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August 01, 2011 07:35 PM UTC

Two Colorado Districts Among Biggest Federal Beneficiaries

  • 25 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

There was an interesting story from Bloomberg on government spending per district last Friday which included the fact that two Colorado Congressional districts — CD-5 and CD-6 — are among those that receive the most federal money of any district in the country. From Bloomberg:

Sixty House members backed by the Tea Party, whose opposition to federal spending helped bring on an impasse over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, represent districts that last year received $43 billion in government contracts.

In 16 of those constituencies, spending exceeded $1 billion each — more than twice the median amount for all House districts, Bloomberg Government reported today. …

The Colorado districts of Republicans Mike Coffman and Doug Lamborn received about $3 billion each in fiscal 2010, the most among those held by Tea Party Caucus members. Both voted for the Boehner plan. [Pols emphasis]

Defense contractors Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and ITT Corp. (ITT) have operations in those districts, Coffman’s 6th and Lamborn’s 5th, where the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the U.S. Air Force Academy and Fort Carson Army Base are located.

Both Coffman and Lamborn represent districts that receive in excess of $3 billion in government contracts (the median amount for a Congressional district is about $500 million), yet they rail relentlessly on the need for the government to cut spending. Those contracts mean a lot of jobs, however, which puts Coffman and Lamborn in a difficult spot between rhetoric and reality.

It’s a similar dynamic that played out with the FASTER vehicle registration debate in the Colorado legislature. The money collected through FASTER funds road projects that go to private companies providing local jobs — that’s why so many Republicans were careful not to really oppose FASTER in 2009, because a lot of local contractors would have suffered.  

Comments

25 thoughts on “Two Colorado Districts Among Biggest Federal Beneficiaries

  1. The money collected through FASTER funds road projects that go to private companies providing local jobs — that’s why so many Republicans were careful not to really oppose FASTER in 2009, because a lot of local contractors would have suffered.

    the campaign contributions from said contractors, which, by any yardstick, overwhelmingly favor Republicans.

  2. most whole red states, much less red districts, are among the biggest beneficiaries of federal money.  Perry bailed Texas out with federal stimulus money.  Alaska’s entire economy is basically built on being a huge welfare state. The red south, in general, gets plenty back from the feds.

    But, as elbee says all the time instead of responding to facts, they just have a different ideological belief.  Apparently that’s exactly the same to them as a religious belief.  It is faith, not all facty, based.

    God planted dinosaur bones to test our faith and their tax cutting, government shrinking policies must keep failing for the same reason.  In either case….must not fail the test.  Must not let Satanic temporal verifiable “knowledge” lead to sin.  Must keep unquestioning faith in tact.

    That doesn’t mean you have to go down the tubes instead of taking Satan’s help, though does it? It’s actually an admirable thing to take advantage of Satan through trickery, isn’t it?  Tricking the Trickster?  Yeah, that’s the ticket.  Still cool.  Still faithful.  Kinda.

  3. Colorado Springs would go out of business.

    The biggest government pork spending reciepent county in the state.  All hail the anti-government conservatives in their Colorado Springs bastion as they gleefully suck on the teat of big government while imposing all manner of degredation and neglect on the poor.  Truly a most illuminating statistic regarding the spending priorities of our elected representatives from these districts.

    1. so if we need any more money for defense spending we’ll just borrow it and then complain about what a complete hole Obama dug for all of us, and thus refuse to pay it.

    2. tax cuts for Paris Hilton and Charlie Sheen those mighty job generators and no spending cuts for those Cold War era defense systems.  Yep all spending cuts have to come from the most vulnerable in our society.  They must bear the full cost of paying for all those Halliburton and Blackwater contracts that Republicans kept off the books.  So say the Pharisees of the Republican Party.  Jesus had a harsh portrayal of the rich men who stepped over Lazarus on their way to their extravagant feasts.

      1. I know it’s true, I read it in Pamphlet Bible Study While Waiting at the Corner. Being a Republican is the greatest time I’ve had ever. Nothing but win, and at your expense too!

  4. He tweets about how important it is to tighten our belts, etc. etc. and how we absolutely positively cannot raise a single tax anywhere anytime – and he keeps on collecting his military pension, eventually his Congressional pension, his ultra-deluxe Congressional health care, and so on.

    1. I understand redistricting might rescue me but only to send me to DeGette’s. In either case it realy doesn’t matter if I vote for Rep at all, does it?  

    1. So much of your philosophy depends on feeling guilty if you always take and never give. Whether the debt ceiling gets raised or lowered or turned into a pig, I’ll still get my tax cuts and war money.  

        1. Don’t you know that Cain is the new Bachmann and Bolton is the new Perry? Later this month, Newt will be a serious candidate, but only for three days. You gotta keep up!

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