Despite Claire McCaskill’s clear promise during her 2006 campaign to separate her legislative duties from her husband’s business interests, an Associated Press analysis has found that companies linked to McCaskill have received nearly $40 million in federal subsidies since she took office.
“Forty million in taxpayer dollars is a staggering amount of money to go to companies associated with a United States Senator—and it represents a serious breach of trust,” said Lloyd Smith, Executive Director of the Missouri Republican Party. “What’s worse is that Claire McCaskill, a former prosecutor and auditor, is not ashamed of the fact that she has repeatedly voted for the very funding that has been directed to her husband’s network of companies. It is stunning that someone who has spent years acting as an ‘ethics cop’ would be involved in this kind of self-dealing.”
According to the AP, the $40 million in subsidies were directed to about 1/3 of the more than 300 low-income housing companies that McCaskill, who once claimed to be “middle class” despite being ranked as the 9th richest member of the Senate, discloses on her personal financial disclosure forms. On a number of occasions, McCaskill actually voted for the appropriations bills that contained the money.
These developments make a mockery out of McCaskill’s 2006 promise to “do whatever's necessary to make sure there's no ethical conflict.” She also pledged that “any of the businesses that do have any impact in terms of the federal government or any type of interplay with the federal government, obviously we will take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that there is absolutely no conflict of interest, including a blind trust, if necessary.” (Kansas City Star, October 19, 2006)
Last week, it was disclosed that although McCaskill went through the stimulus bill “line by line” and removed funding for veterans and education, she left in an appropriation that directed $1 million in stimulus funds to her husband’s network of companies.
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