Free Republic

America’s largest union, the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) is a common utterance within the White House and will be a major player at the December jobs summit. In 2008 they gave almost $30 million to Obama’s campaign. SEIU President Andy Stern is the most frequent visitor to the White House according to their visitors’ log. Anna Burger, Treasurer of the SEIU and Chairwoman of their Change to Win campaign has even been appointed to Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and is scheduled to attend the December jobs summit at the White House. The problem; until 2007, both Stern and...

Look who's at the health care negotiating table -- Tom Daschle. The former Senate Democratic leader's nomination as health and human services secretary was derailed over a back taxes flap earlier this year. But that's not stopping Daschle, a close ally of President Barack Obama, from playing a significant role in Capitol Hill health care talks -- much as he'd be doing if he'd actually gotten the job. The outsized role is unusual for someone who's an adviser to lobbying firms, especially given Obama's campaign vow to change business as usual in Washington. Daschle was in a strategy meeting earlier...

The Porkulus bill was the our first taste of how the new Democratic Party Majority was going to govern the United States. As you may remember it was passed so fast that the members of congress weren't even allowed to take the time to read it. But they had an excuse, they were told that if it wasn't passed in time for Nancy Pelosi to take her trip to Italy there would be "wrath of God" type implications: Fire and brimstone coming down from the sky, Rivers and seas boiling! Years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes... The dead rising from the...

Successfully demonizing Washington insiders on the campaign trail, President Obama needed to find a way to meet with lobbyists without appearing hypocritical. The administration’s advice to lobbyists? De-register. For an administration that promised to renounce interest groups, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) certainly has the president’s ear and is sure to be a major player in the December jobs summit. In 2008, SEIU donated nearly $28 million to the Obama campaign setting the stage for SEIU President Andy Stern to become the White House’s most frequent visitor in 2009, according to White House visitor logs. Anna Burger, Treasure of...

“Every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich.” That’s the starting point of my brother Tim Carney's new book released today, titled Obamanomics, How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses. Whether he likes it or not, President Barack Obama’s policies on finance, the economy, technology, the environment, and even health care are turning out to be boons to the most entrenched special interests. Meanwhile, smaller businesses, taxpayers, and some disfavored industries are bearing the burden. Our President believes in a “mixed economy” in which private enterprise and the profit motive...

In one of his major campaign promises President Obama pledge to reduce the influence of lobbyists on the government. Remember he made the pledge not to take money from lobbyists (he did). But he made a good show of it on his first full day in office the NY Times reported: In what ethics-in-government advocates described as a particularly far-reaching move, Mr. Obama barred officials of his administration from lobbying their former colleagues "for as long as I am president." He barred former lobbyists from working for agencies they had lobbied within the past two years and required them to...

Andrew Stern is a close friend of President Barack Obama. That's hardly a revelation. His organization, the Service Employees International Union, spent more than $60 million to get him elected. And President Obama has made clear that he is fully committed to promoting the political goals of organized labor. But Stern may have gone outside federal law in his nearly two dozen documented White House visits through this mid-September. The SEIU president is a former registered lobbyist, but has been acting as though he is still one. A prominent Washington, D.C. nonprofit group and one of its affiliates recently sent...

Note: The following text is a quote: Home • The White House Blog A Washington that is More Reflective of All of America Posted by Norm Eisen on November 09, 2009 at 04:10 PM EST Just a quick post to report on a meeting today with a group of lobbyists and others who currently chair Industry Trade Advisory Committees (ITACs). The group had objected to the Administration's new policies barring the appointment (and reappointment) of federally registered lobbyists to agency boards and commissions. Although we have previously addressed their views here and here, we feel it important to meet with...

The White House on Friday released a small list of visitors to the White House since President Barack Obama took office in January, including lobbyists, business executives, activists and celebrities. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33556933/ns/politics-white_house/

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Florida Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson issued a written apology Tuesday evening for a comment for a month-old comment that has stirred controversy on Capitol Hill in recent days. During a September radio interview, Grayson called Linda Robertson, an aide to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who has also worked as a lobbyist, a "K Street whore."In a statement issued Tuesday evening, Grayson said his comment was inappropriate."I offer my sincere apology," Grayson said in the statement, "I did not intend to use a term that is often, and correctly, seen as disrespectful of women. "This characterization of...

