I’ll Show Ya Some Sweetheart Deals

I’m playing the world’s tiniest violin for Republicans crying about how Sen. Harry Reid larded up the healthcare bill with so-called “sweetheart deals” to “buy” support. It’s been all over Fox, conservative blogs, “the Twitter” etc. Bill Kristol even called them “sleazy.”

Y’know, one way to have avoided that was if you’d dropped your filibuster threat. Then the Democrats would have had 51 votes, and we wouldn’t have needed to cut any deals to pass this legislation.

C’mon, admit it, y’all are just pissed you got outmaneuvered and you’re walking home to your states empty-handed.

But let’s take a look at these “sweetheart deals,” shall we?

The “Louisiana Purchase,” as it is being called, a provision for Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, who obtained an extra $300 million in Medicaid funds for her state.

Eh, I don’t have a problem with that. Louisiana is struggling, the money is going to help low-income people needing medical care. Too bad Tennessee couldn’t get in on that deal; guess that’s what happens when you’re represented by the Party of No in the U.S. Senate. Once again, our Senators Alexander and Corker show themselves to be absolutely useless.

It’s those “sweetheart deals” that benefit no one save the insurance industry that make me nuts. Look what Sen. Ben Nelson brought home to Nebraska:

Insurance giant Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Nebraska, for instance, would pay between $15 million and $20 million less in fees under the Senate bill than it would have without a change the Nebraska Democrat helped broker, according to Nelson's office. Another insurer, Mutual of Omaha, won't have to pay taxes on so-called Medigap insurance that buttresses Medicare insurance used by the elderly.

Unlike the Blue Cross/Blue Shield deal, that tax break will be extended to other companies. Mutual of Omaha spokesman Jim Nolan said he didn't "have a figure to share" about how much the company may save.

So Nelson brokers a tax break for BlueCross/BlueShield and Mutual of Omaha. That’s what I call a “sweetheart” deal!

And really, the dollar value of all these “sweetheart deals” pales in comparison to the massive amounts of moolah thrown around by lobbyists trying to influence reforms. It’s on tap to beat last year’s record:

Washington’s influence industry is on track to shatter last year’s record $3.3 billion spent to lobby Congress and the rest of the federal government — and that’s with a down economy and about 1,500 fewer registered lobbyists in town, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.

[...]

And the lobbying expenditure figures don’t include the heaps of cash interest groups are throwing at advertising, coalition-building, grass-roots and Astroturf outreach — all of which don’t get reported in the figures. Advocacy groups have spent almost $200 million on ads on the health care issue so far this year, according to Campaign Media Analysis Group.

How much of that was spent on derailing the healthcare bill? That’s hard to say: the New York Times, quoting the Center for Responsive Politics, says for the first nine months of this year, healthcare lobbyists spent $396 million. That’s on top of the $486 million the healthcare lobby spent last year, in anticipation of this year’s big legislative issue.

But wait, there's more:

But even those figures do not give the full picture of the cash funneled into lobbying on health care in 2009.

For example, the center’s health care figures do not include lobbying by the insurance industry. Mr. Levinthal said the center could not isolate the amount the industry spent only on health insurance, as opposed to other forms of insurance.

Nor do the figures include spending by groups like the United States Chamber of Commerce, which has multiple issues pending before Congress but led the effort to kill the public option.

And they do not include the $170 million that all sides have spent so far this year on television advertising.

It’s obvious looking at this sham “reform” that lobbyists’ efforts have paid off in a big way. I have far less problem with Senators taking home a few hundred million dollars to expand their state Medicaid programs than I do these corporate handouts. I’m sure the folks at BlueCross/BlueShield and WellPoint are high-fiving each other right now.

So, Merry Christmas everyone. I won’t go so far to say the American people got handed lumps of coal; we got a few crumbs. But I think we deserve so much more.

“Clean Coal” Lobby Hired Bonner & Associates

Well, knock me over with a feather! It seems that it was none other than the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) who hired the lying lobby firm Bonner & Associates. And they are shocked, SHOCKED to find lies and astroturfing going on, such as faked constituent letters, to defeat the cap and trade legislation.

Yeah. Okie dokie.

More Lies, Damn Lies: Climate Change Edition

[UPDATE]:

Via Proud Socialist in comments, Bonner is indeed a serial offender. More at Talking Points Memo.

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Unbelievable. Unbelievable. They have no shame whatsoever:

As U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello was considering how to vote on an important piece of climate change legislation in June, the freshman congressman’s office received at least six letters from two Charlottesville-based minority organizations voicing opposition to the measure.



