GOP Kills Senate Bill to Police Halliburton

I suppose it's old news at this point that the Bush administration lied us into the Iraq war and that the cost of this mess will be fully realized by the next generation when Bush leaves office with the biggest budget deficit in U.S. history. And, while Democrats have been complaining for years about the GOP-led Congress abandoning its oversight of the executive branch's wrongdoing, a vote that took place in the Senate last week shows how the Republican desire to ignore fraud and abuse extends right into killing legislation that would help stop defense contractors from ripping off the American people.

In an effort to stop companies like Halliburton and its subsidiaries from cheating our troops and stealing from Americans, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), introduced S.AMDT.4230 and attached it to the Defense Authorization bill currently being debated in the Senate. The bill was intended to improve contracting "by eliminating fraud and abuse and improving competition in contracting and procurement."

"I think when you are at war, when a massive quantity of money is being pushed out the door, that we ought to decide to get tough on those who would be engaged in war profiteering," said Dorgan in fighting for his amendment last week. "I dare say that never in the history of this country has so much money been wasted so quickly. And, yes, there is fraud involved, there is abuse involved, and it is the case that there is a dramatic amount of taxpayers' money that is now being wasted."

Dorgan's bill -- cosponsored by 17 Democrats and called the Honest Leadership and Accountability in Contracting Act of 2006 -- was tabled by a roll call vote of 55-43, effectively rejecting the amendment. Every single Senate Republican voted against the measure to make the contracting process honest and impose penalties on those who break the law.

And just what were the stern rules that the GOP didn’t think their buddies at Halliburton should have to live with? The text of the legislation spelled out that Bush and Cheney's defense-contractor buddies would be in trouble if they did any of the following:

• "Executes or attempts to execute a scheme or artifice to defraud the United States or the entity having jurisdiction over the area in which such activities occur."

• "Falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact."

• "Makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements or representations, or makes or uses any materially false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry."

• "Materially overvalues any good or service with the specific intent to excessively profit from the war or military action."

The measure called for those found guilty of violating the law to be imprisoned for up to 20 years and be subject to a fine of up to $1,000,000 -- a drop in the bucket for these guys -- or a percentage of their ill-gotten gains.

And Senate Republicans still saw fit to reject penalizing companies engaging in overt war profiteering and fraud despite Dorgan spending a considerable amount of time on the Senate floor trotting out example after example of the hideous abuse that has been occurring in Iraq.

"What we have discovered is pretty unbelievable," said Dorgan last week. "We have direct testimony from physicians, Army doctors, and others about providing nonpotable water for shaving, brushing teeth that is in worse condition as water than the raw water coming out of the Euphrates River."

"Let me describe some of the firsthand eyewitness issues in Iraq," Dorgan continued. "Brand new $85,000 trucks that were left on the side of the road because of a flat tire and then subsequently burned. 25 tons, 50,000 pounds, of nails ordered by Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), the wrong size, that are laying in the sands of Iraq. 42,000 meals a day charged to the taxpayers by Halliburton and only 14,000 are actually served."

After telling the amazing tale of the KBR Halliburton subsidiary ordering hand towels for soldiers embroidered with the "KBR" logo, to allow them to double the price of the towels, Dorgan told one Halliburton whistleblower's story of his company serving food date-stamped "expired" to American troops rather than throwing it away.

"<Halliburton was> serving food at a cafeteria in Iraq for the soldiers, and a man named Roy who was the supervisor in the food service kitchen said that the food was date-stamped 'expired,''' said Dorgan. "In other words, it had a date stamp, which meant the food wasn't good anymore, and he was told by superiors that it doesn't matter. Feed it to the troops. It doesn't matter that they had an expired date stamped -- feed it to the troops."

But apparently the support-the-troops types on the Republican side of the aisle only support them until their major contributors are caught feeding them possibly-tainted food before they go into battle -- at that point, I guess the love is gone.

The best the Republicans could offer in response to Dorgan was a lame statement by Senator John Warner (R-VA), Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who said that his committee is on the case and that "the organization is now in place to try to monitor the situations the Senator has enumerated."

There was no mention from Warner of where the hell his committee -- and the GOP -- have been for the last four years with all of this going on.

I'll leave you with one other Dorgan horror story in which he describes a massive amount of money paid to four contractors to install air-conditioning in a Baghdad building.

"The contract goes to a subcontractor, which goes to another subcontractor, and a fourth-level subcontractor," said Dorgan "And the payment for air-conditioning turns out to be payments to four contractors, the fourth of which puts a fan in a room. Yes, the American taxpayer paid for an air-conditioner and, after the money goes through four hands, there is a fan put in a room in Iraq."

I guess that's fiscal conservatism Republicans can truly embrace.

You can reach Bob Geiger at geiger.bob@gmail.com and read more from him at Democrats.com.

Thanks gop (greedy oppressive pusswads)

wtf! No wonder they don't want to "cut and run" - they're making too many kickbacks!

Halliburton LOVE$ the war. Cheney's close pals at Halliburton are hoping the war will continue forever, and that the military budget will keep increasing, so they get more $$$$$$$$$$$$$

Ka-ching

But you can bet that they'll be shocked -- shocked! -- to find out five years from now that Halliburton was ripping off the government so badly. The blame, of course, will be for Clinton.

Can they be considered war profiteers? How many DUers think so, and would line up outside their next stockholders meeting?
If it's held anywhere between Boston and Atlanta, count me and my sign in.
WAR IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS.....INVEST YOUR SON

doesn't he know the most important thing in the face of war is cutting taxes? What? He doesn't listen to Tom Delay?

