United Liberty

Rep. Joe Sestak, the Democratic Party’s nominee in Pennsylvania, may have a problem on his hands due to a questionable earmark request:

Sestak has requested a $350,000 grant for the Thomas Paine Foundation, the Allentown Morning Call reports. The Paine Foundation is part of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, a tiny nonprofit (annual income: $14,000) seeking to purge religion from private life. The earmark is for the purpose of developing “a prototype Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) that could be floated offshore, utilizing recent developments in air bearing technology that allow for more efficient generation of electrical power.”

If the grant is given, the money will go to Drew Devitt, the sole officer of the Thomas Paine Foundation. Devitt “also operates New Way Energy LLC, which is developing wind turbines for offshore use.”

Sestak’s office professes ignorance about this strange  arrangement, and let’s give  him the benefit of the doubt. But Democrats agreed to a moratorium on for-profit earmarks, and the purpose of the grant is such a mismatch with the purpose of this non-profit that one must ask: When people come begging for money at Sestak’s office, do they do any research into who’s getting the taxpayers’ money, or do they just offer to hand it out will-nilly?

Tom Schatz of Citizens Against Government Waste says that Sestak is “intentionally gaming the system” by ignoring the rules of the House. In fact, Members of Congress and companies have working to find ways around the for-profit earmark moratorium since its inception back in March.

The Republican nominee, Pat Toomey, who served in Congress from 1999 to 2005, has pledged not to request earmarks.