Qtec
08-18-2011, 01:57 AM
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">WASHINGTON -- In his 2010 book "Fed Up!" Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry explained his displeasure with what he called the spending culture in Washington over the previous decade, including the period of unified Republican control from 2003 through 2006.
"They see no problem with spending other people's money for the next feel-good program that a lobbyist brings to them," Perry wrote.
Perry also railed at earmarks, the practice of a member of Congress directing spending to be used on specific programs.
"Earmarks represent the wasteful spending that has most caught public interest of late and for good reason, he wrote. "Earmarks corrupt the process and divert attention from the real task of governing and oversight."
But during the same time period covered in the book, Perry himself entered Texas into controversial contracts with Washington lobbyists who helped bring billions of dollars in federal money to Perry's home state, some of it via earmarks. Some of those lobbyists would wind up pleading guilty in a separate major bribery scandal.
A request for comment sent to Perry's office was not returned Wednesday afternoon.
TEXAS' SPOILS
While Perry's book is riddled with criticisms of spending on many federal programs, his lobbyists worked to extract federal funds for Texas from those same programs. According to lobbying disclosure reports filed with the Secretary of the Senate, Perry's lobbyists focused heavily on two topics: transportation appropriations and federal health care funding.
The transportation appropriations lobbying paid off: Texas received $754.4 million from 231 earmarks included in the Sate, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005 (SAFETEA-LU), according to a database held by the nonpartisan budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense. Perry's administraiton also touted an increase in the rate of return on Texas' gas tax dollars to 92 percent under the SAFETEA-LU legislation.
"[SAFETA-LU] came at the height of the go-go years of earmarking access," said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. "It was get while the getting's good."
Ellis pins much of Texas' lobbying success on former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas). "Certainly DeLay was of the earmark persuasion," Ellis explained. "He was a major proponent of using earmarks to reward and protect incumbents."
In "Fed Up!", Perry also lampooned the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed by President George W. Bush. Perry wrote, "While putting the federal government in the pharmacy business, Medicare Part D just expanded a broken program further."
What "Fed Up" doesn't mention is that Perry's administration, and the outside lobbyists he hired, reported lobbying on that same prescription drug bill. As a result, they successfully increased federal funding for Texas' health care services by more than $350 million, thanks to a provision included in the bill's conference report, which was crafted behind closed doors. The Medicare prescription drug bill also included $250 million for Texas to reimburse providers of emergency services for undocumented immigrants.
But the lobbying contracts brought far more controversy than the spoils the hired lobbyists brought home. The lobbyists hired by Perry's administration were intimately connected to the major lobbying scandals of the 2000s. Those scandals involved two major players in Republican Washington -- Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff -- who were both convicted on felony charges </div></div>
link (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/17/rick-perrys-k-street-proj_n_929584.html)
What a surprise! Just another RW religious [ GW denier ] guy that has already sold his soul. ie, he lies and cavorts with criminals. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
Q
"They see no problem with spending other people's money for the next feel-good program that a lobbyist brings to them," Perry wrote.
Perry also railed at earmarks, the practice of a member of Congress directing spending to be used on specific programs.
"Earmarks represent the wasteful spending that has most caught public interest of late and for good reason, he wrote. "Earmarks corrupt the process and divert attention from the real task of governing and oversight."
But during the same time period covered in the book, Perry himself entered Texas into controversial contracts with Washington lobbyists who helped bring billions of dollars in federal money to Perry's home state, some of it via earmarks. Some of those lobbyists would wind up pleading guilty in a separate major bribery scandal.
A request for comment sent to Perry's office was not returned Wednesday afternoon.
TEXAS' SPOILS
While Perry's book is riddled with criticisms of spending on many federal programs, his lobbyists worked to extract federal funds for Texas from those same programs. According to lobbying disclosure reports filed with the Secretary of the Senate, Perry's lobbyists focused heavily on two topics: transportation appropriations and federal health care funding.
The transportation appropriations lobbying paid off: Texas received $754.4 million from 231 earmarks included in the Sate, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005 (SAFETEA-LU), according to a database held by the nonpartisan budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense. Perry's administraiton also touted an increase in the rate of return on Texas' gas tax dollars to 92 percent under the SAFETEA-LU legislation.
"[SAFETA-LU] came at the height of the go-go years of earmarking access," said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. "It was get while the getting's good."
Ellis pins much of Texas' lobbying success on former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas). "Certainly DeLay was of the earmark persuasion," Ellis explained. "He was a major proponent of using earmarks to reward and protect incumbents."
In "Fed Up!", Perry also lampooned the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed by President George W. Bush. Perry wrote, "While putting the federal government in the pharmacy business, Medicare Part D just expanded a broken program further."
What "Fed Up" doesn't mention is that Perry's administration, and the outside lobbyists he hired, reported lobbying on that same prescription drug bill. As a result, they successfully increased federal funding for Texas' health care services by more than $350 million, thanks to a provision included in the bill's conference report, which was crafted behind closed doors. The Medicare prescription drug bill also included $250 million for Texas to reimburse providers of emergency services for undocumented immigrants.
But the lobbying contracts brought far more controversy than the spoils the hired lobbyists brought home. The lobbyists hired by Perry's administration were intimately connected to the major lobbying scandals of the 2000s. Those scandals involved two major players in Republican Washington -- Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff -- who were both convicted on felony charges </div></div>
link (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/17/rick-perrys-k-street-proj_n_929584.html)
What a surprise! Just another RW religious [ GW denier ] guy that has already sold his soul. ie, he lies and cavorts with criminals. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
Q