Murtha Inc.

In the massive 2008 military-spending bill now before Congress — which could go to a House-Senate conference as soon as Thursday — Mr. Murtha has steered more taxpayer funds to his congressional district than any other member. The Democratic lawmaker is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, which will oversee more than $459 billion in military spending this year.

Johnstown’s good fortune has come at the expense of taxpayers everywhere else. Defense contractors have found that if they open an office here and hire the right lobbyist, they can get lucrative, no-bid contracts. Over the past decade, Concurrent Technologies Corp., a defense-research firm that employs 800 here, got hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to Rep. Murtha despite poor reviews by Pentagon auditors. The National Drug Intelligence Center, with 300 workers, got $509 million, though the White House has tried for years to shut it down as wasteful and unnecessary. Another beneficiary: MTS Technologies, run by a man who got his start some 40 years ago shining shoes at Mr. Murtha’s Johnstown Minute Car Wash.

A review by The Wall Street Journal of dozens of such contracts funded by Mr. Murtha’s committee shows that many weren’t sought by the military or federal agencies they were intended to benefit. Some were inefficient or mismanaged, according to interviews, public records and previously unpublished Pentagon audits. One Murtha-backed firm, ProLogic Inc., is under federal investigation for allegedly diverting public funds to develop commercial software, people close to the case say. The company denies wrongdoing and is in line to get millions of dollars more in the pending defense bill…In addition to using taxpayer money to build a local defense industry, Mr. Murtha has funded by legislative fiat miles of new roads, water projects, medical facilities and federal offices for his district. He even brought a Marine attack-helicopter squadron here; it’s next to the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. Mr. Murtha has steered at least $600 million in earmarks to his district in the past four years, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan Washington group. The nonprofit group estimates he’s sent $2 billion or more to the district since joining the appropriations committee.

This is how politicians get things done. It makes me sick to see the details. Do only Democrats waste money and try and buy votes? Nope. But they are the kings of it.

Now, this story is especially sickening because liberals try and claim because Murtha was in the military, he must be an all knowing, authority figure who LOVES the military...so when he spends all his time bashing it and calling soldiers murderers even when they are not, he should get a pass.
We see more liberal hypocracy here. Murtha, who loves the military, is treating military spending bills like it was his own personal bank.
So Murtha spends BILLIONS, yes, with a B, of your tax dollars for his district, and even spending that he does give to the military is not used the way the military asked for it.

THIS is why Democrats have to raise taxes. They thrown out the emotional crap that if you cut taxes children will die, Republicans hate kids and seniors (class warfare), seniors will have to eat dog food. We need to raise taxes!!!

Well, if we didn't have people like John Murtha around, we wouldn't have to...