$$$ Plutocracy.Com $$$

Some Notes About Plutocracy

News

Who are the Plutocrats?

• Start by looking at the Fortune's Washington Power 25 of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington. For some unknown reason this list was discontinued after being published for the last time in 2001. Did the politically powerful object to being listed? We will try to obtain copy of this list. As we recall the top groups included the NFIB, the NRA, AIPAC,and the NAR
• Conservative Think Tanks That Are Partially Funded With Taxpayer Dollars
• Cato Institute
• President George W. Bush appointed members to the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. The commission included a former Cato vice president and a Cato fellow. Two Cato staffers were appointed to the commission staff." Cata strongly backed Bush's 'free lunch' privatization plan.
• Heritage Foundation
• Connect the dots between campaign contributions and legislation
• Inflated stock prices and taxation of stock options
• Letter from the Coalition to Preserve and Protect Stock Options to Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), the ranking member of the subcommittee on Securities and Investment of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
• Clear Channel Communications, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
• Enron, deregulation of energy futures, Wendy Gramm, Member of Enron's Audit Committee, former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and wife of former Senator Phil Gramm (R, TX).
• The wealthy campaign contributors who were rewarded with fiscally irresponsible tax cuts that were heavily skewed to the top 1%. Please note that temporary tax cuts that stimulate consumer spending during recessions are economically desireable and fiscally responsible.
• The invasion of Iraq, "neo-cons", AIPAC, and the right-wing Sharon goverment in Israel. We support a more balanced position toward Israel and the Palestinians.
• It may be helpful to think of plutocrats as "the top 1%." This is the group that Bush taps for the $2,000 per person contributions so they can get huge tax breaks. It makes economic sense for a person to give this money to get the tax break, but the whole corrupt process undermines democracy.
• Books
• Barbarians at the Gates by Dick Morris - "The Dean candidacy offers the surest of solutions to this oligarchic monopoly - the use of the Internet to overcome the advantages which money and media can confer on the incumbents. The former Vermont governor is proving that the Internet is a better, cheaper, and faster way to raise money than the old glad-handing of special interests and fat cat donors.
• The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth about Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High Finance Fraudsters by Greg Palast
• The Buying of the President 2000 by Charles Lewis
• The Cheating of America: How Tax Avoidance and Evasion by the Super Rich Are Costing the Country Billions, and What You Can Do About It by Charles Lewis, et al
• Corporate Predators: The Hunt for Mega-Profits and the Attack on Democracy, by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, with an Introduction by Ralph Nader
• The Buying of the Congress: How Special Interests Have Stolen Your Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness by Charles Lewis, Center for Public Integrity
• Derailing Democracy: The America the Media Don't Want You to See by David McGowan
• Cutting Corporate Welfare by Ralph Nader
• Wealth and Democracy by Kevin Phillips
• Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy by Joseph Schumpeter
• Essays
• Plutocracy And Politics By PAUL KRUGMAN (NY Times, 6/14/02 Op-Ed)
  ABSTRACT - Paul Krugman Op-Ed column on Kevin Phillips's new book detailing compensation of America's ten most highly paid chief executives, who, in 2000, were paid average of $154 million each; observes that, of these ten, only one, Tyco's Dennis Kozlowski, has actually been indicted, but three or four of rest ran companies that were famous just long enough for executives to cash in their stock options (S)
• The New American Plutocracy
• Plutocrats Against Plutocracy
• Famous Quotes
• Woodrow Wilson on democracy in America in 1912:

  "Suppose you go to Washington and try to get at your government. You will always find that while you are politely listened to, the men really consulted are the big men who have the biggest stakes -- the big bankers, the big manufacturers, the big masters of commerce.... Every time it has come to a critical question, these gentlemen have been yielded to, and their demands treated as the demands that should be followed as a matter of course. The government of the United States is a foster child of the special interests."

• Gordon Gekko in the 1987 Oliver Stone movie Wall Street

  "Ladies and gentlemen ... greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works."

• Sen. Russell Long, D-LA, powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee

  "Tax reform means, 'Don't tax you, don't tax me. Tax that fellow behind the tree.'"

