Bribery industry to pick when the supercommittee gets to work

An outcome of the recent debate over the debt ceiling was this “supercommittee ", a team of 12 representatives of the ruling class whose job it is to find ways to reduce future budget deficits by $1.3 trillion over 10 years. It will be bipartisan in the sense that the six Democrats and six Republicans will discuss their differences over how the working class and poor will pay for this market driven crisis but that we are to pay in not in dispute.

If the committee can’t “all get along” and reach an agreement by November 23^rd or if the thieves in Congress reject the committee’s findings, then automatic cuts to different government agencies kick in.  But the committee is good news for some.  I am speaking here about what Business Week and other serious journals of capitalism call the “influence industry”.  Nice, innocuous sounding name isn’t it?

The “influence industry” refers to lobbyists or what we actually know are people that bribe politicians; most of the bribers for these forms are former Democratic or Republican politicians so it's a sort of promotion.  You can get $25 years fro stealing a slice of pizza in the US through the three strikes law yet bribing politicians is legal. Isn’t freedom swell?   The bribers are gearing up for a massive bribefest hoping to protect the gangsters they work for from having their gravy train derailed. “Supercommittee means superlobbying” says John Feehery, the director of “government affairs” at one of Washington’s most prominent bribery outfits according to Business Week.

It’s been a tough year for the lobbying industry according to BW, as revenue fell to $1.5 billion for the first half of 2011.  But once the committee gets going the race is on and business should pick up as corporations like News Corp, Sony, AT&T, Google and Wal-Mart pay the bribery outfits to send in their operatives to ply their trade. Whole industries like retail, energy, manufacturing, real estate and others will have their “influence industry reps” head straight in to the outstretched arms and greasy palms of these fine men and woman running the country on, er, our behalf. The bribery workers will be put to work “reaching members of the committee through former staffers and even leveraging other members of Congress.” Says BW.  “I always tell my staff that the most effective lobbyist with a Senator is another Senator” says Charlie Black, a manager for one of the groups that bribes politicians for Wal-Mart and AT&T. That’s basic smarts, spread the loot around.  Wal-Mart has lots of it, the family is worth about $60 billion.

The private for profit sickness industry, drugs, hospitals, medical device makers is worried because if health care is cut, business will suffer and sickness industry firms like HCA holdings which owns numerous hospitals and surgery centers might lose out on government/taxpayer money through reductions in government payments. “The measure of hysteria will be palpable” says one briber who represents Bristol Meyers Squibb, the pharmaceutical firm.

There are also bribery firms whose focus is primarily taxes, keeping the taxes on corporations and the wealthy down.  Despite all their talk about the vibrancy and benefits of the so-called free market, the private sector spends billions upon billions of dollars bribing politicians to enact legislation and introduce policies that benefit them and the rich who own them like tax credits firms get for hiring workers.  The fact that they can fork out so much shows how much money they rake in.  There is no shortage of cash in society and no need whatsoever for cuts in public services or in jobs, wages and workers' benefits. But what an inefficient set up.  Those of us that actually do productive work pay a middle-man to hire us and pay us with this money we donate to them. A great deal for some but that's how the whole system functions really.

If there is one simple question any candidate should be asked to get some idea of where they stand it might be; would they launch a public campaign to pass legislation to make lobbying illegal with an immediate 5 year first offense jail sentence for anyone caught attempting to lobby a public official.

Let’s get tough on crime, jail the lobbyists