With banks nationwide in need of still more money to prevent their collapse, and families around the country still struggling to make ends meet, it appears that those elected to represent us on Capitol Hill are more concerned with political wins and pork-style handouts than working to assure that the American economy is pulled from the dregs in which it currently resides.

Waxman/Markey, the landmark cap-and-trade bill currently under consideration in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is the sort of legislation whose repercussions will be felt throughout the economy for decades to come. And how are committee leaders dealing with such far-reaching and wide-ranging legislation? They are locked behind closed doors, engaged in discussions aimed at dolling out incredibly valuable emissions permits to politically popular industries free of charge.

If enacted, the structures proposed by Waxman/Markey establish a trading system that is at its best incredibly susceptible to the pork habits that we have seen far too often from Washington. Not only that – the policies proposed by Waxman/Markey very clearly provide the opportunity for gaming by Wall Street profiteers. The cap-and-trade system proposed by Waxman and his colleagues could facilitate the proliferation of risky financial tricks very similar to the ones that contributed to our recent economic crisis and the scandals it bred. The last thing we need is a bill that simply encourages more Bernie Madoffs.

Chairman Waxman and his allies in the Energy and Commerce Committee are putting political wins ahead of the greater good. They are crafting their bill behind closed doors and seeking to circumvent the established and respected regular order of the House (skipping a subcommittee markup altogether to move to more favorable voting grounds in the full committee) in order to advance a bill that is rife with concerns and loaded with pork.

Waxman/Markey, is just the latest iteration of Washington’s pork propensity.