What's the difference between bribery and funding for politicians?

[RainDog]

Since the Koch brothers' businessman's network worked with Republicans to create this current crisis, and since you can bet they are protecting their positions in regard to any economic fallout if (tho it seems like when) the House refuses to fund the govt. debt - which will have international repercussions...

anyway, members of the House can be impeached for bribery, treason, high crimes, etc...

why isn't it bribery when a small group of businessmen act in their interest to the detriment of the majority of the people of this nation?

Since bribery is defined as The offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in the discharge of his or her public or legal duties.
...

it seems that the way elections are funded are themselves bribery.

Can someone explain the difference between the current set up and bribery?

[Edim]

1. No difference. nt

[Edim]

3. Actually,

bribery is not as bad because it's generally recognized as very destructive, while funding for politicians not so much.

[JackInGreen]

19. I would agree

by and large the damage is not recognized, but just as present.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. bribery is when you give a politician money in exchange for them voting the way you want...

funding for politicians is when you give a politician money that they can use for their campaigns, and then they pretend like it's not in exchange for them voting the way you want, but let's get real.

I think you know this, but that's my synopsis.

Unfortunately Citizens United makes the situation way worse, obviously.

[RainDog]

4. it's curious

to me - the elision of reality.

I mean - it's okay for a group to meet and give marching orders to the teahadists who, overall, seem dumb as a box of rocks in some ways.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/a-federal-budget-crisis-months-in-the-planning.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan.

Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed “blueprint to defunding Obamacare,” signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups.

It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans — including their cautious leaders — into cutting off financing for the entire federal government.

“We felt very strongly at the start of this year that the House needed to use the power of the purse,” said one coalition member, Michael A. Needham, who runs Heritage Action for America, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation. “At least at Heritage Action, we felt very strongly from the start that this was a fight that we were going to pick.”

So, basically, it's that bribery is legal if someone does it under the umbrella of a political organization, but illegal if someone does it one on one... even tho the consequences of the first situation are generally more harmful than the second?

Really. I was reading up on impeachment of House members and it made me wonder why some things are bribery and others aren't.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Ed Meese.

well, well, what a surprise.

[RainDog]

6. Wedtech

(said like the Aflac duck)

When Wedtech went public, it gave shares of stock to law firms (as payment for legal services), including Squadron, Ellenoff, Plesent & Sheinfeld. But many of the law firms employed members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Bronx Congressmen Mario Biaggi and Robert Garcia, who would later be forced to resign their seats due to their roles in the scandal.[1][2]

...By the final years of Reagan's second term, Wedtech's crimes had become too numerous to hide. An independent counsel was appointed by Congress, which later charged Attorney General Edwin Meese with complicity in the scandal (he had worked as a lobbyist for the company prior to his appointment to Justice). While Meese was never convicted of any wrongdoing, he resigned in 1988 when the independent counsel delivered the report on Wedtech.[6] The independent counsel McKay never prosecuted or sought indictment of Meese, but in his official report, which is still confidential, he was highly critical of Meese's ethics and urged further investigation of Meese's role in that scandal and others (such as Meese's efforts to help Bechtel Corporation build an oil pipeline for Sadam Hussain's Iraq).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedtech_scandal

...if it quacks like a duck. it's not bribery if someone resigns, I guess.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. indeed.

[RainDog]

13. Meese was with the Heritage Foundation

That endorsed the ACA when it was Romneycare in Mass.

but now it's the deal breaker to stop a communist socialist muslim gay female latin asian african-american threat of... affordable healthcare.

hmmm.

[RainDog]

21. Meese is a pig

LOL. I never knew about this moment in history...

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115032/meese-pig-ed-meese-now-wants-kill-obamacare

[LeftishBrit]

7. Not much. Except that funding is earmarked for the politician's office or campaign; whereas bribery

generally means money for personal use. The boundaries are often blurred, however.

A lot of funding for politicians really is just legalized bribery in its effect. We (UK) used to suffer much less from it than the USA; and probably still do, but it's getting worse. E.g. Andrew Lansley's office got quite a lot of money from a private health insurance company, and I'm sure this didn't have anything to do with his decisions to sell off, ooops I mean reform, the NHS.

[RainDog]

10. blurred lines

even tho I try not to keep up with popular culture, that song so permeated the air and ether it was impossible to avoid.

I didn't know it was talking about political financing. But, yeah...

(sorry if I gave you an earworm)

[DeSwiss]

8. Qui observat custodes? - K&R :-| n/t

[RainDog]

9. the noble lie n/t

[DeSwiss]

11. Omnia sint unum. n/t

[RainDog]

12. maybe the NSA could look at stock positions

isn't that why all this intrusive govt. exists - to stop terrorists - even if they're economic and wear suits and ties?

makes you wonder if they have stock positions and they'll let this shit continue until they make their money.

[Alkene]

15. Bribery is more honest,

because it doesn't pretend to be something other than what it is.

[riqster]

16. The difference? The appearance of legality. nt

[hue]

17. Zero--no difference.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. McConnell wants Supreme Court to erase limits on bribery, err, funding, even by individuals. nt

[RainDog]

20. what a great idea! /snark n/t