-By Warner Todd Huston
Today’s pork report centers on the porcine efforts of Representative David Wu, Democrat from Oregon, who wrung out of the Congressional budget a $2 million earmark for T-Shirts that were supposed to go to the U.S. Marines. Of course, Wu forgot to notice that the very shirts he had surreptitiously appropriated Federal money for were deemed a danger to our troops health by the very branch upon which he had wished to bestow the fruits of his pork barreling.
According to the Associated Press:
PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon Rep. David Wu fought criticism Monday following a report in the Seattle Times that he got the U.S. Marines to buy shirts that can melt in battle, causing severe burns.
Of course, this treasury raiding by Wu was to pay back a company that gave him campaign donations, the ol’ quid pro quo rears its ugly head.
Wu helped get a $2 million earmark in the 2006 budget for InSport, a Beaverton company in his district. The report found InSport, parent company Vital Apparel and executives from both companies donated more than $7,000 to Wu.
The problem is that the shirts that Wu set up as a mandate for the Marines to take delivery of were made of nylon and shirts made of such material have been deemed a danger to the troops seeing battle “after finding the fabric melts in intense heat, adhering to the skin” causing severe burns to our injured troops.
“This essentially creates a second skin and can lead to horrific, disfiguring burns,” Capt. Lynn E. Welling, the 1st Marine Logistics Group head surgeon, who conducted research in Iraq, told the Seattle Times.
Nice job, Wu. Glad you’re there for our troops.
Then, to make matters worse, Wu inserted another $1 million in at another time to purchase the very same shirts again!
Naturally farmer Wu denies there is any “link” to his giving out Federal largess and his receiving campaign donations from the very company that benefited from these budget-busting earmarks.
Yeah. OK. Sure.
It was hard to hear Wu during the press conference, though, what with all the clatter of cloven hooves all around him and all.
This is a picture perfect case of why earmarks should be done away with. Not only is Wu’s raiding of the treasury bad fiscal policy but in this case it can actually lead to putting out troops in even more danger.
So, the Pork king medal goes to David Wu this week. May his constituents reward him by introducing him to the unemployment line.
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, men’snewsdaily.com and americandaily.com among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a guest on several radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston