151 Congressmen Derive Financial Profit From War

151 Congressmen Derive Financial Profit From War

www.americanfreepress.net

Who profits from the Iraq war? More than a quarter of senators and congressmen have invested at least $196 million of their own money in companies doing business with the Department of Defense (DoD) that profit from the death and destruction in Iraq.

According to the latest reports, 151 members of Congress invested close to a quarter-billion in companies that received defense contracts of at least $5 million in 2006. These companies got more than $275.6 billion from the government in 2006, or $755 million per day, according to FedSpending.org, a website of the watchdog group OMBWatch.

(visit the link for the full news article)

And now we see a big reason WHY these puke stain gov leaders of ours are so gung-ho to start up one conflict after another... They are raking in huge dollars off of war! This has to stop! It isn't a left or right issue, this corruption and bottomless greed runs rampant on BOTH sides of the coin, from top to bottom!

No wonder these idiots are pushing for wars with Syria and Iran, they see the next payday so close they can taste it! What the hell do they care if tens of thousands of more lives are extinguished? As long as they can further their wealth and power, that's all that matters!

Congressmen gave themselves a loophole so they only have to report their assets in broad ranges. Thus, they can be off as much as 160 percent. (Try giving the IRS an estimate like that.) In 2004, the first full year after the present Iraq war began, Republican and Democratic lawmakers—both hawks and doves—invested between $74.9 million and $161.3 million in companies under contract with the DoD. In 2006 Democrats had at least $3.7 million invested in the defense sector alone, compared to the Republicans’ “only” $577,500. As the war raged on, so did the billions of profits—and personal investments by Congress members in war contractors, which increased 5 percent from 2004 to 2006.

www.americanfreepress.net
(visit the link for the full news article)

What was that French word.... oh right-- guillotine.

And I don't believe any of them have a son or a daughter deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan right now.

Hmmmm. . .isn't "rampant cronyism" one of the 14 points of fascism? This is just more evidence that we are heading down a very dangerous road.

Originally posted by DimensionalDetective

these puke stain gov leaders of ours

What they're doing isn't funny, though. I've long thought that money &
profiteering should be banned for 'them', while SERVING the people!

The word Usurper goes well with
that other French word.... oh right--guillotine!

No WONDER they have so much expendable cash for hill hookers and and call girls. DoD contracts are recession proof too. Plus plus.
Hideous, absolutely hideous.
Can be off on IRS earnings by !164%!!!!. Now that got a chuckle. Dibs on the blade sharpeners job, or should we leave it dull and rusty?

There should be an investigation to see how many of them have oil and biofuel assets. I wouldn't be surprised if it was around the same amount or more.

The rampant profiteering by elected officials during war is the tip of the iceberg.

What about all the other day to day business? They make the rules that will affect commodity prices and thus know, before announcements to the public, what policies will affect which markets. So, they get to buy / sell based on insider knowledge, something the rest of us would get locked up for.
Then there is all the lobbying money pouring into the pot. All the special interest groups, big business, foreign governments even.

Still think they represent the people or the interests of the country?

Originally posted by jpm1602

No WONDER they have so much expendable cash for hill hookers and and call girls

Speaking of...

I posted something about this, 7th one down in This thread

Dibs on the blade sharpeners job, or should we leave it dull and rusty?

Dull & rusty is good... but who pulls the chain?

Almost all of us have almost been virtually brainwashed into believing that we simply must elect businessmen to office. Almost all of us have almost been virtually brainwashed into believing that we simply must elect lawyers to office.

What could we have expected? No profiteering and no legal maneuvering to conceal it? No crony's? No manipulation to profit business?

Dull & rusty is good... but who pulls the chain?

Me, me, me, me! A good way to spend your cool rebate check.

Anyone catch Shrub's press conference this morning? Now the economy is all Congress' fault-- they won't extend the big tax cuts for the wealthy; they won't pass more "clean, safe" nuclear (he pronounces it nu-clear) power; they won't pass more of his free-trade good-for-America initiatives... and when asked about the federal tax on gasoline, he stuttered around and said the check's in the mail, so why worry? Insane.

Well that's positively disgusting as usual...guillotine is RIGHT!

I think it's HILARIOUS that the Demopuppets have more invested in the war then the Republopuppets.

Good going Senator Kerry for raking in the biggest pile of money dripping with the blood of our men and women in service.

I am no longer hungry for lunch.

Originally posted by LateApexer313
I think it's HILARIOUS that the Demopuppets have more invested in the war then the Republopuppets.