• Will Rogers, famous American humorist

  "the best Congress money can buy"

• Abraham Lincoln

  "...Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."

  "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

• Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

  "The ballot is stronger than bullets."

• Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice from 1916-1939

  "We can have a democratic society or we can have the concentration of great wealth in the hands of the few. We cannot have both."

How are we doing in the War on Corruption and the Influence of Money in Politics?

• Those who support corruption should be held accountable
• What can we do to fight corruption if the system is corrupt?
• How do you change the system?
• Evolutionary Changes
• Revolutionary Changes

Is George W. Bush Our Most Corrupt and Dishonest President?

• While Bill Clinton was one of our most immoral presidents , he did not screw the American People like George Bush has and is planning to do if elected to a second term. What concerns us most is his fiscally irresponbile policy of tax cuts in both good and bad times. Cutting taxes is not bad when it is needed to stimulate economic growth, but it is bad when the tax cuts are used to permanently change the tax structure to favor the fortunate few and powerful.
• Some of reasons why we question Bush's honesty
• Bush is too arrogant. He is consistly stubborn, inflexible and wrong.
• He will not admit to making any mistakes
• He blocks full disclosure on every issue based on his claim that we are at war and that the war will last a long time
• President Bush lied to the American people about an issue that should be of concern to most Americans and that is ECONOMIC SECURITY.
• The Enron Photo Album

  "George W. Bush lied when he said that he first got to know Ken Lay in 1994, and that Ken Lay was a supporter of his opponent, Ann Richards. Actually, Lay first started contributing to GW's career back in 1978, and in fact gave GW three times as much money in 1994 as he did Ann Richards."

• Why didn't George Bush want an independent investigation of the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack? Is there a Carlyle Group coverup?
• Who did George Bush sell his 212,010 shares at $4 per share of Harken Energy to in 1990? Why didn't the SEC investigate this?
• Why did Bush receive more than $14.9 million for his share of the Texas Rangers when he was only entitled to $2.3 million?
• President Bush is not the only corrupt official in government. The whole system is corrupt because our political system is based on money. And money corrupts.
• The primary goal of George Bush's economic policy is to benefit the top 1%. These are his corporate buddies and the group that is the main source of his campaign contributions. Once you begin to realize that George's economic policies are directed toward the top 1%, you will be able to identify how his actions support that goal and threaten the middle class.
• During the Reagan presidency this was known as trickle-down economics.
• George W. Bush's true hero is not his father, but Ronald Reagan. His father was correct in labeling Reagan's supply-side economic policy as "voodoo economics." Of course, that was said before he sold out to Reagan to become Vice President.
• Here are specific actions George Bush has taken to pay-back and reward top 1%
• Reduced the number of IRS audits of taxpayers with over $100,000 in income
• Proposed and enacted into law cuts in the marginal tax rates that disproportionately benefit the top 1%
• Wants a permanent repeal of the estate tax. The current tax is now paid by those whose estates are greater than $1,000,000. The exemption is scheduled to increase to over $2,000,000. Special exemptions exist that raise this much higher for closely-held businesses and family farms. As the exemption is raised the only group that will be subject to this tax are the top 1%. One of the wrong assumptions is that the estate tax is a double tax. There is no double taxation on unrecognixed capital gains. We think the estate taxation should be imposed after all capital gains are first recognized.
• Who will benefit most from a repeal of the estate tax? The top 1% will benefit most. Some enlightened wealthy people like Bill Gate's father and Warren Buffett do not favor the repeal of the estate tax. The one's who are most opposed to the estate tax are the greedy top 1%. This group contributed to the political parties. Many of these people have benefited from obscene stock options that stole from shareholders. Now Bush wants to help them pass on their illgotten gains. Some of the people who will benefit most from the repeal of the estate tax:
• Bernie Ebbers of Worldcom. He made over $400 million.


• George W. and Ken Lay of Enron, one of Bush's major campaign contributors.


