Reuters — Trump puts five-year lobbying ban on his political appointees

President Donald Trump on Saturday put restrictions on the kind of lucrative lobbying gigs his White House aides and other administration officials can accept after they leave government....

Trump's order also requires his officials to agree to a lifetime ban on working on behalf of foreign governments or foreign political parties....

Good move toward draining the swamp.

But the devil is in the details on these matters. Often headlines don't match reality. So we'll see. On the surface anyway this is a positive step toward shutting the revolving door.

Reuters
Trump puts five-year lobbying ban on his political appointees

Lee Fang — Former Koch Industries Official Says He Ghostwrote Letters On Behalf of Congressmen

Richard Tucker, a former communications manager at Koch Industries from August 2010 through March 2012, wrote in his LinkedIn profile that he was responsible for “op-eds and letters to the editor that were signed by company leaders, members of congress and citizen activists.” Tucker, a writer and editor for a number of conservative websites, said he also wrote “regular blog posts for company employees to help explain important Washington policy debates” and was a member of the “crisis communication team that produced swift responses to negative press coverage.”

Way more than access.

The Intercept
Former Koch Industries Official Says He Ghostwrote Letters On Behalf of Congressmen

Lee Fang

Jon Schwarz — Jimmy Carter: The U.S. Is an “Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery”

President Carter calls out bipartisan corruption.

"Aw, mom, all the kids were doing it."

The Intercept
Jimmy Carter: The U.S. Is an “Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery”
Jon Schwarz

Gary Hart — America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption

Four qualities have distinguished republican government from ancient Athens forward: the sovereignty of the people; a sense of the common good; government dedicated to the commonwealth; and resistance to corruption. Measured against the standards established for republics from ancient times, the American Republic is massively corrupt.

From Plato and Aristotle forward, corruption was meant to describe actions and decisions that put a narrow, special, or personal interest ahead of the interest of the public or commonwealth. Corruption did not have to stoop to money under the table, vote buying, or even renting out the Lincoln bedroom. In the governing of a republic, corruption was self-interest placed above the interest of all—the public interest.

By that standard, can anyone seriously doubt that our republic, our government, is corrupt? There have been Teapot Domes and financial scandals of one kind or another throughout our nation’s history. There has never been a time, however, when the government of the United States was so perversely and systematically dedicated to special interests, earmarks, side deals, log-rolling, vote-trading, and sweetheart deals of one kind or another.

What brought us to this? A sinister system combining staggering campaign costs, political contributions, political action committees, special interest payments for access, and, most of all, the rise of the lobbying class....

The question is: By adhering to its highest principles and ideals, will America continue to have the moral authority to lead all people of goodwill? The answer remains to be seen. And that answer will have much to do with whether we have the courage to drive the money changers from the temple of democracy and recapture government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

In addition to the rise of the national security state, and the concentration of wealth and power in America, no development in modern times sets us apart more from the nation originally bequeathed to us than the rise of the special interest state. There is a Gresham’s law related to the republican ideal. Bad politics drives out good politics. Legalized corruption drives men and women of stature, honor, and dignity out of the halls of government. Self-respecting individuals cannot long tolerate a system of election and reelection so dependent on cultivating the favor of those known to expect access in return. Such a system is corrosive to the soul....

Time
Gary Hart: America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption

Gary Hart | former United States senator from Colorado

Brian T. Watson — Make this go viral: Dear Mr. President

Dear President Obama:

We know that you will see this letter. Although you certainly don’t have a subscription to The Salem News — where this letter first appeared — we are counting on the many vehicles of social media to make our letter go viral — and thus to be brought to your attention.

We are a collection of millions of Democrats, Republicans, independents, Greens, and many other persuasions, and we are joining our diverse voices together in an unusual act of solidarity to request that you take action to reduce the role of money in politics.
Specifically, we request that you issue an executive order that will require all federal contractors to disclose their political spending. That spending would include all contributions — including those now legally hidden — to officials in the executive or congressional branches. It would also include all lobbying of the two branches.

