The Selling And Buying Of America, Part 1: A Historical Perspective

Although many of us suspected it for a while, I think that recent actions by the Washington political class pretty much sum up the fact that America, and the government and politicians that supposedly lead it, is for sale. Today, we will look at the historical aspects of politicians selling America to the highest bidders, as reported in this blog. Tomorrow, we will talk about the latest atrocities as we will see that the selling of America, and the taxpayer wealth and liberty that goes with it, continues unabated today.

Before we get to tomorrow and we review the latest deals that cinch the deal that America is for sale, let’s review some of the other actions we have reported on in this blog that gave us an inkling that America truly was for sale to the highest bidders, with the Washington political class conducting the auction:

- In our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government,” we reported on a newspaper article from the St. Petersburg Times that ran on December 11, 2008. The article reviewed how AIG, Goldman Sachs, and Freddie Mac had contributed $3.1 million to the 2008 Republican and Democratic national conventions. Is it a coincident that these three companies were some of the biggest recipients of taxpayer money in the bank bailout giveaway that the Democrats and Republicans approved just months later?

- From our post of February 11, 2010, we gathered a number of credible news sources and documented the latest selling of America shenanigans at that time:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2010/02/dump-incumbents-week-part-4.html):

• Georgia Senator Isakson - Arranged a $4 million earmark for Northrop Gruman in exchange for a $7,000 donation and arranged a $1.6 million earmark for Scientific Research Corp. in exchange for a $2,900 donation. (Source: Seattle Times)
• Hawaiian Senator Inouye - Secured a $135 million taxpayer financed bailout after intervening on behalf of a poorly managed, non-qualifying bank. Why? Inouye had most of his net worth invested in that bank. (Source: Hawaii Free Press
• Illinois Senator Durbin - Arranged a $1.6 million earmark for Gentex in exchange for a $2,000 donation and arranged another $1.6 million earmark for Epir Technologies in exchange for a $2,700 donation. (Source: Seattle Times) Also, Durbin sold off $42,696 of mutual fund shares on Sept 19, 2008, immediately after a confidential briefing and legislative directive pertaining to the impending financial crisis and banking bailouts. By the end of the month and before the October market collapse, he had sold off $115,696. (Source: Washington Times)
• Indiana Senator Bayh - Arranged for an earmark of $800,000 for General Atomic Technologies in exchange for a $1,000 donation and arranged an earmark of $800,000 to Briartek in exchange for a $2,500 donation. (Source: Seattle Times)
• New York Senator Gillbrand - Received ACORN's endorsement for her re-election, stating "I am honored to have the endorsement of ACORN and proud to partner with them on an agenda...". She then voted to funnel taxpayer money into ACORN even AFTER the videos surfaced showing a pattern of illegal and immoral activity within the ACORN organization. (Source: The Albany Project)
• North Carolina Senator Burr - Arranged a $4.5 million earmark for General Dynamics in exchange for a $10,000 donation and arranged for a $2 million earmark for E. I. DuPont DeNamours in exchange for a $5,000 donation. (Source: Seattle Times)
• Vermont Senator Leahy - Arranged for a $10 million earmark for General Dynamics in exchange for a $18,200 donation and arranged for a $1.6 million earmark for Goodrich in exchange for a $7,500 donation. (Source: Seattle Times)
• California Congresswoman Sanchez - Sanchez paid three of her sister Loretta's Congressional staff members from her district's federal budget funds when Loretta's office was short on funds. (Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/). Sister Loretta arranged an earmark of $800,000 for Irvine Sensors in exchange for a $3,800 donation and arranged an earmark of $1.6 million for Digibeam Corp. in exchange for a donation of $3,800. (Source: Seattle Times) Still not done, the Congresswoman earmarked $3.2 million to PMA clients in exchange for a donation of $60,118. (Source: FreeRepublic.com)
• Iowa Congressman Boswell - Boswell arranged an earmark of $3.5 Million for Goodrich Corp in exchange for a donation of $3000. (Source: Seattle Times)
• Congressman Capuano - Arranged an earmark of $2.8 million for PMA clients in exchange for a donation of $54,000, arranged an earmark of $2 million for Parametric Technology in exchange for a donation of $3,500 and arranged an earmark for $800,000 for ABT Associates in exchange for a donation of $1,250. (Source: Seattle Times Favor Factory Investigation)
• Massachusetts Congressman Frank - According to Judicial Watch, Frank allegedly used his influence to secure a $12 million infusion for a hometown bank that did not qualify based upon TARP program legal criteria. Additionally, Frank was a knowing and key contributor according to Judicial Watch to the housing and financial crisis of 2008 through his dogged support of Fannie Mae risky loan practices, a company that funneled more than $40,000 to his campaign funds and a company where his life partner worked as an executive. (Source: www.businessandmedia.org.
• Massachusetts Congressman Markey - According to www.TheHill.com, Markey requested federal regulatory investigations against a CEO and his company immediately after the man's testimony indicated that Markey's cap-and-trade bill would result in burdensome cost to citizens with little to no change or benefit in emissions.
• New Jersey Congressman Pascrell - Arranged a $4 million earmark in exchange for a donation of $2,000. (Source: Seattle Times)
• New Jersey Congressman Rothman - Arranged earmarks worth $3.2 for PMA clients in exchange for a donation of $4,000 and arranged an earmark of $4 million to ITT in exchange for a donation of $17,000. (Source: Seattle Times)
• Ohio Congresswoman Kaptur - Kaptur doesn't even try to pretend she is helping her district. She arranges earmarks for donating companies from other states. The Seattle Times reports two such in Virginia. American Systems Corp and Impact Engineering each received generous taxpayer earmark gifts from Kaptur of $4 million after donating $15,000 and $3500 respectively to Kaptur's re-election campaigns. According to www.FreeRepublic.com, Kaptur also involved herself in the PMA scandal by earmarking $1.6 million for their clients after receipt of PMA lobbying donations of $34,500.
• Ohio Congressman Turner - According to the Wall Street Journal, Turner spent $1435 of taxpayer dollars on a digital camera. Yes, small potatoes compared to others in the House but abuse is abuse.
• Tennessee Congressman Wamp - Arranged an earmark of $2.8 million for PMA clients in exchange for a donation of $23,900 and arranged an earmark of $1.52 million for Radiance Technologies in exchange for a donation of $5,000. (Source: Seattle Times)
• West Virginia Congressman Mollohan - According to NLPC, Mollohan appropriated well over $100,000,000 in taxpayer funds through earmarks for non-profits that he set up and staffed with friends.

