{"id":2045,"date":"2007-08-01T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-01T14:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/representatives-rumble-in-d-c\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:10:54","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:10:54","slug":"representatives-rumble-in-d-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/representatives-rumble-in-d-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Representatives rumble in D.C."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carter Bundy<\/span> <\/p>\n

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Round 1: foreign agribusiness vs. hungry kids<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Congressional Republicans did something quite amazing during this week\u2019s farm bill<\/a> debate: They advocated letting foreign multinationals pay almost no tax on earnings from farming in America<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>. That really says it all, doesn\u2019t it? A party so owned by big corporations that it turns its back on American farmers and American taxpayers.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s how the Delta Farm Press<\/a> (required reading if there ever was) described the battle:<\/p>\n

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\u201c(Foreign agribusiness) lobbyists also became concerned about the House leadership\u2019s inclusion of a proposal to raise $7.8 billion by ending a practice that allows foreign-owned companies operating in the United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> to shift earnings to countries with lower tax rates. The money will offset increases of $4 billion in food stamps and more than $2 billion in energy funding\u2026<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Bush administration also threatened a veto because of what it and Republican members termed a tax increase.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDemocrats seemed happy to be able to cast Republicans in the position of defending what the former called loopholes in the tax laws that allowed foreign-based corporations to essentially pay no U.S.<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> taxes on their earnings.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn a press conference following the vote on July 27, Peterson said Democrats were more interested in helping feed children than in protecting profits of multi-national corporations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Exactly. In this corner, weighing in at a hefty 11,000 pounds, wearing red trunks with gray skin, and sporting a big, long trunk: Chinese-based and European-based agribusiness conglomerates.<\/p>\n

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In the other corner, weighing a meager 570 pounds, wearing blue trunks with brown, splotchy fur, and sporting thin, floppy ears: hungry poor kids and domestic energy programs. <\/p>\n

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Who are you rooting for?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Round 2: IBM vs. taxpayers (oh yeah, kids too)<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Another major battle in the farm bill is whether food-stamp programs will be privatized all across America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. Corporations like IBM are looking to make billions off taxpayers by taking over the eligibility determinations for food stamps and other programs.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Phrases like \u201ccrony capitalism\u201d get thrown around a lot, but this is the heart of it. IBM even threatened to close their regular Indiana<\/st1:state> call centers if IBM didn\u2019t continue to get taxpayer contracts from Indiana<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> to make eligibility determinations. My, haven\u2019t we gotten bold.<\/p>\n

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How is that an efficient use of taxpayer dollars? How is that honest government? The answer is that it\u2019s not. <\/p>\n

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How did it happen? Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels was W\u2019s budget chief for several years \u2013 the years when we went from swimming in surpluses to drowning in deficits. So it goes without saying that Mitch isn\u2019t interested in fiscal responsibility.<\/p>\n

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But who else is Mitch? A guy who has taken millions in contributions from companies like IBM who hope to make a profit off taxpayers by getting sweetheart deals. <\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t care what party you are \u2013 that\u2019s as wrong as former Celtic star Kevin McHale trading T-Wolves franchise player Kevin Garnett to\u2026 the Celtics (as a Knicks fan, I\u2019m particularly bitter about this. Ugh.)<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Even Tejas kinda gets it<\/span><\/p>\n

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Indiana<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>\u2019s not alone. Our, ummm\u2026 \u201cfriends\u201d to the south and east have been in the vanguard of handing taxpayer money over to corporate political contributors.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Peter Harkness, the editor of Governing.com<\/a>, discussed Texas<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>\u2019 corporate giveaway of eligibility determination in a February 2007 article:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cTexas just backtracked drastically on an ambitious plan to hand over most of the responsibility for running social-services programs in the state after a consortium of contractors began making embarrassing mistakes like taking away subsidized health insurance from 27,000 children,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

When even Texas \u2013 yeah, the home of Karl Rove and Enron \u2013 thinks corporate control of food stamps and Medicaid has gone too far, hey, isn\u2019t that like Michael Vick admitting that maybe PETA isn\u2019t so bad after all?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Fortunately, House Dems are facing down the IBM\/Lockheed Martin\/Accenture scam by re-affirming a decades-old rule that food-stamp determinations can\u2019t be outsourced.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This week, Dems are showing they still have the potential greatness within them to be the party of regular working folks and taxpayers. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the GOP showed Smithers<\/a>-like eagerness to throw both taxpayers and poor kids under the bus to make Monty Burns<\/a> a few extra bucks.<\/p>\n

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Round 3: pay discrimination revisited<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Remember the Supreme Court\u2019s outlandish 5-4 decision to gut employment discrimination laws? It\u2019s archived as my second article on this blog. House Dems just voted to restore those laws. Score one for the good guys. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Care to guess whether Heather or Steve was one of the 225 votes against discrimination? Some things never change. Care to guess how Tom voted? Republicrats? Please.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Corporate cluster of the week<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Let me make this clear: I\u2019m not anti-capitalism. I think there are tremendous merits to a competitive private sector. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But insider corporate tax loopholes, sweetheart no-bid contract deals and discrimination based on gender and race aren\u2019t exactly competitive capitalism. You can root for the House Dems and still support real competitive capitalism.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As a tribute to this week\u2019s battle against the total sell-out of America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, I\u2019m going to introduce a new feature: corporate cluster of the week. Not only will it remind us the private sector isn\u2019t infallible; it also gives me a chance to vent. Bonus.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The inaugural loser? 1-800-Flowers. Two days late for both Mothers\u2019 Day and mom\u2019s birthday? In the same year? Sheesh, the Super Bowls of flower-giving, and these guys make the Buffalo Bills look absolutely clutch. Now that\u2019s a cluster.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME<\/a> in New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>. The opinions in his column are personal and in no way reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here<\/a>. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carter Bundy Round 1: foreign agribusiness vs. hungry kids Congressional Republicans did something quite amazing during this week\u2019s farm bill debate: They advocated letting foreign multinationals pay almost no tax on earnings from farming in America. That really says it all, doesn\u2019t it? A party so owned by big corporations that it turns its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundy-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}