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In My Opinion: Greased with Big Bucks, Business Agenda Rolls Along
Having essentially bankrolled the Republicans in last year's elections, Big Business now is capitalizing, quite literally, on the party's congressional gains.
A parade of bills to benefit America's biggest corporations-in each case, at the expense of workers and consumers-now is rolling through Congress. It's a clear demonstration that in Washington, money talks. Let's follow the money trail.
Credit card giant MBNA could use the following script for its next commercial: "Political contributions last year-$1.5 million. Limiting the ability of Americans to get bankruptcy relief when they are overwhelmed by debt-priceless!"
A bill to restrict personal (not corporate) bankruptcies passed the U.S. Senate and likely will pass the House, to the joy of the big banks and credit card firms that handed $1 billion to federal candidates over the past five years-65 percent of it going to Republicans, according to the independent watchdog group, Center for Responsible Politics.
The legislation doesn't take into account the causes of personal bankruptcies, such as the fact that one-half of all bankruptcies result from catastrophic medical problems, rather than from wasteful spending habits. (Nor is this Congress about to do anything about reforming our health care system.)
Another bill, the "Class Action Fairness Act," which the president signed in February, might as well have been called the "Wal-Mart Relief Act." One of the most frequently sued companies in the world, Wal-Mart, the third largest corporate political donor, gave 80 percent of its $2.4 million in 2004 contributions to Republicans. And it sent another $1 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to help lobby for limits on monetary awards for job and pay discrimination judgments, according to the Washington Post.
Of this bill, which moves most suits from state to federal court, the website of one of America's most notorious union-busters, Jackson Lewis, says it all: "The act dramatically revises the rules for individuals collectively to press discrimination, wage and hour, and other employment law claims. Under the new rules, it will be harder for a group of individuals to prosecute a class action and easier for employers to defend against those efforts."
The oil and gas industries gave a whopping $23.8 million to mainly (80 percent) Republican politicians last year, hoping to buy their long-sought goal of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Their largesse paid off with a 51-49 Senate vote in a budget resolution to okay ANWR drilling.
While the White House and GOPers in Congress cited "energy needs," columnist Molly Ivins issued a hypocrisy alert: "Next year, the administration will phase out the $2,000 tax credit for buying a hybrid vehicle, which gets over 50 miles per gallon, but will leave in place the $25,000 tax write-off for a Hummer. That's truly crazy..."
And talk about big-money sweepstakes-partial privatization of Social Security would be a multi-billion-dollar windfall for the Wall Street brokers that, you guessed it, are perennial GOP donors. And other corporations are hoping the distraction of the privatization scheme will prevent increases in their Social Security taxes, which no doubt will be necessary if we bolster the system in a rational way.
No wonder the Chamber and other business groups are plowing tens of millions into President Bush's privatization campaign through front groups with names like "Progress for America," and "Alliance for Worker Retirement."
But this is an issue the American public so far isn't buying. So the corporate/right wing forces turned reflexively to intimidation, attacking their two most active opponents, the AFL-CIO and AARP.
They went so far as to get the ad consultants who created the Swift Boat Veterans for "Truth" attacks last year to put up an Internet video spot with the outrageous message that AARP is anti-soldier and pro-gay-marriage (AARP has no position on gay marriage).
And when AFL-CIO demonstrations caused several brokerage firms to pull out of the Wall Street lobbying campaign for privatization, right-wing House attack-dog John Boehner (R-Ohio) called for a federal investigation of the AFL-CIO's tactics (something that most of us call, "free speech").
As you can imagine, prospects for pro-worker legislation this year are dim. If Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has a sense of humor, then surely he was joking when he proposed a modest increase in the minimum wage that not only exempted many businesses from the higher minimum but—get this—was tied to virtual elimination of the 40-hour workweek.
We can expect more of the same from what essentially has become a corporate one-party government. The last time that Republicans controlled the White House and Congress with a Senate majority as high as today's 55 members was 1929. Calvin Coolidge was president and corporate America ran roughshod with little to mitigate its hubris.
