The 11 House Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak who dropped their opposition to health care reform legislation mere hours before the final vote have requested $3.4 billion in earmarks -- and one watchdog group wants to know whether the money represents business as usual or political payoffs.Right. Just as there is no link between my eating habits and my being 25 pounds overweight.
The Sunlight Foundation says it plans to track the earmark requests, which were put in one day after health care reform cleared Congress, to see whether they're approved and whether it appears lawmakers are being rewarded for their vote.
"We know that in Congress one of the ways that leadership tries to influence members is through earmarks," said Bill Allison, editorial director at the nonpartisan organization. "So this seemed to us something good to follow.
Stupak and the ten other Democrats were critical to the success of the health care bill. They were holding out over concerns about funding for abortion coverage but announced the president had assuaged their worries -- with an executive order restricting abortion funding -- the morning of the big vote.
Stupak's office said there's absolutely no link between the earmarks and the health care bill's passage.
"Pay to play" has long been a staple of Chicago politics and now is being taken to a new art level in Washington by the socialists. They are so open and brazen about their payoffs it's stunning. They flaunt it and then tell you that you are not seeing what you are seeing.
Stay tuned. Based on my life long experience with the Chicago Machine politics, this is just the beginning. It's like Goodfellas went to Washington. They see what they want and they just take it.
And they treat the rest of us like a schnook.
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