Rep. Blackburn touts Social Security privatization.
Rep. Blackburn touts Social Security privatization.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), one of the cosponsors to the radical budget proposal authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), went on Fox News yesterday to float one of the budget’s key components. Heralding “personal [Social Security] accounts” for “younger earners,” Blackburn touted Social Security privatization as the only way “you could get some of this under control”:
BLACKBURN: You know, people forget Medicare is a program that individuals have paid into every single year with their Medicare and their Social Security beneifts the federal government has first right of refusal on that paycheck. And this is one of the reasons we need to make sure individuals get the money out that they have placed in. This is one of the reasons we have had the discussion over and over for our younger earners of having accounts that have their Social Security number and their information on that — personal accounts.
VARNEY: You’re right, but it was roundly rejected when President Bush suggested doing just that. Didn’t fly. [...]
BLACKBURN: I was just going to say, and it’s interesting to me the number of people now that are coming to town hall meetings and are saying ‘you know what, if you were to scale back some of this bureaucracy and you began to look at some options for younger workers, you could get some of this under control.’
Watch it:
While Varney seemed supportive of the idea of subjecting the retirement safety net to the whims of the stock market, he rightly noted that President Bush’s attempt was “roundly rejected.” Indeed, if Bush were successful at his push to do what Ryan and Blackburn are proposing now, seniors would have lost tens of thousands of dollars in the 2008-2009 market plunge.
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Bachmann’s Plan: To Deal With Debt, We Must ‘Wean Everybody’ Off Social Security, Medicare
Bachmann’s Plan: To Deal With Debt, We Must ‘Wean Everybody’ Off Social Security, Medicare
This past weekend, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) addressed the right-wing Constitutional Coalition’s annual conference in St. Louis. She had dropped out of the Tea Party Convention occurring on the same day in Nashville to make the appearance.
Speaking to a small group of conference attendees and ThinkProgress during lunch on Saturday, Bachmann outlined how the Republican Party and its 2012 nominee must address the national debt. Bachmann referenced Glenn Beck, who falsely warned about a $107 trillion in supposed “unfunded liabilities” from Social Security and Medicare. She then called for a “reorganization” of entitlements where people “already in the system” would continue to receive benefits, but “everybody else” would be weaned off:
BACHMANN: Is the country too big to fail? No, the country can fail. We can, we’re not invincible. And we’re so close now to being at that point because the thing is, as Glenn Beck said last night, it is true. The $107 trillion that he put on the board. We’re $14 trillion in debt, but that doesn’t include the unfunded massive liabilities. That’s $107 trillion, and that’s for Social Security and Medicare and all the rest. You add up all those unfunded net liabilities, and all the traps that could go wrong we’re on the hook for, and what it means is what we have to do is a reorganization of all of that, Social Security and all. We have to do it simply because we can’t let the contract remain as they are because the older people are going to lose. So, what you have to do, is keep faith with the people that are already in the system, that don’t have any other options, we have to keep faith with them. But basically what we have to do is wean everybody else off. And wean everybody off because we have to take those unfunded net liabilities off our bank sheet, we can’t do it. So we just have to be straight with people. So basically, whoever our nominee is, is going to have to have a Glenn Beck chalkboard and explain to everybody this is the way it is.
Bachmann is echoing a growing chorus in the GOP caucus. Recently, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) introduced an alternative budget plan which would privatize both Medicare and Social Security. As the Wonk Room’s Pat Garofalo has noted, the type of private Social Security accounts Ryan proposes would have cost seniors tens of thousands of dollars in the 2008-2009 market plunge. But Bachmann takes Ryan’s effort a step farther and seems to be suggesting a full repeal of the retirement safety net.
Bachmann, who has gained influence within Republican leadership circles, was a star at the event. At his speech on Friday, Glenn Beck proclaimed that Bachmann was the only person he trusted in Congress. Other accolades for Bachmann were heard throughout the conference. At one point, Heritage Foundation scholar Matt Spalding, who had been whispering in Bachmann’s ear while other panelists spoke, exclaimed, “if there’s one person who everyone at Heritage has a crush on, it’s Michele Bachmann.”
Defending ‘Tea Party Profiteers,’ Odom Tells Activists ‘We Should Reward Them With Our Pocketbooks’
Defending ‘Tea Party Profiteers,’ Odom Tells Activists ‘We Should Reward Them With Our Pocketbooks’
In a blog post yesterday, Republican strategist Eric Odom defended his tea party business strategy in response to Think Progress’ reporting on Tea Party Profiteers –- Republican consultants, political operatives, and others trying to take advantage of the tea party movement to make a profit and advance a special-interest agenda. To Odom, it is completely ethical for him and his business partners to “have created a means through which they can pay some bills through their activism”:
And even more absurd is the fact that some tea party activists within the “free market” movement are upset that some entrepreneurs have created a means through which they can pay some bills through their activism. [...] But more importantly, we as “free market” activists should applaud their work in writing these books and we should reward them with our pocket books, not balk at them for doing so.
Odom runs countless tea-party-themed websites around the country, many of them made to appear organic, or locally organized. Through his two for-profit companies, Strategic Activism, LLC and American Liberty Alliance, Odom is able to collect money from unknown sources while setting the agenda and the giving out marching orders for the tea party community forums he controls. As the AP reported, lobbyist Reid McMillian helped write the anti-health reform content for “Healthcare Horserace,” one of Odom’s many websites.