"Cutting taxes reduces the available money to be funneled to the contractors! Stop the tax cuts! Save Halliburton!"

and Federal Contracts up 86%...

DU Thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1466669

TC

It'll be interesting to see how many will tell the public what's really going on. The corruption has gotten out of control!

Alabama and Alaska.
I told them I was mad as heck about this, and that I was sending money to their respective democratic opponents.
I will get to all of them, trust me...

They don't even hide it any more, just amazing the stones these thieves have...

and business is great! Someone has to profit from all of the suffering and it helps if your old boss
is calling the shots, and handing out the contracts. You can't please everybody so why not please those who give you money for your campaign? There's plenty of money, and if we run out we'll print some more. Let the next administration clean up the mess if they can.
These people make me sick and until we find a way to make corporations responsible for their behavior they will do anything they can to increase the bottom line, including killing tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi's and 2500 of our children. But to them it is just the price of doing business. Like they say at Lockheed, "Peace? Where's the money in that?"

That is what is killing us now.

That is why Clinton did some of the things he did, like signing that horrific "Welfare Reform" bill.

The pubes always have the media these days and they have figured out that if it isn't covered, then most of the public will act like it didn't happen.

This is something he would have once been all over....but alas, he hasn't been the same since he got hold of a bad burrito. :evilfrown:

You'd think that beating these damn repig sonsabitches would be as easy as just that - shooting fish in that barrel - but then maybe that's the problem. There are so many damn things that these people have done, and continue to do, demos have a hard time focusing on the most egregious. I mean who wouldn't be in favor of expecting corporations to do the right thing and not steal from us? Their faces ought to be plastered all over the TV as well as the Post Office wall...hey, I got it, lets put together decks of playing cards with those same faces - although it'll have to be a Canasta deck cause there's so damn many of them.

Between standing in the way of policing the 'theftocracy' of the Haliburton's and the rest and not allowing rules that ensure 'honest and accurate' elections - we have our own 'wedge issues' that we should ram down their 'effin' throats. Anybody that opposes the issue should be drummed out of office - don't wait for an election, just send the moving van and kick them the hell to the curb.

"canasta deck" *snicker*

welcome to DU, thanx for the chuckle

If the media ignores it, it just dies out in the mind of a lot of the public. We don't have the echo chamber to keep these stories alive and the M$M isn't going to go after republicans.

We do what we can on the internet, but most Americans don't read squat. They get information from TV or the radio.

Now on cspan2...I'm confused.

Is the senate floor on delay on cspan2?

and Halliburton is one company making a profit from it. So when our men and women die, it serves to profit Halliburton and all their investors. Disgusting sociopathic morons.

Whoa! Most people won't even feed their animals expired food! I wonder if Bush would would give his dog rotten hamburger? Not likely!

Evidently the troops are less than animals to these people?

From the makers of the "no bid contract" and the highly popular "cost plus billing" we have the "all accountability left behind" policy.

The democrats should roll this bill up into a narrow tube and use it to smack up side the heads of all republicans this fall who try to claim fiscal responsibility.

Nothing so trivial as the national interest will be allowed to interfere with the culture of corruption.

Nothing so trite as spending the taxpayers' money wisely will stop the enrichment of big corporations and unregulated mercenaries.

Now, for the next stop on the Republican agenda, the No Homosexual Left Unpersecuted Act, followed by the Liberals Want to Use the Flag for Toilet Paper and We Must Stop Them Act and finally, the Middle Class Left Without a Behind Act.

The big cry for repubs are the sacred tax dollars but if they are given to a private business to waste it is okay. I have never seen such partisan politics in my life. This is so wrong. Isn't there anyone who will stand up for what is right?

GOP valiantly defends its culture of corruption.

It doesn't get much more corrupt than this folks. RICO charge the Republican Party. You can't go wrong with RICO.

Don't shut up about this! Let's go mechanical on everybody with this one. This thread is the official talking points we call in with to every radio talk show, the letter and email we send to every newspaper editor and Senator, the agenda topic for every DFA or Whatchemacallit grass roots meeting, and we just run the tape over and over and over ...

Let the public decide.

What will it take for most Americans to say "Enough!!"? Not only is the corruption in our govt. so open and blatant, but the Republicans are not even hiding their tag-team efforts to protect it. Maybe if we take the word "government" away and start using "the national business"...or more honestly, "organized crime", maybe then "we the people" would realize that it isn't about what party you belong to, it's about corruption at the highest levels, plain and simple. And maybe then, Americans will decide it's time to get a new CEO, a new set of executives and a new company with a real leader at the helm. One who knows how to balance a check book without stealing from the bank would be a great start.

The media is just as much to blame. Out of sight, out of mind.

Whether the media chooses to ignore it or not and bush's supporters assume everyone is asleep, we can still write to local papers demanding that politicians beheld accountable. As well as letters to our Senators, especially the Republicans who voted right down party lines and showed with their votes, that they do support corruption. They also showed just what they think of abusing our taxpayer monies and our soldiers. Don't let them try and rationalize their votes. This bill was very clear and direct in it's wording. And their votes were also very clear and direct.

i was going to say welcome to du (because of your low post count) and then i see you've been here about two weeks longer than i have!

looking forward to more of your posts--however infrequent they may be.

for the welcome :) I joined awhile ago, but have been busy...then found my way back. LOL Am looking forward to reading your posts as well.

:kick: