-Caveat Lector-
>From www.publicampaign.org
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> THE COIN-OPERATED CONGRESS
> Ellen S. Miller and Micah L. Sifry
> (Posted June 30, 1999)
>
>
>
> Two weeks ago, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called on the
> Supreme Court to rule that the $1000 individual contribution
> limit to candidates is unconstitutionally low. Arguing that the
> limit had not been adjusted for inflation, McConnell came out
> with the campaign finance non sequitur of the year. "Clearly,
> there has been an enormous erosion of purchasing power over the
> last 25 years," McConnell said.
>
> Really? We think the “purchasing power” of campaign contributions
> is as solid as ever. Here are some recent examples you might have
> missed between saturation coverage of President Clinton’s
> impeachment and the war in Kosovo.
>
> On March 10, the House Banking Committee adopted an amendment
> that will force banks to disclose their automated teller machine
> fees or risk not being able to charge for those transactions.
> Banks make almost $2 billion a year from ATM fees, which average
> $1.27 even though it costs banks only about 25 cents per
> transaction. So it must have been with a sigh of relief that the
> banking community saw the proposal from Rep. Marge Roukema (R-NJ)
> and Rep. John LaFalce (D-NY) sail through the committee by a 48-1
> vote. After all, it replaced a far tougher proposal by Rep.
> Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to abolish ATM surcharges entirely, which
> states like Connecticut and Iowa have done with no harm to
> consumers. Of course, commercial banks give heavily to most
> members of the House Banking Committee. In 1997-98, individuals
> and PACs connected to the commercial banking industry were the #1
> contributors to both Roukema and LaFalce.
>
> In April, Reps. Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Ed Bryant (R-TN)
> introduced a bill to extend patent protection for Claritin, the
> allergy drug, manufactured by Schering-Plough, and six other
> drugs. The company sold about $1.9 billion worth of Claritin in
> 1998. The bill would extend the company's exclusive patent from
> 2002 to 2005, preventing any generic manufacturers from entering
> the market. Generic drugs generally costs consumers anywhere
> between 30 and 60 percent less than the marquee brands. In the
> 1998 cycle, individual and PAC contributions from Schering-Plough
> were Bryant’s single largest source of campaign contributions and
> McDermott’s second largest.
>
> The biggest victims of the Y2K “millennium bug” are likely to be
> small businesses stuck with outmoded software. Instead of taking
> steps to aid them, the main bill moving through Congress, S-96,
> limits their rights to collect damages and grants relief to
> software manufacturers and vendors-including those who may have
> done nothing to address the problem. “Existing liability laws
> offer plenty of protections for businesses that might be sued,”
> The New York Times editorialized in opposition. “The larger worry
> is that the prospect of immunity could dissuade equipment and
> software makers from making the effort to correct the
> millennium-bug problem.” The leading sponsors of S-96, Senators
> Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chris Dodd (D-CT) and John McCain (R-AZ) are,
> respectively the #3, #11 and #12 top Senate recipients of
> computer industry contributions from 1993-98.
>
> Every year, approximately 650,000 Americans get hurt on the
> job-not from accidents and related hazards-but from the simple
> physical demands of their work. Experts in ergonomics say that
> most of these injuries can be prevented, saving businesses $15-20
> billion a year in workers compensation costs and perhaps another
> $45-60 billion in indirect health care costs. In early February,
> the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
> announced that it was moving toward establishing ergonomics
> standards for jobs in general industry, covering some 25 million
> workers in baking, sewing, meat-packing and package handling or
> on assembly lines. At the behest of the National Coalition on
> Ergonomics, a business group, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) is pushing
> legislation that would require completion of a study on
> ergonomics by the National Academy of Sciences before any
> regulations could take effect. But the NAS has already studied
> the matter, finding that workplace risk factors do promote health
> problems and ergonomics programs can reduce these risks. NCE
> members gave a whopping $8.2 million in PAC money to
> congressional candidates in 1997-98, eighty-five percent to
> Republicans, including at least $25,000 to Blunt.
>
> Since the passage of the Telecommunications Act in 1996, cable
> consumers have seen their bills rise about 21 percent, almost
> four times the inflation rate. This has occurred with the
> approval of the Federal Communications Commission, under the
> dubious theory that cable companies need the extra revenues to
> deal with new competition. According to Consumer Federation of
> America and Consumers Union, the average consumer would be paying
> about $36 less per year if the FCC hadn’t loosened its practices.
> On March 31st, as called for by the Telecom Act, the FCC’s price
> controls on cable rates were fully lifted. Despite pleas from
> consumer groups to review the law, Congress took no action. The
> reasons are not surprising: The communications and electronics
> industry invested heavily in the passage of the
> Telecommunications Act, donating $23.7 million to congressional
> candidates in 1995-96, according to the Center for Responsive
> Politics. The cable industry, a smaller but by no means
> insignificant subset of that group, has fought hard to keep
> Congress and the regulatory agencies from reviewing the law,
> giving a total of $3.4 million since then. Among an elite group
> of $5,000 donors to a February 2 dinner of House Speaker Dennis
> Hastert’s leadership PAC: representatives of Ameritech, Bell
> Atlantic, BellSouth, GTE, Microsoft Corp., and SBC Communications
> Inc.
>
> Last fall, without a single hearing or debate, Congress voted to
> hit the public with another savings and loan bailout bill that
> could reach $30 to $50 billion, not counting interest, on top of
> the $500 billion in the original bailout. At the urging of
> industry lobbyists, members of Congress tucked into
> appropriations legislation a two-paragraph provision requiring
> taxpayers to pay any and all court judgments stemming from the
> 1989 savings and loan bailout law. This was a special provision
> for owners of banks who sued the government after toughened
> bookkeeping rules drove their institutions into insolvency. Every
> $1 billion in judgments “will cost each American household $10,”
> the New York Times reported. Those bank owners who will profit
> the most, along with their hard and soft money campaign
> contributions from 1995-1998: Ronald Perelman of the Revlon
> Group, who so kindly made sure Monica Lewinsky was offered a job
> in New York ($973,899); the Pritzker family of Chicago
> ($508,594); New York investor Lewis Ranieri ($71,500); and Texan
> Robert M. Bass ($68,500). Banks and S&Ls gave at least $27.7
> million in PAC, individual and soft money contributions in
> 1995-98, two-thirds to Republicans.
>
> We could go on and on. Campaign contributions losing their
> purchasing power? Get real.
>
>
>
A<>E<>R
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