$17K Helicopter Drip Pan?
friends, it costs $17,000 for the Defense Department to buy a drip pan for
helicopters. They normally cost $2,500. But not drip pans made in Kentucky. But
why should the defense department pay $17,000 for a drip pan made in North
Carolina? Because of an earmark inserted into the budget.
It was inserted into the bill by a Congressman from Kentucky.
How much money are we talking about? Peanuts. A mere $6.5 million worth of drip pans.
I mean, who would notice, other than the New York Times?
The Kentucky company, Phoenix Products, got the job to produce the pans after Representative Harold Rogers, a Republican who is now the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, added an earmark to a 2009 spending bill. While the earmark came before restrictions were placed on such provisions for for-profit companies, its outlays have continued for the last three years.
The company’s owners are political contributors to the congressman, who has been called the “Prince of Pork” by The Lexington Herald-Leader for his history of delivering federal contracts to donors and others back home.
Read More: http://teapartyeconomist.com/2012/05/22/flying-por...
He got nowhere.
Then he took it to an organization with the most utopian name in Washington, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The group requested documents from the government under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Army turned over some information but said it did not have any specifications or designs for the drip pans that might explain the price. That was considered proprietary information held by Phoenix Products.
http://teapartyeconomist.com/...