That right there shows you just what a farce partisan politics is. It's all about saying what the electorate want to hear to maintain their own privileged lifestyle whilst doing absolutely nothing that benefits anyone but themselves, and of course their high rolling corporate buddies.

One set of businessmen and lawyers on one side and another set of the same on the opposite side. That's supposed to be a choice?

[edit on 29-4-2008 by Britguy] I know this is a US oriented thread but it's the same here too. In fact, show me a modern Western "Democratic" government that isn't filled with corruption, cronyism, nepotism and downright contempt for the people.

[edit on 29-4-2008 by Britguy]

reply to post by Britguy


You said it there Britguy!

One of my favorite sayings is...."Democrats and Republicans, same crap, just different steaming piles."

Was editing to ask you the question you just answered with your edit


So despite having more then 2 parties in the UK, just more steaming piles eh? Figures.


[edit on 29-4-2008 by LateApexer313]

In small business it's called "Conflict of Interest".

In big business (government) it's called "Business as Usual".

Confict of Interest - Wikipedia

A conflict of interest is a situation in which someone in a position of trust, such as a lawyer, insurance adjuster, a politician, executive or director of a corporation or a medical research scientist or physician, has competing professional or personal interests. Such competing interests can make it difficult to fulfill his or her duties impartially. A conflict of interest exists even if no unethical or improper act results from it. A conflict of interest can create an appearance of impropriety that can undermine confidence in the person, profession, or court system. A conflict can be mitigated by third party verification or third party evaluation noted below—but it still exists.

"Competing professional or personal interests", well, I think politicians that have invested in companies that receive defense contracts and being able to vote to enter a "conflict" or bring our soldiers home from one or not would fall into this category!

Sure sounds like it to me!

BUT WAIT! The beginning of the NEXT paragraph says:

However, conflicts of interest do not only apply to professionals. A conflict of interest arises when anyone has two duties which conflict -

So, I must have been mistaken!

They MUST consider themselves "professionals", and hence don't consider this as a "Conflict of Interest"?

And if so, WHY should "politicians" NOT be held up to the same set of rules as everyone else is? Of all people, they definitely should be!

This sort of double standard doesn't make sense to me!

By MY standards/ethics it definitely IS a "CONFLICT OF INTEREST"!

[edit on 29/4/08 by Keyhole]

reply to post by LateApexer313


Yeah, In the UK we have (Nu) Labour or the conservatives as the 2 main parties. There are then all the "others" who, frankly, will never hold any power but are there just to give the illusion of choice.
Our government is made up of businessmen and lawyers too who are as corrupt as yours. Is this part of the "special relationship" we keep hearing about?

People should be outraged, or at least they used to be, but are now so dumbed down and ignorant of current events it's untrue.

Frightener,

I have to agree with you. I think that public servants should get paid no more than the average American, and they should be representatives of the average American. The problem is how to write laws that would make that work. I think I could do it, but then you would have to get all of the representatives and senators and the president to vote for it. They won't do that, despite the fact that the majority of them really don't need the money anyway.

But would that just be another form of discrimination against the elite?

Scarlett

After thinking about how WRONG this is for these politicians to be able to make money like this, I think there REALLY should be some sort of "Congressional Police", not linked in any way to Congress, but to the Judicial Branch that sets a code of "ethics/morals", rules that these politicians HAVE to follow or they will be thrown out of their "CLUB!

If you don't play by the rules, you get kicked out of your little club (Congress)!

We can't count on them "policing" themselves obviously, so what this government NEEDS is a system in place that will keep them on there toes, and looking over their shoulders when they are doing something immoral or unethical in respect to the position that "We the People" allow them to hold in OUR government!

They will NEVER change laws that will restrict them on how they can make money (not that they're greedy or anything!), so we'll just call them rules they'll have to follow to remain one of the "elite" or they're fired!

Something NEEDS to be done, maybe not just the way I put it, BUT SOMETHING!



[edit on 4/29/2008 by Keyhole]

For a long time I had been referring to our system of government as nothing but a corruption ruled by corporate America.

We have perhaps in the history of our nation the most corrupted government.

The problem is that we the people has lost tracks of how we are the ones that actually own this nation.

This corrupted politicians receiving billions of dollar from corporate lobbyist protect themselves and their cronies with laws, they are the law of the land and they think actually think that we the people are stupid.

Take a good look of what our nation has become while been hijacked by this for the people elected officials but paid by corporate America.

[edit on 29-4-2008 by marg6043]

That's the problem, our politicians in DC have now figured out how to use their position to make themselves oodles of $$$.

This is what HAS to stop!

They weren't elected to go to Congress to make millions (or billions) of dollars from "personal" business!

They went there to work for US! NOT THEMSELVES!