Will 2012 be the year of voter revolt against corruption? As almost the entire world continues to struggle with a seemingly endless recession, the public has turned to government for answers. In nation after nation, public officials have been slow to respond, or in many cases, too close to the wealthy interests to provide meaningful
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Yesterday, climate change pioneer Bill McKibben and his organization, 350.org, joined with Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Keith Ellison to launch a new bill that would cut $113 billion in subsidies to the coal, oil, and gas lobby over the next decade. The oil industry received about $7 billion in tax breaks in 2011, despite
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The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the most powerful corporate front group you’ve never heard of ,or at least until more than a dozen major corporations recently quit in the wake of the controversies over it pushing the “Stand Your Ground” laws. ALEC lets corporations write model legislation that it then secretly ships to state legislatures
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What do Jamie Dimon, chief executive of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and Michele Bachmann, a conspiracy-obsessed representative from Minnesota, have in common? Both support H.R. 87, Bachmman’s legislation that would repeal all major Wall Stret reforms passed in the wake of the financial crisis. Though Bachmann has been cast as a fringe figure over
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When you’re a lobbyist, you’ve got to find all sorts of ways to influence Congress. Last Thursday, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) found a quirky way to lobby about the benefits of chlorine — hold an ice cream social in the Rayburn House Office Building by the U.S. Capitol. We were there. Because Congress was officially
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Military industry lobbyists are using the Tea Party as props to fight back against defense cuts. Companies that benefit from tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, many of which are for unnecessary and wasteful programs, are attempting to co-opt political support as they desperately try to maintain their pork barrel contracts. Take, for example, the
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The predatory schools of the for-profit college industry — Kaplan, Corinthian, Bridgepoint, and others — are on high alert. President Obama recently signed an executive order aimed at protecting veterans from bad behavior by these colleges. Speaking to U.S. troops at Fort Stewart, Georgia, the President called the conduct of these schools “appalling” and “disgraceful”
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Today, Bank of America held its annual shareholder meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. As hundreds protested the bank’s heavy-handed political giving outside, a group of shareholders inside voted on various resolutions. Charlotte Observer business reporter Andrew Dunn notes that all shareholder resolutions failed. But a resolution calling on the company to disclose more about its
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