Promoting fair elections for all parties and independents
eNewsletter #3
This is a monthly (or at least periodic) newsletter on election and health care reform. If you wish not to receive it please unsubscribe at the bottom and accept my apologies for the intrusion.
In
this issue:
1) Federal Lobbying
Proposals (from Time.com)
2)
But they don't go far enough (from TomPaign.com)
3) Op-Ed, Pols must be beholden to us and end the graft
4)
5) Where's Common Cause when you really
need them?
6) Upcoming hearings on Ellis' Ethics
bill (SB1)
7)
Book recommendation
8)
Contact Information
9) Removal instructions
Please do not respond to this email
address. It is used for cleanup purposes only. Please use jelohman@gmail.com
1
Six ways to
(a summary)
By Michael
Duffy
No fewer than six lobbying-reform
proposals were floating around Congress late last week, and leaders of both
parties were promising that one, or perhaps elements of all, would pass before
Groundhog Day. TIME surveyed the latest proposals and the lawmakers behind them
to handicap the probable outcome.
1 Ban
lobbyist-paid travel. See the entire text at the link above
2 Slow the revolving door.
3 Ensure more transparency.
4 Reform airfare rules.
5 Ban earmarks.
6 Ban fund raising while Congress is in
session.
(Some
politicians only want to "limit" lobbyist paid travel. Limit??? What
is it about Zero Freebies that they don't understand? If they need to travel on
official business, let them document it and the taxpayers pick up the costs.)
Full text
at: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20060120/corrupting_influences.php
When
Roth Judd, executive director of the state Ethics Board, suggests that
"increased lobbying activity" may not be a bad thing, it reminds me
of the idiotic claim by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
that "we don't have too much campaign money in the political system, we
have too little."
Give
me a break! What part of "graft" do these guys not understand?
Lobbying
is indeed important for companies that want their voices heard and legislators
who want to hear all sides of the issues. But what must be immediately made
illegal is lobbying with cash in hand, even if that cash precedes or follows
the lobbying effort by weeks or months. That's the response I would have
expected from our state's ethics chief. But then, he was appointed by the
Legislature that benefits from the cash that flows, even though he is charged
with its oversight.
Under
no circumstances should cash transfer hands from those who want laws written to
those who write them, regardless of the time that elapses between the two. Nor
should cash ensure a time slot in front of a legislator so he can hear one side
but not the other. The fact is, good laws do not require cash to change hands
in order to be passed and signed into law; only bad laws do. Sad to say that
most laws passed in
In any
other country they'd call our system bribery and payola. Only in
That
five Republican and Democrat legislators have been indicted or convicted or are
serving sentences is not an indication that our current ethics system works,
only that the tip of the iceberg was impossible to conceal. What's beneath the
tip should be of great concern to us all and to the welfare of our families as
jobs flee the third-highest-taxed state in the nation.
More
than $5 billion per year in state taxpayer waste and tax breaks has been
documented by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (www.wisdc.org), most of it
going to companies that gave the most in campaign contributions. Unnecessary
road construction, no-bid contracts to travel agencies and gobs of gambling
cash to Gov. Jim Doyle are just a few of the most recent questionable actions
by Republicans and Democrats alike.
Worse,
hundreds of thousands of health care dollars have helped block a sound
universal health care system that would keep employers and jobs in the state.
Will it ever end?
It
won't until our Legislature passes and our governor signs AB 626, a bill that
would provide full public funding of campaigns to those who opt into the
system. For $5 per taxpayer per year, we could fund all state election
campaigns and save the $1,300 per taxpayer the state gives away to the private
interests that currently fund the elections. That's a bargain most of us would
jump at. And in
Though
90 percent of Wisconsinites voted for campaign reform in 2000, perhaps we need
a similar referendum to see if Wisconsinites are willing to make that $5
investment. Add it as a budget item. Are the political parties willing to put
it to a vote in 2006?
Source: http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/index.php?ntid=69345&ntpid=0
“The
way you describe your situation (in
Their Common Cause
did it; why can’t ours?
5
Where's Common Cause
when you really need them?
With all
of the state and federal scandals, there is no better time than the
present. Next year we may not have this opportunity. We can ride it to victory
if we are 100% together. I hope Jay rallies his troops to support AB626. His
members are also taxpayers who are getting ripped off by the current system,
and they deserve better. Today; not years from now.
Jack
Lohman
SB1 – Mike Ellis’ Ethics bill is scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday Jan 26, Room 300 NE at 10:00am, State Capital (
(Government
Accountability Board created and Enforcement Division provisions; Elections
Board and Ethics Board abolished)
AB626
Mark Pocan’s Clean Money
elections was scheduled for the same time but now Rescheduled for later. (
(Public
financing of elections for certain state offices)
SB388 by Sen. Mark Miller – AB807 by Rep. Chuck Benedict -
Unknown (
(Establishing a publicly
financed health care system for residents of this state.)
Two Op-Eds in support of universal health care, for those
interested:
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2005/july/its_time_to_bypass_e.php
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2005/september/free_corporations_fr.php
7
Book Recomendations
Read the reviews on www.amazon.com
Is That a Politician in Your Pocket:
by Micah Sifry, Nancy Watzman (ISBN: 047167995X)
This book nails both political parties on paybacks and names the special
interests who made out the checks and what they got in return.
Running On Empty: How The Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our
Future and What Americans Can Do About It
by Peter G. Peterson (ISBN: 0374252874)
A Republican that documents the failures of both parties. An
excellent, though disheartening, read.
8
Contact information
Contact: Jack Lohman
Phone 414-477-8686 (cell)
9
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