Financial Reform Vote-Buying, Chapter 1
OPS_admin | Jul 18, 2010 | Comments 0
Matt Taibbi: -
Just a quick note on the passage of the financial reform bill, about which I have a piece coming out in the print version of Rolling Stone soon.
An analysis by a group called Maplight.org uncovered an interesting fact about the vote. The 38 Senators who opposed the bill in the cloture vote this afternoon received an average of $103,266 in campaign contributions from commercial banks. The 60 Senators who were yea votes took an average of $76,759.
Obviously this is just part of the puzzle, but it’s worth noting. The pull Wall Street exerts on a bill like this comes via several different avenues — campaign contributions are one, the potential for future employment (a big factor for staffers, and for retiring members like certain Democratic Party committee chairs) is another, the proximity of the lobbyist community (one staffer I know grumbled about the “literal intermarriage” factor, i.e. members married to lobbyists) is another. These cash-rich industries just keep hurling money and personnel at the Hill and even when they lose, like today, they do okay — the final product is much weaker than it would have been without all the lobbying and the cash.
Full Story: Financial Reform Vote-Buying, Chapter 1 — RollingStone.com.
Filed Under: Corruption
Comments (0)
-
If we don't change our ways soon...
A new report by the Royal Society, chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston warns that world population must be stabilized and consumption in wealthy nations must be reduced or the entire planet is in big trouble. As the report reads: "The number of people living on the planet has never been higher, their levels of consumption are unprecedented and vast changes are taking place in the environment. We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption... or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future."This is the same warning that President Jimmy Carter gave Americans back in the 1970's - but it was ignored when Ronald Reagan came to power with a "more positive" message basically telling Americans we can do whatever we want. And then after 9/11 - Bush told us all we should go shopping and consume ever more.And now with corporations calling the shots in Washington - long-term sustainability of the planet takes a back seat to short-term profits. If we don't change our ways soon - and embrace clean, alternative energy and educate women around the plant - then we all could be headed for a rough century.-Thom(Is there any chance we will learn in time? Tell us here.) -
LEGALIZE Democracy
" We the corporations" On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. __________
MOVE to AMEND
a project of the CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE Democracy
Help end Corporate personhood
-
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
moveon.org
