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Hightower Lowdown
"No matter how cynical you get, it's almost impossible to keep up." -- Lily Tomlin
In This Issue
Agrbiz offends workers, nature & our palates
Local and organic farmers fight back
Also in this issue:
- Paul wellstone, american hero
- Wal-mart day of action
- Deforming reform
- "dollar bill" phil cashes in
- The fec's "soft- money" flood
Do Something!
February's Lowdown
How corporate money took over Washington--and created the mobs who rant against reform
Despite a constant racket from the forces of the far-out right (Fox television's yackety-yackers, just-say-no GOP know-nothings, tea-bag howlers, Sarah Palinistas, et al.), the great majority of Americans support a bold progressive agenda for our country, ranging from Medicare for all to the decentralization and re-regulation of Wall Street. Indeed, in the elections of 2006 and 2008, people voted for a fundamental break from Washington's 30-year push to enthrone a corporate kleptocracy.
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Deforming reform
The “W” in George W. must stand for “Weasel.” How else to explain his cynical decision to gut the very corporate-reform legislation he had loudly taken credit for only three months ago?
Back then, the greedheads of Enron, WorldCom, and all the rest were causing such a public stink that even Bush’s own corporate shenanigans were being called into question, so suddenly he switched from being Corporate-Man to being Reformer-Man.
He travelled to Wall Street to wag his finger at corporate wrongdoers and called for legislative reform. Sure enough, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley bill to re-regulate corporate America, including beefing up the anemic budget of the SEC so this watchdog agency would have some teeth. Bush made a political show of signing this bill, bragging that the new funds would ensure that “corporate misdeeds will be found and will be punished.”
It was good TV, but as soon as the cameras went off, Bush changed back into his Corporate-Man costume. He quietly gutted the SEC’s new enforcement budget, leaving the agency toothless to battle the corporate criminals ripping off investors, looting workers’ pensions, running tax scams, and cheating consumers.
Say no to corporate-crime weasels. Call Public Citizen at 202-588-1000.