Category Archives: Corruption

Next Week’s Opportunity To Get Our Labor Board Operating Again

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President Obama has nominated five people to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Two are Republicans. All are waiting for confirmation by the Senate. Let your Senators know these nominees should be confirmed so the NLRB can get back to work.

What Is The NLRB?

The NLRB is the agency that “safeguards employees’ rights to organize and to determine whether to have unions as their bargaining representative. The agency also acts to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices committed by private sector employers and unions.”

The NLRB supervises elections to form or decertify unions in the workplace. It investigates charges that employees, unions or employers violated rules over labor practices and rules on the charges. It works to get problems resolved rather than taken to court. And finally, when the NLRB has issued a ruling that is ignored it can take the parties to court.

But if the NLRB is prevented from operating there is no one to make sure that the rules for labor practices are being enforced. This hurts workers and companies.

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Sequester Closes Cancer Clinic Doors, Congress Does Nothing

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Affluent business flyers inconvenienced by delays = national emergency that Congress immediately fixes. Cancer clinics closing = Congress does squat, goes home. This is just one more story of our corrupt times.

Last week the sequester cuts kicked in at airports and caused affluent business fliers to experience some delays, so Congress acted immediately to fix it. The same sequester has been forcing cancer clinics to send away patients so they can’t receive the chemotherapy that they hope will keep them alive. Is Congress rushing to the rescue like they did for affluent business travelers who faced some flight delays? Not so much. They do have their priorities, after all.

Sequester Causes Cancer Clinic Cuts And Closings

NBC: Sequester cuts hitting cancer patients, (click through for video)

Oncologists claim reduced Medicare funding, which took effect on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially.

NewsOn6: Oklahoma Cancer Patients Worry About Cuts To Medicare Caused By Sequester.

Albequerque BusinessFirst: Gov’t cuts might force NM Cancer Center to stop treating some Medicare patients,

The Albuquerque-based New Mexico Cancer Center might have to stop treating up to 300 Medicare patients because of cuts to Medicare brought on by the federal sequestration budget cuts, the Cancer Center’s CEO said Thursday.

HuffPo: Sequestration Forces Cancer Clinic Patients To Travel Thousands Of Miles For Treatment.

ThinkProgress: Cancer Clinics: Congress Should Have Restored Our Sequester Cuts Before Addressing Airport Delays,

After automatic budget cuts slashed their funding, cancer clinics have been forced to delay chemotherapy treatment for their patients. Some clinics may actually have to close their doors altogether if the sequester cuts are not reversed. As several cancer doctors told the Hill, they suspect they may not have been at the top at Congress’ list because reduced access to chemotherapy doesn’t personally inconvenience lawmakers in the same way that airport delays do.

WaPo: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequester,

Cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients, blaming the sequester budget cuts.

Oncologists say the reduced funding, which took effect for Medicare on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially.

It Costs Money, Doesn’t Save Money

The kicker, it doesn’t even save the government money, instead it costs money:

The care will likely be more expensive: One study from actuarial firm Milliman found that chemotherapy delivered in a hospital setting costs the federal government an average of $6,500 more annually than care delivered in a community clinic.

So not only does this sequester kill people, it costs the government much more than it saves.

Deficit Facts

1) The deficit is already falling dramatically. The deficit is already down by 50% as a share of GDP. From See Deficit Falling Even More Dramatically, Few Know It:

2) The intellectual foundation for austerity has been discredited. See anywhere on the web. Especially see The Colbert Report: Austerity’s Spreadsheet Error.

3) Europe’s experiment with austerity has brought nothing but stagnation, recession, unemployment and mass misery and suffering. See ThinkProgress: Austerity Pushes Europe Into Its Second Recession In Four Years, CNBC: Europe Risks ‘Endless Depression’ in Pursuit of Austerity, LA Times: Europe austerity strategy is hurting growth, IMF says, CNN: Austerity drives up suicide rate in debt-ridden Greece and hundreds more such reports…

4) The deficit argument is over. Henry Blodget: The Economic Argument Is Over — Paul Krugman Has Won.

It’s Just Corruption

From March, Surprising Studies Find DC Does What Wealthiest Want, Majority Opposes,

A new study, Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans … sought to gauge the political and policy priorities of the wealthy, and how these concerns contrast with the concerns of the rest of us. Amazingly, the priorities of the 1% match up with the priorities of our political class, while the priorities and needs of the vast majorities of us are ignored.

This is about who has the money, and who gives it to politicians. That is the definition of corruption. It is not “ideology” it is corruption, nothing more.