A longtime operative who made a career building what he described as Republican “stealth” “attack sites,” Odom recently proclaimed that the tea party movement should work exclusively to elect Republicans this year, writing, “the Republican Party must be our vessel in 2010.” Indeed, his business partner at Strategic Activism, Allen Fuller, runs a GOP public relations firm called Flat Creek Public Affairs where he helps to direct tea parties into volunteering and fundraising for Republican candidates.
Odom and his fellow profiteers are trying to pull off an elaborate scam. They posture as independents and activists, but they are truly Republican hacks, working largely for big business special interests. Instead of protesting the hegemony of an international corporation — as the original Boston tea party did against the London-based East India Company — they are helping to continue a Bush-era society where corporations like Goldman Sachs have unbridled power.
For instance, former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), another self-proclaimed tea party leader, rails against the Wall Street bailout and efforts to rebuild the foundations of the economy, even though his own lobbying firm represented AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch during the bailouts. Armey, who is still paid a lobbyist salary of at least $550,00 a year, told the New York Times that although he does not believe in “death panels” or other “exaggerations,” he encourages others to spread falsehoods to advance his agenda. Armey’s willful lying is instructive for understanding the profiteers: in the most condescending way, they are exploiting the tea party movement to line their own pockets.
Flashback: In 2009, Scott Brown Said The Senate Health Bill ‘Mirrors’ The Massachusetts Plan He Supports
Flashback: In 2009, Scott Brown Said The Senate Health Bill ‘Mirrors’ The Massachusetts Plan He Supports
Later this afternoon, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) will expedite the process and seat Scott Brown (R-MA) as the next Senator from Massachusetts. In the last three months of his campaign, Brown attacked health reform efforts by largely misrepresenting the bills in Congress. Brown, who supports the Massachusetts universal health system, caustically sneered at national efforts to replicate their success. “Why would we go and subsidize the failure of other states?” Of course, Brown never mentioned that the Massachusetts system, which he voted for, is funded by $385 million in annual payments through the federal government.
Now, Brown is coming to the Senate promising to kill health reform. He reiterated this promise last Sunday, telling ABC’s This Week that legislators should scrap current legislation and “go back to the drawing board.”
But late last summer, before it was politically advantageous to capitalize on health reform misinformation, Brown actually endorsed the Senate bill he now wants to kill. In an interview with MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan, Brown stated that the Senate health bill was “really mirroring” the “really great” Massachusetts health plan:
BROWN: Well it’s been interesting looking at the Senate and the US Senate is doing. They’re really mirroring what we did a couple of years ago through Governor Romney’s leadership. We had a bipartisan plan that was carefully crafted to make sure that everybody’s interests were taken into consideration: business, providers, individuals and obviously the Commonwealth. And as I said we have a plan that is somewhat similar to what the Federal plan [...] Without the Federal stimulus dollars and the waiver money filling our plan, it would fail. And you have a really great plan, we’ve gone from 10% uninsured to really 2.6 million people uninsured, er, 2.6% people uninsured. So it’s worked, but it also has its failures.
Watch it:
In the clip, Brown admits that the Massachusetts plan is buoyed by federal money. As the Wonk Room has reported, before the campaign heated up, Brown frequently bragged about relying on federal money and even floated support for the public option for other states. The health bill passed by the Senate would not penalize Massachusetts’ special funds. In fact, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has ensured that the Brown-backed Massachusetts system would become truly sustainable through “roughly $500 million” in expanded Medicaid funds for the Bay State.
The House-requested changes to the Senate bill, which can be passed at any point right now through reconciliation, would take out the subsidies to Nebraska that Brown has complained loudly about. Of course, for political reasons, Brown will still probably try to vote against reform. But he is doing so out of loyalty to his party, and certainly not by his own convictions that he spelled out so clearly last year. If the Senate bill is signed into law, Brown and his GOP allies fear that the country will act like Massachusetts — where an astounding 79% of people support the healthcare system and millions of previously uninsured people now have health care.
Sarah Palin Defends Her Role As A Tea Party Profiteer, Announces Her Involvement In Another Scam
Sarah Palin Defends Her Role As A Tea Party Profiteer, Announces Her Involvement In Another Scam
Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported on the rise of “Tea Party Profiteers” — Republican operatives who are exploiting the tea party movement to make money and funnel volunteers to Republican campaigns. The profiteers tap into legitimate feelings of anger and distrust among many struggling Americans, but then steer people into organizations set up to make money off of them.
Sarah Palin has been under fire for demanding fees of at least $100,000 for her speeches to tea party groups. Defending her role as a profiteer, Palin wrote in USA Today yesterday afternoon that she would continue to participate in the scandal-plagued Tea Party Convention — a for-profit venture demanding a $550 ticket price and featuring a Madison Avenue fashion firm selling tea party jewelry — this weekend. Palin said her $120,000 payment for speaking at the convention will “go right back to the cause.” But just as she promised not to profit off her appearance this weekend, she announced her participation in another Republican tea party scam:
But participation won’t be limited to those in Nashville who have a ticket. It’s much bigger than that. [...] I will not benefit financially from speaking at this event. My only goal is to support the grassroots activists who are fighting for responsible, limited government — and our Constitution. In that spirit, any compensation for my appearance will go right back to the cause. [...] This weekend, it’s Nashville, but in March, I’ll head to Searchlight, Nev., for the kickoff rally at the Tea Party Express III.
The “Tea Party Express III” is a gimmick of the Republican public relations firm Russo, Marsh and Rogers (RMR). RMR has worked on several stealth campaigns for Republican clients, including the underhanded push to recall Gov. Gray Davis (D-CA). The Tea Party Express, which RMR staffers operate, has proved to be a cash cow for RMR — in 2009 alone, it plunged at least $1,025,559 of money it raised back into RMR’s coffers. Last summer, Alex Brant-Zawadzki reported that consultants for RMR conspired to plan a tea party Caribbean cruise. According to e-mails obtained by Brant-Zawadzki, the consultants planned to raise $200,000 for the cruise, then “pocket the [remaining] $150,000 in profit.”