The divide grows deeper every day, both sides seething with contempt and even hatred for the other side. No good can come from this. In my more benevolent moods, I sometimes find myself seeking a more radical approach to coping with the next 3+ years. I offer these suggestions, which I myself have decided to try: Pray for Obama. Pray--not only that he will not carry out his socialist agenda, but that he will do the right thing. Pray that he will not only do the right thing, but that he will be an extraordinarily good president. Pray that he...

NEW YORK – Get over it, America. Wall Street bankers make too much money. The latest example: Goldman Sachs says it has set aside $16.7 billion so far this year for compensation — or about $530,000 per employee. Not bad for a company that a year ago received $10 billion in federal money as well as $12.9 billion from the government's bailout of American International Group Inc. Maddening? Sure. But forcing Goldman or any other Wall Street firm to pay employees less won't help a single unemployed American find a job. It won't help a single homeowner who can't afford...

As Sen. Max Baucus tries to squeeze a health care bill out of the Senate Finance Committee, and as Sens. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry race to meet their latest deadline to introduce a bill to reduce carbon dioxide, some Democrats wonder whether their congressional leaders and the president who has deferred to them have sought only limited changes rather than more fundamental reform on both health insurance and carbon emissions.

Shortly after the pullback on the shield programme was announced, Russia's government said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would meet several U.S. executives on Friday from firms including General Electric, Morgan Stanley as well as TPG, one of the world's largest private equity firms

Remember when Nancy Pelosi called private health insurers “villains” and “almost immoral” two months ago? Well, never mind, eh, Nancy? The Open Left blog reports exclusively that Pelosi will attend a fund-raiser next week hosted by villainous Steve Elmendorf, a registered lobbyist with almost immoral private health insurer, United Health. He’s throwing the party at his house on Sept. 24. Price of admission? $5,000 for PACs and $2,400 for individuals.

There is no street in Washington named for the letter “J,” but that hasn’t stopped a group of critics of Israel from forming the “J Street” lobby. It’s like J. K. Rowling’s invisible Platform 9 ¾ at the King’s Cross Station. Befitting a Harry Potter character, J Street performs acts of illusion and deception such as cooking its polling data and presenting it as scientific truth. The “pro-Israel” J Street PAC has cloaked dozens of PAC contributors as plain citizens, when they are actually Arab-American, Palestinian, Islamic, and pro-Iranian activists. All the while, J Street hides the names of its...

CA Assemblyman Caught on Hot Mic Offering Lewd Details of Affair with Lobbyist SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A Republican state lawmaker from Southern California was ousted Wednesday from two legislative committees after he was caught on tape bragging about having sex with female lobbyists. Assemblyman Mike Duvall of Yorba Linda made the comments to another man during a break in a committee meeting at the Capitol over the summer, and they were caught on a microphone at his desk.

16-point manifesto for the new 'Lobbyist Nation of America' ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Democracy dead? Lobbyists ruling America? Lobbyists the new "Unseen Hand" of capitalism? Sadly yes.And here's why: Ask any neuroeconomist, behavioral-finance quant, investment psychologist or other practitioner of the mysterious "science of irrationality" and they'll tell you that Americans have two self-sabotaging mental biases that killed democracy from within: "Denial" and "Magical Thinking" make us easy targets. Our brains are being manipulated by clandestine forces beyond our control. We can't see them or resist. Yet we refuse to believe in this new Orwellian America. We prefer the...

This is a report on one of the great sell-outs in American history: How the insurance companies, the drug companies (PhRMA), the AARP, and the AMA have all sold-out their principles to get a piece of the profit of Obamacare for themselves. Instead of standing on their principles, and taking a position on whether Obamacare would be good for America, they are rushing in to make a deal to protect their own interests. This is not just my interpretation of what is going on, but is being documented by national publications and pundits. For example, Business Week (August 17, 2009)...

With the battle over ObamaCare heating up to white-hot temperatures -- which promise to become even hotter in the fall -- I became a little curious today to see who the heavy hitters are, donations-wise, to Democrats in their fight to keep all those un-American, well-dressed mobs currently invading August town halls across the country from seizing the reins of power in a coup d’état of astounding proportions. … Naturally, the top spot's occupied by our favorite group of folks; the lawyers. For 2008, they somehow managed to rub two nickels together -- to the tune of 126.8 million dollars...