Corporations spend more than $1 billion a year donating to and lobbying Congress and the federal government, and they receive an average of almost $1 trillion a year in contracts. If the monetary relationships between corporations and Congressmen become exposed, we citizens will be able to clearly see the corruption, and perhaps will react against it.

Even the Supreme Court, in its controversial Citizens United decision, said that increased disclosure rules would be wise so that citizens can see if “elected officials are in the pocket of so-called moneyed interests.”

We understand that your order would not address all of the troublesome sources of money in politics. But it would be a substantive and useful start....

The Salem News
Watson: Make this go viral: Dear Mr. President
Brian T. Watson

Techdirt — Revealed Emails Show How Industry Lobbyists Basically Wrote The TPP

Back in 2013, we wrote about a FOIA lawsuit that was filed by William New at IP Watch. After trying to find out more information on the TPP by filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and being told that they were classified as "national security information" (no, seriously), New teamed up with Yale's Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic to sue. As part of that lawsuit, the USTR has now released a bunch of internal emails concerning TPP negotiations, and IP Watch has a full writeup showing how industry lobbyists influenced the TPP agreement, to the point that one is even openly celebrating that the USTR version copied his own text word for word....

Techdirt
Revealed Emails Show How Industry Lobbyists Basically Wrote The TPP

ht Neil Wilson

Glenn Grennwald — Military Contractors Behind New Pro-War Group Targeting Presidential Candidates

“It’s not unusual for the arms industry to use front groups to press for a more aggressive foreign policy,” says William Hartung, director of the Arms & Security Project at the Center for International Policy.

“It sounds a lot more credible when a group called ‘Americans for Peace, Prosperity and Security’ calls for a policy shift than if the same argument comes out of the mouth of an arms executive or lobbyist whose livelihood is tied to the spread of tension and conflict,” Hartung said.

The Intercept
Military Contractors Behind New Pro-War Group Targeting Presidential Candidates

Glenn Grennwald

Bill Allison and Sarah Harkins — Fixed Fortunes: Biggest corporate political interests spend billions, get trillions

Between 2007 and 2012, 200 of America’s most politically active corporations spent a combined $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. A year-long analysis by the Sunlight Foundation suggests, however, that what they gave pales compared to what those same corporations got: $4.4 trillion in federal business and support. 

That figure, more than the $4.3 trillion the federal government paid the nation’s 50 million Social Security recipients over the same period, is the result of an unprecedented effort to quantify the less-examined side of the campaign finance equation: Do political donors get something in return for what they give? 

Four years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court suggested the answer to that question was no. Corporate spending to influence federal elections would not “give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption,” the majority wrote in the landmark Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. 

Sunlight decided to test that premise....

In its Citizens United decision, the court took for granted that “favoritism and influence” are inherent in electoral democracy and that “democracy is premised on responsiveness” of politicians to those who support them. We found ample evidence of that.

“The appearance of influence or access,” the court said, “will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy.”

It appears that the electorate — who stayed away from the polls this year in droves — might not agree.

Banana republic.

Sunlight Foundation
Fixed Fortunes: Biggest corporate political interests spend billions, get trillions
Bill Allison and Sarah Harkins

Do "The police exist to maintain the divide between the upper class and everyone else. Nothing more." ?

   (Commentary posted by Roger Erickson)

You can't blame some citizens for considering the overall validity of the title conjecture, given our current context.

I wonder how long it takes, on average, for the average local cop on the beat - fresh out of a police academy - to become aware of, let alone come to grips with, the default institutional lobbying that comes from perennial class competition, whether overt or "Innocent Fraud".

With current education practices, the bulk of our citizens seem to remain politically naive for most of their lives, so there's no reason to expect the bulk of police officers to catch on much faster, if ever.

Progress requires much more organizational effort to get all citizens on the same page, and realizing that we're all in this together.

There's so much to gain from social coordination (teamwork), and each year we've less to lose.

Meanwhile, it's still true that adversarial approaches are unlikely to work. In fact, they'll play into classic methods for confusing, dividing & conquering electorates by default, i.e., narrow business lobbies & politics as usual. Here's yet another example.