- The selling of America and how it often benefited the families and friends of politicians was reviewed in our February 27, 2012 post:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/waste-to-left-of-them-waste-to-right-of.html):

• Rep. Robert B. Aderholt (R - Ala.) - Since 2008, Aderholt has helped secure about $440,000 for the University of Montevallo while his wife served on the university's board of trustees.
• Rep. Todd Akin (R - Mo.) - Between 2005 and 2009, Akin helped secure $3.3 million to upgrade part of Route 141 in his district west of St. Louis. Less than a half-mile east of Route 141, Akin and his family own nine acres. Akin's family has applied to construct six homes on the land.
• Rep. Robert E. Andrews (D - N.J.) - Andrews has helped secure $3.3 million over the past decade for a scholarship program at Rutgers School of Law in Camden, N.J., where his wife is an associate dean in charge of scholarships and special legal programs.
• Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R - Md.) - Bartlett, since 2005, has helped secure about $4.5 million toward improving Interstate 270 and Buckeystown Pike. From there, Buckeystown Pike leads south and west to Bartlett's home, his farm and rental properties that earn the lawmaker up to $150,000 a year.
• Rep. Rob Bishop (R - Utah) - From 2007 to 2009, Bishop requested earmarks worth more than $1.5 million for Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. His son, Shule, was hired there in 2010 as a state government lobbyist.
• Rep. Sanford D. Bishop Jr. (D - Ga.) - News organizations in Georgia reported that Bishop helped secure nearly $200,000 in 2008 and 2009 for a middle school mentoring program that employed Bishop's stepdaughter and her husband.
• Rep. Corrine Brown (D - Fla.) - Between 2005 and 2010, Brown helped secure $21.9 million for six clients of a lobbying firm where her daughter works.
• Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D - NC) - Butterfield has helped obtain $817,500 over the past few years toward revitalizing buildings in Wilson, N.C. The lawmaker owns 19 properties within three-quarters of a mile of the project.
• Rep. Norm Dicks (D - Wash.) - In 2008, Dicks, as an appropriations chairman, secured a $1.82 million earmark for a Washington state environmental agency where his son worked as executive director.
• Rep. Kay Granger (R - Tex.) - Over the past decade, Granger has helped obtain $51.9 million in earmarks toward a project to makeover downtown Fort Worth and reroute the Trinity River. Until 2010, Granger co-owned a condominium building with her son about a half-mile south of the project. Her son is director of the group in charge of the project.
• Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D - N.Y.) - In Saugerties, a village in upstate New York, Hinchey in 2005 earmarked $960,000 to upgrade downtown streets. In 2009, he secured $800,000 to overhaul sewer lines. Hinchey is a partner in a hotel development in the heart of the village and values his interest at $250,000 to $500,000.
• Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D - Tex.) - In 2009, Hinojosa obtained a $665,000 earmark to help widen a road next to a 3.7-acre commercial property that his family partnership was developing and near the family food processing plant in Mercedes, Tex.
• Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D - Tex.) - Jackson Lee helped secure about $5.3 million to the University of Houston in 2009 and 2010 while her husband was vice president of student affairs and vice chancellor of student affairs for the university system.
• Sen. Tim Johnson (D - S.D.) - In 2008, Johnson, along with seven other Senators, added $4 million to a Pentagon program to fund math and science education called STARBASE. Johnson's wife worked as a contract employee evaluating the program between 2005 and 2011.
• Rep. Jack Kingston (R - Ga.) - Kingston co-sponsored a $6.3 million earmark in 2008 to replenish the beach on Tybee Island, where he owns a cottage about 900 feet from the beach. "It's absurd to suggest that this benefits me," he said. No, Congressman, it's absurd to think it doesn't.
• Rep. Robert E. Latta (R - Ohio) - Latta co-sponsored $2.8 million in earmarks in 2009 and 2010 for water and wind research at Bowling Green State University at the time that his wife was a university senior vice president.
• Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D - Ill.) - Lipinski cosponsored $2.5 million in earmarks since taking office in 2005 for rail projects overseen by the Chicago Transit Authority. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the CTA is a lobbying client of his father, William Lipinski, a former congressman. The CTA has paid William Lipinski $766,330.20 in lobbying fees since 2007.
• Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo (R - N.J.) - Since 2008, LoBiondo has helped secure $4.68 million for beach monitoring and nourishment along the shores of Ventnor City, N.J., where he and his wife own a home about 850 feet from the beach.
• Rep. Candice S. Miller (R - Mich.) - Miller secured a $486,000 earmark in 2006 to help add a 14-foot-wide bike lane to a new bridge over the Clinton River, about 900 feet from her home. "People earmark for all kinds of things," Miller said. "I'm pretty proud of this; I think I did what my people wanted. Should I have told them, 'We can never have this bike path complete because I happen to live by one section of it.' No, Congresswoman, you should have told your "people" to pay for it themselves without Federal money.
• Rep. Gary G. Miller (R - Calif.) - Miller secured $1.28 million in earmarks in 2005 to help repave, re-landscape and install new drains along Grand Avenue in Diamond Bar, Calif. The project, previously reported by The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, upgraded an access road for a residential and retail development that he co-owned with a campaign donor. Miller sold the property months after securing the earmark.
• Rep. Ed Pastor (D - Ariz.) - Between 2005 and 2010, Pastor earmarked about $4 million from an Energy Department agency tasked with securing the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile to a program for at-risk teenagers at Maricopa Community Colleges. His daughter runs the program.
• Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D - Calif.) - Over the past decade, the House minority leader helped secure $50 million in earmarks toward a light-rail project that provides direct access to San Francisco's Union Square and Chinatown for neighborhoods south of Market Street. Pelosi's husband owns a four-story commercial building blocks from Union Square.
• Rep. Nick J. Rahall II (D - W.Va.) - In 2005, Rahall helped secure $20 million toward a parking garage with a bus and taxi facility in downtown Beckley. The project is about a half-mile from his son's home, less than one mile from a commercial property owned by the lawmaker, and a little more than a mile from his residence.
• Sen. Harry M. Reid (D - Nev.) -In 2004 and 2005, the Senate majority leader secured $21.5 million to build a bridge over the Colorado River, linking the gambling resort town of Laughlin, Nev., with Bullhead City, Ariz. Reid owns 160 acres of undeveloped land in Bullhead City.
• Rep. Harold Rogers (R - Ky.) - Rogers has helped earmark $7.1 million since 2002 to a project that made over a half-mile strip of College Street where Rogers has his residence. The project narrowed parts of the street to slow traffic, buried overhead utilities, rebuilt sidewalks, paved streets and installed new driveway aprons, curbs and decorative lamps.
• Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D - Md.) - Ruppersberger helped obtain $187,000 in 2008 toward a beach replenishment survey of the Ocean City shoreline. He and his wife own two condominium units there.
• Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R - Ala.) - Shelby has earmarked more than $100 million toward rebuilding downtown Tuscaloosa, Ala., where he owns an office building. The street in front of the building will be redone as part of phase two of the project.
• Rep. John F. Tierney (D - Mass.) - Since 2005, Tierney has helped secure about $3.5 million toward a 950-space parking garage and commuter rail station in Salem, Mass. The facility will be about a quarter-mile from a commercial building the Congressman co-owns.
• Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R - Fla.) - Over the past decade, Young helped secure $73 million for companies that employed his sons. One worked as a security administrator in the St. Petersburg office of Science Applications International Corp., a defense contractor; the other as an outreach specialist for the National Forensic Science Technology Center.
  

