In 1991, Mr. Murtha used a $5 million earmark to create the National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence in Johnstown to develop anti-pollution technology for the military. Since then, it has garnered more than $670 million in contracts and earmarks. Meanwhile it is managed by another contractor Mr. Murtha helped create, Concurrent Technologies, a research operation that somehow was allowed to be set up as a tax-exempt charity, according to The Washington Post. Thanks to Mr. Murtha, Concurrent has boomed; the annual salary for its top three executives averages $462,000.
Read it all at the above link. Of course, none of these “projects” has accomplished anything for our national defense or any other common good – unless you consider lining the pockets of Murtha’s associates so they can keep him in office to deliver more taxpayer largesse to them the “common good.”
Murtha is a thoroughly despicable man, which makes him eminently qualified for his position in the House Democratic Leadership.