Palin is the epitome of a Tea Party Profiteer. After abruptly resigning as Governor of Alaska, Palin has aggressively sold her ghost-written book, signed up as a paid pundit on Fox News, and made hundreds of thousands through paid speeches. Although the original Boston tea party protested the hegemony of the London-based East India Trading company over the colonies, Palin has spent most of her political career defending multinational corporations and was dumbfounded when asked a simple question about the founding fathers. Palin portrays herself as a humble public servant and an admirer of the American revolution, but it appears she is simply out to make money and amass personal power.
Tea Party Profiteers: How Republican Operatives Are Exploiting Economic Anxiety For Power, Cash
Tea Party Profiteers: How Republican Operatives Are Exploiting Economic Anxiety For Power, Cash
Republican partisans — aided by lobbyists and corporate front groups — are exploiting the legitimate feelings of anger and distrust among many struggling Americans. These operatives and profiteers, many of them experienced public relations professionals, have set up sophisticated social networking portals and online solutions to control the flow of information within tea party organizations. As gatekeepers to ostensibly open forums, these political operatives and profiteers have been able to set the political agenda of the tea parties and hand out marching orders. And tea party profiteers are making millions cashing in on the movement. They are selling tea party support to candidates and policies which continue the legacy of Bush-era unregulated capitalism and corporate bailouts:
– Eric Odom: Odom, who appears regularly on Fox News and on other venues as a spokesman for the tea party movement, is at the center of tea party profiteering. Odom maintains dozens, possibly hundreds of tea party websites and community forums which he controls through a “Ning” technology based social networking platform. Odom’s vast online control of county, state, and issue oriented tea party websites is done through his two for profit consulting companies: American Liberty Alliance and Strategy Activism, LLC. His American Liberty Alliance has served as a hub between disparate tea party groups and right-wing front groups. In a biographical video he posted on YouTube, Odom explained that he has worked for years on local and statewide Republican campaigns developing “stealth type marketing…some say ‘attack sites.’” He boasted that he built “sites behind the scenes, many of them to this day no one today knows I took part in, some of them were actually very effective in defeating the opponent.” While it is unclear exactly who is paying Odom now for his tea party profit ventures, Odom has delicately straddled independent populist rhetoric while proclaiming that his network will work exclusively for the election of Republican candidates this year.
– Allen Fuller: According to Tennessee business records, Odom’s Strategic Activism, LLC business partner is Republican new media consultant Allen Fuller, who also maintains a firm called Flat Creek Public Affairs. Fuller may be the best clue to find out who pays Odom. On his website, Fuller counts Jane Norton, the GOP candidate for Senate in Colorado, as a client, and also receives payments from several other Republican members of Congress. Fuller helps corral tea party support to American Majority, a Republican training organization.
– Glenn Beck: Beck, the most powerful promoter of the tea parties in the media, often rants during his regular programming that investing in gold is the only way to hedge against a supposed deep inflation in the future. He does not disclose, however, that gold companies are his primary sponsors, or that the gold companies he promotes have predatory fees: Goldline, one of Beck’s sponsors, sells gold for 30-35% more than market value. “Here’s the deal, call Goldline, study it out, pray on it,” Beck advises his listeners. Beck has cemented his control over the tea parties by launching his own 9.12 project network of social networking sites — which are hosted by his for profit media company Mercury Radio Arts.
– Tea Party Nation: As a for-profit business, Tea Party Nation organized the Tea Party Convention this year at Nashville’s swank Opryland Gaylord hotel. The convention, set at the “grassroots” ticket price of $550 per person, features a Madison Avenue fashion company selling tea party jewelry and a paid ($120,000) speech by Sarah Palin. Tea Party Nation also maintains a message board.
– Dick Armey: As ThinkProgress has documented, Armey has a long history of organizing conservative grassroots causes in support of his corporate clients. Armey presents himself as a ideologue, who helms his nonprofit FreedomWorks as a mere exercise in his free market beliefs. But while Armey rails against the Wall Street bailout and efforts to rebuild the foundations of the economy, his own lobbying firm represented AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch during the bailouts. Indeed, even his nonprofit still pays him a lobbyist salary of $550,000 per year.
– Tea Party Express: The Tea Party Express bus tour, and affiliated political action committee, has raised funds using tea party messages. The Tea Party Express effort has been a slick public relations gimmick of the Sacramento-based consulting firm Russo, Marsh and Rogers (RMR). RMR has worked on several stealth campaigns for Republican clients, including the underhanded push to recall Gov. Gray Davis (D-CA). In any case, the Tea Party Express, which RMR staffers operate, has proved to be a cash cow for RMR — in 2009 alone, it plunged at least $1,025,559 of money it raised back into RMR.
The profiteers say that the original American revolutionaries cast their tea into the Boston harbor as a simple rejection of taxation, so the modern tea party movement should similarly reject increased financial regulations, health reform, and taxes on the rich. But the history tells a different story. Boston revolutionaries rejected subservience to the East India Company, a British-run international corporation. They cast the tea into the harbor as a symbolic message to say that their taxes should go back into the American community, not subsidizing the profits of London elites and foreign corporations. Now, Republican tea party profiteers are trying to exploit the movement, pushing them to oppose policies which would actually liberate the middle class and crack down on international corporations. Despite the populist rhetoric, the profiteers see the tea party movement as a pool to extract fundraising dollars and volunteers for Republican campaigns. Indeed, RNC Chairman Michael Steele, himself a former lobbyist, has said that he has an “expectation” that tea partiers loyally toe the Republican line.
