A "Watchdog" that Likes Corporate Treats

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"For America's No. 1 taxpayer watchdog, as Citizens Against Government Waste calls itself, the jet engines seem easy prey. The federal government is already spending billions for Pratt & Whitney to develop engines for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Why spend billions more for General Electric to do the same? 'The alternate engine not only qualifies as procedural pork, it is also a waste of money on the merits,' Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, said in July in announcing an advertising campaign. But when a video was posted on YouTube, it showed that it was paid for by GE's competitor in the long-running, $100 billion war over the F-35 engine: Pratt & Whitney. The slip -- Pratt & Whitney and CAGW say it was a mistake -- is a reminder of the cozy relationship between the legions of supposedly independent watchdog and public interest groups in Washington and corporate interests."