Social Connections, Political Savvy and Boundless Energy Have Made Heather Podesta The It Girl of a New Generation Of Lobbyists The chairman beams. So many people just dying to see him, the business guys, the pols, the lobbyists -- lots and lots of lobbyists. They circle Charlie Rangel -- birthday boy, Democrat and, of course, House Ways and Means chairman -- circles like rings on a tree planted in the party room here at Tavern on the Green. Simple math: the more powerful the pol, the more rings on the tree. This is a very thick tree. Not a problem,...

-snip- We've had the Summer of Love. We've had the Summer of the Shark. Now, get ready for the Summer of the Lobbyist. In a glum economy, the lobbying business feels kind of bubbly. Every new Obama proposal comes with acres of fine print for corporate powers, interests groups and lobbyists to haggle over, profitably. Three gargantuan legislative challenges -- health care, the environment, the economy -- crisscrossing at once on Capitol Hill. Major health-care interests alone are spending $1.4 million this year lobbying Congress . . . per day, according to Common Cause, a government watchdog group. A lobbyist's...

Reporting from Washington - Lashed by liberals and threatened with more government regulation, the insurance industry nevertheless rallied its lobbying and grass-roots resources so successfully in the early stages of the healthcare overhaul deliberations that it is poised to reap a financial windfall.

Before we implmement any sweeping changes of the American political system, how about cleaning up corruption first? In November of 2007, while campaigning for president, John Edwards, the former North Carolina Senator, said: "Washington is awash with corrupt money, with lobbyists who pass it out and with politicians who ask for it," adding, "This election is the great moral test of our generation." About a year later he was being investigated for use of PAC money for personal use, his once-prominent political career was buried and the turmoil of his marriage was playing out in public. Now, the wealthy trial...

During his radio broadcast today,President Barack Obama went after his favorite target today, he bashed those "special interests" that profit from the U.S. health-care system are spreading misinformation about plans to overhaul medical insurance practices. He said those special interests were “ridiculous rumors,” (thank God he didn't say stupid). “Every time we come close to passing health-insurance reform, the special interests with a stake in the status quo use their influence and political allies to scare and mislead the American people.Those who would stand in the way of reform will say almost anything to scare you about the cost of...

Here's the link. In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. Or, as the memo says: "Commitment of up to $80 billion.. The health care lobbyist said that what deal still exists is uncertain, as a result of House pressure. "Now the White House is backing away from it, as you know, because of pressure from the House, because the House was not a party to the deal," he said. "The Speaker put enormous pressure on the White House, [saying], 'We weren't a...

As a political strategist, Big Pharma lobbyist Billy Tauzin is starting to look less like Dr. Faustus and more like Jack, trading away his industry for magic beans. Last week Mr. Tauzin ostentatiously blabbed to the media that his industry's deal to help fund ObamaCare with $80 billion in prescription-drug discounts was really protection money. In particular, he bragged that he had secured promises from the White House that President Obama would fend off Congressional Democrats who want to "negotiate" drug prices, which in practice means price controls. For days, the White House continued to confirm Mr. Tauzin's understanding: "We...

The LATimes is once again trying to sell another Obama healthcare fairy tale to an unsuspecting public. This time, ABC is reporting that Obama has “given a seat at the table” of the healthcare debate to former Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin who now represents some powerful drug companies. The Times is reporting this as if it is meaningful news. Unfortunately for all concerned it is not. For the Times, Tom Hamburger starts off mentioning how Obama lambasted Tauzin and his lobbying interests during the recent presidential campaign but that he’s done an about face by inviting Tauzin to the White...

"But what we will do is, we'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies." -Barack Obama Another must see video.

Leading up to the vote on the climate bill, 1,150 business and interest groups lobbied Congress on climate issues, spending an estimated $27 million or more, according to a report from watchdog group, the Center For Public Integrity. Of that, 460 of the lobbying groups were formed in the second quarter of this year, just to focus on shaping the bill. Everyone got in on the lobbying action from universities to farm hands to religious groups. Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, as well as the National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd lobbied on the...

