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Fighting Fraud
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has taken a bit of abuse for being one of only seven senators to vote against defunding the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known as ACORN.
Last month, both houses of Congress quickly voted to deny federal funding to the community group after the now-infamous videos by young right-wing activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles. The pair posed as a pimp and a prostitute and, with a hidden camera, went to a number of ACORN's tax preparation offices seeking tax and business advice.
Some ACORN workers were fired for what Sanders called "an outrageous and absurd discussion with a couple of actors," but the attacks on ACORN stemmed from more than just the questionable activities of a few people caught on tape by people with an ideological ax to grind.
It was just the latest example of how conservatives insist upon accountability for the poor and powerless, while giving the wealthy and powerful a free pass when they do wrong.
ACORN is not a well-run organization, but it does the heavy lifting in community organizing efforts from voter registration to campaigns to raise the minimum wage. It's this work on behalf the people at the bottom of the ladder that seems to enrage the right.
To put it into perspective, ACORN received about $53 million of federal funding over the past 15 years. Meanwhile, Blackwater, the private military contractor to which the U.S.government has farmed out security duties, may owe the government as much as $55 million for allegedly failing to fulfill the terms of one of its federal contracts. Yet Blackwater (now known as Xe), a company that has five of its employees facing murder charges in a massacre of Iraqi civilians in 2007, got a $217 million contract from the Obama administration to provide security in Iraq.
Or how about KBR? The former Haliburton subsidiary got $80 million in contract bonuses to provide electrical wiring in Iraq -- wiring that has fatally electrocuted 16 soldiers and two contractors. They haven't been defunded by Congress.
According to the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight, the biggest three defense contractors -- Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman -- have been cited 109 times for misconduct since 1995 and have been fined or reached settlements for $2.9 billion. Yet these contractors keep getting government contracts. The three companies pocketed $77 billion in government contracts in 2007.
That why Sanders got an amendment added to the Defense Appropriations Bill, which focuses on defense contractors. It would require the Department of Defense to calculate how much the Pentagon pays companies that commit fraud, and also would make the Pentagon recommend how to penalize contractors that repeatedly cheat the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
"Virtually every major defense contractor in this country has been engaged in systemic, fraudulent behavior, while receiving hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money," said Sanders. "I wanted to expose the hypocrisy of going after an organization that helps low-income people while doing nothing about defense contractors who have received many, many billions in defense contracts and year after year, time after time, violated the law."
We agree with Sanders that if conservatives in Congress want to hammer ACORN for its misdeeds, that same standard ought to be applied to every other government contractor.
"Taxpayers want to know that the money we spend -- whether it is for defense, housing, education or any other purpose -- is spent as wisely and as cost-effectively as possible, said Sanders. "The right-wing echo chamber has focused on ACORN, but I say we need to take on the big guys who have been ripping off the American people to the tune of billions and billions of dollars, and in some instances, produced defective equipment that has put the lives of American servicemen at risk."
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9 Comments so far
Show AllThose contractors provide the funds to get people elected to Congress. They also provide vacations, extra money, drugs, sex, etc., etc., to those 'publicly elected' officials. ACORN helps people who are in trouble with the system to get back on their feet and achieve a modicum of freedom. Just as public education does. Additionally, the same cabal that owns such corporations also owns the media [TV especially]. The demos of this country have simply given up. Over 60% receive their 'information' from Fox, the corporation owned by an Australian fascist. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking that the few people like Sanders, Kucinich and the freshman congressman from Florida can alter this on their own. They need the backing of people all over the country. Unfortunately, 60% of those people listen avidly to Beck and Limbaugh, and believe their spiels of hatred.
MichaelC
You go, Bernie!
People that listen to Beck, Limbaugh,and O'Rielly are people that don't or can't read. Their intelligent lever is far below an average citizens.If the nazi Fox propaganda station was any other country, it would have been bombed long ago. They instigate hate and violations of the laws of this country.They sure were suck-ups to the Bush dictator regime.
Yes, Bernie was right with Acorn. How did he vote on the $636 BILLION for more war - the vote was 93 for, and 7 opposed. Only one democrat opposed. That one who opposed more financing of war was Feingold. Bernie, Bernie, Bernie, how could you.
There would be no war, if there was no financing of war.
I share your frustration.
I keep turning this over in my mind and keep ending up with the "Bernie is a permitted token" thing in the senate. You'll never see more than one or two alowed there. He's a safety valve for the masses; a voice that fools us into thinking we have a democracy; nice copy for our leftist readers. And even with all that, he keeps voting for padding war profiteer pockets. The oversite provisions he talks about are just piss in the wind. I wish it weren't so.
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Louis D. Brandeis
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Wilhelm Reich
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Karl Marx
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William E. Gladstone
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Alexander Woollcott
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Thought that sen. boxer was different,nope but she is for a medal of honor coin!Dems are done,finished for me.If there is no other choice I will stay home in 10 and 12.Tony
Do you think Associated Press will pick up the news from Battleboro? Oh, never mind.
A proper perspective is vital to our existence as a nation. It is also anathema to corporate government PR efforts to defraud the American public.
We have the intellect but they have the money and the time to mess with our perceptions. So, at the risk of being labelled paranoid, believe NOTHING from the government. Observe ACTIONS, not words. It's the only way to remain sane. We might even keep the country.
Actions are defined as concrete effects on your life and paycheck. Everything else is bullshit.