The Problem With Congress

Here's another example of how our government works....Congressmen and Senators get contributions from lobbyists and individuals who head companies that the Congress regulates, and then they steer earmarks (your taxpayer dollars) toward these companies.

It's legal as long as no one overtly says "give me this campaign contribution and I'll give you some government money" or "if you won't give me a contribution you won't get any government money"....something which former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich forgot.

John Murtha (D-PA) heads the House Appropriations Defense sub-committee and has long been known as someone who uses earmarks to their fullest. According to CBS News, he is currently funneling $31 Million in earmarks to 10 recent donors to his campaign.

The FBI is investigating several lobbying firms that are linked to Murtha.

And CBS News also reports this gem:

The contractor was set to receive $1 million tax dollars. He said the military told him the money would come through a company called Commonwealth Research Institute, whose parent company, Concurrent Technologies, ranked among the largest earmark recipients. Both were set up with Murtha's help in his own hometown. The defense contractor said Commonwealth officials told him to get the money, he should "consider opening an office" in Johnstown, Murtha's hometown, and chided his company for not giving "enough campaign contributions to Murtha," and not making "a showing at Murtha's annual defense contractor fair."

The contractor told CBS News: "I wouldn't do it. We're just not going to play." He didn't get the funds.

Murtha also got $150 Million in federal funding to build an airport near his hometown (newly renamed the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport). Only three commercial flights leave the airport on a given day (all headed to Dulles Airport in Washington D.C.), and many of them are half-full. They recently got $800,000 from the Stimulus Bill to repave a backup runway.