"This is lavish and corrupt corporate welfare at its most insidious ..."

[Scuba]

email from Russ Feingold ...




Subject: Give it back, Amgen

Scuba,

With every penny of spending so tightly contested during the last-minute "fiscal cliff" deal -- even threatening middle-class earned benefits -- how and why did pharmaceutical giant Amgen end up with a $500 million giveaway from Medicare?

Hint: Because Amgen leveraged 74 Washington, D.C., lobbyists, the revolving door between former top Senate staff and big corporate jobs, and massive contributions to the campaigns of influential senators.

This is lavish and corrupt corporate welfare at its most insidious, and it's not just a problem with Washington. We may not have our own lobbyists, but Amgen owes it to us -- their customers -- to use their own expensive lobbyists to give back the very giveaway they just wheedled out of Congress.

And if we build enough public pressure, we can make it impossible for Amgen to ignore.

Sign our petition telling Amgen Chairman and CEO Robert Bradway to give back the taxpayer dollars his company extorted in the recent fiscal deal.

http://links.e.progressivesunited.org/ctt?kn=5&ms=NTEyMTgwOAS2&r=MTY4MTkwODkyNjcS1&b=0&j=MzA4NzI5MzMwS0&mt=1&rt=0


Amgen's strategy to achieve this coup was certainly brilliant -- and a perfect example of the kind of corruption that permeates our government and cripples public trust.

On one side of the revolving door, Amgen hired lobbyists who had been chiefs of staff to the senators most able to do Amgen's bidding: Finance Committee leaders Max Baucus (MT) and Orrin Hatch (UT) along with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY).

On the other side, one of the top aides assembling the bill for Senator Hatch was a former Amgen analyst -- and he met with representatives from his old employer in constructing the unfair provision.

But that's not all. Amgen's PAC and employees have spent huge amounts -- roughly $60,000 to $75,000 -- to fund each of the campaigns of these three influential senators.

This is a textbook case of a corporation that, at a minimum, appears to be buying the policies that give it a special break. Their lobbyists are more connected and influential, so they get whatever they want. But we have the power to expose their shady move and urge them to do the right thing.

There's no guarantee we'll win, but we have a chance. We don't have to allow this sort of practice to remain routine.

Tell Amgen Chairman and CEO Robert Bradway to relinquish the windfall his company unfairly received at taxpayer expense.

This battle comes down to our core mission: to restore the power of people over the power of big corporations. They won't be expecting us to confront them so directly. Let's seize this opportunity to shine a spotlight on some of the worst corporate abuses in our democracy.

Thank you for uniting as a progressive,



Russ Feingold
Founder
Progressives United

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. K&R SSDD n/t

[woo me with science]

2. kick

[idwiyo]

3. K&R for visibility

[PA Democrat]

4. K & R. THESE are the real "takers" in America.

[sakabatou]

5. Welfare for the corporations, nothing for those who need it.

[Oilwellian]

6. K&R&Signed

[indepat]

7. Lavish and corrupt corporate welfare is what a corporatist government does best.

A corporatist government then pays for such lavish and corrupt corporate welfare by reneging on a portion of the benefits earned by social security and Medicare beneficiaries, i.e., it's something akin to rubbing their noses in the insidious excrement which is an odious by-product of the blatant malfeasance.