• Withdrew support for OECD's plan to clamp down on the use of offshore tax havens by the top 1% to evade taxes. According to the OECD, off-shore financial centers are "tax havens" that offer illegal shelter to tax dodgers and those with drug money to launder. Thus, Bush supports tax dodgers and money laundering by drug dealers.
• Bush signed the McCain-Feingold inspired Campaign Finance Law that prohibited the use of "soft-money." The provision that Bush liked was the one that increased hard money contributions from the top 1%. Under the new law, the top 1% can give up to $2,000 to 10 candidates, or $20,000. You can double that for a married couple.
• Bush has taken more than $550,000 in campaign contributions from Enron and its executives. One executive, Thomas White, was appointed as Bush's first Secretary of the Army
• Why should you be concerned if the top 1% don't pay their fair share of taxes? If they don't pay, you will have to pay more or see your Social Security and Medicare benefits cut.

Political Corruption at the Highest Levels of Goverment

• Bush Administration (2001 - present)
• President George W. Bush
• Harken Energy [HEC] paid an inflated price for George's company because of Bush's connections.
• As a member of the Board of Directors of Harken Energy's Audit Committee he oversaw a phantom profit transaction regarding Aloha Petroleum
• The claim that Bush profited on selling all his Harken Energy stock on June 22, 1990 does not appear to be based on facts as determined by an SEC investigation.
• As a Corporate Insider he failed to timely disclose the Harken Energy sale to the SEC
• "President George W. Bush received low-interest loans totaling $180,375 in the 1980s from a Texas oil company [Harken Energy] where he was a director, a practice he asked companies to end as part of his proposal to discourage corporate wrongdoing." Reported by AP on July 11, 2002.
• Background on Bush and Harken Energy from the Street.Com (7/11/02)
• Article in the conservative publication National Review defends some of Bush's actions at Enron but fails to address his sweetheart loan to exercise stock options and to refute his possible involvement with the fraudulent Aloha Petroleum sale.
• While an executive with the Texas Rangers he arranged a controversial arrangement with the City of Arlington that allowed the team to purchase the land at an artificially low price.
• Vice President Dick Cheney
• While President of Halliburton he approved a sudden change in accounting policies that inflated stock price. He sold stock while the price was inflated.
• While he was CEO, Halliburton sold over $23.8 million of equipment and services to Iraq
• He received a $35 million retirement package from Haliburton after he was elected Vice President
• Former Secretary of the Army Thomas White (2001-May, 2003)
• While Vice Chairman of Enron Energy Services, EES booked profits from multi-year deals up front before the company had realized any actual profit. He was paid more than $31 million in salary, bonuses, and stock that was inflated by EES' fraudulent accounting practices.
• Much to his credit, after he was forced to resign as Secretary of the Army, he critized the Bush Administration's Iraq policy. Note that there is no current Secretary of the Army
• Clinton Administration (1993 - 2001)
• President William J. Clinton
• Madison Savings - Whitewater
• Illegal Campaign Contributions from non-US residents
• Monica Lewinsky Affair - "I didn't have sex with that women"
• Presidential Pardons including Marc Rich and Pincus Green
• Pardon of four Hasidic Jews in New York's Rockland County
• First Lady Hillary Clinton
• $100,000 profit on cattle futures contracts

• Bush Administration (1989 - 1993)
• President George H. W. Bush
• Bush's pardons including pardon of anti-Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch, who conspired in the bombing of a Cubana airplane in 1976, killing all passengers and crew.
• Failure of Silverado Savings while son Neil was a principal at a cost of over $1 billion to taxpayers
• Default on $2.35 million SBA loan to son Neil Bush's Apex Energy
• BNL-Iraqgate
• Congress
• House Majority Leader Rep. Tom "The Exterminator" DeLay (R-TX)
• Rep. Michael G. Oxley (R-OH), Chairman of House Committee on Financial Services
• Opposed accounting reforms that would have separated auditing and consulting
• Major recipient of accounting funds
• Rep. James Greenwood (R-PA), Chairman of Oversight and Investigations subcommittee
• Opposed accounting reforms that would have separated auditing and consulting services
• Major recipient of accounting funds
• Rep. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), former Vice Presidential candidate
• Opposed accounting reforms that would have separated auditing and consulting services
• Major recipient of campaign funds from the insurance industry and accounting firms
• Opposes expensing options