Wall St Consultant Frank Luntz Pens Memo On How To Channel Economic Anxiety Into Protecting Wall St Abuses
Wall St Consultant Frank Luntz Pens Memo On How To Channel Economic Anxiety Into Protecting Wall St Abuses
Frank Luntz
The new memo instructs opponents of financial reform to simply lie about reform legislation, and to twist economic anxiety resulting from the recession into fear of any government effort to fix the underlying cause of the financial crisis. The most dishonest argument is that financial reform would “punish” taxpayers while rewarding “big banks and credit card companies.” In reality, top financial industry lobbyists are not only fighting proposed oversight regulations, but have said recently that they are opposed to “any regulation” at all.
Luntz, ever the publicity hound, leaks his memos out to the media to claim credit for the Republican charge against reforming Wall Street. While he is certainly a driving force behind much of the GOP misinformation, a closer look at his client list reveals that he is in fact being paid by the finance industry:
– Luntz client Ameriquest Mortgages: The proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) would eliminate predatory mortgages. Ameriquest, America’s “sub-prime leader,” has been prosecuted by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal for inflating property values so borrowers could get bigger loans, imposing upfront fees without reducing interest rates as promised, and intentionally deceiving lenders with hidden penalties and interest rates on final loan documents.
– Luntz clients Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns: Under proposed financial reform, big banks, like Luntz clients Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns, would face a new structure designed to police financial products, prohibit predatory ones, and require clear forms and disclosures. The CFPA would also help regulate hidden bank fees and other bank abuses.
– Luntz client American Express: The CFPA would regulate the credit card industry, preventing predatory interest rates and fees.
Nearly every attack recommended by Luntz is not grounded in reality. For instance, he calls for opponents of reform to label a CFPA head an “unaccountable” “czar.” But the legislation clearly states that the CFPA’s Director would be appointed by the President, and then confirmed by the Senate. Luntz also charges that reform advocates are behind “lobbyist loopholes” in the bill. However, the most controversial loophole was inserted by Rep. John Campbell (R-CA), whose amendment allows an exemption for auto dealers. Of course, Campbell still tried to kill financial reform once it arrived on the House floor.
Confusing the public is the point of Luntz’s work. In an interview explaining his smears against health reform, Luntz told the New York Times last year that it did not matter what the actual policy offered — he would still call it a “Washington takeover.”
Virginia Delegate Fighting To Invalidate Health Reform: Reform Is ‘Criminal,’ An Attempt To Take ‘Your Soul’
Virginia Delegate Fighting To Invalidate Health Reform: Reform Is ‘Criminal,’ An Attempt To Take ‘Your Soul’
Last month, ThinkProgress revealed that health insurance companies, through a corporate front group specializing in state legislature policy called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), have been orchestrating an effort to undermine health reform in the states. Virginia Del. Bob Marshall (R) has seized upon ALEC’s template “Health Care Freedom Act” legislation, and introduced his own “Virginia Health Care Freedom Act” to declare an individual mandate — a cornerstone of reform — unconstitutional. In an interview posted today, Marshall said the mandate reminded him of mobsters, and that national reform efforts are “criminal activity“:
“Mobsters used to offer ‘protection’ to business owners, so when Congress says that if individuals don’t become customers of businesses that contribute to them, to me that crosses the line. For me, it is hard to distinguish what is going on in Washington, D.C., from criminal activity.”
Marshall, whose campaign is being supported by much of the Virginia GOP establishment and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R), has fought bitterly to defeat reform. Speaking at a states’ rights rally in Richmond, Marshall declared, “this is a fight over whether you are a citizen or you are a serf”:
MARSHALL: This Obamacare is not a fight over health insurance. It’s not even a payback for political help. This is a fight over whether you are a citizen or you are a serf. It’s not your wallet that they want, it’s your soul, it’s your family. We are not going to allow this to happen. Don’t call these folks atheists, they believe in themselves.
Watch it:
Despite Marshall’s inflamed rhetoric in the former Confederate capital, the Massachusetts health system, which covers 98% of Bay State citizens and enjoys support from Republicans like Mitt Romney and Sen.-elect Scott Brown (R-MA), has an individual mandate.
Boehner Feigns Ignorance That His GOP Retreat Is Attended By Goldman Sachs, Other Corporate Lobbyists
Boehner Feigns Ignorance That His GOP Retreat Is Attended By Goldman Sachs, Other Corporate Lobbyists
This weekend, Republican leaders will convene at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore to plot strategy, socialize, and plan both legislative and campaign themes for the year. Yesterday morning, ThinkProgress caught up with House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH), who confirmed that the Congressional Institute — a nonprofit run by Republican corporate lobbyists — is sponsoring the retreat. Normally, such lobbyist-sponsored soirées would be illegal under House ethics rules. But by forming an ostensibly nonpartisan educational front called the Congressional Institute, lobbyists are able to skirt any such oversight. However, Boehner told ThinkProgress that he did not know if any lobbyists would be present at the retreat:
TP: For your retreat this weekend, is the Congressional Institute attending or sponsoring at all?
BOEHNER: They’ve always sponsored retreats for both Democrats and Republicans.
TP: Are any of their lobbyists attending this weekend?
BOEHNER: I don’t know. [...] I said I don’t know.
Watch it:
Boehner is wrong when he claims that the Congressional Institute sponsors Democratic retreats. According to the Politico, House Democratic retreats are not paid for by any special interest funds or the lobbyist-run Congressional Institute.
