"Looking at Earmarks: Legislators for Sale?"

Many people defend earmarks as adding only a relatively small amount to the Federal Budget. As a percentage of total expenditures, earmarks may not be terribly significant. As a source of potential corruption and waste, their significance far exceeds the money involved. Furthermore, only in Washington would the sums involved not be considered important.

Defense Industry Daily provides some important information about one of the big players in the earmark scam - the PMA Group. The PMA Group was formed by a former John Murtha aide and is under investigation by the FBI. It is supposed to close its doors at the end of March 2009. According to Defense Industry Daily:

While charging nearly $107 million in lobbying fees, and growing from a
start-up to the 11th largest lobbying firm in the USA at one point, the firm
reportedly dispensed more than $1.5 million in political contributions via
Magliochetti, 9 of his close relatives, and a Political Action Committee he
controlled. Those contributions were made to key House Appropriations committee
members John Murtha [D-PA], James Moran [D-NJ], Peter J. Visclosky [D-IN], and to John Sununu [then R-NH]. Contributions were also made to Mike Doyle [D-PA],
Tim Holden [D-PA], Michael Capuano [D-MA], Sen. Bill Nelson [D-FL], and the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Earmarks allow a Congressperson to require the expenditure of funds for a particular project done by a particular company. It bypasses the entire Congressional budget process and the Federal government procurement process. One Congressperson substitutes him/herself for the entire Congress and Federal procurement system to award a potentially multi-million dollar job to a particular company.

The article reports that "In 2007 alone, PMA clients received some $100 billion in government contracts, an amount that is about 20% of all federal contracts that year. PMA clients also got nearly $300 million in earmarks in a the House Defense Appropriations panel’s spending bill for FY 2008."

Those are huge sums of money. Only a saint would not be tempted to engage in "pay for play" in such circumstances. Only an idiot would think that would not be the case. How many saints are in Congress? Congresspersons must think the voters are all idiots.