Culture of Corruption
Shortly after a House Republican comes to Washington, their leadership talks to them about, "How much money did you raise this week?"
Texas Republican Tom DeLay constantly hammered Republican members of the House to raise more money. Their leadership auctioned off committee assignments and chairmanships to those who raised the most money for the party.
A tremendous amount of money flows from the lobbying industry on K Street. There are over 30,000 lobbyists in Washington, a number that's ballooned since the 1980s. That's 66 lobbyists for every congressman. Lobbyists fuel a permanent campaign mode, by pumping money into the coffers of lawmakers under constant pressure to raise more cash.
California Republican Duke Cunningham secured 16 million in government contracts in exchange for a $140,000 boat. Other, lawmakers traded influence for cash, trips, and other luxuries, all offered by lobbyists, like Jack Abramoff.
Speaker of the House, Hastert vowed to tighten the rules in response to these scandals, but this Republican controlled Congress hasn’t done a thing to clean up the system. The Republican revolutionaries of 1994 have been sucked into the very culture of corruption they had promised to clean up.
Congressional leaders pushed through the Bush's plan to create a sprawling Department of Homeland Security. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was made part of this huge bureaucracy. Bush’s budget cuts sapped FEMA's long-term ability to cushion the blow of hurricanes and other natural disasters.
FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of a conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. The mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three catastrophic disasters facing this country.
The Army Corps of Engineers requested $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans, but the White House carved it to $40 million. At the same time, congressional Republicans agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-filled highway bill which included a $231 million bridge to a small, uninhabited Alaskan island, for Senator Ted Stevens.
Senator Trent Lott admitted: “Congress, abdicated our responsibility, in certain respects. It's not that the executive branches have necessarily taken it. We just left the field.”
Texas Republican Tom DeLay constantly hammered Republican members of the House to raise more money. Their leadership auctioned off committee assignments and chairmanships to those who raised the most money for the party.
A tremendous amount of money flows from the lobbying industry on K Street. There are over 30,000 lobbyists in Washington, a number that's ballooned since the 1980s. That's 66 lobbyists for every congressman. Lobbyists fuel a permanent campaign mode, by pumping money into the coffers of lawmakers under constant pressure to raise more cash.
California Republican Duke Cunningham secured 16 million in government contracts in exchange for a $140,000 boat. Other, lawmakers traded influence for cash, trips, and other luxuries, all offered by lobbyists, like Jack Abramoff.
Speaker of the House, Hastert vowed to tighten the rules in response to these scandals, but this Republican controlled Congress hasn’t done a thing to clean up the system. The Republican revolutionaries of 1994 have been sucked into the very culture of corruption they had promised to clean up.
Congressional leaders pushed through the Bush's plan to create a sprawling Department of Homeland Security. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was made part of this huge bureaucracy. Bush’s budget cuts sapped FEMA's long-term ability to cushion the blow of hurricanes and other natural disasters.
FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of a conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. The mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three catastrophic disasters facing this country.
The Army Corps of Engineers requested $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans, but the White House carved it to $40 million. At the same time, congressional Republicans agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-filled highway bill which included a $231 million bridge to a small, uninhabited Alaskan island, for Senator Ted Stevens.
Senator Trent Lott admitted: “Congress, abdicated our responsibility, in certain respects. It's not that the executive branches have necessarily taken it. We just left the field.”
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