Today, the Paycheck Fairness Act — which seeks to help close the pay gap between men and women in the United States — suffered a defeat in the U.S. Senate. Although much of the opposition to the bill is being summed up as ideologically driven, some Big Money interests also oppose it — fearing that
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Last month, the Chicago Tribune published a series of articles detailing how the makers of flame retardant products distorted science to hide the health dangers of their products and spent big to win over politicians to their cause. As just one example, these chemical companies manufactured fake grassroots groups to send out mailers attacking politicians
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The Philadelphia Inquirer has a great article up which delves into the lobbying cash special interests are using to influence public policy in that city. Big Soda leads the lobbying pack, spending $238,921 in the quarter, six times the amount spent by the next competitor. Interestingly, the article notes that cable giant Comcast spent $32,985 lobbying
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The Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election is coming down to the wire as embattled incumbent Republican Governor Scott Walker’s campaign is outspending Democratic challenger Tom Barrett’s campaign 10-to-1. 62 percent of Walker’s campaign funds are coming from out of state, much of it from corporate executives that likely want to see labor unions dealt a punishing
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Yesterday, House Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released a trove of documents that detail how the drug industry — through its powerful trade association PhRMA — was able to win all sorts of concessions in President Obama’s health care law. The documents show how top White House officials bargained away policies to
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Special interests don’t always get their way by just spending money on campaign contributions or lobbying. Sometimes these Big Money interests just directly have candidates for office on their payroll. Richard Carmona is a former U.S. Surgeon General and sheriff running for the Arizona Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Senate. In recent weeks, there have been a
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The jobs report released this morning by the federal government is discouraging, with unemployment hanging around 8.2 percent.  Americans expect their government to take action and work to fix the economy. Freshman congressman Tim Scott (R-SC) claimed to be doing that yesterday, when he hosted a “Revitalizing America” forum on Capitol Hill. My colleague Lee
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In July, Georgia’s Democratic and Republican Party voters will get a chance to tell their respective political parties that there needs to be lobbying reform. Ballots for both parties will ask “questions about limiting the value of meals, tickets and other gifts lobbyists give to state legislators. The questions are nonbinding but will give policymakers
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