There are 3 stories that give you an insightful look at what is in store for the country if the GOP takes over the majority in the House and/or the Senate in November.
First, Rep John Boehner is for sale. Yes, I know this is not news. I know that after activists judges on the Supreme Court ruled companies are really human and as human deserve to buy their own candidates, Rep Boehner ran up to Wall Street to sell himself to the highest bidder. I know that last week Boehner ran to a business lobbyist meeting and sold himself to them also. If there is any question as to whether he did sell himself you only have to look at his immediate actions afterward to verify the sale. Days after his Wall Street client paid for his services, he came out against any Wall Street reform. After cleaning up and immediately following his rendezvous with the business lobby he announced that we should just end all new regulation for awhile because business just can’t make it if they have to follow any new regulation. If the federal government would just let them do what they want,dump where they want, feed us whatever they want,make cars as safe as they want,hire the ages they want and pay them what they want… business could turn this country around. You only have to look at their record with regulation to get a good laugh out of that plan. Seriously, they don’t follow safety regulation when they can be fined , but will follow them if we’d just give them a break for a little while?
The point is, we know Bohener is for sale, but today we know just what he is selling.
According to materials distributed by Boehner’s camp and obtained by POLITICO, lobbyists and other major donors across the country who give the maximum or help raise $100,000 will get meetings with Boehner, calls from senior aides with updates on the campaign and “VIP access to all events, including roundtables, briefings, breakout discussions and interactive panel discussions.”
That’s right, if you’re a lobbyists and you want a seat at policy roundtable discussions, if you want VIP treatment from the Republican party members up to and including the (prospective)Speaker of the House, if you want to be a part of the briefings… all you have to do is buy it.
Huh, I guess for the right price, everything is for sale. I just didn’t think the Republicans would be so brazen with their prostitution and selling of not just their bodies, but the rest of ours.
Of course there are many people who would say that nothing bad can come of this, there wouldn’t be any abuse and lobbyists wouldn’t get anything detrimental to the country out of these ‘arrangements’. These people say, just trust in the Republicans, they have learned their lessons. Well, to them I give the second out of three stories.
Since 2008, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby has steered more than $250 million in earmarks to beneficiaries whose lobbyists used to work in his Senate office — including millions for Alabama universities represented by a former top staffer.
In a mix of revolving-door and campaign finance politics, the same organizations that have enjoyed Shelby’s earmarks have seen their lobbyists and employees contribute nearly $1 million to Shelby’s campaign and political action committee since 1999, according to federal records.
That’s right, when lobbyist paid for this Republican senator they got $250 million in return.
It’s not that these are all bad earmarks…
The University of Alabama System, which has received $175 million in Shelby earmarks since 2008, the first year lawmakers had to publicly declare their sponsorship of pet projects. The earmarks have included $30 million for a state-of-the-art science center, $10.5 million for Gulf of Mexico weather research and $10.2 million for facilities and equipment at the Tuscaloosa campus.
I’m sure these and many others are very worthy for Shelby’s state. The problem is, with Boehner going from state to state collecting money from lobbyist so he can show them a good “VIP” time, the potential for him to pull a “Shelby” is extremely probable. When you add in Boehners actions after his other meetings with lobbyists, this kind of Shelby type abuse is pretty much a certainty.
I have always said “Pork is in the eye of the beholder” and it’s true. I live on the Space Coast, so any ‘pork’ that keeps NASA’s doors open is good for my area so I’m ok with making a farmer in Iowa pay $0.12 additional tax to make that happen. That farmer of course does not like that additional money coming from his pockets at all, and when he decries this pork as bad… he has many on his side screaming the same thing. Well, they only scream about the horrors of pork spending when it doesn’t benefit them, if it was a $0.12 tax increase on Floridians going towards research on how to grow corn in 30 days or less for 1/2 the cost, these farmers would be happy as pigs in mud for that money. So you see, “Pork” is in the eye of the beholder. So what’s the problem with Boehner selling himself and Shelby kicking back to the people who bought him?
RNC fails to report $7M in debt to FEC
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the part I am interested in is this
Mr. Pullen’s amended financial reports to the FEC show that the RNC engaged in deficit spending of $2.2 million in April and $3.7 million in May, spending more on raising money and on operating costs than it gathered in donations.
It’s not just that the Republican National Committee is hiding the loss of money, it’s that even though they profess to be ‘fiscal and ‘conservative”, even though they are going to run as being the ones we should trust with our economy, even after 8 years of Bush’s economic catastrophe, these people still deficit spent themselves into a $7 million hole in 2 months and then tried to hide their spending!
One story tells us they are for sale.
One story tells us they will give back in three’s to those who bought them.
One story tell us even in the face of a nationwide economic collapse, they will still spend money from hard working people, even when they don’t have it to spend!
Why are people even thinking about trusting these financially irresponsible, Paris Hilton spending, buffoons again?
When they are bought by the lobbyists they will pay the subject of that lobby back at an exponential rate even if they don’t have the money on hand. There is always some social security to cut, or medicare payment to curb. It’s not that they don’t care about the middle class, but let’s face it, the VIP’s are the one who pay for a privilege and how can an unemployed machinist on Main Street compete with that?
