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pork barrel: somebody smarter explain this TPA shite that just got passed
Posted on 7/2/15 at 5:45 pm
Posted on 7/2/15 at 5:45 pm
I've tried to piece it together from different articles ive read on the internet but I dont watch news. I have a handful of fb friends that are raving like lunatics about the US forfeiting sovereignty to international corporations etc. The only thing ive really learned from snooping around is what it takes to buy an american politician these days. Just when I think I cant hate these motherfrickers anymore
LINK
LINK
LINK
LINK
quote:
Contributions to House members from forces favorable to Obamatrade outnumbered those from those opposed by a factor of 8.6 times, $197,869,145 to $23,065,231. The differences were even more stark in the Senate, with a total of $285,225,162 in financialincentives being meted out from supporting groups and only $27,569,149 from the opposition, over ten times as much. There were 32 House members with over a million dollars in contributions and many who were just below that threshold. In the Senate, only five Senators were below the one million dollar mark, and two of those, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Mike Lee (R-UT) voted no, and against betrayal of their country.
The formula in the House seems fairly simple, at least as far as rewarding those in leadership positions. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) got a cool $5 million and change, Mike McCarthy (R-CA) half that at $2.4 million, and Steve Scalise (R-LA) half again at $1.2 million. For Paul Ryan, the price of American sovereignty was $2.2 million.
quote:
In the Senate the picture is even uglier, and much more blatant. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “acquired” $9.2 million, John Cornyn (R-TX) $5.3 million and Orrin Hatch $4.2, the third member of the Senate trio of traitors forcing this upon us.
Marco Rubio pocketed $3.9 million for voting to tie us to a bill he never read, with his fellow presidential candidate Lindsey Graham “earning” $3.4 million.
This post was edited on 7/2/15 at 5:53 pm
4
Posted on 7/2/15 at 5:52 pm to Chef Leppard
quote:
pork barrel:
I completely forgot about that board.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 6:22 pm to Chef Leppard
I specifically ask for smart people. and I get spanky
this board
this board
Posted on 7/2/15 at 6:29 pm to Chef Leppard
quote:
I specifically ask for smart people. and I get spanky
I'm smart in my own ways. Don't do politics though.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 7:37 pm to Chef Leppard
You might be putting the cart in front of the horse on this one.
1.
The money came first, in campaign contributions. That money must be spent on campaigning. It's strictly regulated and oversight is strict. It's not like those guys are putting that money in their personal bank accounts. Could they be laundering money from their campaign? Sure, and if they get caught, they get buttfricked. They are already rich, the risk is too great for most of them to pocket that money personally.
2.
Special interests give money to politicians that align with their goals. They want those politicians elected. This is obvious. If a pro-life group gives $ to a pro-life republican, and the politician votes against some planned parenthood thing, is it because of the donation or did he get the donation because he's pro-life? See where I'm going with this?
3.
Almost everything in Congress that gets voted on has results straight down party lines. All the republicans vote one way, all the democrats vote the other. There may be one or two random guys who switch sides on that vote. It has nothing to do with campaign contributions. It has to do with the party platform and leadership in each party.
The crooked shite that should piss you off is actual pork barrel politics. Do you know what "pork" means in political terms?
1.
The money came first, in campaign contributions. That money must be spent on campaigning. It's strictly regulated and oversight is strict. It's not like those guys are putting that money in their personal bank accounts. Could they be laundering money from their campaign? Sure, and if they get caught, they get buttfricked. They are already rich, the risk is too great for most of them to pocket that money personally.
2.
Special interests give money to politicians that align with their goals. They want those politicians elected. This is obvious. If a pro-life group gives $ to a pro-life republican, and the politician votes against some planned parenthood thing, is it because of the donation or did he get the donation because he's pro-life? See where I'm going with this?
3.
Almost everything in Congress that gets voted on has results straight down party lines. All the republicans vote one way, all the democrats vote the other. There may be one or two random guys who switch sides on that vote. It has nothing to do with campaign contributions. It has to do with the party platform and leadership in each party.
The crooked shite that should piss you off is actual pork barrel politics. Do you know what "pork" means in political terms?
Posted on 7/2/15 at 7:48 pm to Chef Leppard
It's been going on for so many years. American politicians serving the interests of foreign nations.
Remember when Bill Clinton received large campaign contributions from the Chinese Red Army.
Craig Unger's book, House of Bush, House of Saul, documented $1.4 billion dollars that the Saudi royal family and the Bin Ladens have paid to Bush family corporate interests and foundations.
Our politicians are always for sale to the highest bidder.
Remember when Bill Clinton received large campaign contributions from the Chinese Red Army.
Craig Unger's book, House of Bush, House of Saul, documented $1.4 billion dollars that the Saudi royal family and the Bin Ladens have paid to Bush family corporate interests and foundations.
Our politicians are always for sale to the highest bidder.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 8:07 pm to deeprig9
quote:
It's not like those guys are putting that money in their personal bank accounts.
Cmon man. Just because I dont watch the news much doesn't mean I have a 3rd grade understanding of political contributions
What difference does it make that it goes to their reelection campaigns. Mitch fricking McConnell got 9 million for this one vote? Boehner got 5?
