house appropriations committee

From The Nation:

When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year's emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.

Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse -- with workers ordered to remain in their homes, workplaces shuttered to avoid the spread of disease, transportation systems grinding to a halt and demand for emergency services and public health interventions skyrocketing. Indeed, they suggested, pandemic preparation was essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy.

And where are we now? 103 dead in Mexico, and 20 cases popping up almost instantly in the U.S.  The entire world is on edge worrying about a global pandemic, and if that comes to fruition, then it will become a massive hit on the already teetering economy.

But stories like this should come as no shock. We saw the exact same thing when Katrina hit. The Republicans believe that the public should be prepared, but the government doesn’t have to do anything. Just like when they said “it was the people’s fault for staying in Louisiana”, and wouldn’t cast any blame on a government that couldn’t be bothered to leave their vacation.

The Republicans try to paint corruption as a bi-partisan problem, but the majority of the problems we hear about come from the right side of the aisle:

Federal investigators probing Rep. Jerry Lewis (news, bio, voting record)' ties to lobbyists are looking into a land deal that put nearly 41 pristine acres in the congressman's neighborhood off-limits to developers, The Associated Press has learned.

The land was given to the city of Redlands by Jack and Laura Dangermond, who have donated generously to Lewis. The Dangermonds founded and run a company — Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. of Redlands — that has gotten tens of millions of dollars' worth of contracts through the powerful House Appropriations Committee that Lewis, a Republican, now chairs.

One government contract came months after the land donation.

The land, some of which sits directly across from Lewis' home, is part of a scenic canyon in one of Redlands' wealthiest neighborhoods. Keeping the land free of development helps ensure property values remain high.

A spokeswoman for Lewis' attorneys said the congressman was unaware the Dangermonds owned the land and did not know the terms under which it was given to the city.

The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, which is leading the Lewis investigation, and a spokeswoman for the FBI had no comment on the land deal.

I will admit there are Democrats who are also corrupt, but the majority of the corruption does come from the Republican side. As matter of fact, there is far more corrupt Republicans than there are Democrats.

By a vote of 62-2, the House Appropriations Committee approved the amendment to stop the state-owned United Arab Emirates company Dubai Ports World from managing terminals at the American ports.