So it's official: corruption is now entrenched in US law

I'm so angry about this that if steam could come out of my ears, I'd have fogged up the room by now!

The RAT hiding deep inside the stimulus bill

The far-reaching — and potentially dangerous — provision that no one knows about.

You’ve heard a lot about the astonishing spending in the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, signed into law this week by President Barack Obama. But you probably haven’t heard about a provision in the bill that threatens to politicize the way allegations of fraud and corruption are investigated — or not investigated — throughout the federal government.

The provision, which attracted virtually no attention in the debate over the 1,073-page stimulus bill, creates something called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board — the RAT Board, as it’s known by the few insiders who are aware of it. The board would oversee the in-house watchdogs, known as inspectors general, whose job is to independently investigate allegations of wrongdoing at various federal agencies, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House.

In the name of accountability and transparency, Congress has given the RAT Board the authority to ask “that an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.” If the inspector general doesn’t want to follow the wishes of the RAT Board, he’ll have to write a report explaining his decision to the board, as well as to the head of his agency (from whom he is supposedly independent) and to Congress. In the end, a determined inspector general can probably get his way, but only after jumping through bureaucratic hoops that will inevitably make him hesitate to go forward.

When Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, a longtime champion of inspectors general, read the words “conduct or refrain from conducting,” alarm bells went off. The language means that the board — whose chairman will be appointed by the president — can reach deep inside a federal agency and tell an inspector general to lay off some particularly sensitive subject. Or, conversely, it can tell the inspector general to go after a tempting political target.

“This strikes at the heart of the independence of inspectors general,” Grassley told me this week, in a phone conversation between visits to town meetings in rural Iowa. “Anytime an inspector general has somebody questioning his authority, it tends to dampen the aggressiveness with which they pursue something, particularly if it’s going to make the incumbent administration look bad.”

I asked Grassley how he learned that the RAT Board was part of the stimulus bill. You’d think that as a member of the House-Senate conference committee, he would have known all about it. But it turns out Grassley’s office first heard about the provision creating the RAT Board last Wednesday, in a tip from a worried inspector general. It wasn’t until Friday morning — after the bill was finished and just hours before the Senate was to begin voting — that Grassley discovered the board was in the final text. “This was snuck in,” Grassley told me. “It wasn’t something that was debated.”

Snuck in by whom? It’s not entirely clear. “I intend to get down to the bottom of where this comes from,” Grassley vowed. “And quite frankly, it better not come from this administration, because this administration has reminded us that it is not about business as usual, that it is for total transparency.”

Maybe not this time. When I inquired with the office of a Democratic senator, one who is a big fan of inspectors general, I was told the RAT Board was “something the Obama administration wanted included in this bill.” When I asked the White House, staffers told me they’d look into it. So for now, at least, there’s been no claim of paternity.

The RAT Board has all sorts of other things wrong with it. For one thing, it’s redundant; there is already a board through which inspectors general police themselves, created last year in the Inspectors General Reform Act. For another thing, it could complicate criminal investigations stemming from inspector general probes. And then there’s the question of what it has to do with stimulating the economy.

But none of that matters now. It’s the law.

Last Friday, when he learned the RAT Board was in the final bill, Grassley wanted to voice his objections on the Senate floor. But there was no time in the rush to a vote, so Grassley’s statement went unread. “It’s fitting that the acronym for this board is RAT,” he was prepared to tell the Senate, “because that’s what I smell here.”

There you have it, folks. That's what happens when you elect a Chicago machine politician - the most corrupt political sewer in the nation, followed closely by several other cities such as New York, Boston, New Orleans and the like - to the Presidency. That's what happens when you elect a complaisant - and complicit? - House and Senate to rubber-stamp his desires.

It's no wonder Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi abandoned their pledge to make time for the stimulus bill to be read before a vote. It's no wonder they steamrollered over all opposition, to ram it through before a single Congressperson or Senator had time to examine it in full.

They have comprehensively demonstrated their contempt for us, the American public. They've shown they don't give a damn about our interests, or our priorities, or our money that they're leeching out of us to pay for their corrupt enterprises.

And don't think I'm saying this because they, and the President, are Democrats. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are many Republicans who are just as corrupt, just as dishonest, just as arrogant and uncaring. It must be something in the Washington water supply.

I suppose there are some readers who actually believe that the RAT board will be composed of principled, upright, honest public servants, who wouldn't dream of allowing party political influence to affect their decisions, and who'll be scrupulously correct in their decisions. If you're among them, there's this bridge in Brooklyn, NYC, I'd like to sell you. Cash only, please, and in small bills.

As Mark Twain famously said: "The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet."

I repeat a comment I made earlier on this blog. Come 2010, 2012 and subsequent elections, if any candidate voted in favor of the stimulus bill, irrespective of his or her party, throw the bastard out! Vote against him/her and for his/her opponent, irrespective of party affiliation. You're bound to end up with a better public servant!

I strongly urge all my readers to write immediately to their Congressional representatives and Senators, demanding the introduction of legislation to repeal this portion of the stimulus bill, and dismantle the RAT board apparatus. If they demur, you'll know for sure that they're no-good SOB's, deserving of nothing but your contempt and active opposition. Work to replace them as soon as possible with someone who'll listen to you.

Grrrr . . .

Peter