Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced an amendment to the latest defense authorization bill that will scrutinize contractors who have committed fraud while lapping up public money. According to a recent editorial in The Nation, Sanders would like to see the same standards applied to other entities receiving federal funding as was recently used to defund ACORN. He's not the only legislator upset about the double standard. Florida Representative Alan Grayson has been vocal on this issue, also saying that military contractors who commit fraud should have their funding canceled.
There is quite a bit of evidence to back up these positions. The Project on Government Oversight released a report citing the fact that at least 100 government contractors making almost $300 billion in federal contracts also collectively paid fines totaling $26 billion since 1995 for 676 cases of "misconduct". Well, it doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that wasting public dollars is a lucrative side business!
Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrup Grumman are three top defense contractors that are spotlighted in the report. Together they were awarded a total of $77 billion in federal contracts despite having paid $3 billion in fines since 1995 for 108 infractions. Another big recipient of government largess, the drug firm Pfizer, paid $2.3 billion in settlements just last month to make various court cases go away, including at least one alleging Medicaid fraud. Kind of makes ACORN's $53 million in federal money awarded since 1994 look piddling in comparison.
Of course, ACORN should not have advised anyone to defraud the government, even if it was a setup. But, fair is fair. Even without this recent report to put this whole issue into perspective, everyone has heard about the waste, ineptitude and fraud committed by firms such as Bechtel Corp and KBR subsidiary Halliburton. Oh, and let's not even get into the dodgy business practices of "we only hire sociopaths" contractor Blackwater. At least ACORN has a track record of actually helping people. Could that be what this is really all about?
There is quite a bit of evidence to back up these positions. The Project on Government Oversight released a report citing the fact that at least 100 government contractors making almost $300 billion in federal contracts also collectively paid fines totaling $26 billion since 1995 for 676 cases of "misconduct". Well, it doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that wasting public dollars is a lucrative side business!
Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrup Grumman are three top defense contractors that are spotlighted in the report. Together they were awarded a total of $77 billion in federal contracts despite having paid $3 billion in fines since 1995 for 108 infractions. Another big recipient of government largess, the drug firm Pfizer, paid $2.3 billion in settlements just last month to make various court cases go away, including at least one alleging Medicaid fraud. Kind of makes ACORN's $53 million in federal money awarded since 1994 look piddling in comparison.
Of course, ACORN should not have advised anyone to defraud the government, even if it was a setup. But, fair is fair. Even without this recent report to put this whole issue into perspective, everyone has heard about the waste, ineptitude and fraud committed by firms such as Bechtel Corp and KBR subsidiary Halliburton. Oh, and let's not even get into the dodgy business practices of "we only hire sociopaths" contractor Blackwater. At least ACORN has a track record of actually helping people. Could that be what this is really all about?
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