From USA Today:
Congress steered $5.6 billion to private companies in 2005 -- more than state and local governments combined -- through its power to add special-interest items to spending bills, a new government database shows.
The database, completed by the White House Office of Management and Budget this month, identifies nearly 15,000 earmarks totaling almost $19 billion.
About $37 million of that money went to companies tied to the bribery scandal of former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA), who is now serving eight years in prison. Another earmark is the $18 million defense contract Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) inserted for defense contractor PerfectWave, whose owner, Brent Wilkes, has pleaded innocent to federal charges of bribing Cunningham.
Can I repeat that amount? $5.6 BILLION! That's such an immense amount of money, it's no wonder a large chunk of it was misappropriated - either accidentally or on purpose - or misrepresented or outright stolen.
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