K Street money flowing into deficit panel

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: The Hill

Members of the deficit-reduction supercommittee have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from special-interest groups, including a significant chunk from healthcare interests that want the panel to fail.

Healthcare political action committees gave more to the deficit panel members than political action committees (PACs) representing energy, defense and agriculture interests, which could also be under the knife, according to fundraising reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.), the third-ranking member of the House Democratic leadership, does not sit on any regular committees with jurisdiction over the health industry, but has raised more than $57,000 from healthcare-related PACs since his appointment to the debt supercommittee.

Some of his contributions come from interests that want to minimize cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, such as the American Hospital Association, HealthSouth Corp., DaVita Inc. — which provides kidney dialysis treatment — and HCR Manor Care, which specializes in assisted-living care.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/news/188083-k-street-money-flowing-into-deficit-panel

[Bonhomme Richard]

1. For God's sake, this is out and out bribery. n/t

[wordpix]

2. yes it is and the Supremes have made it worse with their "corporations are persons" ruling

[OKIsItJustMe]

9. FWIW: The personhood of corporations is not a new legal concept

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood#The_notion_of_corporations_as_persons


It’s recently been taken to an absurd extreme, but, it’s not new.

[valerief]

14. Yes, it was a clerk's decision, not the court's. nt

[dotymed]

22. Thanks for saving from having to post that.

A clerk with ties to a large railroad corporation. It has never ceased to amaze me that those records were never corrected to reflect the actual court decision. Does anyone know why that never happened?

[valerief]

28. Money bought the government. Same as now. nt

[Enthusiast]

47. Exactly.

And on that basis alone it should be removed from the books. It's an absurd notion on its face anyway. And just look what it has done to our nation. I rest my case.

[No Elephants]

65. Well, since Citizen's, it's the Court's decision, too. One of the Democratic Justices did, I

believe, referenced in a separate opinion in Citizens United that a clerk was the only one who had theretofore described corporations as people at the Supreme Court level.

And NAACP v. Button did give NAACP First Amendment rights.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, corporations are created because the law of the state in which they are created allows corporations to exist. State law has been what governs state corporations. CU deviates from that general rule.

Please see also Reply 63,

[tavalon]

44. Citizen's United, an Orwellian term if ever there was one,

is corporate personhood on steroids.

[Enthusiast]

46. It was wrong then and it's wrong now.

[No Elephants]

63. States deemed corporations "persons" to allow them to sue and be sued.

In that context, it was desirable, I suppose.

And the NAACP, a not for profit organization, was given a First Amendment/freedome of association right to keep its member list secret.

But, saying ALL corporations, both profit and not for profit, are "persons" AND money is political speech is a deadly combination, IMO.

[RC]

17. Naa, only when the Democrats do it.

[tiny elvis]

38. from that old anarcho-syndicalist, chomsky:

What remains of political democracy has been undermined further as both parties have turned to auctioning congressional leadership positions. Political economist Thomas Ferguson observes that "uniquely among legislatures in the developed world, U.S. congressional parties now post prices for key slots in the lawmaking process." The legislators who fund the party get the posts, virtually compelling them to become servants of private capital even beyond the norm. The result, Ferguson continues, is that debates "rely heavily on the endless repetition of a handful of slogans that have been battle tested for their appeal to national investor blocs and interest groups that the leadership relies on for resources."

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20110824.htm

[closeupready]

61. Chomsky is such a genius.

He is, among many other things, a brilliant academic who studies language and how it is employed to communicate, a field known as semiotics. I have always admired him.

And he really nails our faux democracy in that passage you quoted. Thanks for posting it. :hi:

[Enthusiast]

45. Yes it is.

And Panetta is squealing that we should cut "entitlements" and not the military.

There is simply no justification for the size and scope of this military and its mission.

[No Elephants]

59. But how is that different from other K Street donations?

[closeupready]

60. Yep.

nt

[chollybocker]

3. rec back up to zero

the k-street kids are up early today

[Maineman]

4. Bribery! Corruption! Get the money out of politics !!!!!!!

[PSPS]

5. And they have the gall to ask, "what are your demands?"

[kenfrequed]

6. Indeed

I find it very ironic that the media barely mentions the fact that some peoples interests are being obviously served while the same corporate owned media pretends that it doesn't understand the OWS protestors.

[wordpix]

7. US political system now runs on legalized bribery; until that ends, there's no end to corruption

in politics OR on Wall St.

[closeupready]

62. That really is the bottom line; has been the bottom line for at least

the last 40 years. Which is why I'm pessimistic that it will ever happen.

[hobbit709]

8. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.

[OhioChick]

10. As expected n/t

[TygrBright]

11. Is it time to OCCUPY K STREET? n/t

[They_Live]

12. it is

waaaaay past time.

[avaistheone1]

36. +1000

[valerief]

13. getmoneyout!!!! nt

[valerief]

15. We also have the equivalent of mass media censorship. Money keeps the truth from surfacing. nt

[cui bono]

19. So money equals both free speech AND lack of it! Nice.

They've got all their bases covered.