- Our August 14, 2012 post:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-slime-sleaze-immorality-and_14.html)

considered a whole slew of corruption and slime that came to light in a Business Week magazine article within their Spring, 2011 Government Insider Special report:

• New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez recently "championed" a plan to provide a temporary tax cut for small companies, a tax cut that would allow them to offset investments these companies might make in research on therapies to prevent and treat chronic diseases. Oh, by the way, the pharmaceutical industry in New Jersey just happened to contribute $434,043 to his 2010 reelection campaign and PAC.
• Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow sponsored a bill to give a tax rebate for consumers who purchase a gas/electric car or truck. The recently available Chevy Volt from General Motors certainly falls within this category. Oh, by the way, General Motors employees contributed $84,635 to Stabenow's reelection campaigns between 1995 and 2010.
• New York Senator Charles Schumer has been accused by other Congressional members of making a proposed tax on carried interest of private equity managers so difficult that the measure never was passed into law. Oh, by the way, Schumer has received $8.8 million from the security and investment industry since 1989, an industry that certainly includes private equity managers.
• Montana Senator Max Baucus obtained a provision in a recent farm bill "for tax exempt forestry conservation bonds to help purchase a 500 square mile patchwork of land owned by Plum Creek Timber." Oh, by the way, Plum Creek Timber has spent $3.7 million in lobbyists fees from 2006 to 2010 and its employees have contributed $19,100 to various Bachus reelection campaigns.
• Iowa Senator Charles Grassley has backed tax credits for domestic production of corn based ethanol and tariffs on imports of ethanol. It just so happens that his home state has 40 ethanol plants that generate 3.5 billion gallons of ethanol each year. Oh, by the way, Grassley received $290,250 in reelection campaign donations from agriculturally based PACs in his 2010 election run.
• Arizona Senator John Kyl is a major proponent of cutting taxes on inherited wealth, having been instrumental in the one year hiatus of the inheritance tax in 2010 and cutting a deal with Obama to keep the reinstatement of the tax at 35%. Oh, by the way, eliminating the estate tax is a major priority of the Club For Growth, which just has happened to donate $155,753 to the Senator's election campaigns since 1989.
• Texas Senator John Cornyn has opposed Obama's attempts to repeal oil and gas industry tax breaks besides opposing the President's ban on Gulf oil drilling. Oh, by the way, oil and gas industry components have given the Senator $1.7 million since 2001.

- From our August 15, 2012 post:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-slime-sleaze-immorality-and_15.html

we find out how alternative energy and alternative vehicle industries are also knee deep in buying and selling of America:

According to an ABC News report, Fisker Motors is a Finland based automotive company that is working to develop expensive electric cars. Unfortunately, two years ago, the Obama administration approved a taxpayer backed loan for $529 million for this Finnish company to help with their technology development.

Why did U.S. taxpayer dollars back a government loan to a Finnish auto company to develop and build cars in Finland with Finnish workers? Could crony capitalism be at work again:

• One of Fisker's biggest financial supporters is the California venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr, a California billionaire, hosted President Obama at a February dinner for high-tech executives at his secluded estate south of San Francisco.
• Doerr and Kleiner Perkins executives have contributed more than $1 million to Federal political causes and campaigns over the last two decades, primarily supporting Democrats.
• Doerr serves on Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
• Former Democratic Vice President Al Gore is another Kleiner Perkins senior partner.

Now you start to understand that giving money to a Finnish car company to make a high end niche car model that the average American will never be able to afford has more to do with cronyism and campaign donations than sound government decision making.

