General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLobbyists are selling filibusters to Republicans (and Mary Landrieu)
The interesting dynamic for me is, how money in politics has incentivized this contraction of democratic governance. Here are just a few examples of how powerful industries have usurped the normal gears of government, and used Senate obstruction to push policies that punish ordinary Americans and the environment:
According to a new report from Public Campaign Action Fund, Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has collected a hundreds of thousands in funds from the same industries he has protected with filibusters, particularly from oil companies and the finance sector. McConnell has led filibusters to protect oil subsidies, to block efforts to mitigate the mortgage crisis, and against campaign disclosure reforms.
Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) placed a blanket hold on every Obama nominee to force the administration to accept a Northrop Grumman contract to build a $35 billion refueling tanker in Mobile, Alabama. Northrop Grumman is a major Shelby donor.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/172087/lobbyists-who-profit-senate-dysfunction-fight-filibuster-reform#
Landrieu blocked Obama's nominee for the Office of Management and Budget to extract a promise from the administration to allow more oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
okaawhatever
(9,469 posts)ananda
(28,885 posts)..
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)There are actually firms on K street, like Endgame Strategies, who specialize in this. If a corporation doesn't like a proposed regulation or law, these firms will match the corp up with Republican senators who will filibuster for them. For a price, of course.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
annabanana
(52,791 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)People didn't used to get wealthy, rapidly and without good reason, like McConnell when they went to Congress. The GOP removed ethics and changed the laws to help their donors.
They aren't hiding it now. They are extorting all of the country through the instrument defined to stop them by regulation. The public has had its mind brainwashed very well.
Our only hope is to see if those who are so anti - government, regulation, protections and all the rest see they are losing their country to these unaccountable entities, and not to the Obama bogeyman they've been taught to hate and fear, but to the masters of the people they voted for.
A portion do profit very well directly from this state of affairs. They are not in the dark about what they are doing and will never change their minds.
They will continue to work with these forces to destroy all government as they gladly carry home the spoils of this war.
Morphia
(49 posts)There is also no real incentive to stop it either because it is easy money for the politicians.
They can give lip service to it and pocket all the lobbyist money.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)The event had a single goal: convincing well-heeled donors to invest in a $40 million "surge" to combat the flood of big money into American politics. That money, to be raised over five years, according to internal planning documents obtained by Mother Jones, will be funneled through the Fund for the Republic (FFR), a 501(c)(3) charity founded in September 2012. Nick Penniman, a progressive fundraiser who runs the fund and helped organize the "Crony Democracy" event, says his group will dole out those funds to groups involved in lobbying, grassroots advocacy, litigation, and electoral work aimed at strengthening ethics and campaign finance reform laws.
With an eye toward the 2014 and 2016 elections, AFR plans to fund groups working to defeat politicians who oppose campaign finance reformsuch as Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)and to elect supporters of the cause. Documents provided to Mother Jones say this political work will be funded "primarily" by AFR, which, as a so-called social-welfare group, can engage in electoral activity as long as these efforts don't eat up a majority of the group's money and time.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/09/democracy-alliance-fund-for-republic-40-million-surge-reform
Soros has threatened to primary any Democrat who doesn't support campaign finance reform.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)malaise
(269,219 posts)None can deny the empirical evidence. When the Supremes empower the corporations, the majority in the Senate have to protect democracy - great rules change. Go Dems.