How FBI Illegally Stole Ross Ulbricht's Laptop & Brought Down The Silk Road

In response, a contact wrote:

"The police exist to maintain the divide between the upper class and everyone else. Nothing more."

I'm not the only one wondering why the FBI action against Ross Ulbricht & Silk Road was such a priority.

Especially given persistent unemployment levels, student loan debt, poor K-12 schools*, white collar crime, blue collar crime, etc, etc.

Not to mention money laundering & other financial terrorism by Wall St. banks

   ----

* Compare schools today with Sam Adam's early education, 200+ years ago. Read it and weep.

"Sam Adams, like five of the fifty-six signers of the Declarations of Independence, attended Boston Latin School [at ~age 7]. Required reading at the Boston Latin School for a student's first four years included Aesop's Fables, one of the first of which is a tale of a wolf who devoured a lamb despite the lamb's refutation of all the wolf's accusations against him. The moral of the story, according to Aesop, is that 'The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.' ...

In years five through seven of the school, students progressed to reading letters, essays and orations of the Roman politician Marcus Tullius Cicero.  ... 

[Subsequently,] Sam Adams entered Harvard in 1736 at age 14." 

Which was normal for that day, at least for motivated families in and around Boston. So why isn't a similar educational rate "normal" today? After all, a human mind is a terrible thing to waste, and so is a national group mind.

John Carney — Booz Allen and the Big Business of Big Government

Must-read. Key word: "economic rent." I would also add: "lack of accountability."

Something that (I assume) Austrian economists and Post Keynesians can agree on.

Blackwater (later Xe, now Academi) was the poster child for this, since it was created specifically for the purpose of contracting to government secretly, and insiders were given no-bid contracts supposedly due to the pressure of emergency. Although Blackwater attracted most attention, so much it became advisable to change its name, because it was the most flagrant, it was hardly alone at the trough.

Additionally, the "military-industrial complex" about which Ike warned was never dismantled after WWII and has been vastly expanded since. It accounts for some much government spending it is called "military Keynesianism."

CNBC NetNet

Booz Allen and the Big Business of Big Government

John Carney | Senior Editor

Robert Oak — Comprehensive Immigration Bill is a Disaster for American Workers

America has a problem, a big problem. We have a Congress who will only act when powerful lobbyists throw enough money at them. Such is the result of the new Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill. This bill will be an unmitigated disaster for working America. The bill increases the U.S. legal labor supply by at least 14 million by giving not just those here illegally legal status but also those who were previously deported who still have family members in the U.S. the legal status to work. Yet the massive increase in the U.S. labor supply caused by legalizing those here unauthorized isn't even half of the labor disaster story this bill will bring....

Hit particularly hard will be American Scientists, Technologists, Engineers and Mathematicians (STEM). Not only will the bill increase H-1B Visas from 85,000 to 135,000, they are allowing the limit to go to 180,000 per year. That is basically all of the jobs created each year in these occupations. That means every single STEM job would end up beingforeigners preferred, forcing U.S. workers out of their careers as the faux pas worker protections are clearly written to be vague and loophole ridden. Just as lobbyists wrote this turkey in actuality, big business will also make sure any U.S. workers protections will be removed before actual legislation passage.

We have shown many times, there is no labor shortage at any skill level in the United States. In particular there is no labor shortage in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics occupational areas. Yet in this bill there would be no limits [f]or instant green cards for the below occupational categories....

The Economic Populist
Comprehensive Immigration Bill is a Disaster for American Workers
Robert Oak

More wage repression and a further attack on labor bargaining power in order to increase profit share.

Wenonah Hauter — The Elephants in the Room: Citizens United, Trade and Corporate Ownership of Our Natural Resources Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/04/the-elephants-in-the-room-citizens-united-trade-and-corporate-ownership-of-our-natural-resources

Yves here. This is a short but useful reminder of how the failure to enforce anti-trust laws leads to oligopolies. MBAs are taught how to make markets inefficient to increase corporate profits, and one of the most lasting ways is to achieve a dominant position, ideally in a concentrated industry. “Roll ups” which is a consolidation play, is a favorite among private equity firms (but they often stumble in integrating the companies).