[valerief]

21. Exactly! Money can buy AND suppress free speech. ONLY MONEY can do that. People can't.

So people and speech are irrelevant. Only money and speech are relevant.

[cui bono]

24. Well at least we still have one thing on them...

[valerief]

26. Ha! You made me think of a 'So You Think You Can Dance' season featuring ONLY corporations as

contestants. Not people who work for corporations, not graphic images of corporations, but the actual corporations. It would be a season of the judges sitting there, saying, "When are they going to come on?" "Where's the first contestant?" "I don't see any dancing, do you?"

:rofl:

[cui bono]

27. hahahaha...

:rofl:

[Enthusiast]

48. And isn't it amazing how effectively

the corporate propaganda has eliminated this concept from the public discourse. No wonder the evil ones are so concerned about OWS.

[Zorra]

16. Please, everyone, actively support and participate in the OWS movement

as much as you possibly can. Keep the conversation going by talking to your friends, family, and neighbors through word of mouth every day to help gain awareness of and support for OWS

Your Congress will never ween itself off of the corporate tittie on it's own.

Ending K Street bribery of our elected officials is a huge part of what OWS is all about.

We desperately need you. You desperately need you. We've finally begun actively doing something to solve our great national problem.

Our strength will be in our numbers and our solidarity.

Join us.

[cui bono]

18. I bet they're not giving it to my guy, Becerra. I don't believe he can be bought.

Every time I check his votes on the big stuff he doesn't disappoint.

:patriot:

EDIT: Looks like he has gotten some money in... we'll see what happens. I really like him a lot, hope he continues to come through for the peeps!

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/donors-gave-83000-to-deficit-panel-members-in-august/

[SoapBox]

20. Disgusting...

[Celefin]

23. The running gag of 'Democracy'. Poor ol' USA. -nt-

[patrice]

25. How do we find out what K (& C) Street recommendations are, so that we can determine if the panel is

a bunch of WHORES!!

[Doctor_J]

29. This is why I am worried about OWS

it hasn't evened slowed down the corruption.

[canuckledragger]

30. K & R

[quakerboy]

31. Interesting

On the one hand, the whole bribery aspect of it is troubling.

On the other, as long as the bribery is accepted, at least its a bidding war between health care and defense, rather than between people and corporations.

I would far rather see the supercommittee fail than to see them shift all the cuts off of the military and onto social programs, which was what I assumed would happen.

[boston bean]

32. Give it back Clyburn! and every single other member needs to give the dirty/bribe $$ back!

OWS ought to demand this!

[midnight]

33. K&R.

[blindpig]

34. Yay, democracy....

There is no real democracy in capitalist society.

[sakabatou]

35. Plutocracy here we come...

[wordpix]

56. and aristocracy, theocracy, too

[Matariki]

37. Why does a Congressional committee need money?

And how the hell do we end this shit?

[russspeakeasy]

39. All leadership positions are auctioned off....as George Carlon said

it's a big party and you are not invited...

[TrollBuster9090]

40. I suggest we start a petition to ask the 12 members of that stupid

pannel to agree not to take ANY lobby money! The petition would state that if they take lobby money from PACs, lobby groups, or basically ANYBODY except individuals...THEIR RECOMMENDATIONS HAVE NO CREDIBILITY!

[EFerrari]

41. We can never consent to anything these people put out.

We have to start fighting this NOW.

[Doctor_J]

51. How?

What can be done about it?

:shrug:

[EFerrari]

52. We can join OccupyDC, for one thing.

These protests are too big to hide any more.

[earcandle]

42. This behavior is a breach of their oath to protect America and her coffers. Ban them, kick them out

Prosecute them.  They are derelict in their duties. 

[Psephos]

58. Agreed. n/t

[caseymoz]

43. I have an idea: how about an Occupy K-Street protest.

Since they're making all the decisions now, let's bypass Congress and lobby the lobbyists.

[wordpix]

54. actually, Occupy DC was at first Occupy K St. but I don't know what happened to that

There's no park right on K St. so I guess that's why McPherson Sq. was chosen. Still, ODC would be better off on K St. ---pitching tents there on the narrow sidewalks should draw some attention.

[Enthusiast]

49. We knew they would pull this shit.

[Javaman]

50. I was mocked when I said...

this is the new forth branch of our government without approval of the people.

here we have a group of rich morons collecting more money for themselves, creating a faux sense of importance and worst of all, getting away with it.

I call this new branch of the US government, the country club committee.

[yurbud]

53. It should be called the ''Who wants to be a (bigger) millionaire'' committee

[wordpix]

55. and to think our family almost had mom go to an HCR Manorcare facility

Glad she's still at home and the money's going to home health aides, instead.

[unkachuck]

57. what does this mean?

"Members of the deficit-reduction supercommittee have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from special-interest groups..."

....that the super-committees' super-important super-work is super-compromised by super-amounts of payola?

[closeupready]

64. If theres consolation to this, it's knowing that Congress' single digit US approval rating will fall

even further as voters continue to learn how the elective body that is supposed to represent their interests is not only incompetent, but deeply corrupt, as well - probably moreso.