So long as many people either don't vote, or make voting decisions based on political ads, this won't change. We really need to get more people to pay attention and to believe that they can make a difference.
Mr. Barr, 40, a first-time elected official, has raised nearly as much
money this year from political action committees run by major banks,
credit unions and insurance companies as longtime lawmakers like Speaker
John A. Boehner and other party leaders.
The flood of financial industry cash — $150,000 in political action
committee donations to Mr. Barr in just six months — is hardly an
accident.
One afternoon in April, Mr. Barr hosted credit union lobbyists
and executives in his House office just before a committee hearing,
promising that he would help protect a federal tax break worth $500
million a year, the executives said. Last month, he introduced legislation
to eliminate a new federal rule intended to prevent banks from issuing
mortgages to customers who could not afford to repay the debt — a
measure pushed by bank lobbyists who had visited his office.
“People support him because they agree with him,” Catherine Gatewood,
Mr. Barr’s spokeswoman, said after he declined requests for an
interview.
Sure they do. Andy Barr's district includes Powell and Estill Counties, places with nearly 25% poverty rates. And he's wanting to make it easier for banks to commit predatory lending there and to remove protections for his constituents. Why? Because the banking industry paid him $150,000 to do so. Chump change when you're buying an ally for a half a billion dollar tax cut.
But it's not just Republican freshmen cashing in, oh no.
The imbalance is apparent on the Democratic side as well. Each of the
seven freshman Democrats on the committee has raised more industry PAC
money so far this year than the committee’s top Democrat, Representative
Maxine Waters of California, who has had a testy relationship with the
industry.
These freshman Democrats joined this year
with Republicans on the committee — over the objection of Ms. Waters
and the Obama administration — to support measures advocated by Wall
Street banks that would roll back some of the strictest provisions of
the landmark Dodd-Frank financial regulations, which were passed in 2010
in the aftermath of the global recession.
A spokeswoman for Representative Patrick Murphy, a Florida Democrat who
has taken in more industry PAC money than any other Democratic freshman,
$53,500, said his votes had been cast based on what he believed was in
the best interest of his constituents, not to please potential
contributors. But she agreed that the pressure to raise money was
intense.
“The system is what the system is,” said Tiffany Muller, Mr. Murphy’s
deputy chief of staff, adding that her boss supported changing campaign
finance rules.
People wonder how we have 90-95% of incumbents get re-elected to an institution with a 9% approval rating. It's because your Representative gets bought within weeks and spends all their time fundraising from lobbyists to stay in the House.
Maybe we want to do something about that, yes?
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Close this window Jump to comment formSo long as many people either don't vote, or make voting decisions based on political ads, this won't change. We really need to get more people to pay attention and to believe that they can make a difference.
August 12, 2013 at 11:52 AM