Bailed out banks report soaring profits, but still Republicans and Democrats both push more corporate welfare while our national debt balloons. Senators, congressmen, and top aides from both parties continue to cash out at record pace, putting their “public service” to work as lobbyists helping special interests win handouts. As a journalist specializing in lobbying and the tawdrier aspects of the business-government intersection, it’s easy to find grist for indignant columns. But it’s harder to find things to be thankful for.
But it’s Thanksgiving. So I worked hard, and came up with four things to be thankful for in the otherwise depressing intersection of business, government, and lobbying.
Barney Frank doesn’t have a stellar record on cronyism (in addition to his role as abetter-in-chief for the Fannie Mae scandal, Frank was once censured for fixing parking tickets for his boyfriend), but this year he struck a great blow for good government.
Frank, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, got fed up after two top banking staffers cashed out to be Wall Street lobbyists. Frank publicly chastised the ex-aides, and then made it known — none of his staffers who become lobbyists would be allowed to lobby him or his staff as long as he was chairman. This takes away the incentive to cash out, thus reducing staffers’ temptation to serve special interests over the public interest.
But in trying to slow the revolving door, Sen. Michael Bennet did Frank one better, writing a bill that would curtail his own career prospects. The “Close the Revolving Door Act” would prohibit current and future lawmakers from ever acting as paid lobbyists after leaving office. So far, Bennet has only one co-sponsor. The House version has eight co-sponsors.
On the other side of the aisle, the most uplifting — if ultimately symbolic — move this past year was the Senate Republican Conference’s vote this month to temporarily ban earmarks. It was an impressive early victory for the GOP Tea Party wing over the K Street wing.
While earmarks are a tiny fraction of federal spending, and eliminating them doesn’t necessarily reduce the bottom line, they are an important gateway drug that ropes otherwise conservative lawmakers into sacrificing their principles for some pork. Earmarks also provide an opportunity for corruption — consider former congressmen Duke Cunningham and Jack Murtha. A moratorium reduces the temptations facing Republican lawmakers.
To Obama’s credit, he quickly put out a press release supporting the Republicans’ earmark ban.
Speaking of “to Obama’s credit” — well, it’s not easy. Obama talks a mammoth game on cleaning up government, and then backs it up with worse than nothing. His administration’s actions on the revolving door, special interests, and lobbyist access have repeatedly and blatantly contradicted his rhetoric.
But it’s Thanksgiving, and I’ve covered his problems thoroughly all year, so we’ll focus on the positive — using one of his critics as a starting point.
Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, has turned sour on President Obama in recent months. Despite the wishful thinking of conservative pundits, though, Immelt isn’t objecting to Obama’s meddling in the economy — the GE boss is upset that Obama isn’t handing out more corporate welfare.
Immelt has enviously described Germany’s and Japan’s business model as “government and business working as a pack,” while criticizing the American approach of “It just doesn’t matter. Let whatever happens happen” — also known as “laissez faire.”
Turns out, Obama is too laissez-faire for Immelt’s tastes. In July, the Financial Times reported that Immelt “had harsh words for Barack Obama” while also “making a point of praising Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, for her defense of German industry.” The FT quoted Immelt: “We have to become an industrial powerhouse again but you don’t do this when government and entrepreneurs are not in synch.”
The Obama White House is rebuffing the corporatist advances of GE, which wants more central planning. For instance, White House officials Carol Browner, Larry Summers and Ron Klain recently penned an internal memo positing that wind subsidies may simply be corporate giveaways — citing as evidence GE’s threat of “going to the private market for financing out of frustration with the review process.”
Obama should wear GE’s criticism as a badge of honor — this lobbying king and corporate giant objects that Obama is leaving it to the whims of the free market. That ought to make all small-businessmen and taxpayers thankful.
Timothy P.Carney, The Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Monday and Thursday, and his stories and blog posts appear on ExaminerPolitics.com.
