Holding Minnick To His High Standards

Monday, Idaho Blue Dog Congressman Walt Minnick announced in a press release that he and fellow Blue Dog Congresswoman Betsy Markey of Colorado, "sent a letter calling on House leaders to prohibit the group ACORN from being eligible for federal funds."  If you haven't heard yet, among other problems, ACORN came under scrutiny recently when embarrassing undercover videos surfaced showing employees allegedly advising a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute on getting around federal tax laws.

Both Markey and Minnick had already put their anti-ACORN credentials on the record last month by voting for defunding ACORN in the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, so this letter might seem a bit like piling on.  However, the two may have something else in mind.  Bob Moore at The Coloradoan has the scoop and here's a hint:  it includes something about a prophylactic.

In the press release, Minnick also goes on the record with what he thinks should be the standard for those receiving taxpayer money.

"Organizations receiving taxpayer funding should be held to the highest standards and those that do not should not receive federal dollars," Minnick said. "This Congress must show fiscal responsibility and transparency with the use of taxpayer dollars."

Seems pretty straightforward.  The letter goes even further including "highest ethical and legal standards."

Here's a suggestion for the Congressman.

Federal prosecutors have charged five employees of Xe, formerly Blackwater Worldwide, with manslaughter; another admitted to killing an Iraqi in a plea deal.  They've also been found to have overcharged the government for security contracts.  The Iraqi government doesn't want them in their country.  Certainly that falls outside Minnick's "highest standards" benchmark for receiving taxpayer funding.

Blackwater subsidiary U.S. Training Center, Inc currently has $243,443,805 in federal contracts for 2009.  Chenega Corporation, including subsidiary Chenega Blackwater Solutions, a joint venture with Blackwater, has $304,197,600 in federal contracts for 2009.

Defunding Blackwater legislation would save around half a billion in taxpayer dollars just from these two Blackwater affiliations' 2009 contracts.  That's not even including the $1.3 billion they received 2000 to 2008 and quite a bit more than the "tiny" (yes, he said that) $2.2 million Chris Edwards at the Cato Institute, hardly a liberal think tank, reports was ACORN’s share of federal subsidies for 2009.

We'll be expecting Rep. Minnick's press release entitled "Remove funding for Blackwater" soon.

Update:  Corrected to reflect that Rep. Markey is not a member of the Blue Dog Coalition.

Comments

[Sisyphus]

Don't hold your breath.