Very wealthy people are profiting from this austerity push. Dean Baker explains, in Deficits Are Bad and the Sun Goes Around the Earth,

…many people can profit from slow growth and high unemployment. The after-tax profit share of GDP is at its highest level more than 60 years. For those who own lots of stock and are at the top of the income ladder, times are good. These people may see efforts to lower unemployment as posing a risk. With lower unemployment workers may be able to get a larger share of productivity growth. This may be good for most of the country and mean increased economic growth, but it would mean less for the one percent.

Yes, “people can profit from slow growth and high unemployment.” And politicians are being paid to maintain the slow growth and high unemployment and other things that are driving all the income and wealth to a top few. It is just corruption, nothing more.

From January: Call It Corruption Not Ideology,

Getting paid by corporations to block government action from helping We, the People but hurting corporate profits isn’t an ideology, it’s corruption.

Getting paid by corporations to cut taxes and regulations for corporations isn’t an ideology, it’s corruption.

Getting paid by billionaires to cut taxes for billionaires isn’t an ideology, it is corruption

Call it what it is, don’t launder it by calling it ideology. It is corruption.

This is corruption, it is not ideology, it is not “austerity.” Getting paid by wealthy people to block things that help We the People so those wealthy people can profit is corruption, nothing more. Don’t dignify it, don’t let it serve as a mask. It is just corruption.

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This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF. Sign up here for the CAF daily summary

Did You Really Think It Was Ideology?

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Or was it maybe about getting a $15 billion wealth gain since 2010?

Newsflash at Think Progress’ ClimateProgress blog: FORBES: KOCH BROTHERS NOW WORTH $50 BILLION,

Forbes estimates that Tea Party petrochemical scions Charles and David Koch have a fortune of $25 billion each, making them the fourth richest Americans, behind only Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Larry Ellison. Their combined wealth of $50 billion is exceeded only by the Microsoft founder’s $59 billion fortune. Buoyed by aggressive speculative trading on volatile energy markets, the Koch brothers accumulated $15 billion in wealth since March 2010, a 43 percent increase.

Click through for chart and links.

In Honor Of The George ‘W’ Bush Legacy-Rehabilitation Discussion

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The pundit world is busy rehabilitating the reputation of George ‘W’ Bush. Somehow in today’s America killing hundreds of thousands of human beings illegally invading a country, torture, corruption and “no-bid contracts” to crony insiders, crashing the economy, intentionally creating massive deficits, using phony terrorist-attack alerts to stampede frightened citizens into voting against their own interest, and so much more of the ‘W’ legacy don’t disqualify such a discussion, nevermind instead demanding prosecution for the crimes committed…

In honor of the attempted rehabilitation of George ‘W’ Bush here is a bit from a 2010 post of mine, originally at Open Left. Did Bush Leave Us Bankrupt, Corrupt, Ungovernable?

When you sell the farm, the farm’s gone.

Is it already too late for America? I’m starting to think that the anti-tax, anti-government conservative movement that started in the mid-70s, elected Reagan and led to the terrible Bush Presidency may have effectively destroyed the country, leaving it bankrupt, corrupt, ungovernable, ruled by a wealthy elite — and we’re only now just starting to realize it. To cover tax cuts we stopped maintaining the infrastructure and started borrowing. To satisfy their hatred of government we increasingly stripped away rule of law, regulation, and belief in one-person-one-vote. We are seeing the consequences of all of that coming back to roost now.

… The conservatives destroyed the regulatory structure of the government. They removed the inspectors, administrators, regulators and replaced them with corrupt cronies.

… The conservatives destroyed the rule of law, leaving behind public perception of rule by cronyism, favoritism and mob.

The conservatives destroyed public understanding of democracy, leaving behind a one-dollar-one-vote system that their Supreme Court just formalized, along with a corporate media that works to keep people uninformed. …

[. . .]

More equitable distribution of the fruits of our economy is another step. Our system worked so much better back when the top tax rate was 90%. The returns from our investment in infrastructure were more widely shared. And back when it took many years to build a fortune businesses had an interdependence with their communities. Executives needed the schools and roads and other public structures functioning well. They needed long-range business and community planning. But just imagine trying to do something about the concentration of wealth today.

So where do we go from here. Is democracy over? Is rule of law a thing of the past? Is predatory monopoly control by the largest corporations the way things are and will be? Does the world now move to governance by a wealthy elite?
Or is the winter and the rain and the snow just getting to me?

What are your thoughts?

Read the whole thing here: Did Bush Leave Us Bankrupt, Corrupt, Ungovernable?

