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politics and politicians Title: Tea Partiers Against Deal Gain From District Spending Sixty House members backed by the Tea Party, whose opposition to federal spending helped bring on an impasse over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, represent districts that last year received $43 billion in government contracts. In 16 of those constituencies, spending exceeded $1 billion each -- more than twice the median amount for all House districts, Bloomberg Government reported today. “People don’t like federal spending in the aggregate, but when it’s back home where you’re spending the money, that’s a different story,” said Charles J. Finocchiaro, a political scientist at the University of South Carolina, in Columbia, in an interview. The state is home to two House Tea Party Caucus members and Republican Governor Nikki Haley, elected last November with the movement’s support. The strictest Tea Party adherents had opposed House Speaker John Boehner’s plan for a debt-limit increase before the Aug. 2 deadline. The House passed the plan 218-210, about 24 hours after Boehner postponed an initial vote to line up more supporters. Twenty-two Republicans joined 188 Democrats in opposition. Of the 60 Tea Party caucus members, nine voted no and 51 voted yes. Two of the 16 whose districts received more than $1 billion in U.S. contracts voted no; 14 voted to support Boehner’s plan. Default Threat The Senate Democratic majority and President Barack Obama vowed to block Boehner’s plan, leaving alive the threat of a potential default, which might lead to a downgrade of the country’s credit rating, shake world stock and bond markets and stop payment on federal government contracts. Boehner zigzagged the U.S. Capitol last night meeting with lawmakers opposed to his measure in an attempt to cajole or strong-arm them to support it. Among them was Illinois Republican Joe Walsh, representing one of the 16 Tea Party districts that won an outsized amount of federal contract spending. Walsh voted against Boehner’s plan. The government spent $1.3 billion on contracts performed in Walsh’s district last fiscal year, according to Bloomberg data. Top vendors were Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC), with contracts valued at $935 million, and Cardinal Health Inc. (CAH), with $264 million in federal business, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Florida Republican Sandy Adams, elected in November as a Tea Party candidate, demanded approval of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution before she would support increasing the U.S. debt limit beyond $14.3 trillion. After Boehner modified his plan she voted for it. Kennedy Space Center Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and Raytheon Co. (RTN) were among the beneficiaries of $2.4 billion in federal contracts last year in her district, home to the Kennedy Space Center. Just last week, Adams praised the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for awarding a $15 million contract to the non-profit Center for the Advancement of Science in Space Inc. for work at the space center. The nonprofit will manage research and development projects on the United States portion of the International Space Station, NASA announced on July 13. “I am hopeful that as we move forward as a nation, Congress and this administration will continue to properly prioritize NASA funding and find ways to utilize the existing infrastructure, the skill set, and a workforce who have played such a vital role in defining America as the leader in space exploration,” she said in a statement July 21. Back Seat Contractors may take a back seat to other government creditors if there is no agreement on the debt ceiling by Aug. 2, when the Treasury says it will be unable to pay all its bills. Priority will go to interest payments to holders of government debt, an administration official said yesterday, requesting anonymity because no announcement had been made. Lawmakers of both parties have introduced legislation that would ensure that Social Security recipients and military personnel are paid. “If it’s a default, then the Senate and the president are going to have to explain why,” said Representative Lou Barletta, Republican of Pennsylvania, who, with Tea Party backing, defeated a 26-year incumbent Democrat in 2010. General Dynamics Corp. (GD), the maker of Abrams tanks and Gulfstream jets, received $87 million from government contracts for work performed in Barletta’s district, the 11th, last year. URS Corp. (URS), which specializes in engineering, construction and technical services, also received U.S. payments for work there, as did Defense Support Services LLC, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Day & Zimmermann. $3 Billion Districts “I’m supportive of our defense contractors and our Department of Defense,” Barletta said yesterday in an interview. “I have many defense contractors in my district. However, we can’t spend money we don’t have.” The Colorado districts of Republicans Mike Coffman and Doug Lamborn received about $3 billion each in fiscal 2010, the most among those held by Tea Party Caucus members. Both voted for the Boehner plan. Defense contractors Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and ITT Corp. (ITT) have operations in those districts, Coffman’s 6th and Lamborn’s 5th, where the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the U.S. Air Force Academy and Fort Carson Army Base are located. Fort Carson, Colorado’s second-largest employer, has an annual economic impact of $2.1 billion, including contract awards, construction projects, utilities and local purchases, according to a fact sheet for the base, where 24,410 military personnel are stationed. Tea Party Republican Rob Bishop’s Utah district, the 1st, generated $2.8 billion in federal contracting business in 2010. The biggest recipients were Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK), Northrop Grumman and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (LLL) Utah Aerospace ATK Aerospace Systems, a Utah subsidiary of Alliant, fired more than 400 of its almost 4,000 engineers, factory workers, and other employees in October because of uncertainty over the future of the U.S. space program. Its facilities are in Clearfield, Promontory and Magna, Utah. In all, the federal government spent $532 billion on federal contracts last fiscal year, with 8.1 percent of it, or $43 billion, in Tea Party Caucus members’ districts. The median was $449 million for all 435 House districts, Bloomberg data show. The median value of federal contracts in Tea Party- represented districts was $409 million, 8.7 percent less than the national average. The median for the 194 Democratic districts was $502 million, compared with $422 million for all 241 Republican districts. Pentagon District Virginia Democrat Jim Moran’s 8th District, which includes the Pentagon, led with $26.2 billion. The least, $13.2 million, went to the 11th District in New York City, represented by Democrat Yvette Clarke. Representative Michele Bachmann, the House Tea Party Caucus chairwoman who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, was near the bottom with $71 million spent in her district in the suburbs of Minneapolis. The anti-spending movement has ended the preoccupation with local projects, says Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity. The Arlington, Virginia, group opposes both the plan from Boehner, of Ohio, and one from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada. The grassroots conservative anti- spending movement has reshaped Congress, Phillips said. “In the old days, that would have been the very first concern of members of Congress -- how’s it going to impact these federal projects in my district,” Phillips said in an interview yesterday. “That’s one good thing that’s changed in the culture of this Congress. Most Republicans have gotten beyond that.”
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: Sebastian, *Yukon neo-Progressive Vermin* (#0)
Bloomberg The neocons at Bloomberg are on a jihad against tea. They must own a few coffee plantations in China.
#2. To: hondo68 (#1)
Could be they just know which side the bread is buttered on.
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