Where has all the honor gone? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    Due notice: If you are an honorable person you are going to be disgusted when you read this. But let us suggest what is worse than what they people have done: It is perfectly legal. They have seen to it.

    We're thoroughly disgusted with corruption in government. Is there anyone who has any doubt about corruption in Washington, DC? And every time the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners meets we get another dose of it in Beaufort County. But it is just as bad at the state level.

    Just take one paragraph and try to wrap you mind around this: "The company's original application stated the total project would cost $438,627, and said JDC would contribute "leveraged funds" amounting to $187,983, or 43 percent of the total. As the project reached completion, however, JDC revised the total budget downward by $114,519 and applied all the savings to its share, keeping all the taxpayer funding."

    Here's the context:

    JDC Manufacturing, a company co-owned by Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan's husband Charles "Chip" Hagan, lowered the total cost of a 2010 stimulus-funded energy project but kept all of the savings, sending none back to taxpayers who had funded the stimulus grant.

    The company's original application stated the total project would cost $438,627, and said JDC would contribute "leveraged funds" amounting to $187,983, or 43 percent of the total. As the project reached completion, however, JDC revised the total budget downward by $114,519 and applied all the savings to its share, keeping all the taxpayer funding.

    Also, JDC's decision to hire Solardyne/Green State Power, a separate company co-owned by Chip Hagan and the Hagans' son Tilden, to install a portion of the stimulus-funded energy project at the JDC building appears to violate a conflict-of-interest provision that was included as part of the original application for the stimulus grant.

    Click here to go to the original source to read more if you can stand it.

    But all that, disgusting as it is, is not nearly as disgusting as this fact: Apparently, (according to Hagan's lawyers) there is nothing illegal or even unethical (as defined by the current Code of Ethics) about any of this. They have stack the law in such a way that they get away with this kind of stuff.

    And let us tell you, it is not going to get better as long as we continue to elect these kinds of people. They're not going to pass "campaign finance reform" that cuts off their money laundering schemes using your tax dollars. It not going to happen.

    And it matters not whether the characters are Democrats or Republicans. They're all the same. Thom Tillis has just as much hanging over his head as does Hagan. But over ninety percent of the people who vote November 4 will vote to send one or the other of these people to Washington. And chances are good that after six years they will be worth millions more than they already are.

    So what's the answer? Don't vote for these people. Apply this standard and if the candidate will not agree to it, don't vote for them, even if you have to write in Mickey Mouse. Here's the standard: I will not take any campaign donations from anyone who does business with the government.

    Now we realize this standard may not completely solve a problem like this grant represents, but we still think it would fix things. The reason these politicians vote for these give-away programs is that they get some kind of quid pro quo back in return. Make that a crime and much of the corruption would go away in Washington and Raleigh. Beaufort County's a different story. That that's for another day. First things first.