To fact-check Boehner’s sheepish reply that he simply didn’t know if lobbyists would be at the retreat, I visited the Renaissance hotel in Baltimore yesterday afternoon. Upon arriving at the front desk, I spoke to Patrick Deitz, a staff assistant for the Congressional Institute, who confirmed that Congressional Institute board member Michael Johnson was upstairs at the retreat, and that Dan Meyer, another board member, was on his way. Johnson, a lobbyist at the OB-C Group, touts himself as a “Republican heavyweight” whose firm represents the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, JP Morgan Chase, and the health insurance giant WellPoint. Meyer, a longtime Republican operative and chairman of the Congressional Institute, works for the Duberstein Group, where he represents BP, Goldman Sachs, HealthNet, and AHIP, the umbrella trade group for the health insurance industry. Meyer’s colleague at his lobbying firm, Steve Champlin, urged insurance industry executives last year to fight ruthlessy to kill health reform, proclaiming, don’t “give comfort to the enemy who is down.”
After informing Deitz and other Congressional Institute staffers that I work for ThinkProgress and wanted to interview some of the lobbyists in attendance, another staffer, named Mary, told me to leave the building or else I would be arrested. Mary, who refused to give her business card or last name, told Deitz not to tell me his last name either. During the course of the conversation with Congressional Institute staffers, a gaggle of men dressed in business attire discussed technology policy behind me. One of them had a name tag that read John Sampson; who according to his LinkedIn profile is the chief lobbyist for Microsoft.
Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that ThinkProgress will be able to attend, or even approach the building, for the lobbyist-organized GOP retreat. If we could, we might witness quite a reunion. Many of the lobbyists running the Congressional Institute are former top staffers to Newt Gingrich, who is addressing the gathering. Here is a picture of Congressional Institute board members Meyer and Arne Christenson — now a lobbyist for American Express — plotting strategy for Gingrich back in 1995.
Responding to the State of the Union, Boehner was quick to attack the administration for supposedly lacking transparency. But for a retreat planning public policy, Boehner apparently prefers to keep the corporate lobbyists involved behind closed doors — and even refuses to acknowledge their attendance.
Rep. King Offers Conspiracy To Support O’Keefe: ‘Seems Really Convenient That This Would Happen Now’
Rep. King Offers Conspiracy To Support O’Keefe: ‘Seems Really Convenient That This Would Happen Now’
On Monday, conservative activist James O’Keefe and three others were arrested by the FBI and “charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.” The gang was caught in what appeared to be an attempt to wiretap Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) office in New Orleans. O’Keefe, who had been trained by several well-funded conservative institutes and had been working for right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart, gained notoriety for dressing up as a pimp and videotaping ACORN staffers offering to help the supposed pimp and his prostitutes secure funding for a brothel.
Last October, 31 House Republicans introduced a congressional resolution honoring O’Keefe for his efforts against ACORN. Rep. Steve King (R-IA), one of the resolution’s cosponsors, has fought to ban funding to an ACORN affiliate and has been one of O’Keefe’s most vocal fans. At a press conference, ThinkProgress asked King if he would withdraw his support for the resolution, given news of O’Keefe’s arrest. But King dodged the question repeatedly, at one point defending O’Keefe, then later suggesting his resolution praising the conservative activist is frivolous compared to what Congress should be debating right now. At one point, the Iowa congressman floated the possibility of a conspiracy against O’Keefe, noting, “It seems really convenient that this would happen now”:
TP: Several of you, and I think some of your colleagues signed onto a resolution honoring James O’Keefe, the conservative activist who was in the news recently because he was caught trying to wiretap Sen. Landreu’s office.
KING: you are innocent until proven guilty and it’s off topic so I won’t– [...] You know, I think that — I wanted to dig into that and find out some more details that I could pick up. Some of the behind the scenes information, because it seems really convenient that this would happen now. [...]
TP: Congressman King, I’m just trying to figure this out. You pushed an effort to defund ACORN, but at the same time you are saying James O’Keefe is innocent until proven guilty. You’ve already passed judgement on ACORN without a trial.
KING: We pass judgment all the time [...] He has been picked up and the allegations are that he committed an act. Now he is innocent until proven guilty. ACORN needs to be investigated.
TP: And if Pelosi forced a vote on the O’Keefe resolution would you vote on it.
KING: I’d want to see the language. Why would we focus on this?
Watch the video produced by Victor Zapanta:
It’s odd that King isn’t aware of the O’Keefe resolution’s language seeing that he cosponsored it. Also, while downplaying O’Keefe’s purported attempt to wiretap Landrieu, King brushed off the alleged crime as simply an “act.” If O’Keefe was attempting to wiretap the Senator — a suspicion reported in the press given the fact his cohorts were caught tampering with phones while posing as telephone company employees — he would be accessing private conversations that might deal with Landrieu’s sensitive work on the Homeland Security Committee, which deals with matters of terrorism and national security.
Wall Street Bankers And Investors Fund New Media Platform For Gov. Bob McDonnell’s SOTU Response
Wall Street Bankers And Investors Fund New Media Platform For Gov. Bob McDonnell’s SOTU Response
Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) will give the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union response tonight. For his speech, McDonnell has prepared an elaborate rally in the Virginia House of Delegates, a website, a live webcast of the event, a live twitter feed, and other social media tools. The online platform to broadcast the speech was launched this morning at “soturesponse.com.”
