Imagine if we found sometime in July that Delmarva was again a regulated entitity of Delaware’s Public Service Commission. It had been sneaked through the last hours of legislature when no one was looking.
Or that the full expense of the state’s cleanup of a toxic waste site would by bourne by Dupont.
Or that fines equaling those of the mortgaged home values lost by preditory lending, would be levied against private mortgage brokers who lent without consideration of the persons ability to pay?
What if the tricks to subvert our rule of laws, were used for the benefit of people for a change, instead for inbred corporations?
What if every day 50 or 60 mischievous anti business pieces of legislation were place in action, so that lobbyists were forced to play defense, for fear that one may slip past unnoticed?
It could easily be done…..It takes one person, a Karen Peterson, a John Kowalko, to insert a pharse, change a word, one that no one will see as the bill is voted on en bloc during the final hours.
What if the powers that be, woke up one morning without their clout, because proponents of good government sneaked provisions that stripped them of their rights to seek redress?
FOIA would be passed on opening day of the next legislature…..
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May 19, 2008 at 5:18 am
Alan Coffey
K:
True enough. But why must you make business the enemy? The problem is with the power that government wields. If that power is worth a lot of money, then somebody will pay them to wield it for the special interests. This applies to acupuncturists as well as mortgage brokers and large corporations.
I say we reduce the power of government where we can. That way the special interests cannot take over our lives by buying influence.
Many in the Republican party seek what you do in regards to FOIA. We speak out to our reps and senators. We comment on blogs. And our voice is ignored as much as yours.
I ran a business in Delaware for over ten years. I grew it like a child. I created jobs and I care about good government. So I agree with you on FOIA and feel like you are tarring me with the broad brush you use against “corporations”.
May 19, 2008 at 8:20 am
kavips
Clarification: I agree you have a valid point. Due to the news stories about business today, that word has indeed taken on a negative connotation which I will admit it lacked during the previous administration. A negative business, one of which I speak of when I say “business”, promotes its own self interest over the well being of those using its services,
Harsh examples: hospital that kills its patients because body parts pay more bills then bankrupt healed patients.
Or a power plant that fights scrubbing its stacks, choosing to pay the fine, even though knowing it’s pollution kills those living around the tall stack…..
Or the firms that loan money to unsuspecting homeowners knowing full well they will repossess the house in 5 years.
Or an oil company that creates a crises, thereby driving up oil’s profitability to record levels during a year when they will pay 0 capital gains taxes due to Republican legislation.
My definition does NOT include the restaurateurs who decide to provide insurance to their staff. Nor does it include the small businessman who decides to keep a mediocre employee upon its payroll, because of tragic consequences to that person should they lose their job. Nor does it include a wind farm company. that decides to eat all incremental costs in order to win a deal that will benefit all Delawareans forever…..
These altruistic corporations are not among the top earners….Unfortunately those top earners , being the ones who our current administration has favored, contributed to the brutal evisceration of every good things America has stood for. By catering to this philosophy: “finance a Republican and then do whatever you want”……Republicans have driven our country to a point where only drastic change can resurrect our fortunes…
Why else would an administration create tax laws that favored moving one’s company overseas instead of continuing to employee Americans.
We have reached a low point where at where now only government can do the job…..
One can see that Your broad brush in favor of business, has as many streaks running through it, as has my broad brush against it…..
May 19, 2008 at 9:02 am
Savy Politico
kavips…please post your email (or whatever) so one can contact you off blog…….I am interested in having a private (email) discussion w/you. thanks.
May 19, 2008 at 8:06 pm
liberalgeek
You are correct, Kavips. If the roles were reversed, FOIA would be a done deal.
May 19, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Alan Coffey
One clarification, since we are on the subject, I support free MARKETS, not business. Just my $0.02
May 20, 2008 at 12:00 am
Tyler Nixon
I am tracking right with you, k. One thing I pointed out last week when discussing the SEU saga on Mascitti was how the shadowy elements lurking behind Harris McDowell’s murky moves are smart to operate on multiple fronts, probably from well-coordinated plans. The result is that a John Kowalko, or any handful of others trying to keep it all honest and open, is forced to run around fighting multiple fires on multiple fronts.
I have found that such schemes are purposely contrived in complicated even confusing fashion, such that the short explanation takes 20 minutes if you want to educate and convince legislators or policy makers who already face time pressures, deadlines, and other competing responsibilities.
For people or entities pursuing their own narrow agendas (versus one in the public interest) the choice M.O. is divide, distract, confuse, and conquer. Their incessant influence in the process and the single-minded nature of their narrow goals clog the process in a way that makes it extraordinarily hard to move good, public-minded reform legislation forward. The proponents of good government and honest legislating are forced to compete just to be heard, if not constantly on the defensive, consumed with trying to beat back the barbarians.
In totality, such tactics game the system by springing often complicated pieces of legislation on the GA and the public in a manner designed to exploit the rush and crush of the legislature’s closing days so as to short circuit any real deliberative public process. This is precisely how the SEU came into being through a flawed, incomplete piece of legislation passed in the early morning hours of July 1 last year.
I really like your idea of putting the special interests constantly on the defensive with a landslide of legislation. Such a tact would have limited utility, though, and is really a rather unfortunate treatment of the legislative process, no matter how worthy the underlying goals. I also think it would ultimately have little or no impact as long as the leadership in either chamber is prepared to immediately bury such bills in committee It is kind of a catch-22 really. The legislation we seek is constantly thwarted by the same means it seeks to eliminate.
I tell you this. If I was Governor I would make it a standing practice that all such dead-of-night legislation would be subject to heightened scrutiny by my sharpest legal and policy counselors, with a requirement that such legislation not only be self-justifying on its face but also that it is demonstrably the result of a true deliberative process OF RECORD. The onus would be on the legislators and supporters to demonstrate this.
I would also give a free and full hearing to any member of the public who supported or opposed the legislation. I would not give any face-to-face hearing to any person being paid to represent the interests of any for-profit third party entity (e.g. lobbyists). The lobbyists can put it in writing.
As Governor, my approach to such last minute legislation, especially that with serious consequences or big stakes, would be “convince me why I should not veto this”. If legislators or proponents could not produce a full documentary record, including an actual substantive committee report (not merely a vote tally and minutes) as well as recordings or transcriptions of all meetings and floor debates, I would veto the legislation as the result of a deficient process.
I am not saying this as a would-be governor by any stretch but in the hopes that those who would-become Governor next January may take such ideas to heart. The Governor is our last line of defense against onerous or shotgun legislation and should take this responsibility a lot more seriously than I have seen.
FOIA would quickly become a reality if we had a Governor willing to veto any legislation produced by anything but an open and deliberative public process consistent with the principles of a totally transparent process. July should be a busy month in the Governor’s office.
May 20, 2008 at 3:55 am
Teddy
Nader was right when he called Delaware a “company state”, as business (particuarly Dupont) has an oversubstantiated influence in Delaware politics (not that this is a groundbreaking revelation). Republican legislators have become their own special interest groups and surrogates for their biggest contributors, which happens to be those same businesses. It is a repeating cycle that will never fade as long as SIG and PACs continue to feed donations into Republican legislators. When they turn against business in favor of progressive, populus-oriented measures, it is at that point that the donations turn dry.
I don’t really know how exactly this cycle can end, unless like Kavips proposes, SIGs are put on the defensive.
Nice post.
http://thepartisanspar.blogspot.com