Death Penalty for Criminal Corporations

 I think even the bleedingest-hearted liberals can get behind this one.

From Alan Grayson:

There are more than 2.3 million people in prison in this country. And not one of them is a government contracting corporation.

Actual human beings -- the kind with brains and hearts rather than balance sheets and income statements -- they go to jail when they do wrong. And corporations that do wrong? They get government contracts.

But not for long.

In the United States, we have executed a 14-year-old, in the electric chair, after he was offered ice cream in return for a confession. (George Stinney - look it up.) But there has been no capital punishment for contractors who steal millions, or even billions, from the taxpayer.

Until now.

I wrote, and the House passed, two amendments this week, on two different Federal spending bills, to put an end to taxpayer dollars going to corporate criminals. (If you're interested in the legal text, I've put it below my signature.) These amendments say that government contractors who lie, cheat, and steal will now get the death penalty. If you cheat the taxpayer, you're toast. If you evade Federal taxes, it's all over. If you rig bids or forge documents, goodbye to you. No more government contracts. And for government contractors, cutting off government money is a death sentence.

We owe nothing to corporations that lie, steal and cheat. So I'm going to attach this corporate death penalty amendment to every spending bill I can.

I'm sure you've heard that, supposedly, it is absolutely impossible to accomplish anything in DC these days. It's dysfunctional, broken, hyperpartisan, nothing's going to happen, no-way-no-how. But I have a secret recipe for getting things done. How did I, a Democrat, manage to pass these amendments through the Republican-controlled House?

It's called "trying." And it actually works.

SNIP


This is just the beginning. True Blue Democrats - we're coming.

Courage,

Congressman Alan Grayson


P.P.S. Here's the text of the amendment:

None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to enter into a contract with any offeror or any of its principals if the offeror certifies, as required by Federal Acquisition Regulation, that the offeror or any of its principals:

(A)   within a three-year period preceding this offer has been convicted of or had a civil judgment rendered against it for: commission of fraud or a criminal offense in connection with obtaining, attempting to obtain, or performing a public (Federal, State, or local) contract or subcontract; violation of Federal or State antitrust statutes relating to the submission of offers; or commission of embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery, falsification or destruction of records, making false statements, tax evasion, violating Federal criminal tax laws, or receiving stolen property; or

(B)   are presently indicted for, or otherwise criminally or civilly charged by a governmental entity with, commission of any of the offenses enumerated above in subsection (A); or

(C)   within a three-year period preceding this offer, has been notified of any delinquent Federal taxes in an amount that exceeds $3,000 for which the liability remains unsatisfied.