$17,000 for a $2,500 helicopter drip pan.. your congress at work. - New England Patriots Forums

***DarrylS*** · 05-20-2012, 03:08 PM

Another personal stimulus plan for The Kentucky company, authored by Rep. Harold Rogers, a Republican who is now the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Instead of paying $2,500.00 for a hydraulic drip pan for a Blackhawk Helicopter..

So that is 7 times more made on each pan sold.. and they have sold $6.5 million dollars worth.. nice profit.

A man from Kentucky, sure is lucky... everything that is wrong with Congress...

Behind Army's $17,000 drip pan, a Kentucky lawmaker's earmark | Dallasnews.com - News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News

Quote:

Thanks to a powerful Kentucky congressman who has steered tens of millions of federal dollars to his district, the Army has bought about $6.5 million worth of the “leakproof” drip pans in the past three years to catch transmission fluid on Black Hawk helicopters. And it might want more from the Kentucky company that makes the pans, even though a similar pan from another company costs a small fraction of the price: about $2,500.

The purchase shows the enduring power of earmarks, even though several scandals have prompted efforts in Congress to rein them in. And at a time when the Pentagon is facing billions of dollars in cuts — which include shrinking the Army, trimming purchases of fighter jets and retiring warships — the eye-catching price tag for a small part has provoked sharp criticism.

The company's owners are political contributors to the congressman, who has been called the “Prince of Pork” by the Lexington Herald-Leader for his history of delivering federal contracts to donors and others back home.

***patsfan13*** · 05-20-2012, 03:11 PM

Yep, earmarks should be outlawed.

sdaniels7114 · 05-20-2012, 03:36 PM

It takes experience to compare prices between something that has to operate in combat and something that doesn't. Channel 5's eye in the sky doesn't typically face gun fire.

The great thing about ear marks is that someone with the experience I spoke about can now review the situation and if it stinks a person who can be voted out of office will have his/her finger prints all over it. Better that than some faceless bureaucrat that never faces re-election.

***DarrylS*** · 05-20-2012, 04:45 PM

The congressman should pay back the 5+ million dollars out of his own pocket.. that may stop this crap.

scout · 05-20-2012, 06:25 PM

This is an outrage. The guy should be brought up on charges of fraud, even if it doesn't stick. I guess his constituents are ok with it, thus he keeps his job.

scout · 05-20-2012, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patsfan13

Yep, earmarks should be outlawed.

Where's the rant? For someone who continuously posts about the government's scandals, one would expect more.

***DarrylS*** · 05-21-2012, 04:08 AM

Willard chimed in yesterday and the continual fleecing of the american people should continue, where is the Peace Dividend??? Where were you Willard during the Viet Nam War... where all favorite sons go, to a cushy college complete with deferments..

Sounds like Ronald Reagan, again.. there is a scare out there somewhere, maybe in our "territory" of Panama again... or maybe he wants to invade Grenada, again.

Reinforcing Alliance's Military Might Is Vital

Quote:

Last year, President Obama signed into law a budget scheme that threatens to saddle the U.S. military with nearly $1 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years. President Obama’s own defense secretary, Leon Panetta, has called cuts of this magnitude “devastating” to our national security. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has plainly said that such a reduction means “we would not any longer be a global power.” Despite these warnings, the Obama administration has pledged to veto an attempt to replace these cuts with savings in other areas. [...]

With the United States on a path to a hollow military, we are hardly in a position to exercise leadership in persuading our allies to spend more on security. And in fact the Obama administration has failed to exercise such leadership. Quite the contrary; a multiplier effect has set in: The administration’s irresponsible defense cuts are clearing the way for our partners to do even less.

Obama is not responsible for the $1 trillion in military spending reductions over the next decade. The Obama administration effect nearly $500 billion in cuts over the next decade, but those cuts — are agreed to by the military’s top brass, as Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said. Panetta said the cuts will still allow “the capability to confront and defeat more than one adversary at a time.”

