February 17, 2012

Golden Rule Insurance Funneled Cash To Front Group That Defended Business Practice Of Denying Care To Sick Patients

President Obama’s health reform law forced health insurance companies to largely stop canceling medical coverage to patients after being diagnosed with a disease. Rescissions, as they are known, allowed insurers to cancel individual market policies by finding spelling errors or minor mistakes in coverage applications as an excuse to halt treatment for patients. An investigation
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February 17, 2012

How Corporate Lobbyists Stole the Conservative Brand

By Josh Silver, CEO This week, climate blogs including DeSmogBlog and ThinkProgress Green uncovered a leaked documentprecious to public interest advocates: a confidential memo and fundraising plan from the “conservative” Heartland Institute that lists its corporate donors, as well as the group’s strategic plans. Heartland is one of many so-called “conservative” think tanks that “promote[s] free-market solutions to social and economic
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February 17, 2012

Texas GOP U.S. Senate Candidate Calls for Tougher Lobbying Laws

Republic Report’s Zaid Jilani contributed reporting to this piece. At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), last week, Republic Report caught up with Glenn Addison, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Texas. We talked to him about the problem of the revolving door between Capitol Hill and lobby shops and how it impacts
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February 16, 2012

Selling Out The Internet: Heartland Institute Took $285,000 From Telecoms, Opposed Net Neutrality

Earlier this week, bloggers at ThinkProgress and De Smog Blog obtained leaked documents detailing the fundraising plan of the Heartland Institute think tank, which says its “mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems.” The documents, among other things, lay out complicated plans to court corporate donors and to
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February 16, 2012

The Taste of a Super PAC

At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in Washington last week, Republic Report had the opportunity to attend a very special event: the birth of a super PAC. We joined about 50 others (14 had RSVPed yes to the Facebook event) packed into a small conference room at the Marriott Waldman Hotel, seduced by
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February 16, 2012

Sell Out Of The Week: Joe Trippi

Last week, Republic Report inaugurated our weekly feature, Sell Out Of The Week, a series on political leaders who have sold out the public interest in favor of greedy corporate interests. A year ago this week, at the height of the Arab Spring democratic revolt across the Middle East, protesters calling for better economic conditions
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February 16, 2012

VIDEO: Rep. McKeon Refuses To Explain Why Defense Contractors Are Bankrolling His Wife’s Local Campaign

Early this month, the Republic Report’s Lee Fang broke the story that Patricia McKeon, the wife of House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), had taken major campaign contributions from the defense industry in her state legislature race. It is entirely likely that the defense industry is trying to influence the congressman by
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February 16, 2012

Pro-Bank Bailout Lobby Group Airs Ad Thanking Congressman Fred Upton

Turn on the television in southwest Michigan this week, and you might see an ad from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce praising Congressman Fred Upton (R), who now locked in a contentious primary election with former State Representative Jack Hoogendyk (R). The narrator thanks Upton for “creating jobs” with lower taxes and less regulations. View
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