A "present" that's not for you

It's important that we get to know where our potential congress people will fall on the "big" items like abortion, gun control, the death penalty, and universal health care, to name a few. These are all big deals to most of us and we have some pretty strong feelings on. The truth is though, that while important, the votes our congress people will cast on those "big" issues are actually in the minority ...when was the last time abortion or the death penalty was voted on at the congressional level?

Today, I want to address the things that go under the radar, the stuff Congress spends most of their time voting on. Last week, the House voted 25 times, 15 of which were on the passage of various bills, and a couple more on addendums to bills.(source) Not one of these were what I would characterize as "big" issues. ...and there in lies the story.

Have you ever heard the term "Christmas Tree Bill" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree_bill)? It refers to the process of tacking on a bunch of (often unrelated to the main bill) addendums where the main bill is the Christmas Tree and the addendums are a bunch of little "presents" that the congress people give away to the special interests. You see, when a congress person gets campaign contributions, they come with strings attached ...not formally, but the unspoken rule is that the heaviest contributors get more face time with their representatives to push their agendas.

David Cay Johnston (author and Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter) calls these people the "political donor class". The class of people who basically decide who gets into congress via their campaign donations. They in turn expect to be heard and get their interests represented in the occasional "present" under a Christmas tree bill. It should not surprise you that the political donor class is among the richest in the US. And chances are their interests are likely aligned with making them richer. Don't get me wrong, I'm all "yey capitalism" and such, but only on a level playing field ...the playing field is no longer level and we have our Congress to thank for that. In the 30 years between 1975 and 2005 the top 1% richest Americans got richer (yearly income) at an average of 209%, the top .01% richer by 650%, and the lower 90% of Americans (you, me, Sheldon, and most of us) actually got poorer by 3%. (Johnston, 2007, p.276).

Another staggering statistic is that Warren Buffett, now the richest man in the US, pays a lesser percentage of income tax than his secretary.(source) Again, we have the law to thank for making this possible. (and who writes the laws?)

EDIT: Just found out Bill Gates is back on top ...apparently shares of Berkshire Hathaway (this *basically* is Warren Buffett derives his wealth) have fallen 15% since February.

These things are possible, at least in part due to those "presents" to special interest groups. Remember Enron? There was a quagmire of bills (state and national), including one in Texas that passed there 142-4 (showing that both republicans and democrats are in on this) that made that all possible. To get the full story read chapters 17-19 in "Free Lunch". Enron was masterful in getting Free Lunches from the government that allowed them to just shy of actually write the laws themselves. And in the following year, the average cost of a kilowatt on the west coast went from $30 to $600 ...wrecking many peoples' lives ...then when the company went bust, more lives, so many lives of the lower level employees who had their retirement locked up in Enron, and then all the investors.

I call out the Enron debacle because we've all heard about it, and it eventually fell apart (publicly). But they aren't the only ones, not by a long shot.

Among several others, there are two big classes of "presents" these special interest groups seek. The first class is around bending/breaking/eliminating certain taxes, which sounds good but usually benefits the interest group while shifting the burden on to the public ...I might have to write an entire post about this class alone. The second class is the "privatizing" class ...an example above is the Enron case where they "privatized" the electric utility. All "privatizing" does in these cases is remove laws and regulations that allow them to charge whatever they want ...again I have to suggest reading chapters 17-19 in "Free Lunch" to get a grip on the cases where market rules work in the opposite direction (like utilities and health care).

Again, I'm all "yey capitalism" and such, and love how the market works ...when it's allowed to work that is. Every time a law is written to help the market do it's job, the truth is it helps someone beat the market. Adam Smith says (paraphrasing) that the (truly free) market will set the lowest price possible that keeps the business in business. If a special interest group is lobbying for something in the law, like privatization of some scarce resource, chances are this is a case where the market would work in their favor. After all, they wouldn't want to pass law that lowers their prices (and thus profits) would they? Honestly.

Getting back to my point, I'd like to remind you that this is the stuff our congress people spend most of their time voting on. They are, for all intents and purposes, paid to advance the interests of their political donors. This is yet another good reason to vote for an independent/third party candidate. Such candidates are gonna come with quite a bit less baggage and commitment to vote for these special interest groups. A candidate (like Schafer) who accepts no donations from any special interest group or company is going to be free to vote for the PEOPLE he represents, not the $2,000,000 worth of favors owed to the political donors.

As I wrap this up, I want to mention (again) David Cay Johnston. He's no conspiracy-cook. He's a Pulitzer Prize winner, New York Times bestseller, and investigative journalist for the New York Times. Pretty much all of my info for this post comes from his book "Free Lunch". I have also recently read his "Perfectly Legal" and will quote from that to show you how the donor class is cheating the rest of us via taxes on my next post.

I know for a fact Sheldon has read both of these books. He can quote from them. Again, as evidenced by this, Sheldon is here for US, the PEOPLE. We need to stop the tilting of the playing field to the super rich and the corporations. And Sheldon understands how it's being done, and owes no favors to those who would see it continue happening.

I'd like to close with a quote from "Free Lunch": "We need to vote out officials, even ones we like for some emotional reason, when they work against our interests."

Further Reading:
"Perfectly Legal" David Cay Johnston
"Free Lunch" David Cay Johnston
My favorites from "Free Lunch":
Chapter 14 - about stickin' to people with school loans
Chapter 15 - about stickin' to people with home loans
Chs. 17-19 - about stickin' to people who use utilities (everyone)
pp.240-242 - about corruption in congress