When a politician pledges to spend a lot of money on some issue, what that means is that he’s using the issue as an excuse to hand out money to his friends and allies.
Biden climate plan would spend $2 trillion in bid to boost economy
He may actually believe in the cause (in this case it’s climate change), and he may make excuses to himself about handing off money to his friends.
“Well of course! We’re funneling money to companies that have the right values. We don’t want the Koch brothers doing this.”
And so on.
But the bottom line is that when the government decides to spend a lot of money, there’s going to be corruption.
I know a person who used to be involved in politics in Eastern Europe. He said they had “corruption commissions” to keep an eye on this sort of thing. That sounds like a good idea. Of course the corruption commission itself will almost certainly become corrupt. Wherever there is power and money, there will be corruption. But … you’ve got to try to control it.
How many trillions has Trump given to his friends at McDonnell Douglas, Raytheon, Martin Marietta, …continue list of defense contractors?
You have to wonder if Trump keeps Mir-a-lago afloat by all his taxpayer paid for jaunts and conferences there. But, it’s ok for Cheeto Benito.
That’s why we need an anti-corruption commission. To find out.
It’s reported that Trump instructed a U.S. ambassador to England to ask that the British government move the British Open golf tournament to one of his properties. Oh vey.
When I worked in DoD, a project I was working I was audited by the Inspector General. The IG offices are about provide a policing function of some sort.
Two of my basic political principles are that power corrupts, and you can’t trust anyone with power. (And money is power.) So when people have lots of power, somebody else needs to keep an eye on them. And somebody else needs to keep an eye on them, because the so-called watchers, fact checkers, heresy hunters and corruption police get corrupt too.
QUOTE: The IG offices are about provide a policing function of some sort.
There’s been a number of IGs fired or marginalized under the Trump administration. Seems as if they are not loyal to Trump (versus their job, when there is a conflict), they don’t last. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-inspectors-general-internal-watchdogs-fired-list/
That said, given Trump’s behavior and Republicans support of it, they no longer have room to credibly criticize Democrats. The bar has been lowered to the point that any future Democrat president could do just about anything and point to a precedence set by Trump. There’s a LONG laundry list but below are just a few examples…
Cronyism/Corruption
* Trump appointed his daughter and son-in-law as senior advisors in his administration with no prior experience (hasn’t Jared done wonders with his Middle East peach plan?).
*Trump commuted his “buddy” Roger Stone’s sentence. Interestingly, Stone got into trouble for lying to cover Trump.
* Current lawsuit alleging violations of the Constitution’s emoluments clauses. Trump proposed to have the G7 meeting at his property at Mar-a-lago, marketed Mar-a-lago as the “Winter White House”, military and officials stay at his hotels while on government travel and more.
* Allegedly Trump is an unnamed co-conspirator in the campaign finance law violation that sent his former “fixer” Michael Cohen to prison.
* Allegedly attempted to bribe the Ukrainian president for dirt on his political opponent-that attempted “favor” got him impeached.
* A number of his hand-picked administration leaders had to resign due to misconduct or allegations of corruption. What happened to “Drain the Swamp”? Yet, Trump claims he selects only the best people. Best as what, is an open question…especially given the excessively high turnover rate.
* Trump’s handpicked AG summarized the outcomes of the Muller report in a misleading manner. So much so, Mueller had to make a rare and highly unusual statement to correct the record.
*AG Barr/DOJ dropped charges against Michael Flynn–after confessing and testifying to his guilt. If someone believes that Trump didn’t have anything to do with that, then they’d also have to believe that the conversation between AG Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton was completely innocent. Bill wasn’t even in power when that little kerfuffle happened. Yet, Lynch was forced to recuse herself.
Fiscal/Social Responsibility
* The national debt has increased by 3 trillion under Trump’s leadership. So much for the alleged Republican fiscal conservatism.
* Promised the American people an “affordable” healthcare replacement for ACA and every one would have access. It still hasn’t happened. Yet, he attempted to have the ACA ended by the SCOTUS during the middle of a pandemic where people needed to use it after losing their employer sponsored plans.
* Trump initiated the longest government shut-down in US history–to the point it put air traffic safety at risk. He stated on national TV that he’d take responsibility for it. Then when it wasn’t going his way, he blamed the Democrats.
*Implemented tax reform that primarily benefited the rich and powerful but was billed as a middle-class tax cut. It was so misleading that Republicans didn’t use it as core accomplishment during 2018 mid-terms nor as a part of 2020 campaigns.
Family Values
*Trump lied to the American people about his affair with porn start Stormy Daniels – can’t say I blame him-especially the part about him getting spanked by her. Trump has told so many lies or misleading statements it’s hard to keep count. Fact-checkers have him up to approximately 20,000+ currently. Oh, we can’t forget he gets his press secretaries to lie for him too. Remember, his was the largest inauguration in US history? As well, it was revealed that Sarah Sanders lied to the American people in the Mueller Report. What a great example of mortality for our children…at least that’s what Republicans used to value.
* Dismissed a recording of him bragging about grabbing women by their genitals as mere “locker room talk”.
* The Boy Scouts organization sent out a formal apology after his speech at an annual Jamboree. I suspect that’s one of the few times that’s happened in US history after a presidential address.