Caught between a pivotal industry ally and the protests of Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration on Friday backed away from what drug industry lobbyists had said this week was a firm White House promise to exclude from a proposed health care overhaul the possibility of allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices under Medicare. [text excerpted] The full terms of the White House agreement with the drug makers, like a similar deal with the hospital industry, have never been disclosed.

For the insurance industry, long an opponent of health care reform, it was a striking change: with a new administration coming to Washington, insurers agreed to abandon some of their most controversial practices, like denying coverage to applicants with pre-existing medical conditions. One of the main architects of the friendly approach, Karen M. Ignagni, the industry’s chief lobbyist, personally pledged to President Obama that insurers would not stand in the way of a sweeping overhaul this time. For a while, it seemed to be working — until recently, when the insurance industry re-emerged as Washington’s favorite target. “Villains,” Nancy Pelosi,...

The clean energy industry is speeding up its spending on Washington lobbyists. During the first six months of 2009 the sector spent $12.1 million on lobbying, London based research firm New Energy Finance reports.

'Non-partisan' AARP named by Pelosi as part of Democrats August recess health care reform blitz UPDATED WITH AARP RESPONSEBy: Mark Tapscott Editorial Page Editor 08/03/09 4:47 PM EDT House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's August 31 memo to House Democrats with their instructions for the August recess described a comprehensive national campaign designed in conjunction with a long list of outside groups lobbying for government government health care. Notably listed among those groups by Pelosi is AARP, the 40 million-member Goliath of Capitol Hill lobbying on behalf of government entitlement programs. Said Pelosi, according to a memo obtained by Human Events' Connie...

Rather than holding their ground, the Obama administration has decided to revise the restriction that did not allow lobbyists to meet with government officials to discuss potential uses for the Federal stimulus money they have been allocated. Under the..

White House eases stimulus lobbyist restrictions By Roxana Tiron Posted: 07/25/09 01:25 PM [ET] In a significant change, the Obama administration will now allow lobbyists to meet and have telephonic discussions with government officials regarding economic recovery projects. The lifting of the ban comes after K Street has cried foul for months and has challenged the White House on its restrictions. In March, President Obama announced that government officials would not be allowed to consider the views of lobbyists regarding specific stimulus projects unless the requests are put in writing. The materials also had to be posted on an agency’s...

Things are getting ugly for Obama and Co. The majority of Americans disagree with Obama on almost every major policy issue, and his personal approval rating is finally starting to reflect that. It's like I heard Ann Coulter say tonight, apparently the American people forget (after several elections) just how bad Democrat leadership is until they have it again. Here's your daily dose of reality: http://diggsandburies.blogspot.com/

Following The Washington Post’s public shaming for selling lobbyists access to administration officials, newspaper editors, and reporters for $25,000 and up, National Journal has created a private ‘pay-to-play’ web site for members of Congress. The whole amazing story is documented by The Washington Examiner and should be read in its entirety here. The website known as 3121 is described as “a new feature on NationalJournal.com that will become available exclusively to Capitol Hill staffers in September.” Only individuals possessing an email address that ends with Senate.gov or House.gov can gain access to 3121. For the modest one-time contribution of $295,000,...

weeping proposals to reform the energy, healthcare and financial-services sectors helped K Street shake off a slow start to the year, although corporate belt-tightening continued to be a drag on revenues at some lobbying firms, a preliminary analysis of midyear lobbying revenue totals shows. Although several firms rebounded during the second quarter, midyear figures still appeared to be down from where they were a year ago. Lobbyists attributed the decline to the problems of the broader economy. Firms had until midnight Monday to file their second- quarter revenues with Congress as required by the Lobbying Disclosure Act. Around 20 firms...

After distancing himself from lobbyists in campaign ads, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) was on Martha's Vineyard this weekend meeting with some of the most well known names on K Street. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) hosted its annual retreat this weekend at the high-class getaway. Designed for candidates to meet with senators for campaign advice and policy guidance, several high-powered lobbyists also attend and network with lawmakers during the retreat. Dodd's attendance at the retreat follows a series of web videos his campaign released promoting his populist credentials and highlighting the frustration some lobbyists are feeling with the senator,...

