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Congressional Statements Ghostwritten by Lobbyists

Robert Pear
New York Times
Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:36 EST

Lobbyists ghostwriting Congressional statements

© Luke Sharrett/The New York Times
“One of the reasons I have long supported the U.S. biotechnology industry is that it is a homegrown success story that has been an engine of job creation in this country.” This written statement by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina on the health care bill was identical to one by Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer and used language suggested by lobbyists.

In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world's largest biotechnology companies.

E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.

The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law firms, were remarkably successful in getting the statements printed in the Congressional Record under the names of different members of Congress.

Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points - 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for lobbyists.

In an interview, Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, said: "I regret that the language was the same. I did not know it was." He said he got his statement from his staff and "did not know where they got the information from."

Carl Herman
Examiner.com
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:29 EST

"At first blush, a man is not capable of reporting truth; he must be drenched and saturated with it first." - Henry David Thoreau, I to Myself.

As I've previously written, the interest payment on the national debt is now ~$450 billion every year, there is no plan to ever repay the debt (we only pay the interest), and our monetary system only and always creates money as debt: condemning us to perpetually increasing debt for ourselves and our posterity.

This debt-based monetary system was institutionalized through the Robber-Baron Federal Reserve in 1913. It takes the money-creation power of the US and transfers it to banks, that then create money as debt and lend it to us. Because the government gave away this power, they have to borrow their own money. The solution, as advocated by many of the America's brightest historical minds, is to merely transfer the money-creation power back to the people. The idea is supported among US third parties, and growing factions among the Republican and Democratic parties. The most well-known current journalists/advocates on this topic that I know of are Ellen Brown, Bill Still, Paul Grignon, and Stepen Zarlenga.

What this policy change means is to transfer power to the peoples' representatives, government, which will require a concurrent (and unimaginable) transformation of transparency and accountability. As we know, when our government and so-called mainstream media lie about policy of such magnitude as military invasions that kill millions, you can count on their lies with trillions of dollars. A political strategy of state-level, rather than national, might be a better starting place (and here).

Jitendra Josh
Agence France-Presse
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:39 EST

US President Barack Obama came under fire Saturday from Asia-Pacific leaders for backsliding on free trade at a regional summit devoted to driving the world economy out of crisis.

"President Obama is facing severe political constraints that run counter to free trade," Mexican President Felipe Calderon said, complaining about US foot-dragging on full implementation of the NAFTA pact for North America.

"The cruel paradox is that within a global economy, what really kills companies is inefficiency and lack of competition. Therefore protectionism is killing North American companies," he said in a speech in Singapore.

"So I think this has to do with the fact that the US government is under strong political pressure that really is not being counteracted from the political perspective" of the Obama administration.

The US Congress has turned even more sour on free trade after the worst economic crisis since World War II. One landmark pact with South Korea is languishing and critics say the White House has done little to revive it.

MSNBC/Associated Press
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:24 EST

Record imbalance could endanger economy, Democrats' political prospects

Washington - The Obama administration has alerted domestic agencies to plan for a freeze or even a 5 percent cut in their budgets, part of an election-year push to rein in record deficits that threaten the economy and Democrats' political prospects next fall.

China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury securities, has expressed concern about the size of U.S. deficits. U.S. policymakers worry that alarm over deficits could push foreigners into cutting back on their purchases of Treasury debt. President Barack Obama will visit China as part of his current tour of Asia.

White House budget director Peter Orszag said Friday that it is imperative to start curbing the flow of red ink in coming years so as not to erode the fledgling economic recovery and raise interest rates. But he called it a balancing act and said acting too fast could undercut the recovery.

Jim Christie
Reuters
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:15 EST

San Francisco - California's fiscal watchdog will soon release a report pointing to yet another massive state budget deficit sure to trigger weeks if not months of angst in the state capital of Sacramento.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger expects as much as he has repeatedly been snared in heated debates with and among lawmakers over how to balance the state's books. There also are fresh memories of marathon talks that ended in July with a deal to close a shortfall of more than $24 billion.

California's economy has not improved since then and this week Schwarzenegger began airing his own estimate of the budget gap he expects for the remainder of the current fiscal year. He pegs it at $5 billion to $7 billion -- before the $7.4 billion gap his finance advisors had previously forecast for the next fiscal year beginning in July.

Experts say California's combined deficit for the two years will top $15 billion and may swell well beyond that depending on how the state's revenues fare.

