Report: Lawmakers Have Nearly $200M Invested in Companies Doing Defense-Related Work

[mod mom]

Report: Lawmakers Have Nearly $200M Invested In Companies Doing Defense-Related Work

ANNE FLAHERTY | April 3, 2008 09:00 PM EST | ?


WASHINGTON — Members of Congress have as much as $196 million collectively invested in companies doing business with the Defense Department, earning millions since the onset of the Iraq war, according to a study by a nonpartisan research group.

Not all the companies in which lawmakers invested are typical defense contractors. Corporations such as PepsiCo, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson have at one point received defense-related contracts, notes the report by the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics.

The center's review of lawmakers' 2006 financial disclosure statements suggests that members' holdings could pose a conflict of interest as they decide the fate of Iraq war spending. Several members earning money from these contractors have plum committee or leadership assignments, including Democratic Sen. John Kerry, independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman and House Republican Whip Roy Blunt.

The study found that more Republicans than Democrats hold stock in defense companies, but that the Democrats who are invested had significantly more money at stake. In 2006, for example, Democrats held at least $3.7 million in military-related investments, compared to Republican investments of $577,500.

-snip
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/03/report-lawmakers-have-nea_n_94979.html

No wonder we have wars. :mad:

[sharesunited]

1. Well I hope they are voting their stock in the public interest.

[pokercat999]

2. Another excellent reason for one term and you are OUT

forever term limits.

[winston61]

3. Sure sounds like insider trading to me-

If these crooks don't know where the contracts are going, who does?

[mod mom]

4. or war profiteering? We need to have laws aimed to prevent this sort of thing

along with legislation that prevents lawmakers from cashing in as lobbyists! It's appalling!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. They need to be stripped naked...

Ejected from The Congress and onto the streets of Washington DC, where they can meet their constituents for a candid give-and-take about investment strategies and how those strategies may have affected their votes.

Enough. Crap like this has reached the point of sufficiency.