The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (LDA) regulates federal lobbyists and organizations that lobby. The law defines and specifies the following: Who is a Lobbyist? Any person who: Receives compensation of $5,000 or more per six-month period, or makes expenditures of $20,000 or more per six-month period, for lobbying; Makes more than one lobbying contact; and Spends 20 percent or more of his or her time over a six-month period on lobbying activities for an organization or a particular client. Unless each of these criteria is met, there is no registration requirement for that individual. An organization is required to...

The news cycle these days is like time-lapse photography. Stories are born, flower and pass out of sight again in a matter of hours. For that matter, the Washington Post's "Salon" program didn't last much longer than that. Blink, or take a day off from the computer, and you've missed it. Here, via The Examiner, is the invitation that the Washington Post sent to lobbyists for companies in the health care industries; ...: The mind boggles: the Post wants lobbyists to bring "your organization's CEO or executive director" to a "salon" at the home of Post publisher Katharine Weymouth. If...

Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was cancelling plans for an exclusive "salon" at her home where for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and...

Washington Post Publisher and Chief Executive Officer Katharine Weymouth said today she was cancelling plans for an exclusive "salon" at her home where, for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few": Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

House Republicans who received campaign donations from environmental groups helped make up the narrow margin of votes needed to send the Waxman-Markey “cap and trade” bill over to the U.S. Senate. The legislation passed by a vote of just 219 to 212 on Friday with critical assistance from eight Republicans. They are: Mary Bono Mack (Calif.), Mike Castle (Del.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Leonard Lance (N.J.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), John McHugh (N.Y.), Dave Reichert (Wash.), Chris Smith (N.J.). This support proved critical with 44 Democrats voting against the regulatory scheme.

Congressman John Murtha, the King of Congressional Pork acts may be losing his Teflon coating and his friends are getting a bit nervous. A few months ago, the FBI raided the offices of the PMA group. What they found suggested that Murtha and his buddies at the PMA Group operated their own little Earmark Factory. A later report suggested that the FBI may be zeroing in on the relationship between Murtha and PMA. No worries for Mr. Murtha, despite the FBI putting the heat on his PMA relationship, the Porkmeister is is still accepting money from PMA clients and still...

For example, the National Association of Home Builders hired Baker & Hostetler a week after Barack Obama’s inauguration to lobby explicitly on the stimulus bill, which, in the end, included an $8,000 credit for home purchases. Better Place Inc. is an electric car company that hired its first lobbyist — Steve McBee, a former staffer for House appropriator Norm Dicks, D-Wash. — to push for electric car incentives in the stimulus. The resulting cornucopia included an expanded tax credit for plug-in cars, $2 billion in funding for electric car batteries and $400 million to build an electric car infrastructure, complete...

Senators who oversee the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package held stocks in many of the banks bailed out towards the end of last year, according to financial disclosure reports released Friday. According to the reports detailing senators’ finances in 2008, nearly half of the members of the Senate Banking Committee had holdings in financial institutions that have taken funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The panel has jurisdiction over the bailout fund and other relief efforts directed by federal regulators to save the nation’s financial system.

As Sen. Max Baucus has taken the lead on health-care reform legislation in the U.S. Senate, he’s also become a leader in something else: Campaign money received from health- and insurance-industry interests. In the past six years, nearly one-fourth of every dime raised by Baucus, D-Mont., and his political-action committee has come from groups and individuals associated with drug companies, insurers, hospitals, medical-supply firms, health-service companies and other health professionals. These donations total about $3.4 million, or $1,500 a day, every day, from January 2003 through 2008. Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee that is drafting a major health...

WASHINGTON — Congressman Paul Kanjorski is among the largest beneficiaries of a lobbying effort by the financial industry aimed at changing an accounting rule that will save Wall Street billions of dollars in losses from mortgage securities. Kanjorski, D-11, whose district includes Monroe County, received $18,500 early this year from a coalition of lobbyists representing 31 financial firms and trade groups who succeeded in having the accounting rule changed in April. Kanjorski heads the House Financial Services subcommittee on capital markets, insurance and government-sponsored enterprises, which pressed for the accounting change. The Wall Street lobby's contribution to Kanjorski was the...