Congress is responsible for the other $500 billion in military spending cuts as a result of the bipartisan debt deal that was signed into law. Those reductions are set to take place because of the the deal put in place should lawmakers fail to agree on how to find savings elsewhere.

Drewski · 05-21-2012, 06:48 AM

My immediate reaction echos the rest of the replies in this thread. Earmarks/overspending, whatever term you want to use for it is crap, should stop or at the very least be looked into to protect we, the tax payers. This rep should be held accountable for their over payment for services/products rendered and if there are any possible legal ramifications, they should be applied here.

Now to expand on this topic - this is a prime example of my fears with the government getting more involved in various policies and markets such as Healthcare.

When something is privatized, at the end of the day the company in question looks to minimize cost and maximize profit. The costs are scrutinized and most waste is removed. Now we clearly have evidence of "corps gone wild" of late, so I can understand some posters disagreeing with the point, but our government "isn't for profit". They don't generally dissect spending bills to ensure they are getting the best cost they can. After all its a line item out of thousands and "its going to help my constituents!".

If we want the government to take on more stuff, such as healthcare, fine, lets have an adult conversation about it. But BAU in DC will have to change, because if the government will just pay whatever the suppliers "tell" them it costs, examples of this will become more and more common, and "we" wont be around long (see EuroZone).

Beyond my expectation of more thorough review of spending by the government we have have have to cut our spending on the military big time. Our enemies today are the equivalent of uneducated hicks; people with AKs, cellphones and IEDs....an F-22 is overkill. Beyond that we should start spending more of our treasure on investing in ourselves and less investing in destruction.

D

***Harry Boy*** · 05-21-2012, 08:43 AM

I agree with the "Left Wingers" on this one, wouldn't it be nice now if the Media would go after everybody in congress who sit idly by while this rip off is being commited with the same Passion and Disgust as they did with Sarah Palin.

What does "Teeth" Pelosi and her little Lap Dog Harry Reid have to say about this, where is that awful wretched women Shelia Jackson Lee, why doesn't Barack Hussein "Ears" Obama hold a press conference condeming this, where is Windbag Biden, somewhere in America a man sits at his kitchen table crying because he is going to be evicted, there's no food for his family, his dog just got shot by a f-cked up GANG drive by, his kid just ***** twice in her diaper and he can't buy new ones, his wife is screwing the guy upstairs, he was going to stick his head in the oven this morning but they just turned his gas off.

MICHELLE IS PLANNING ANOTHER $32,OOO,000,68 VACATION

Drewski · 05-21-2012, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry Boy

I agree with the "Left Wingers" on this one, wouldn't it be nice now if the Media would go after everybody in congress who sit idly by while this rip off is being commited with the same Passion and Disgust as they did with Sarah Palin.

What does "Teeth" Pelosi and her little Lap Dog Harry Reid have to say about this, where is that awful wretched women Shelia Jackson Lee, why doesn't Barack Hussein "Ears" Obama hold a press conference condeming this, where is Windbag Biden, somewhere in America a man sits at his kitchen table crying because he is going to be evicted, there's no food for his family, his dog just got shot by a f-cked up GANG drive by, his kid just ***** twice in her diaper and he can't buy new ones, his wife is screwing the guy upstairs, he was going to stick his head in the oven this morning but they just turned his gas off.

MICHELLE IS PLANNING ANOTHER VACATION

HB - I would be hard pressed to say this is "Left" or "Right" issue.

I think the idea of our elected representatives wasting our money should piss just about everyone off.

Just like shareholders would hold the head of company they own shares of accountable for poor performance, we (the shareholders of our government) should hold our reps accountable.

Problem is the systemic issues that DC as a whole has. We need a culture change...but I won't hold my breathe on that one.

Where was W, Cheney and the rest of his henchmen when this was happening under their watch? This situation didn't start on 1/20/2009.