The website, as well as the rally, is funded by McDonnell’s political action committee, Opportunity Virginia PAC. According to disclosures provided by the Virginia Public Access Project, the vast majority of the money for the PAC has been provided by the financial industry:
When McDonnell opposes Obama’s proposed efforts break up big banks, regulate the financial sector, and impose a financial responsibility fee to financial institutions which helped cause the current recession, it should be noted that the very industry McDonnell is fighting to defend underwrote the platform on which he is speaking, both virtually and in Richmond.
Lobbyists For Foreign Corporations Begin Fight To Ensure Foreign Money Can Influence American Elections
Lobbyists For Foreign Corporations Begin Fight To Ensure Foreign Money Can Influence American Elections
Last week, the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision invalidated a sixty-three year-old ban on corporate money in federal elections. The ruling gives corporations essentially the same rights as individuals in their ability to spend freely on political advertising, even if those advertisements explicitly advocate the election or defeat of a federal candidate. One consequence of this decision is that foreign corporations with U.S.-subsidiaries are likely to be able to now spend unlimited amounts on American elections.
Congressional Democrats, led by Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), are drafting legislation to curb the influence of foreign corporations and foreign governments following the decision. However, the National Journal reported today that corporate lobbyists representing foreign corporations are already organizing to defeat such a proposal. The Organization for International Investment, a trade group representing foreign banks, oil companies, and other foreign corporations operating in the United States, “lashed out” at Van Hollen’s proposals. “The concern over foreign influence in our political system is a red herring,” said Nancy McLernon, the head of OFII.
McLernon — who previously worked for Citizens for a Sound Economy, a stealth “grassroots” corporate lobbying group now known as Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks — is wrong to assert that the danger of foreign lobbying is simply a distraction. For instance, Saudi Arabia has already signaled that the progressive effort to build a clean energy American economy is its “biggest threat”:
Saudi Arabia’s economy depends on oil exports so stands to be one of the biggest losers in any pact that curbs oil demand by penalizing carbon emissions. “It’s one of the biggest threats that we are facing,” said Muhammed al-Sabban, head of the Saudi delegation to U.N. talks on climate change and a senior economic adviser to the Saudi oil ministry. [...] Climate talks posed a bigger threat, Sabban said, and subsidies for the development of renewable energy were distorting market economics in the sector, he said.
Presumably because of the Citizens United ruling, Saudi Arabian-owned subsidiaries operating in the United States can now spend unlimited amounts advocating the defeat of candidates who support clean energy legislation. According to a ThinkProgress investigation, foreign-oil backed lobbyists in America are already instigating efforts to kill clean energy legislation. Fortunately, President Obama is expected to address the issue of foreign corporations influencing American elections in his State of the Union address tonight.
Why Scott Brown Cannot Be Trusted To Work Proactively To Reform Health Care
Why Scott Brown Cannot Be Trusted To Work Proactively To Reform Health Care
Scott Brown meets with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Now, Brown is preparing to defeat reform by using the same deceptive charm he employed on the voters of Massachusetts. Brown has been profiled and praised as a possible “swing vote” to work with Democrats to bring a new health reform package. Speaking to the press alongside Brown last week, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) struck a conciliatory tone, asserting that Brown might work hand in hand with Democrats to move forward a reform bill on “things here that we can all agree on.” Yesterday on Meet the Press, White House advisor Valerie Jarrett said Brown is “looking forward to coming to Washington and working with the Democrats” on a health reform bill.
But Democrats who are counting on Brown seem to be deluding themselves. Brown has no intention of ensuring a new health reform bill is crafted and passed by Congress. In addition to repeated promises not to make any “Washington deals,” Brown set a criteria for health reform that would make any effort to work with him impossible:
– Brown campaigned on the explicit promise to “be the 41st vote” against Obama’s agenda, and that he would “actually stop” Obama’s domestic reforms. On health reform, he said he wants to “start over” from scratch.
– Brown promised to oppose a health reform bill with any new financing mechanism: he said he opposes any “higher fees, higher taxes.”
– Reform is currently financed in part by cutting waste out of Medicare. Brown has campaigned against such cuts.
– Brown opposes health insurance regulations, wants to deregulate even the Massachusetts system. He told WBUR that current regulations enjoyed in Massachusetts — like ending denial of preexisting conditions — are “burdensome” and “drive up the price of insurance policies.”
– Brown is opposed to subsidizing health reform in poorer states, even though the Massachusetts health reform plan he supports is financed by $385 million in annual federal Medicaid funds.
Any reform, no matter how small or incremental, would be seen as a betrayal to Brown’s suburban and tea party base.
Last year, the insurance industry and their allies in Congress successfully bogged down health reform by fooling Democrats into working with the “gang of six” to develop a bipartisan solution. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who promised to work on a solution, was later revealed to be a dishonest broker, secretly working with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and others to obstruct the process and misinform the public about the legislation. Will progressives fall into the same trap, and abandon the Senate version — which could be passed through the House and signed into law — in favor of restarting the months-long legislative process and hoping to work with Brown?
Brown victory party featured flag calling for a ‘second’ revolution, tea party-inspired civil war.
Brown victory party featured flag calling for a ‘second’ revolution, tea party-inspired civil war.
State Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), who won the special election to represent Massachusetts in the United States Senate yesterday, celebrated his win at the Boston Park Plaza last night. ThinkProgress attended the event and observed a variant of the original revolutionary war flag, which depicts a roman numeral II within the original thirteen stars, widely distributed throughout Brown party. Jeff McQueen, who designed the flag and sells it through his own business “USRevolution2,” explained that the flags means, “REVOLUTION . . . ROUND 2! I also thought the ‘II’ could have two meanings: ‘Second’ American Revolution and ‘Second’ Amendment.” McQueen, a tea party organizer, has repeatedly used tea party websites to call for a revolution. In one of his posts, he explains that the country would be better served by splitting states between Democratic and Republican:
We are now as divided as America was in the 1860s. When two people find they can no longer communicate, while living under the same roof, they often split apart and go there seperate ways. So what if . . . we took the United States and just split it in half . . . 24 states become The United States of the Democrats and 24 states become The United States of the Republicans (including Ron Paul supporters and Libertarians etc . . .). California and New York can be split in half and go the the side they choose.