But the auto cronyism is not confined to Fisker:

• The Department of Energy has also invested almost another half a billion taxpayer dollars with a loan to another electric car manufacturer, Tesla Motors.
• SEC filings show that Tesla has never had a profitable quarter and has no experience in mass auto production. It eventually wants to “mass produce” an electric car that costs about $57,000. Mass produce, car, and $57,000 in one sentence is one of the biggest incongruities of all time.
• A former Tesla board member, Steve Westly, is an Obama campaign donation bundler who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the President in 2008 and for his 2012 re-election campaign.
• The Westly Group was also a financial supporter of Tesla Motors until Tesla went public in 2010, and Westly continues to back the company.
• Tesla's founder and CEO, Elon Musk, is a major political contributor who has primarily backed Democrats, including Obama.

Consider the highlights of an April 3, 2012 Washington Beacon News report, keeping in mind that Harry Reid, the majority leader in the U.S. Senate, represents the state of Nevada:

• Three large renewable energy projects, Nevada Geothermal, Ormat Nevada, and SolarReserve, all of whom have received large grants of taxpayer wealth from Obama's Energy Department, are located in Reid’s home state. Executives from all three companies have donated to Reid and his fellow Democrats' election campaigns to the tune of over $58,000 since 2008.
• Brightsource Energy, which received a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the Energy Department and will also operate a solar facility in Nevada, has donated at least $21,600 to Democrats' election campaigns since 2008. It has donated zero dollars to Republicans.
• Reid received almost $4,000 from Brightsource executives in the 2010 cycle, including $2,400 from CEO John Woolard, who hosted a fundraiser for the majority leader.
• Woolard is also a Barack Obama donor and has visited the White House almost a dozen times since Obama took office.
• Reid’s staffers have been a key part of Washington D.C.’s revolving door, setting up shop with lobbying outfits that have ties to green energy companies and the Department of Interior, which oversees such projects.
• For example, Kai Anderson, a top lobbyist for Ormat, is a former deputy chief of staff for Reid. Paul Thomsen, who handles government affairs for Ormat Nevada, Inc., is also a former Reid Staffer. Neil Kornze, the acting deputy director of policy for the Bureau of Land Management under the Department of Interior, is also a former energy staffer for Reid. Sanjay Wagle served as a renewable energy advisor at the Energy Department and he formerly worked for Vantage Point Venture Partners, a major backer of Brightsource Energy.
• Kathleen Weiss, the lead lobbyist and Vice President of First Solar, had 16 meetings at the White House with Valerie Jarrett and other senior administration staffers. In 2008, she donated $2,300 to then-Senator Ken Salazar (who is now Secretary of the Interior) and Harry Reid.
• The Department of Interior’s fast-track program was spearheaded by Steve Black, a counselor to Ken Salazar, and Janea Scott, special assistant to Black and former attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund.

- And finally, consider the obscene amount of dollars that recently flowed into the political class and their election campaign efforts as we reported on July 6, 2012,

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/07/money-behind-our-politics-do-you-really.html)

and think about whether you really believe that these hundreds of millions of dollars were contributed to help out the average American and for the good of the country or were they the continued buying and selling of government favors and politicians:

• Finance/Insurance/Real Estate $298,910,163
• Other $212,559,836
• Miscellaneous Business $194,198,190
• Lawyers & Lobbyists $130,201,920
• Health $116,194,309
• Ideology/Single-Issue $102,889,573
• Communications/Electronics $87,514,353
• Energy/Natural Resource $66,428,838
• Construction $54,280,646
• Labor $52,766,843
• Agribusiness $40,202,777
• Transportation $35,557,147
• Defense $15,569,517

********************************************

Okay, that is enough sleaze for now. We did not even cover all of our past reporting on political corruption and the selling of America. We did not go into the fact that while Washington politicians historically could not accept direct cash gifts from companies, unions, lobbyists, etc. they had been able to participate in insider IPO offerings that are just as lucrative, if not more so, than straight cash handouts. We did not go into the fact that politicians have been known to trade on their insider government information to play the stock market to their advantage, an advantage not available or legal for ordinary Americans.

No, the above is only a sample of how America is sold and bought every day by special interests for the good of those special interests. And that selling is still going on today, with the most recent transactions to be reviewed tomorrow, along with a set of suggestions on how to take America, and the selling of our wealth and liberties, off the market for good.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w