From The Santa Cruz Sentinel, 3/26/06:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/March/26/edit/stories/04edit.htm
Corruption runs deep in GOP
By Don Monkerud
Republicans claim that saying their party fosters "a culture of
corruption" is an exaggeration and merely politics as usual, but
closer examination reveals that this Congress may indeed be the most
corrupt in history.
The change in Washington's culture began in 1995 with Newt Gingrich
and his "Contract For America."
With Tom DeLay's selection as majority whip, the GOP began the "K
Street Project," which pressured trade associations and lobbying firms
to hire only Republicans and to contribute to GOP campaigns if they
wanted access to Congress.
Since then, lobbying has grown rapidly:
The number of federal lobbyists has more than doubled since 2000 to
34,750.
In 1996, lobbyists spent $800 million, but the Center for Public
Integrity found that they have spent nearly $13 billion since 1998 to
influence Congress.
In February 2006, PoliticalMoneyLine revealed that lobbying groups
broke all previous records, spending $1.165 billion in the first six
months of 2005.
That breaks down to almost $6.5 million a day or $540,000 per hour in
a 12-hour day, an 8 percent increase over the second half of 2004.
Corruption permeates today's "free enterprise" system, producing the
world's largest business scandals:
Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Adelphia, Tyco, ImClone, Merrill
Lynch, Qwest and Arthur Andersen.
In February, American International Group, one of the world's largest
insurance companies, was fined $1.64 billion for fraud, bid-rigging
and improper accounting.
The same week, Nortel Networks was fined $2.4 billion for an
accounting scandal.
News of insider deals, kickbacks, illegal fees and other corrupt
business practices fill the financial pages.
Business corruption also permeates the top levels of government.
President Bush used insider information to sell his oil company stock
before it plummeted;
***** Cheney was gifted millions in Halliburton retirement benefits he
wasn't entitled to;
and Senate Majority Bill Frist R-Tenn. abruptly sold millions of
dollars in stock in his family's hospital business just before an
unfavorable public announcement.
Former House Majority leader Tom DeLay is under indictment in Texas
for illegal fund raising and GOP leaders rewarded him with a seat on
the Appropriations Committee as well as on a subcommittee that
oversees the Justice Department after jettisoning him as their leader.
DeLay, who owns an exterminator company in Texas, was fined three
times by the IRS for failing to pay payroll and income taxes and paid
court settlements three times for cheating business partners.
The Republican Party is the party of business so it's no wonder that
such corruption characterizes the party.
Small businesses are also corrupt.
The Commerce Department released a report in February revealing that
Americans failed to report income of over a trillion dollars on their
2003 tax returns -- a 37 percent increase since 2000.
Unreported income and improper deductions shortchanged taxes some $345
billion in 2001.
Small businesses, investors and farmers cheated the most -- 50 times
more than wage earners, although the department didn't investigate
corporate tax cheating.
Lobbying is popular because it pays off.
One lobbying firm, the Carmen Group, even publicizes the benefits and
costs of its clients' fees.
In 2004, they collected $11 million in fees and delivered $1.2 billion
in assistance to their clients.
Several years ago, 60 corporations, including Pfizer, Hewlett-Packard
and Altria, decided to spend $1.6 million to lobby Congress to avoid
taxes by creating a special low tax rate on foreign profits.
Stymied at first, the corporations were finally successful when Bush
signed a bill in 2004 to reduce taxes on foreign profits from 35
percent to 5 percent.
Last year, these companies returned $300 billion in foreign earnings
to the U.S., providing the corporations with more than $100 billion in
tax savings.
By "influencing" Congress with gifts, trips, campaign funding, jobs
for relatives and other inducements, lobbyists induce legislators to
slip pet projects - called "earmarks" -- into the federal budget to
benefit clients.
In 1998, when the GOP took control of Congress, there were 4,219
earmarks a year.
Under GOP control, earmarks quadrupled to 15,877 last year, worth $27
billion.
Earmarks escape oversight and scrutiny by being inserted into the
budget behind closed doors and omitted from the text of the
legislation.
According to Congressional rules, this is perfectly legal; everyone
does it.
Taxpayers expect little from Congressional ethics committees.
In 2005, faced with GOP Majority Leader Tom DeLay's indictment for
illegal campaign fund raising, the GOP weakened ethics rules in place
since 1968.
Public Citizen, a Congressional watchdog group found that "Neither
ethics committee House or Senate has much of a track record for ethics
enforcement."
How long will the corruption last and how deep will it go?
The GOP is in firm control of the Supreme Court, the White House, the
House and the Senate, and voting districts have been gerrymandered so
few seats are expected to change hands in elections.
Without a major change in voting behavior, the Republican Party is
likely to remain in charge and government corruption will continue to
set new records.
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No. Don't look for any of this in the "Liberal" media. They've gotta
protect them that pays them.
Harry
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