Source: The Economist 10/22/05 P. 114
The table to the left, based on a survey of Transparency International, is admittedly based on the subjective ratings of country experts and international businessmen. Even so, this writer, although no such expert, was not only somewhat surprised to find the good ole US of A beneath Hong Kong, but it is rated not as much less corrupt than countries such as Taiwan, Malaysia, and Columbia.
Of course, one stolen and one contestable presidential election we now know that our electoral system is subject to being rigged. But there is a body of other factual information to buttress the poor US rating. Consider that since George W. Bush took office in 2000 the number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled from 16,342 to 34,785. That means that there are 18,000 more people hankering after the borrow-and-spend president’s enormous budgets.
The lobbyists must well know that the goodies will be there. Bush is the first president in 176 years to go a full term without ever using his veto. No need to wonder how easy it is to get some pork into those appropriations. He didn’t even veto the recent scandalous Transportation bill, which contained 6,371 “earmarks” for pork. Even Reagan vetoed a transportation bill because it contained 152 earmarks, and was $20 billion less.
Then you have folks like Tom DeLay and his illegal money-raising techniques, Sen. Bill Frist who pulled a Martha Stewart with his holdings in his “blind” trust, and let’s not forget The Dick Cheney, who stonewalled his collusion with energy traders like Enron, and holds a nice chuck of Halliburton stock that has risen exponentially with is sweetheart no-bid contracts to suck up billions in our taxes.
If the Bush administration tries harder in the next couple of years they should be able to catch up with China.
Source for the above numbers: George F. Will, “On K Street Conservatism,” Newsweek , 10/12/2005, P. 78
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©2005, James A. Clapp (UrbisMedia Ltd. Pub. 10.26.2005)