Carl Herman
The Examiner
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:28 EST

Gerald Celente is one of the world's best trend forecasters. In the following 4-part radio interview, Celente blasts current political and economic "leadership" as beholden to large corporate and financial interests. As I've documented, professionals who work with economics are using unprecedented harsh language in attempt to get Americans' attention to the loss of trillions of our collective dollars. His comments include (paraphrased):

"Too big to fail" banks are anathema to real capitalism.

US economy is like a ruthless mafia ripping-off the American public. The US is being looted.

US economy is no longer capitalism, it's oligarchies and fascism.

We are witnessing the greatest heist in American history, and the banks are doing it.

I don't like getting raped. I don't like my money going to Goldman Sachs."

Do you have eyes to see and a mind to understand? These crimes are an affront to my intelligence.

Bankers are money junkies lying to get their money fix. We have a criminal gang of money junkies dealing scams to get money from us. They never have enough. And for what? For gambling.

This is no different from the French Revolution.

The money junkies are in for a shock. The second American Revolution has begun.

They are not my political leaders; they are political hacks. We are going back to royalty and serfs.

This country doesn't have a clue what's going on, their minds have been deadened looking at presidential reality shows and bowing to political demagogues. What people have to do more than ever is think for themselves.

And reform is not on the way. Senator Bird's "reform" bill is nothing but empty rhetoric. My favorite economic analyst, Washington's Blog, gives a great overview. One helpful context to consider is the American economy is suffering from parasites.

Les Leopold
Huffington Post
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:50 EST

When I read the headline "American Wages out of Balance" on page 2 of the New York Times business section, I figured it would be a well-reasoned piece about our obscene distribution of income. It would be good for the Times to describe how Wall Street profits and bonuses, derived from our bailout funds, will further exacerbate problematic wealth disparities.

No such luck. The Breakingviews.com column was all about how the American worker is overpaid! I kid you not. Edward Hadas, Martin Huchinson and Antony Currie inform us that:

American manufacturing workers should take average real wage cuts of as much as 20 percent to get into global balance.

They don't mention that the average non-supervisory worker has already taken an 18 percent cut in real wages between 1973 and 2007. What's worse, they claim that if workers don't take these additional cuts, these "overpaid" working stiffs will be the cause of another Great Depression, and I'm not overstating their claim. They write:

But if American wages get stuck above global market-clearing levels, as in the 1930s, the result could well be something approaching Depression-era levels of unemployment.

Shobhana Chandra and Bob Willis
Bloomberg
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:16 EST

Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly dropped in November as the loss of jobs threatened to undermine the biggest part of the economy.

The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary sentiment index decreased to a three-month low of 66 from 70.6 in October. A report from the Commerce Department showed the trade deficit widened in September by the most in a decade as rising demand for imported oil and automobiles swamped a fifth consecutive gain in exports.

Rising joblessness puts the economy at risk of slipping into a vicious circle of firings and declines in consumer spending that will limit the emerging recovery. The dollar's 12 percent decline since March and growing demand from Asia and Europe will probably spur exports further, giving factories a lift and making up for some of the weakness among households.

Reuters
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:00 EST

Rain from Tropical Storm Ida further slowed the cotton, soybean and sweet potato harvest in Mississippi, where crop losses were devastating even before the storm hit, a state agriculture official said on Thursday.

"We're seeing catastrophic losses," Andy Prosser, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, said in a phone interview.

Ida swept in from the Gulf of Mexico into neighboring Alabama on Tuesday. Mississippi was spared a direct hit but still got an unwelcome soaking.

"We got a few counties in east Mississippi that did get a lot of rain. Of course any more rain at this point is not good in terms of crop harvest," Prosser said.

At the start of the month, state economists estimated Mississippi's crop losses at $485 million. The southern U.S. state expected to lose two-thirds of its sweet potato crop, half its cotton and 44 percent of its soybeans.

Associated Press
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:36 EST

The dollar dropped to a new 15-month low as the the euro rose above $1.50 Wednesday morning, even as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner reiterated the administration's stance that a strong dollar is good for the U.S. economy.

Geithner, in a speech in Tokyo on his way to a summit of Asian finance ministers in Singapore, also said low interest rates and other government supports for the economy were still needed.

The expectation that the Federal Reserve will keep the key U.S. interest rate near zero has been weighing on the dollar. Higher interest rates make a currency more attractive for investors, since bets made in that currency can earn higher returns.

In morning trading in New York, the 16-nation euro rose to $1.5026 from $1.4978 late Tuesday. The British pound fell to $1.6665 from $1.6737, and the dollar edged up to 89.80 Japanese yen from 89.77 yen.

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