In the last three months, Washington has seen both a large amount of money spent and at the same time a record amount of money coming in. While there continues to be bills to spend money to hold up the economy, the Chamber of Commerce doubled their lobbying budget and spent 30,000,000. That’s a lot of money at a time when business interests have been involved in a large number of questionable investments.
The Chamber has given most of it’s money to one party. During the 2008 cycle, two banks that have agreed to accept federal aid, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc., were among the top donors to campaigns, each giving nearly $4 million as of mid-October, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog organization. If nothing else, it seems that the new economic bills should contain language that the money can’t be used for lobbying or campaigns.
On October 17, Senator Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) wrote AIG Chief Executive Edward M. Liddy stating "We find it unconscionable that AIG would take advantage of these taxpayer loans while paying lobbyists to roll back taxpayer protections against misrepresentations, deception and fraud in mortgage lending," .
At a time when all Americans need a stable economy and a plan that will protect them and not those who started the problem, these disclosures are troubling.
