Bernie Sanders Applies "ACORN Standard" to Defense Contractors

[babylonsister]

Bernie Sanders Applies "ACORN Standard" to Defense Contractors
posted by John Nichols on 10/04/2009 @ 12:25pm

snip//

Now that the Congress has established the ACORN precedent, it can be used to go after the multinational corporations that have mastered the game of Grand Theft Treasury.

Members of the House and Senate have given themselves permission to grab the cuff-linked wrists of the penthouse pimps and prostitutes and pull their manicured fingers out of our wallets of the taxpayers.

Where to begin?

Bernie Sanders has the right idea.

"The sad truth of the matter is that virtually every major defense contractor in this country has, for a period of many years, been engaged in systemic, illegal, and fraudulent behavior, while receiving hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money," the independent senator from Vermont explained in a floor statement last week. "We're not talking here about the $53 million that ACORN received over 15 years. We're in fact talking about defense contractors who have received many, many billions in defense contracts and year after year, time after time, violated the law, ripping off the taxpayers of this country big time. And in some instances, these contractors have done more than ripping off the taxpayers. In some instances, they have endangered the lives and well being of the men and women who serve our country in the armed forces."

Sanders came to the debate armed with weapons that the critics of ACORN lacked: facts, figures and a sense of proportion.

"According to the Project on Government Oversight, a non-partisan, widely respected organization focusing on government waste, the three largest government contractors, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman, all have a history riddled with fraud and other illegal behavior. Combined, these companies have engaged in 109 instances of misconduct just since 1995, and have paid fees and settlements for this misconduct totaling $2.9 billion. Let me repeat that - these three companies, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman, have engaged in 109 instances of misconduct just since 1995, and have paid fees and settlements for this misconduct totaling $2.9 billion," said the independent senator.

Then Sanders added "the kicker: Despite violating the law time after time after time; despite being fined time after time after time -- Guess what? In 2007, their punishment was... $77 billion in government contracts, $77 billion in government contracts."

That was a sufficiently shocking figure to shame the senators into backing a Sanders-sponsored amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill that would require the Secretary of Defense to calculate how much money it pays out each year to corporations that have committed fraud. (Unlike with ACORN, which was targeted for punishment on the basis of embarrassing actions portrayed in videos shot by critics of the organization, this amendment applies to defense contractors that have been convicted of committing fraudulent acts or that have admitted to engaging in illegal actions taken with the purpose of defrauding the federal government.)

The Sanders amendment would also require Pentagon officials to recommend penalties for contractors that repeatedly cheat the government out of hundreds of millions – and perhaps billions – of dollars.

The acceptance by the Senate of the Sanders amendment was a significant act -- if not quite an accountability moment.

It is not often that members of Congress pick on corporations that make meaningful campaign contributions and pack their lobbying teams with former members of the House and Senate.

more...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/480817/bernie_sanders_applies_acorn_standard_to_defense_contractors

[jgraz]

1. Who doesn't love Bernie?

The guy is ... awesome. :patriot:

[mod mom]

2. He's the best!

[valerief]

4. I LUUUUUUUUURV Bernie!!!!

:hi:

[druidity33]

3. K&R for Bernie! nt.

[applegrove]

5. Go Bernie! Go Bernie! Go Bernie!

[ehrnst]

6. Maybe I'm just too optimistic - but could this have been a plan all along?

Could the Dems have been setting this trap when they "rolled over" on the amendment defunding ACORN?

Could someone have actually looked at the amendment, communicated with the other Dems and said, "Look, this is a win-win if we say yes to this. We aren't in a position to defend ACORN's goofs, and once we point out the full ramifications of this to the Republican fundraising machine, they will be forced to withdraw it (after all the gnashing of teeth about how they were the ones rooting out 'liberal' corruption) or smack down the military industrial complex. Lose-lose for them.

Or did the dems just fall into a pile of shit and come out smelling like a rose?

[pokercat999]

7. I might remind you that Senator Sanders has an (I) after his

title. I know he caucasus with the dems.

The Dems are not nearly organized enough to even do the "pull my finger" joke on one another let alone out fox the GOP.

No for the most part 95%+ they are cowards and lazy do nothings.

