What Claire McCaskill can't get enough of
Barb ShellyClaire McCaskill is fighting mightily to retain her seat in the U.S. Senate, so she must have something she really wants to do in a second term, right?
She does, the Democrat from Missouri said today while visiting editorial writers and reporters from The Kansas City Star.
Contracting. She wants another term partly to continue her oversight over government contracts, particularly military contracts.
“The contracting in the federal government is embarrassingly incompetent,” McCaskill said. McCaskill gets bipartisan credit for making progress on this front. She sponsored legislation creating the Commission on Wartime Contracting, an eight-member panel which investigates wartime contracting practices.
Her best day in the Senate, McCaskill said, was when word was relayed to her that officials in Afghanistan were contemplating awarding a no-bid contract until somebody cautioned, “If you do that McCaskill will be all over it.”
“We’ve given notice that core competency is important in government,” McCaskill said. “I feel like I’m knowledgeable now. I’d love to have another six years to stay on the contracting.”
That’s not a glamorous cause, but it’s a good one. While politicians like to complain about the “unelected bureaucrats” in the federal government (whose average salary, for those with permanent appointments, is $76,000 a year), few people are watching the wealth being amassed by the people who have figured out how to leverage federal contracting, or the waste involved with those contracts.
Missourians are well served by a senator with an auditing background who is passionate about rooting out that waste.
McCaskill serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee and is chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, a part of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
During the interview, she took an indirect shot at GOP presidential nominee and his running mate, Paul Ryan, for their insistence that the defense budget remain sacrosanct.
“Anybody who thinks defeense can’t be cut hasn’t spent a lot of time looking at the Pentagon,” McCaskill said.
Suzanne Conaway
7 months, 2 weeks agoOf course, part of the bloat happens when the GOP legislators vote to buy 42 tanks the Army doesn’t want for $255 million.
And they want to cut PBS funding?
Wes McCoy
7 months, 2 weeks agoAlternate Title “What is Mo SICK of?”
Air Claire’s fattening herself on 40 MILLION of low income subsidies
Air Claire jetting around—tax free—while the “99%er’s” pay for it all
Air Claire’s old man’s nursing homes, often cited and fined–magically are cleared
Aire Claires’ old man making millions on Bermuda tax sheltered investments—while she hypocritically castigates others
Missouri has had WAY WAY WAY too much Claire!
(As an aside—on the old “Muppets” show—the two old men that sat in the front of the theater—doesn’t Claire look like them?)
George Hunsucker
Northland
7 months, 2 weeks agoAre you saying we should continue funding PBS when we have a 1 TRILLION deficit Suzanne?
Michael Johnson
7 months, 2 weeks agoEven more than that, George Hunsucker…the real question is, should we be borrowing billions from the Chinese to fund PBS? Big Bird is a profitable commercial enterprise. Character rentals, licensing, products, toys, etc. We don’t need to be increasing the public debt and selling ourselves to the Chinese so Big Bird can stick his wing in the public till. I’m sure Claire would tell you yes.
Steven Fetter
66223
7 months, 2 weeks agoAnother thing Ms. McCaskill cannot get enough of: Money
Personally and politically, Claire is rolling in it. Where are the gnashing of teeth with her buying this election and the influence of those nasty PAC’s unleashing a torrent of money on her behalf?