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FAITH-BASED GOVERNMENT. Wouldn't it be crazy if, like, the Coast Guard gave a couple of ships to this ministry under a Congressional earmark, under the assumption that the ministry would use them for "providing medical assistance" and doing missionary work in the South Seas, and then, like, the ministry just turned around and sold the ships at significant profit?
In theory, it was simple: Congress gave two decommissioned Coast Guard cutters to a faith-based group in California, directing that the ships be used only to provide medical services to islands in the South Pacific.Coast Guard records show that the ships have been providing those services in the South Pacific since the medical mission took possession of them in 1999.In reality, the ships never got any closer to the South Pacific islands than the San Francisco Bay. The mission group quickly sold one to a maritime equipment company, which sold it for substantially more to a pig farmer who uses it as a commercial ferry off Nicaragua. The group sold the other ship to a Bay Area couple who rent it for eco-tours and marine research.That's one of 900 earmarks grants since 1987 to faith-based organizations under the belief that they would do ... well, something. Almost none of these grants have endured serious scrutiny; after all, why shouldn't we trust a faith-based organization to use a donation efficiently and with an appreciation of the public good? The earmark itself ended up being essentially a bequest of free, no-strings-attached money to the missionary organization. This is a classic principal-agent problem, with the principal (the American people) having no means to scrutinize what the agent is doing, and the "faith" element undercutting any effort to demand accountability.
--Robert Farley