Incidentally the republican radio machine will probably turn this into a Dems hate their country because they have attacked the DOD and the fine suppliers that make it possible to defend this beautiful land belonging to Jesus.

[IrateCitizen]

10. Bernie's not a Democrat. He's a socialist who caucuses with the Dems.

Please note, I am using the word "socialist" here with the utmost respect, and I think that Bernie is just about the best legislator in all of the US Congress. He's incorruptible, sharp as a tack, and understands the intersection between policy and people's lives from his days as mayor of Burlington, VT (the same time that they undertook many of the initiatives that made it one of the most livable cities in the US).

[felinetta]

8. I simply adore Bernie. Thank you so much.

[yurbud]

9. cross-posted at DIGG & REDDIT--vote it up!

http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/9regc/sen_sanders_applies_acorn_standard_to_defense/

http://digg.com/politics/Sen_Sanders_demands_ACORN_Rule_for_Defense_Contractors

My comments tht went with it:

This would be especially tough on mercenary companies that have been caught killing unarmed civilians and running sex slave rings.

Blackwater massacre http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-real-story-of-baghdads-bloody-sunday-403014.html

sex slave http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2002/08/06/dyncorp/index.html

A Military Times article on fraud by KBR & Halliburton

http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2008/12/military_kbr_lawsuit_121508w/

MORE: KBR burned medical waste at a military base and made the troops sick, served tainted water to the troops, and gave them ice shipped in mortuary trucks that still had bodily fluids in them.

Halliburton set brand new trucks on fire to run up costs on their no-bid "cost-plus" contract in Iraq.

Congress and the Pentagon have ALREADY found massive evidence of fraud by defense contractors (who often got contracts through political connections): At a hearing in Washington today, the federal Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan is releasing a 111-page report ( http://www.wartimecontracting.gov ) that represents its “initial investigations of the nation’s heavy reliance on contractors.” According to a release on the hearing:

More than 240,000 contractor employees, about 80 percent of them foreign nationals, are working in Iraq and Afghanistan to support operations and projects of the U.S. military, the Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Contractor employees outnumber U.S. troops in the region. While contractors provide vital services, the Commission believes their use has also entailed billions of dollars lost to waste, fraud, and abuse due to inadequate planning, poor contract drafting, limited competition, understaffed oversight functions, and other problems.

The single greatest beneficiary of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary. KBR has been paid nearly $32 billion since 2001. In May, April Stephenson, director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, testified that KBR was linked to “the vast majority” of war-zone fraud cases and a majority of the $13 billion in “questioned” or “unsupported” costs. According to Agency, it sent the inspector general “a total of 32 cases of suspected overbilling, bribery and other violations since 2004.”

[Uncle Joe]

11. Maybe that was one of the considerations of former President and General Eisenhower when he

gave this farewell address speech.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x383219

"The sad truth of the matter is that virtually every major defense contractor in this country has, for a period of many years, been engaged in systemic, illegal, and fraudulent behavior, while receiving hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money," the independent senator from Vermont explained in a floor statement last week. "We're not talking here about the $53 million that ACORN received over 15 years. We're in fact talking about defense contractors who have received many, many billions in defense contracts and year after year, time after time, violated the law, ripping off the taxpayers of this country big time. And in some instances, these contractors have done more than ripping off the taxpayers. In some instances, they have endangered the lives and well being of the men and women who serve our country in the armed forces."

<snip>

"According to the Project on Government Oversight, a non-partisan, widely respected organization focusing on government waste, the three largest government contractors, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman, all have a history riddled with fraud and other illegal behavior. Combined, these companies have engaged in 109 instances of misconduct just since 1995, and have paid fees and settlements for this misconduct totaling $2.9 billion. Let me repeat that - these three companies, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman, have engaged in 109 instances of misconduct just since 1995, and have paid fees and settlements for this misconduct totaling $2.9 billion," said the independent senator.

Then Sanders added "the kicker: Despite violating the law time after time after time; despite being fined time after time after time -- Guess what? In 2007, their punishment was... $77 billion in government contracts, $77 billion in government contracts."

I only wanted to bold the most vital, select, critical words but I couldn't isolate them.

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, babylonsister.

[midnight]

12. HOW has this been allowed time and time again, only to be

rewarded with a huge contract....