The letters, as it turns out, were forgeries.



“They stole our name. They stole our logo. They created a position title and made up the name of someone to fill it. They forged a letter and sent it to our congressman without our authorization,” said Tim Freilich, who sits on the executive committee of Creciendo Juntos, a nonprofit network that tackles issues related to Charlottesville’s Hispanic community. “It’s this type of activity that undermines Americans’ faith in democracy.”

Isn’t there a fucking law against this?

Grist obtained copies of the climate change letters which I’ve linked to here and here.

There’s more:

The letters came from the Washington lobby firm Bonner & Associates, which offers “Strategic Grassroots / Grasstops support to help you win.” It hasn’t yet come to light who hired the firm to do this possibly illegal work. Another set of forged letters claimed to represent a local chapter of the NAACP.

Bonner & Associates is a notorious astroturf outfit. Look what they did when PhRMA hired them to scuttle Maryland legislation to lower prescription drug costs:

Donna J. Stanley, director of Associated Black Charities, was ready to mobilize for political battle after she received a fax marked "urgent" this week.

The fax told her she needed to sign an attached petition "today" to prevent 600,000 of Maryland's poor and disabled from losing access to affordable prescription drugs. The fax, sent to dozens of community leaders, had the markings of a grass-roots effort, including grammatical errors and a handwritten cover letter.

But the appeal was actually generated by a sophisticated Washington lobbying firm trying to defeat several bills before the General Assembly supported by advocates for the poor.

In short, Bonner & Associates is a serial offender. They routinely forge letters, claiming to be from Hispanic and African American organizations or other advocacy groups, saying they oppose xyz legislation, and send them to members of Congress and others.

In short, they lie. They misrepresent, falsify, and lie.

I’m not a lobbyist nor do I know any, but I have a question: don’t you people have a code of ethics against this kind of behavior? No, I'm not kidding. Quit laughing. Seriously, if you don't have a code of ethics, maybe you'd like Congress to develop one for you.

There has been a huge uproar about this, prompting Bonner to blame a temp. Right. In light of their history, let me be the first to call bullshit. Must be the same “overzealous staffer” who was responsible for all the GOP fuckups during the Bush administration.

I’d like to know who hired Bonner & Associates. This is lower than low. There is no bottom for these people, no “too low.” And Congressman Ed Markey says his Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming plans to launch an investigation into the affair.

I will just remind Bonner and whomever hired them that karma’s a bitch and she will make her displeasure known.

The Irony & The Ecstasy

Honestly, the jokes just write themselves these days:

A year ago, the Mortgage Bankers Association was thrilled to sign a contract to buy a fancy new headquarters building in downtown Washington. Interest rates were low, the group's revenues were steady and the prospects for quickly renting out part of the structure were strong.

But since then, the association has fallen on tough times as many of the subprime mortgages dispensed by some of its members proved dicey. Borrowers discovered the loans were more costly than they had anticipated. Foreclosures soared, and cheap, inexpensive credit dried up, slowing the economy.

The result: The trade group is about to find it harder than it imagined to pay its own mortgage.

Scheduled to close on the building in the coming weeks, the association will have to pay millions of dollars more than it would have a year ago when it contracted to buy the 160,000-square-foot structure -- millions of dollars it is now less able to afford.

No one could have anticipated that the predatory lending practices of folks like Countrywide would have industry-wide repercussions! No one expected those chickens to come home to roost.

It’s not like the Mortgage Bankers Assn. didn’t try to keep foisting their higher cost, dirty-dog subprime mortgages off on an unsuspecting public, even after the collapse of Big Shitpile, or force borrowers into foreclosure. Oh, wait. They did:

Indeed, under pressure from the lobby, the House already gutted some of the better parts of the Frank bill. For example, the Mortgage Bankers Association and the American Banking Association lobbyists persuaded legislators to allow lenders to continue the insidious practice of paying an increased fee to brokers for steering borrowers into higher cost sub-prime mortgages. It also bars borrowers whose predatory loans have been sold on Wall Street from suing investors for relief until the homeowners are facing foreclosure. In effect, it forces borrowers into foreclosure as a condition for asserting their rights. Wall Street and the big players in the mortgage market won't be held accountable for buying abusive loans.

Well, there is a God: apparently the Mortgage Bankers Assn. has hit on some hard times. According to the Washington Post, the lobbying group’s membership is down 17% and its revenue will be down 15%.

Not the same as a family being tossed out of their home, of course. But I won't be crying for the Mortgage Bankers Association if they have to eat it on their new HQ.