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This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF. Sign up here for the CAF daily summary

CEO Pay And SEC Delay

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Earlier this week I wrote about Executive PayWatch from the AFL-CIO. This site tracks the huge wage gap between CEO pay and the average employee. Something many people don’t know is that the Wall Street reform law was supposed to do this, but years later the regulations still have not been written! The SEC delays and delays, and then the head of the SEC leaves to take a high-paying job with a “bank consulting” firm.

The Law

Section 953(b) of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires public companies to disclose the median annual total compensation of all employees, the total annual compensation of the chief executive officer, and the ratio of the median employee pay to the CEO’s pay. But years later the regulations still are not written so the disclosure still does not happen.

Wall Street’s strategy is to capture regulators, delay, delay, fund Republicans, fund Republicans, and maybe it will never happen. So far this is the case.

Why The Law Is Needed

Bob Borosage explained the need for this law to take effect in March, in Mary Jo White at SEC: Watchdog or Lap Dog? The CEO Pay Test,

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Congress Quietly Repealed STOCK Act That Fought Congressional Corruption

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Do you remember last year when insider stock purchases by members of Congress was in the news? I had this over at Truthout: License to Profit: Legalized Corruption in the US Congress,

This is the shocking truth: elected officials, their staff, and other government employees with access to information and the ability to influence legislation and regulation are allowed to own and trade in stocks. The fact that members of Congress and their staff – and any government employee, for that matter – are allowed to own and/or trade in stocks at all leaves wide open the perception if not the actual fact that they can use information that is not available to others for personal enrichment.

In response to the public outrage Congress passed an anti-corruption bill called the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. Actually all it did was make legislators and staffers who make more than about $120K to disclose what they are doing. It didn’t prohibit them from trading with insider knowledge gained from their position, just to disclose it.

The Act was set to go into effect next week. Thursday night the Senate, and Friday the House repealed the STOCK Act, with only a voice vote.

Bob The Businessman: An American Success Story

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This is the story of Bob The businessman.

Suppose a local businessman, let’s call him Bob, went around town raising money from the townspeople to open a car dealership. Dozens and dozens of people in town invested, putting in $1,000, $5,000, and a few putting in as much as $50,000 and $100,000. Bob raised a lot of money for his business.

After a while the investors found out Bob the Businessman was using some of their money to help his brother run for Mayor and several cousins to run for city council, and some of it to make his wife head of the Arts Council for a good salary. Then they learned that he was using some of it to fund a local organization that did nothing but push for tax breaks for . . . businesses just like Bob’s. (And to push for “deregulation” letting Bob use his company’s money to do things like … fund the organization.)

In the election his brother was elected Mayor and his cousins took over the council. Once in charge of the city, they pushed through a big contract for Bob to supply cars to the city (many of which the city didn’t even need.) The city also exempted Bob’s business from taxes, even giving it subsidies.

This all of course made the car dealership very profitable, and the investors started asking when they are going to get a dividend. But they found out that Bob’s business has opened a subsidiary based at a post office box in the Cayman Islands. This Cayman Islands subsidiary had been buying cars from the manufacturer at wholesale and turning around and selling them to Bob’s parent company for just under what the dealership sells them to the public for. As a result all the profits went to the Cayman Islands subsidiary, and Bob wasn’t bringing any of it back to distribute to the shareholders!

Next the investors learned that Bob had been living really high on the hog, paying himself many millions of dollars.

When the local investors got fed up, they gathered to protest in front on Bob’s business. “You shouldn’t be using our money to get your brother elected mayor,” said one. Another said, “You shouldn’t be using our money to give to the arts council!”

By then Bob owned all the newspapers and TV and radio stations in town, and they were all telling the rest of the town that the protesters were all communists. His brother the mayor sent the police to arrest them.

Next Bob got the city to relax the regulations that specified how well the cars he sold should work, and started selling cars with defects to the townspeople. The city also limited lawsuits. The customers cheated by Bob couldn’t do anything about it!

Over time Bob’s actions forced all of the honest, responsible car dealers to either operate the way Bob did, or go out of business. The character of the whole town changed.

Eventually, though, Bob’s business practices became so bad that most of the townspeople went to the city and demanded that they do something about it. The city conducted an “investigation” and reached a settlement with Bob’s car dealership. The dealership agreed to pay a modest fine, which meant the investors were on the hook to pay it out of any dividends they might receive. (The city’s lawyer who negotiated with Bob later left and got a very high-paying job working for … Bob.) Bob got to keep the enormous amounts he had been paying to himself.

Bob lived happily ever after.

This fable in no way is meant to make you think about the way that modern American corporations and the current American political system operate.