The author describes how dominant players preserve their profits through aggressive lobbying in the food space, and why that is particularly troubling.

Naked Capitalism
The Elephants in the Room: Citizens United, Trade and Corporate Ownership of Our Natural Resources
Wenonah Hauter | Executive Director of Food & Water Watch

Lee Fang — Banks made example of Lugar

After years of bipartisan policymaking, veteran lawmaker Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) is expected to go [went] down in defeat in his primary election today. With the likely defeat of Lugar, political observers are sure to start speculating over the meaning of the election. Is it a rebound for the Tea Party? Is bipartisanship dead? Was Richard Mourdock, Lugar’s opponent, unpatriotic for deceitfully smearing Lugar for working with Obama to secure loose nuclear weapons?

These are legitimate questions.

But it’s worth noting that a primary factor in Lugar’s desperate fight for reelection stems from the power of banking lobbyists. The Indiana Republican can be viewed as a demonstration of Wall Street’s political muscle. In the words of Politico, “The banking industry is making an example of Sen. Dick Lugar.”

In a rare loss for Wall Street, the Senate last year rejected legislation to delay a rule to limit the amount banks can charge businesses for credit card swipe fees. The financial industry mounted an incredible lobbying campaign — as Bloomberg reported, banks hired high priced K Street hacks, used conservative blogs like RedState, and developed Beltway advertising — to pass the measure. But a coalition of big box retailers, like Wal-Mart and Target, along with small businesses and other vendors, persuaded enough legislators from both sides of the aisle to kill the measure and limit the fees. The rule affected some $16 billion in bank profits.

Read it at Republic Report

Bank Lobbyists Coordinated “Tea Party” Challenge To Senator Lugar To Punish Him For Voting Against Wall Street

By Lee Fang

They also put the seat in play for the Democrats.

Community banks and credit unions duke it out in DC

In early February, Alabama Republican Spencer Bachus called for a meeting between two of the most quietly influential interest groups in the nation's capital: credit unions and community banks. 

Bachus, chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, was looking to ensure the passage of a slew of federal favors benefiting both sides. All the lobbyists had to do was show up at a meeting and figure out how to work together.

It was too much to ask.

The Credit Union National Association and the Independent Community Bankers Association immediately agreed to the sit-down, but as the meeting approached the community bankers abruptly cancelled the event, according to lobbyists and congressional staffers familiar with the plans.

Read it at The Huffington Post
'We'll Fight This To The Death': The Vicious Capitol Hill Battle Between Banks and Credit Unions

by Ryan Grim and Zach Carter

Rodger Mitchell — What is AARP’s real mission? Not what you might think.

Because the public does not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, and because AARP, the media and the politicians don’t explain these differences, it is fairly simple to fool everyone into believing Social Security and Medicare are “broke” (John Boehner’s favorite lie).

AARP goes along with — in fact encourages — the BS, because a free Social Security retirement plan and a free Medicare are not nearly so profitable as paid-for retirement plans and paid for health insurance.

Did I mention? AARP sells insurance.

Read it at Monetary Sovereignty

What is AARP’s real mission? Not what you might think.
by Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

If you haven't already read Yves Smith's AARP Back in Bed With Effort to Cut Social Security and Medicare at Naked Capitalism, please do and pass it on as she requests.

Disclosure: I admit to bias. I sent my membership card back when AARP lobbied to deliver Medicare Part D into the hands of Big Pharma, as did many others at the time. This is not an organization that represents the interests of seniors. Don't be fooled.

Chris Hayes — ABA urged to mount secret lobbying campaign against OWS and supporters

Video
(h/t OWS News)

No surprise here. The empire industry strikes back.

Lobbying Firm's Memo Spells Out Plan to Undermine Occupy Wall Street

As Chris points out, this is just one memo that happened to be discovered. What else is out there?