Oops: Florida Republican Forgets To Remove ALEC Mission Statement From Boilerplate Anti-Tax Bill

[KamaAina]

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/02/02/417488/florida-gop-alec-forget/

Progressives have long tried to expose the influence the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) wields in state house across the country, but one Florida lawmaker is making it too easy.

Funded almost entirely by large corporations, ALEC produces “model legislation” favorable to industry that state lawmakers can introduce as their own bills. Usually, the legislators tweak the language of the bills to make them state-specific or to obfuscate their origins. Usually, but apparently not always.

In November, Florida state Rep. Rachel Burgin (R) introduced a resolution (PDF here) that would officially call on the federal government to reduce corporate taxes, but she apparently forgot to remove ALEC’s mission statement from the top of the bill, which she seems to have copied word-for-word from ALEC’s model bill:

As the government transparency group Common Cause reports, “Burgin quickly withdrew the bill hoping that no one had noticed and then re-introduced it 24-hours later, with a new bill number (HM 717), but now without the problematic paragraph.” Apparently no one noticed until this week.

[sharp_stick]

1. The worst thing about this is the line

“Burgin quickly withdrew the bill hoping that no one had noticed and then re-introduced it 24-hours later, with a new bill number (HM 717), but now without the problematic paragraph.” Apparently no one noticed until this week.

[handmade34]

2. closer and closer

to the day when they don't even try to hide it

[underpants]

3. I'll take Dumbass for 400 Alec

That's "Dumas" Mr. Connery

[progressoid]

4. Not just him.

Let's not forget all the other dumbasses that will support it.

[ellennelle]

5. um y'all

this is almost THREE YEARS OLD!!!

check the date.

[LanternWaste]

8. I don't think the date denies the fundamental premise of the story...

I don't think the date denies the fundamental premise of the story...

[ReRe]

6. Whyyyyyyy...

... the Koch Bros have the state of Florida in their pockets. I understand that about every office that was up for election down there was won by Republicans. It was a Koch "clean sweep." I don't know why she went to all the trouble of removing the paragraph. Is there a political soul in Florida that isn't aware that they are owned from top to bottom by the Kochs?

[JaneyVee]

7. They even outsource our Govt.

[calimary]

9. I think it's safe to assume that MOST if not ALL of these GOP pieces of shit bills

are in some way written or otherwise crafted by ALEC. Just assume that, going in. ALEC is in WAY this, DARK AND DEEP.

Besides, most of these reps are lazy. This is all the evidence you need to know that they don't even bother reading, or proof-reading, what's being given to them. They've already been dumbed-down enough. Brain atrophy. They probably wouldn't even know HOW to write a bill on their own at this point. That's what happens when you don't exercise your own critical thinking. You take the easy way out and simply stovepipe stuff. And then invariably you get caught.

[nakocal]

10. ALEC has NOTHING to do with Jeffersonian principles

ALEC has NOTHING to do with Jeffersonian principles. It is just how these evil anti-American corporate scumbag work to convince their idiot followers that the legislation they are proposing isn't Fascist crap.

[KamaAina]

11. I studied Jefferson fairly extensively in high school

there is NO WAY he would have been a teabagger. Maybe closer to a Libertarian ("That government is best which governs least&quot . Yet many wingers, including Susan Olsen (Cindy Brady), with whom I had a brief encounter on FB, idolize him. (She thinks, because he owned a copy of the Qu'ran, he would have shared in her extreme Islamophobia!)

[blkmusclmachine]

12. As Rick Perry would say: "Oops."

[bemildred]

13. Corrupt and too lazy to edit. nt

[Orsino]

14. The real scandal, of course, is that this is all legal, to include the cover-up attempt.

Burgin will face no consequences, and Supreme Court justices will continue to assert with straight faces that money doesn't corrupt politics.

This story is another smoking gun, and it will be forgotten in a day.

Perhaps the ALEC mission statement should find its way into Burgin's Wikipedia page, repeatedly.