Corrupt British Politcians - Minor League Vs. American Politicians

In case you have not heard, there has been a highly publicized expense spending scandal regarding members of the British Parliament. According to a February 4, 2010 Associated Press report, an inquiry into the misspending by British politicians has found that more than half of the House Of Commons members made excessive or fraudulent expense claims. Examples of these expense claims were for :

• Porn movies
• Horse manure
• An ornamental duck house
• Cleaning of a moat around a politician's castle
• A rope for a politician's flag pole
• Maid service
• Personal mortgage payments
• A luxury bed

The misspending extends beyond Parliament in that nine government ministers have already resigned because of their misspending in addition to members of Parliament who have also resigned. Law enforcement is looking into whether to prosecute some of the politicians.

This affair is sad on many levels. First, it rattles the trust that ordinary citizens have in their leaders, wasting taxpayer money at a time of economic hardship for many. Second, it took over five years for the details of the fraud to come out since since Parliament/government itself tried to block disclosure of the facts via the British court system, according to the article. The saddest facet though is that while the inquiry identified $1.6 million of abuse, the cost of the inquiry was almost $1.2 million. Thus, the net recovery for the British government will be less than half a million dollars. How an investigation of expense records could cost over a million dollars is beyond me.

However, no matter how far reaching and embarrassing the British scandal is, they cannot hold a candle to their U.S. political class counterparts. Consider the documented examples of taxpayer waste that I found listed in a fabulous website, http://www.flipcongress2010.com/:

• Alabama Senator Shelby - Earmarked $50 million of taxpayer funds for COLSA, COLSA in turn donated $400,000 to the Senator's re-election campaign and he also earmarked $1.6 million for Sikorsky and Scientific Reasearch, who gave back $4,000. Both companies do not even do business in Alabama. (Source: Bloomberg and Seattle Times)
• California Senator Boxer - Funneled $2.4 million in Federal taxpayer money to the city/county of San Francisco after the city/county gave the Senator's re-election campaign $1,000. Think about how perverted this is: city/county taxpayer money is given to a Federal member of Congress who gives back Federal taxpayer dollars. (Source: Seattle Times)
• California Senator Feinstein - The FDIC granted her husband's company a lucrative government contract to sell foreclosed property. Shortly thereafter, the Senator introduced legislation to increase the FDIC budget by $25 million. (Source: Washington Times)
• New York Senator Schumer - Earmarked $1.6 million for L-3 Communications who gave back $12,500 for the Senator's re-election and earmarked another $1.6 million for the New School For Social Research, receiving $4,000 back from the school. (Source: Seattle Times)
• House Speaker Pelosi - Earmarked $2.0 million for Sierra Nevada who donated back $1,000 for her re-election campaign. (Source: Seattle Times)
• New Jersey Congressman Frelinghuysen - http://www.freerepublic.com/ reported that the Congressman earmarked $7.3 million in taxpayer dollars for various clients of the PMA lobbyist group. Members of the group donated $29,129 to the Congressman's re-election campaign.

The list from http://www.flipcongress20102.com/ goes on forever and I will revisit it for the other tidbits of misbehavior they have gathered.

Thus, while the Brits are wasting their taxpayer dollars on such small potatoes as porn movies and horse manure, our political class takes waste to a whole other level, funneling billions of taxpayer dollars to companies in exchange for millions of dollars for their recoronation into another term of office. Something we can be proud of, our political class wastes more than yours.

Of course I joke. It is really disgusting that our taxpayer dollars are wasted so blatantly. Three steps from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" would easily handle our waste. Step 6 would allow only individuals to contribute to election campaigns. No company, union, PAC, or lobbying firm would be allowed to contribute. Step 44 would not allow any Federal taxpayer dollars to be spent on any program that does not significantly impact residents in at least five states. Finally, Step 39 would impose term limits so that most, if not all politicians, would not have to create and grow re-election campaigns since they would not be able to run for re-election. Times are tough, eliminating waste should be foremost on everyone's mind including the political class. Being able to waste money faster than the British or any other foreign political class is nothing to be proud of.

Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.