Author Archive

September29

Public Citizen president takes on corporations on The Daily Show

By: Dorry Samuels

In the midst of the current economic crisis, one group isn’t struggling so much: corporations. They’ve had sky-high profits, have opted out of paying taxes and have all the governmental support they need. Must be nice, huh?

So, last night the folks over at The Daily Show wondered, well, if corporations can be considered people — as the U.S. Supreme Court and presidential candidate Mitt Romney have alleged — could people use the same money-grubbing tactics corporations use to rebound from their financial plight? Let’s explore.

First, The Daily Show crew needed an expert. But who? Aha! That’s where we come in. Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee called in Public Citizen president Robert Weissman to guide a struggling family through the same processes corporations go through to save cash.

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Posted in: Activism, Campaign Finance, Congress, Financial Reform2 comments

September9

Money and Democracy Update: Super PACs change scope of elections, Perry to rake in big bucks

By: Dorry Samuels

Stunning Statistic of the Week:"Public Citizen Money and Democracy Update"

    Companies that disclose political spending are more valuable
    Publicly held companies that disclose their electoral spending have a higher share price than politically active companies that fail to disclose their donors, according to a report released this week by Public Citizen and a Harvard Law School professor. The new finding provides added evidence that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should require corporations to disclose their political activities, the report said.Super PACs to change scope of elections
    Make Us Great Again, a Super PAC that is throwing its weight in support of presidential candidate Rick Perry, plans to spend $55 million to help secure the Republican nomination for the Texas governor. This may be even more than the Perry campaign raises itself. “It’s a game changer,” said Paul S. Ryan, the Federal Election Commission director for the campaign finance watchdog Campaign Legal Center, of the Super PAC’s goal. “Super PACs will make the 2012 presidential election unlike any election we’ve seen before.” 

    Boosting fundraising game plans
    With 14 months to go until the 2012 presidential elections, the political action committee and nonprofit created by Republican strategist Karl Rove are raising the stakes in their fundraising plans. American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS have more than doubled their original goal of raising $120 million to influence elections next year.

    Transparency would mitigate industry influence on supercommittee
    Nearly 100 former aides to lawmakers serving on the bipartisan “supercommittee” now lobby on K Street for industries (think energy, financial, defense, agricultural, etc.) that have a stake in the budget deal. Additionally, seven former lobbyists currently work for the lawmakers. Luckily, a bill was introduced this week that calls for transparency in the supercommittee’s dealings to ensure that its recommendations aren’t unduly influenced by lobbyists representing wealthy corporate interests.

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Posted in: Congress, Money & Democracy Update, Uncategorized2 comments

August25

Mesh to repair common pelvic condition should be pulled from the market

By: Dorry Samuels

Flickr photo by esc.ape(d)

A product used to treat a common problem afflicting women primarily of child-bearing age should be pulled from the market and recalled, Public Citizen told the FDA in a petition today.

WARNING: I’ll go into some graphic descriptions in this blog post. Have a weak stomach? Proceed at your own risk.

The condition is called pelvic organ prolapse (POP), and approximately 300,000 women in the U.S. were treated for it last year. In this condition, one or more of a woman’s pelvic organs (think bladder, rectum or uterus) bulges or descends into her vaginal cavity, sometimes past the opening of the vagina, because of weakness in the connective tissue and muscles that surround and support the pelvic organs.

Most women with POP have no symptoms. For symptomatic patients, treatment can involve surgical or non-surgical interventions; in surgical procedures, non-absorbable mesh often is implanted transvaginally (through incisions and punctures made through the wall of the vagina) with the intent of reinforcing the tissues around the pelvic organ that prolapsed and increasing the longevity of the repairs. Public Citizen estimates that approximately 67,500 of these procedures last year used non-absorbable mesh.

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Posted in: Consumer Protection, Health, Product Safety0 comments

July29

Money and Democracy: Cashing in on debt ceiling, Colbert asks YOU, Chamber hates sunshine and both parties love loopholes

By: Dorry Samuels

"Public Citizen Money and Democracy Update"Stunning Statistics of the Week:

  • $350,000: The amount of money raised by Democratic bundler and lobbyist Anthony Podesta in the first six months of the year
  • $320,000: The amount raised for Democratic candidates by Podesta’s wife, Heather, in the same time period
  • $167,800: The amount raised by Patrick Durkin, the next-highest lobbyist bundler of the year, for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign
  • $144,100: The amount raised by Republican bundler T. Martin Fiorentino Jr.
  • $130,000: The amount raised so far this year by Michael Graham for the National Republican Senatorial Committee

More support for Obama’s proposed executive order
More than 60 House Democrats sent a letter this week to President Barack Obama, asking him to issue an executive order that would make companies vying for government contracts disclose their political contributions. “Political expenditures are already well-known to those that make them and to the officials who benefit,” the letter said. “With disclosure, the public will have access to this information as well, allowing them to judge whether contracts were awarded based on merit.” The executive order would help to mitigate the effects of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which gave corporations the go-ahead to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections.

Not everyone wants disclosure…
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent warnings to members of Congress letting them know that voting to shine light on government contractors’ campaign contributions will negatively affect their legislative scorecards. The Chamber, along with many House Republicans, says it believes the executive order is a way to silence political opponents.

Disclosure also feared in state elections
A conservative legal group this week asked a federal court to overturn portions of Florida’s campaign finance laws, wiping out key disclosure requirements. The Institute for Justice – financed in part by the politically active billionaires, the Koch Brothers – is representing three Sarasota-area activists who want the court to block state campaign finance laws from being applied to citizen activists looking to run ads on ballot issues.

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Posted in: Activism, Campaign Finance, Money & Democracy Update, Open Government, Uncategorized0 comments

July26

BP’s ‘disappointing’ profits — still sky-high

By: Dorry Samuels

Poor BP. The multibillion-dollar oil company that has continued to pollute our waters and ignore the safety of its workers just can’t win.

This morning, BP reported its disappointing profits for the second quarter: only $5.6 billion. Boo hoo.

Oh, wait. As Think Progress points out:

Despite making $11 billion in profits in just 2011 alone, BP and its other Big Oil allies continue to aggressively lobby Congress to maintain their billions of dollars in oil industry tax breaks. A quick look at some other key facts:

  • BP has already spent $2 million lobbying Congress this year.
  • BP has made more than $40,000 in political contributions in just 2011, with 93 percent going to Republicans.
  • The Big Five oil companies — BP, Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell — made more than $900 billion in profits (figure in 2011 dollars) – almost a trillion dollars – over the previous decade.

Then take into consideration that of the $20 billion BP allotted for its escrow fund to repay the victims of its devastating oil spill last summer, the company has doled out only $4 billion. And if that weren’t bad enough, BP wants to stop paying the Gulf’s victims because “the tourism industry is booming, all federal fishing grounds have reopened, and the shrimp catch has been plentiful.”

I really wonder who’s looking after the company’s PR because this is outrageous.

Posted in: Energy, Environment0 comments

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