Posted on 08/22/2011 7:33:44 AM PDT by CharlyFord
When congressional leaders earlier this month named six lawmakers from each party to a debt reduction “supercommittee,” investing unprecedented power in a tiny cadre to slash funding, they set off a wild scramble among special interest groups to gain access and protect their interests.
Yet many groups with the most at stake didn’t have to change their plans. Some members of the supercommittee received more campaign contributions in July from political action committees controlled by corporations, unions and other lawmakers than anyone else in Congress, disclosures filed this weekend show.
Rep. Dave Camp, Michigan Republican who chairs the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and was named to the debt panel by House Speaker John A. Boehner, collected $134,000, largely from insurance and health-care-connected groups, more than anyone else in Congress, including party leaders.
Rep. Fred Upton, a fellow Michigan Republican who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, received $92,000, ranking fourth among all lawmakers, in a span of a few weeks last month. Reps. Jeb Hensarling, Texas Republican, and Becerra Xavier, California Democrat, also ranked near the top in PAC contributions in July.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Boehner has got to go.
Great article and good points
When 70% of jobs are from small business and small business doesn’t have a voice it’s no wonder there are so few jobs.
We Need More Employers to have more jobs
Why can’t they (Our idiot leaders) figure this out?
And people wonder why these parasites want to remain in power.Voting them out is pointless, the lobbiest will only buy off the next group.
Great article and good points
When 70% of jobs are from small business and small business doesn’t have a voice it’s no wonder there are so few jobs.
The “Fix” is in.
Obama has it.
And Boehner-Boner and McConnell gave it to them.
Idiots.
Can’t some kind of ethics blanket be thrown over these exhalted to keep them from accepting any political contributions?
It just looks bad when the mighty and magnificant ramp up their glad-handing and hand-grabbing.
When government is out to regulate you, your business or your industry into the de-facto status of a public utility, or government is looking at your bank accounts as more worthy of a tax increase (even a de-facto tax increase) simply because of the size of your account balances compared to others, then how is it not your right to try to promote individuals who may reduce government’s antagonisms toward you?
It’s not.
If we don’t like “lobbying” then we need to help get the government out of two businesses = (1) micro-regulating everything and (2) using taxes to micro-manage (believing it is micro-managing) specific areas of the economy and redistributing the tax burden in favor of some.
Otherwise, we have no right to complain about money spent by anyone trying to make a better outcome for themselves (and their employees and stock holders) from the intrusive business of big government.
Some large corporations represent more individuals (employees and stockholders) than any of the members of the House of Representatives and many Senators.
“When 70% of jobs are from small business and small business doesn’t have a voice”
“Small business” does have “a voice”, a number of voices in fact - The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The National Federation of Independent Businesses, The Independent Community Bankers of America, the venture capital industry - just to name some examples;
and it has in it’s corner many Conservatives, in and out of elective government offices that know and promote the good interests of “small businesses” generally.
They understand this perfectly well. They aren't stupid. They don't want Americans to have a good paying jobs. They don't want Americans to have independent small businesses. People that can generate their own wealth won't be ruled over by tyrants. What our Republicrat/Dumbocan "leaders" want is a Soviet America under a Soviet World Government.
Any attempt to limit political influence drives those efforts underground where there is less visibility and more risk of corrupting politicians. If that's possible!
"There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." - - - Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.
Consider that Mark Twain died in 1910, three years before the Sixteenth Amendment implemented Federal Income Tax. And, twenty five years before the Social Security tax and ponzi scheme was imposed, without a Constitutional amendment. And about one hundred years before Pilosi, Reid, and Obama implemented socialism in our country.
If Twain thought congress was a worthless bunch of boobs over one hundred years ago, just think what he would be saying today. Most likely, "Goodby!" as he set sail to someplace more accommodating to freedom. Where ever that is!!
Some large corporations represent more individuals (employees and stockholders) than any of the members of the House of Representatives and many Senators
I agree! I'm thinking that the process has been corrupted by concentrating power in the few members of the 'Super Committee' and will in turn concentrate the lobbying and corruption. It's corruption when the lobbying is contrary to your interest.
“It’s corruption when the lobbying is contrary to your interest.”
“That is 100% on par with saying “it’s corruption when it’s not you doing the lobbying” or “ ‘corruption’ is ‘corruption’ because I say it’s corruption”.
It is a false assumption to have the universal position that if something is “in someone else’s interest” it is AGAINST my interest.
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