Army Purchases of $17,000 Pans Tied to Kentucky Lawmaker (a Repug of course)

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Representative Harold Rogers of Kentucky directed millions of dollars in business to Kentucky company Phoenix Products Co., one of his campaign contributors, for $17,000 leak-proof drip pans for U.S. Army helicopters when similar products can be bought for about $2,500, according to a competitor.

Robert Skillen, chief engineer at VX Aerospace Corp., a Leesburg, Virginia-based advanced composites manufacturing and design company, said an earmark Rogers added to a 2009 spending bill provided funding to buy the leak-proof pans for the Army from Phoenix Products in McKee, Kentucky. Skillen said his company sells drip pans for $2,471.

“You think Hal Rogers cares they spent five times more than they’re worth? He just wants campaign money,” Skillen, who is at the Morganton, North Carolina, manufacturing facility, said in an interview. “He just wants campaign money. It’s spending taxpayer money for personal profit.”

Phoenix Products was selected in a competitive bidding process, said Jennifer Hing, a spokeswoman for Rogers, a Republican who is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. The Army has continued to award the bid to Phoenix in the years since the 2009 earmark, she said. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-19/army-purchases-of-17-000-pans-tied-to-kentucky-lawmaker.html

[Blue Owl]

1. Long Live the Grand Old Panhandlers

[Permanut]

2. Okay, a "leak proof drip pan"...

is entirely different from the ones that leak; those are a lot cheaper. Keep that in mind when you're comparison shopping for these things.

[Blue_Tires]

3. another hypocrite teabagger?

[Lurks Often]

4. Typical of both parties in Congress

willing to screw over the rest of the country as long it as it brings money and/or jobs to their home state or district.

A good example is the list of bases around the country the military would like to close to save money, but Congress won't let them because of the jobs that would be lost.