Watch Brown supporters wave second revolution war flags at his victory party:
ThinkProgress also observed the same flags waved at Brown rallies in Boston, Worcester, and Hyannis.
Carl Cameron Gets Chummy With Brown Supporters, Ducks Question Of Fox News’ Ethics
Carl Cameron Gets Chummy With Brown Supporters, Ducks Question Of Fox News’ Ethics
As Media Matters has documented, Fox News has boosted the campaign of State Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), the Republican running for special election to the U.S. Senate today. On multiple occasions, Fox News has provided a soapbox for Brown to solicit money and volunteers, and Fox News hosts have appealed for viewers to support Brown’s campaign.
At a Brown campaign rally last night, ThinkProgress observed Fox News campaign reporter Carl Cameron — who has shadowed Brown this weekend — relaxing after the speech with Brown campaign volunteers, hugging staffers, and autographing Brown for Senate campaign materials. But when ThinkProgress approached Cameron to question him about Fox News’ journalism ethics, he ducked and ran away from the event:
TP: When Scott Brown goes on Fox News and he solicits volunteers and –
CAMERON: Dude, I’m on a deadline. I can’t –
TP: Doesn’t that raise ethical questions?
Watch it:
Rather than discussing Brown’s stances on policy (like privatizing Social Security, regulating Wall Street abuses, or why he voted to cut emission standards if he doesn’t believe carbon emissions cause climate change), Fox News has simply served as a forum to generate national support for the Brown campaign:
– On the Jan. 12 edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, Brown said, “people can go to BrownForUSSenate.com, they can learn more about that and how to help with donating and volunteering.”
– On the Jan. 11 edition of Fox News’ On the Record, Brown told Fox viewers where to find his campaign’s “money bomb right now that’s hitting.”
– On Jan. 8 edition of Fox News’ Hannity, Brown told Fox viewers, “If people are kind of fed up…they can go to brownforussenate.com.”
Fox News contributor Dick Morris, whose political action committee Republican Trust PAC has run ads in support of Brown, has also fundraised on-air in support of Brown. This morning, Fox Nation and Fox Business are running with headlines about how a “Brown win could cause huge stock rally.”
Brown stands by supporting a tax-subsidized golf course over 9/11 rescue workers.
Brown stands by supporting a tax-subsidized golf course over 9/11 rescue workers.
State Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate special election on Tuesday, voted on Oct. 17, 2001 to deny financial aid to Red Cross rescue workers who had volunteered with 9/11 recovery efforts. As a state representative at the time, Brown was one out of only three legislators who had opposed the overwhelmingly bipartisan measure. As ThinkProgress reported on Saturday, at the same time Brown was voting against the 9/11 rescue workers bill, he sponsored House Bill 4423, a measure to provide a tax-subsidized bond to build a golf course in Newport, a town in his district. Brown, earlier this weekend, told ThinkProgress that he opposed the rescue worker money because of the state’s fiscal condition and because he had his own “priorities.” Given the revelation that Brown fought for a golf course over the rescue worker aid, ThinkProgress again approached Brown for comment today:
TP: Mr. Brown, in 2001 when you voted against financial aid for 9/11 rescue workers, you were pushing a bill for a tax subsidized golf course in your district. Can you explain that?
BROWN: I’m not sure what you’re referring to. [...]
TP: Are you going to explain that vote?
BROWN: Number two, we were in a financial difficulty and we couldn’t afford it unfortunately.
TP: But you could afford a tax-subsidized bond for a golf course?
BROWN: We had to obviously take care of the people of Massachusetts who needed to stay employed.
Watch it:
Brown’s golf course bill passed on November 30, 2001, a few weeks after he voted to kill the 9/11 rescue worker financial aid. While the golf course construction certainly kept people employed, Brown’s self-professed interest in protecting the American homeland doesn’t extend to the rescue workers who rushed to the site of the twin towers after the attacks of 9/11.
Scott Brown Denies Asserting That Obama Was Born Out Of Wedlock, Refuses To Apologize
Scott Brown Denies Asserting That Obama Was Born Out Of Wedlock, Refuses To Apologize
Earlier this weekend, David Kravitz of the blog BlueMassGroup uncovered a 2008 video of State Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Tuesday’s special election, speculating that then-candidate Barack Obama was born out of wedlock. Today, ThinkProgress caught up with Brown to explain his comments, and asked if he would apologize for the accusation:
TP: You said that he, his mother wasn’t married when [Obama] was born. You’re not apologizing for that video?
BROWN: Excuse me, now I wanna answer this question. I was asked whether the president’s parents were married. I said I didn’t know. That was the extent of the question.
But Brown was never asked about the marital status of Obama’s parents. During the 2008 video, Brown volunteered the assertion that Obama was born out of wedlock:
BROWN: Barack’s mom had him when she was what, 18 years old?
GUEST: And married!
BROWN: Well, I don’t know about that. [laughing]
Watch it:
The unfounded smear that Obama was born out of wedlock emerged from the far-right birther movement, which claims that Obama was also born in Kenya, rather than Hawaii. Instead of backtracking and apologizing for his smear, Brown lied and said he was merely responding to a question about Obama’s parents.
