John Kline's Support of The Corporate Welfare Gravy Train

While Congressman Kline says he’s fiscally conservative, he has voted and supported the Bu$hCo administration straight down the ticket for the Iraq war and it’s cost over rides and free spending ways. Robert Greenwald*'s latest film, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is a devastating expose of how the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress with John Kline has allowed private corporations free rein in Iraq. This leads to billions of dollars in profits at the expense of American troops, American taxpayers, and the people of Iraq.

This documentary will leave you wondering how Kline could ever be considered a fiscal responsible or a military leader. The most hard-hitting facts in the documentary appear in the section where former Halliburton and KBR employees talk about the massive fraud that these companies perpetrated on the American people. They include stories of the company’s managers driving $40,000+ vehicles like Hummers and Escalades around the Kuwait compound, stories about trucks running empty in both directions in convoys, to only feeding soldiers at select mealtimes because they are paid by the meal and not by the hour (this enabled them to be attacked during known mealtimes!).

The companies ran up huge tabs under a system called Cost Plus that seem to give them unlimited freedom to spend. Make no excuses, this was done during Kline's watch and under his leadership.

Cost Plus = Corporate Welfare Gravy Train
Along with being a resounding condemnation of war profiteers and their political enablers such as John Kline, the hits-you-in-the-gut documentary highlights shocking incompetence! It makes a mockery of the GOP's "we can keep you safer" 2006 framing. The movie will leave you asking…how exactly? Much like the majority of Americans (60%) are now asking this very same question.

Iraq is nothing more than a corporate welfare gravy train, funneling billions to corporations that think nothing of cutting corners that affect our troops. They supply contaminated water to U.S. soldiers or charge $45 for a six-pack of soda -- all while leaving the people of Iraq dealing with wide-scale food, gasoline, and electrical shortages (to say nothing of a security situation so bad, people are having to change their names to avoid being killed).

The condemnation of war profiteering should be a bipartisan no-brainer. But the GOP with John Kline is committed to protecting the obscene profits of private companies. Ask John Kline to stop voting for this war and start voting for contractor accountability. While you’re at it, ask him how much money he’s received from war profiteers. When the final page is written on America’s catastrophic Iraqi War, one word will dominate the explanation of U.S. failure—corruption and the GOP Congress (John Kline) that allowed it.

*Greenwald, the master of the issue-doc (Uncovered, Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price)
Hat Tip to HP