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This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF. Sign up here for the CAF daily summary

Who Could Oppose A Bill Fighting Chinese Hacking?

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How come few if any of of the major-media articles reporting on Chinese hacking of computers in American businesses, news organizations and key infrastructure facilities mention that last year Senate Republicans filibustered a bill to do something about it?

Here is a NY Times report on that filibuster: Cybersecurity Bill Is Blocked in Senate by G.O.P. Filibuster,

A cybersecurity bill that had been one of the Obama administration’s top national security priorities was blocked by a Republican filibuster in the Senate on Thursday, severely limiting its prospects this year.

… The bill’s most vocal opponents were a group of Republican senators led by John McCain of Arizona, who took the side of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and steadfastly opposed the legislation, arguing that it would be too burdensome for corporations.

Wait — the US Chamber of Commerce was lobbying for a filibuster to block a cybersecurity bill? They were trying to block a bill to fight Chinese hacking of US businesses and strategic infrastructure? What? Why would they do that?

Here’s another way the US Chamber of Commerce sides with China: U.S. Chamber Opposes Romney Vow to Punish China on Currency and the Chamber is one of the groups in the following: Business Groups Letter Opposing China Currency Legislation

But wait, there’s more: ‘US’ Chamber Of Commerce Hosts Seminars With Chinese Gov Officials To Teach American Firms How To Outsource.

Makes you wonder, whose side are they on? It also makes you wonder … just where does the US Chamber of Commerce get its money, that it would keep taking China’s side like this?

Back in 2010 Think Progress looked into this: Exclusive: Foreign-Funded ‘U.S.’ Chamber Of Commerce Running Partisan Attack Ads.

And this: ‘U.S.’ Chamber Of Commerce Funded By Top Offshoring Companies

Like I said, makes you wonder… doesn’t it? And how come We, the People have no way of knowing just who and what is funding these lobbying and election efforts?

It’s About Corruption

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Here is a comment I left at my post over at Huffington, You Should Be Outraged By What Is Being Done to Our Postal Service:

This is about more than the Post Office, it is about this whole billionaire-funded anti-government operation that has been attacking our We, the People government for some time — all for their personal enrichment. “Privatization” means they get rich from something that We, the People used to do or own. “Limited government” means getting We, the People out of their way. Etc.

The main thing we need to do is get the influence of money out of our politics.

1) Ban corporations for using corporate money for anything other than operating the corporation. That includes funding “think tanks” and other propaganda outlets.
2) Limit the amount that individuals can donate to candidates to a few hundred dollars, and require free TV time for candidates at all levels.
3) Ban “independent” spending on candidates and politics.
4) Ban any government employee from going to a job that pays significantly more than they were paid in government. This stops the “revolving door” bribery.

There are a number of other steps, but first we have to recognize that this anti-government propaganda we are smothered in is really just about corruption, not ideology. (Unless you can name anything the conservative movement advocates that doesn’t just happen to enrich a few billionaires.)

They Talk Deficits Instead Of Jobs — It’s Corruption

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Washington is back to talking about deficits and not about jobs. Didn’t we just have an election? Didn’t we vote to tax the wealthy, provide public services and benefits and provide people with jobs? Isn’t the deficit down 50% from where Bush left it? So why are even our own people talking about deficits instead of jobs? Unemployment is destroying people. Do something about that.

I was going to write about the trade deficit again today, and the damage it is doing to the country’s economy. (And the trade deficit is one more way the billionaires grab more and more of the country’s income and wealth.) But I read this, Unemployment Stories, Vol. Six: ‘If It Weren’t For My Children I Probably Would Have Killed Myself By Now’, linked by Atrios, and I’m too depressed to do the research.

People need jobs, and Washington is talking about how to cut back on … jobs and government and the things We, the People do to make our lives better.

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Wingnut Conspiracists Say Govt Retaliating Against S&P

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The nuts are saying that the government is suing Standard & Poor’s in retaliation for downgrading the US credit rating some time ago.

The wingnuts never read the S&P downgrade. S&P downgraded the US credit rating because of the irresponsibility of the Republicans. They said a country with a political party that would actually threaten to take the country into default does not deserve a top credit rating.

Why would the government “retaliate?”

Here is HuffPo: Rick Santelli Pushes Conspiracy Theory About S&P Lawsuit,

“The water-cooler talk obviously is: Is there a political issue here?” Santelli said on CNBC Tuesday. “A lot of this talk started to hit some real saturation right around the summer of 2011 when S&P, the only rating agency, downgraded the U.S. We lost our AAA credit rating.”