Now Is The Time To Outlaw PACs and Lobbyists

Lobbyists have always had power, but super lobbyist Grover Norquist is an example of how dangerously crippling to our government that power has become. Backed by the multi-million dollar organization Americans For Tax Reform, Norquist is considered by many to be the most powerful man in Washington. The supercommittee tasked with finding a plan to reduce the national deficit by 1.2 trillion dollars over 10 years was crippled by the pledge that the Republican members had made to Norquist to not raise taxes under any circumstances. This should be an eye-opening example of the insidious influence the lobbyists and campaign contributions have on our political process.

This election year will be more influenced than ever by the Super PACS that have formed after the ridiculous Citizens United decision was made by the Supreme Court that allows corportations and unions to spend unlimited sums of money for political messages. They are allowed to donate unlimited sums of money to nonprofit organizations (such as Norquists Americans For Tax Reform) or trade associations (unions) which can then spend huge sums of money advertising.

If ever there was as time that we need to look into the issue of campaign reform it is now.  Robert Steele. a former spy, has urged Occupy Wall Street to make this their most important central issue that they take to the people. I agree with him that this should be their cause. He is pushing for an Electoral Reform Act of 2012  that would eliminate corporations from contributing in any form (including individual contributions from employees) to any political campaign. All air time and media print space would be free and equal to all candidates.

This would be a start. We need strong laws that get rid of the domineering influence that special interest groups have on our government, corporate and otherwise. I think we need to go to a system where all presidential elections are paid for only out of the Federal Presidential Election Campaign Fund, and contributions are limited to $10.00/person. Lobbyists should be done away with. The idea of lobbying was to make sure that the people could petition the government, but it has become twisted and no longer serves its original intent. If we take these steps, the true voice of the people will finally be restored instead of the influence of overly powerful groups.

Super Committee Announces Failure

So the Super Committee just announced its failure, and the blame game begins. I think that the foolish pledge Republicans made to Grover Norquist to not raise any taxes is the main reason that negotiations could not be made.

John Kerry stated: "The pledge to Grover Norquist keeps coming up.  Grover has been the 13th member of the (super committee) without being there. I can't tell you how often we hear about the pledge."

So the pledge to one man superseded the pledge that our congressmen made to America.  (see more in my article Get Grover Norquist Out Of Our Government!)

I am not surprised at this failure.  We have a dysfunctional government that can't seem to solve any of our problems at a crucial time in our country's history.  The members of the Super Committee just couldn't rise above being politicians, and act as concerned Americans for the real problems that this country is facing.  So the stock market responded by falling 248 points.  I'm surprised that it wasn't more, but we still have time to see that happen.

The Super Committee and this Congress and Senate have let America down, and we could be facing some tough times ahead because of their failure.

Rick Perry Shows Serious Lack Of Involvement In His Own Issues

I believe that what we saw from Rick Perry in the last Republican debate was much worse than a senior moment.  I think that his inability to remember all three of the government departments that he wants to totally eliminate - the Department of Commerce, the Department of Education and .....

Oh, yeah - the Department of Energy ends up to be the missing one that he would doom to extinction.

Wouldn't you think that his mind would be full of the evil policies that these malicious government agencies do that cause him to want to get rid of them?  In the case of the Department of Energy, wouldn't you think that somewhere in his mind, if he really know what energy policies the Department of Energy promoted that caused him such angst, that the word energy would have popped into his head, causing him to remember the department's name?

I think that Rick Perry has little investment in what he was saying, and that it was merely policy that had been fed to him before the debate.  This is why he couldn't recall the name - lack of knowledge, lack of investment, lack of real caring.

Republicans May Offer Tax Reform To Raise Revenue In Trade For Lowering Taxes On the Rich

The Republicans on the super committee have reportedly offered a plan to raise revenues that includes putting a cap on itemized  tax exemptions that most middle class tax payers benefit from such as the write off on home mortgages in return for lowering the tax rate on the everyone, including reducing taxes on the wealthy from 35% to 28%.  Democrats are rejecting the offer, and calling it a joke.

Seems to me that once again, Republicans are offering up plans that benefit the wealthiest the most.  Those who gain the most from the current exemptions such as mortgage interest and child tax credits are the lower income and middle income Americans.  If you take these exemptions away, they will feel the most impact.  Do those earning over $250,000 really need their taxes reduced?  Most people think not.  I would have to see the details of the offer, but initially, it looks like a bad deal.  

It looks as if this plan is dead anyhow, since the Democrats have strongly rejected it.  Will the super committee be able to come up with some kind of compromise soon?  Let's hope so.

Will the Super Committee Do Their Job?

The so called congressional “super committee” of 6 Democrats and 6 Republicans has been holed up in secrecy since they were assigned the task of coming up with a way to cut at least 1.2 trillion dollars over 10 years by November 23^rd. There have been two public broadcasts of the hearings, but in general the public hasn't gotten to see what is going on. However, lobbyists have been freely accessing committee members. In fact, the committee has received nearly 180,000 submissions from lawmakers, advocacy groups and ordinary Americans.

So will they be able to do their job and come up with some reasonable recommendations by the November 23^rd deadline? At this point it is looking very doubtful. The Republicans want to only make cuts to the budget, mainly to programs like social security, medicare and education. They insist on NO tax increases. NONE. To my knowledge, they remain immovable on that point. So how can they possibly come to any agreement?  The Democrats have offered plans with significant cuts in social security and medicare, but only if taxes on the wealthy are increased. So here we are at the same old impasse that we have been at for what seems like forever.

So this not so super committee will probably fail in its duty to find some reasonable compromise that both parties can live with simply because the Republicans will not budge about raising ANY taxes.  This is a ridiculous stance to take at a time when the country needs to get serious and not only cut spending but increase revenues as well.

If the committee  fails, there will be automatic cuts (sequestration) that will happen in 2013. The biggest cuts will be in the defense budget (about $60 billion a year) and Medicaid.  Tax rates will go back to the Clinton era taxes, since the Bush tax cuts will expire.   Just as S&P had lowered our credit rating because Congress didn't enact a clear debt reduction plan, Moody and Fitch could follow suit, and S&P could lower their rating some more. Who knows what effect that will have on an already fragile economy.

Hopefully this super committee will pull together and do their job. If they don't America will loose even more faith in what is proving to be a completely dysfunctional government.   It is clear that we should blame the unyielding Republicans for any consequences that may happen.