Anyone who ever took a high school history course knows how that worked out.
A parade of bills to benefit America's biggest corporations-in each case, at the expense of workers and consumers-now is rolling through Congress. It's a clear demonstration that in Washington, money talks. Let's follow the money trail.
Credit card giant MBNA could use the following script for its next commercial: "Political contributions last year-$1.5 million. Limiting the ability of Americans to get bankruptcy relief when they are overwhelmed by debt-priceless!"
A bill to restrict personal (not corporate) bankruptcies passed the U.S. Senate and likely will pass the House, to the joy of the big banks and credit card firms that handed $1 billion to federal candidates over the past five years-65 percent of it going to Republicans, according to the independent watchdog group, Center for Responsible Politics.
The legislation doesn't take into account the causes of personal bankruptcies, such as the fact that one-half of all bankruptcies result from catastrophic medical problems, rather than from wasteful spending habits. (Nor is this Congress about to do anything about reforming our health care system.)
Another bill, the "Class Action Fairness Act," which the president signed in February, might as well have been called the "Wal-Mart Relief Act." One of the most frequently sued companies in the world, Wal-Mart, the third largest corporate political donor, gave 80 percent of its $2.4 million in 2004 contributions to Republicans. And it sent another $1 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to help lobby for limits on monetary awards for job and pay discrimination judgments, according to the Washington Post.
Of this bill, which moves most suits from state to federal court, the website of one of America's most notorious union-busters, Jackson Lewis, says it all: "The act dramatically revises the rules for individuals collectively to press discrimination, wage and hour, and other employment law claims. Under the new rules, it will be harder for a group of individuals to prosecute a class action and easier for employers to defend against those efforts."
The oil and gas industries gave a whopping $23.8 million to mainly (80 percent) Republican politicians last year, hoping to buy their long-sought goal of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Their largesse paid off with a 51-49 Senate vote in a budget resolution to okay ANWR drilling.
While the White House and GOPers in Congress cited "energy needs," columnist Molly Ivins issued a hypocrisy alert: "Next year, the administration will phase out the $2,000 tax credit for buying a hybrid vehicle, which gets over 50 miles per gallon, but will leave in place the $25,000 tax write-off for a Hummer. That's truly crazy..."
And talk about big-money sweepstakes-partial privatization of Social Security would be a multi-billion-dollar windfall for the Wall Street brokers that, you guessed it, are perennial GOP donors. And other corporations are hoping the distraction of the privatization scheme will prevent increases in their Social Security taxes, which no doubt will be necessary if we bolster the system in a rational way.
No wonder the Chamber and other business groups are plowing tens of millions into President Bush's privatization campaign through front groups with names like "Progress for America," and "Alliance for Worker Retirement."
But this is an issue the American public so far isn't buying. So the corporate/right wing forces turned reflexively to intimidation, attacking their two most active opponents, the AFL-CIO and AARP.
They went so far as to get the ad consultants who created the Swift Boat Veterans for "Truth" attacks last year to put up an Internet video spot with the outrageous message that AARP is anti-soldier and pro-gay-marriage (AARP has no position on gay marriage).
And when AFL-CIO demonstrations caused several brokerage firms to pull out of the Wall Street lobbying campaign for privatization, right-wing House attack-dog John Boehner (R-Ohio) called for a federal investigation of the AFL-CIO's tactics (something that most of us call, "free speech").
As you can imagine, prospects for pro-worker legislation this year are dim. If Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has a sense of humor, then surely he was joking when he proposed a modest increase in the minimum wage that not only exempted many businesses from the higher minimum but—get this—was tied to virtual elimination of the 40-hour workweek.
We can expect more of the same from what essentially has become a corporate one-party government. The last time that Republicans controlled the White House and Congress with a Senate majority as high as today's 55 members was 1929. Calvin Coolidge was president and corporate America ran roughshod with little to mitigate its hubris.
Anyone who ever took a high school history course knows how that worked out.