What ALEC Does Should Be Illegal. Why Isn't it?

[cali]

ALEC is a corporate front. Period. It writes legislation and then feeds it to bought legislators to fill in the blanks (literally the name of the state). Is there anything that can be done about this?

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2015/05/27/tv-station-features-vermont-republican-in-alec-expose

[Rex]

1. Because money is king.

[hobbit709]

2. Because most legislatures are wholly owned corporate subsidiaries.

[notadmblnd]

3. you forgot to add- they are too lazy to write their own legislation like they were elected and being

paid by tax payers to do. Talk about someone sucking off the government teat.

[hobbit709]

4. They're not lazy, they're just puppets for the string pullers.

[notadmblnd]

6. Oh, I think they are lazy too

no doubt they do their master's bidding when the price is right. But can you imagine some of these idiots actually sitting down and composing a comprehensible piece of legislation? I can't.

[hobbit709]

7. They have no reason to, they only do what they are told.

They're taught not to ask.

[cyberswede]

9. and I think plenty of them aren't particularly bright, either.

They couldn't come up with their own ideas on a bet.

[MineralMan]

5. It's not illegal, though.

Anyone can create model legislation and send it to legislators in any state. What can be done is for us to create our own model legislation for consideration. Who knows? Maybe we are already doing that. Yes, ALEC is a corporate front and its legislative models are right-wing in nature. But that's not illegal, nor could or should it be made illegal.

Countering it with progressive model legislation is how to combat it.

[cali]

10. what they do goes far beyond writing model legislation. It's clear you haven't watched

the video

[MineralMan]

11. If they do things that break the law, they should be prosecuted.

Feeding legislative language to state legislators, however, is not illegal, and should not be. If the other side of the political spectrum isn't doing it, too, they're missing a bet.

[HassleCat]

8. In a word, no

Some states have laws that actually encourage buying legislators with gifts, dinners, vacations, etc. I don't know if they still do so, but Public Citizen used to put out a "return on investment" calculation that showed the value of the tax breaks and other stuff lobbyists got in return for a few lunches and a game of golf. In some cases, the ratio was literally a million to one, with corporations getting a $10 million tax break in return for a few thousand dollars worth of booze and hors d' oeuvres.

[meow2u3]

12. IANAL, but isn't it tax evasion to hide lobbying activities behind a charitable front?

ALEC has 503 (c)(3) nonprofit status, so they're supposed to be a charitable organization, but what they instead do is lobby legislators to the point of drafting model bills and conduct their doings in secret.

The only reason ALEC hasn't been busted by the IRS is that the IRS is underfunded--deliberately!