And does nobody have a laymans understanding of what exactly "obamatrade" as theyre calling it does? All I can discern is supposedly it has potential to cost america a frick TON of jobs. And some quote I read from pelosi earlier states that theres no support for a measure that would provide relief for displaced workers
Posted on 7/2/15 at 8:29 pm to Chef Leppard
Politicians hire their wives and daughters as assistants or consultants. Or the special interests hire the family. And politicians get to keep unspent campaign funds when they retire.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 8:53 pm to AlaCowboy
quote:
Politicians hire their wives and daughters as assistants or consultants. Or the special interests hire the family. And politicians get to keep unspent campaign funds when they retire.
That's not true.
None of that is true.
I'm sure you can google up an example or two, but it's not legal, and every one of those google search results will end in someone getting prosecuted for it.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 8:56 pm to Chef Leppard
quote:
What difference does it make that it goes to their reelection campaigns. Mitch fricking McConnell got 9 million for this one vote? Boehner got 5?
What makes you think Mitch and John got those respective contributions for this one single vote?
Did the vote go through, then the special interest groups started writing checks to their re-election campaigns?
Posted on 7/2/15 at 8:59 pm to deeprig9
Click the top link pal
Posted on 7/2/15 at 9:05 pm to Chef Leppard
quote:
Click the top link pal
I did, first thing I clicked after I first clicked this topic.
The link arranges numbers on a spreadsheet. Where is it documented that Mitch or John got that money specifically BECAUSE of their vote?
The spreadsheet shows correlation, not causation. And I explained the correlation several posts up.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 9:12 pm to deeprig9
It says right there
quote:
contributions to congressional campaigns of House members in office on day of vote, from interest groups invested in the vote
Posted on 7/2/15 at 9:16 pm to Chef Leppard
Bottom line as I understand it is that it's supposed to give the president authority to negotiate trade deals based on certain criteria and the submit to Congress for approval with an up or down vote with no changes.
But it was negotiated in secret - except there's ample evidence well connected lobbyists and corporations were privy to the language - and God knows how much was inserted to give advantage to the well connected. Also many votes were tied to an extension of the Export Import Bank which secures foreign loans for our companies to sell stuff abroad....basically Section 8 Housing for large companies to get paid on exports. Obviously though...its in our best interests to secure credit for mom and pop exporters like Boeing and GE.
It's hard to find good info but when you have the amount of money involved, insider access and staunch Conservatives joining hands with Obama on trade authority...I doubt much good can come of it.
Or AKA business as usual....
But it was negotiated in secret - except there's ample evidence well connected lobbyists and corporations were privy to the language - and God knows how much was inserted to give advantage to the well connected. Also many votes were tied to an extension of the Export Import Bank which secures foreign loans for our companies to sell stuff abroad....basically Section 8 Housing for large companies to get paid on exports. Obviously though...its in our best interests to secure credit for mom and pop exporters like Boeing and GE.
It's hard to find good info but when you have the amount of money involved, insider access and staunch Conservatives joining hands with Obama on trade authority...I doubt much good can come of it.
Or AKA business as usual....
Posted on 7/2/15 at 9:22 pm to Chef Leppard
Look at the vote breakdown. All the reps voted one way, all the dems voted the other way. But they all received contributions overwhelmingly from/for the same side.
Am I getting through to you?
Am I getting through to you?
Posted on 7/2/15 at 9:34 pm to deeprig9
There were a number of Reps and Senators that went against their party on this one.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 9:39 pm to SquatchDawg
quote:
But it was negotiated in secret - except there's ample evidence well connected lobbyists and corporations were privy to the language - and God knows how much was inserted to give advantage to the well connected.
I don't know the ins and outs of this particular deal, but I do know that this particular thought process is bullshite.
Let's pretend you are an average member of the US Congress.
You are a successful real estate agent, possibly an attorney. You won your little local popularity contest in your local district, and now you are a congressman.
A bill comes forward ... a bill to regulate concrete manufacturing.... you are a real estate agent and you don't know jack frick about concrete.
But you have to vote on the bill. What do you do? You talk to people you know who are in the business. People who know something about concrete.
Do you open the phone book and start randomly calling concrete companies from the yellow pages? No... because the yellow pages don't exist anymore. But even if they did, you still don't talk to random concrete people. You go through your list of contributors, there were 500 contributors. You see four of them are in the concrete business.
That's who you talk to. That's how you educate yourself about concrete.
Is that crooked?
It seems natural to me.
As long as the congressman votes his conscience after educating himself as best he can on an issue he knows jac shite about.
Of course lobbyists and corporations are consulted by congressmen, daily, reps and dems, talking about legislation. It would be incompetent of a congressman to not reach out to the organizations his vote will affect, on issues he knows jack shite about.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 9:42 pm to SquatchDawg
quote:
There were a number of Reps and Senators that went against their party on this one.
Doesn't change my point, the vote was overwhelmingly straight down party lines, but everyone got the same overwhelming contributions from the same side.
Blows Chef's theory out of the water.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 9:46 pm to deeprig9
How the frick do you figure? And what theory?
200 MILLION dollars was given in political contributions down both sides of the "aisle" by interests that would benefit to ensure its passage. wtf is your point?
200 MILLION dollars was given in political contributions down both sides of the "aisle" by interests that would benefit to ensure its passage. wtf is your point?
Posted on 7/2/15 at 9:47 pm to deeprig9
in your example what happens is the concrete manufacturer says "hey rig, it would be awesome if you could get wording in that gives preference to concrete companies that have XYZ compliance and meet Green Standard ABC..".and so on. Knowing damn well that you are one of the few that can qualify. You're kidding yourself if you don't think this happens on a scale bigger than we can imagine. How much is on the line? billions?
Have you ever helped a client write specs for a bid?
Have you ever helped a client write specs for a bid?
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