Brown has postured as a moderate — telling the public on Saturday, “He’s my President and I agree with him I think on more issues than Martha Coakley.” But the truth is, Brown has courted the far-right tea party movement, gaining support from anti-immigrant hate groups and nativist political organizations. Brown doubts the science of global warming, and opposes health reform, energy reform, and financial reform. So far as ThinkProgress has learned, Coakley supports Obama’s agenda of reform, and has never questioned the marital status of the president’s parents.
Red Cross financial aid Scott Brown voted to kill now assisting Massachusetts relief efforts in Haiti.
Red Cross financial aid Scott Brown voted to kill now assisting Massachusetts relief efforts in Haiti.
State Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), the Republican candidate for the special U.S. Senate election Tuesday, voted against a bill to provide financial assistance to 9/11 rescue workers who had volunteered to rush to the site of the twin towers after the terrorist attack in 2001. The measure, which was opposed by only two other legislators in addition to Brown, provided paid “leaves of absence for certain Red Cross employees participating in Red Cross emergencies.” Despite Brown’s efforts to kill the legislation, it passed along overwhelmingly bipartisan lines and is now helping to compensate Massachusetts Red Cross employees currently deploying to Haiti to provide emergency assistance after the devastating earthquake. Asked yesterday by ThinkProgress why he opposed the 2001 measure for rescue workers, Brown stated that he had his “own priorities first” at the time. As ThinkProgress reported, during the same period that Brown opposed the financial aid to 9/11 rescue workers, he sponsored a bill to provide a tax-subsidized bond to build a golf course in his district, and voted for across the board corporate tax subsidies.
Brown Justifies Denying 9/11 Rescue Workers Aid: ‘We Had To Take Care Of Our Own Priorities First’
Brown Justifies Denying 9/11 Rescue Workers Aid: ‘We Had To Take Care Of Our Own Priorities First’
As the Plum Line reported yesterday, State Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate special election on Tuesday, voted on October 17, 2001 to deny financial aid to Red Cross rescue workers who had volunteered with 9/11 recovery efforts. As a state representative at the time, Brown was one out of only three legislators who had opposed the overwhelmingly bipartisan measure.
At a campaign rally today in Hyannis, ThinkProgress caught up with Brown for comment on why he voted against the measure:
TP: In 2001, you voted against 9/11 recovery workers, giving them aid, do you have any comment on this story?
BROWN: Yes, it was a time when our budget was down. We had a lot of cuts unfortunately, and we had to take care of our own priorities first.
Watch it:
During the same month Brown was voting down efforts to support 9/11 rescue workers, he was pushing a bill to appropriate a tax-subsidized bond to build a golf course in Norfolk, a city in his district. “Priorities,” indeed.
Also during the same period, he was busy fighting for tax subsidies for corporate interests. According to a 2002 article in the Lowell Sun, Brown scored a perfect pro-corporate tax subsidy rating in the months following his anti-9/11 rescue workers vote:
House members who supported decreasing the minimum corporate excise tax which was rejected were also given credit. Positive marks were also given to representatives who voted in favor of term limits for the speaker, voted against increasing the auto excise tax, and voted in favor of freezing the unemployment insurance rates. [...] Rep. Scott Brown, a Wrentham Republican, and Rep. Brad Hill, an Ipswich Republican, were the other two lawmakers to receive 100 percent taxpayer friendly ratings.
For Brown’s “priorities,” golf courses and corporations are above the Massachusetts Red Cross volunteers who rushed to the site of the twin towers after the terror attack.
Wall Street Investors Lavish Scott Brown’s Campaign With Money, Get Out The Vote Operations
Wall Street Investors Lavish Scott Brown’s Campaign With Money, Get Out The Vote Operations
Scott Brown and Rudy Giuliani
Brown’s defense of the financial industry has not been ignored by Wall Street. Wall Street’s two largest political enforcers are also out fighting to elect him:
– The Wall Street front group FreedomWorks is mobilizing get out the vote efforts for Brown this weekend. FreedomWorks organized the very first tea party protests, and has used its extensive staff and resources to mobilize rallies and advocacy campaigns on behalf of corporate interests. Dick Armey, who as a corporate lobbyist represented AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch during the bailouit, is the leader of FreedomWorks. FreedomWorks is also funded and chaired by Steve Forbes and Frank Sands of Sands Capital Management.
– The Wall Street front group Club for Growth is strongly “boosting” Brown and is expected to run ads in support for him. According to recent disclosures, the Club for Growth is funded by a $1.4 million dollar donation from investor Stephen Jacksons of Stephens Groups Inc, a $1.4 million dollar donation from broker Richard Gilder, and $210,000-$630,000 donations from at least 10 other investors and financial industry professionals. The Club is also supporting a slate of candidates to repeal health reform, while its other endorsed candidates have opposed a financial truth commission.
According to a ThinkProgress analysis of Brown’s latest Federal Elections Commission disclosures (part 1, part 2, part 3), filed on Jan. 8 and 11, business executives and Wall Street executives have lavished Brown’s campaign coffers with 11th hour contributions:
A report on financial industry compensation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo found that large financial corporations — including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Citigroup — spend between 25% to 50% of total revenue on paying out executive compensation. While the finance industry often refuses to offer lines of credit to American businesses struggling in this economy, they operate largely as vehicles to make bankers richer.
Brown casts himself as an everyday man, telling reporters “it’s me against the machine.” In fact, Brown is teaming up with Wall Street bankers to kill financial reform and preserve a system of Bush-era unfettered capitalism.
(ThinkProgress interns Nick McClellan and DJ Carella contributed research to this post.)
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