Consumer Watchdog – Keeping Politicians Honest - Landing Page

DOJ letter shows Google anti-trust probe is serious

July 2, 2009 | Posted by John M. Simpson

The U.S. Justice Department is serious about probing the Google Books settlement for possible anti-trust violations. Consumer Watchdog was one of the first organizations to ask the department to investigate.

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Obama On Tonight Show Hints At Tomorrow's Regulatory Agenda

March 20, 2009 | Jamie Court

The president talked and joked easily with America from Jay Leno's couch last night, as close to a fire side chat as it gets in these times. Leno is no Jon Stewart but Obama did offer some clues as to where his financial regulatory approach is going. 

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Stuck in a privatized time warp

March 19, 2009 | Posted by Judy Dugan

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top GOP politician in the health care reform debate, is positive that Americans don't need an option to private, for-profit health insurers. He sees his anything like offering Medicare as a voluntary option to consumers as a deal-killer, according to CQ.com (subscription barrier). A guy with Grassley's mind-set must also see private contractors as the saviors of Iraq and AIG as the model for a healthy, deregulated financial system.

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Will the politicians give back their AIG bonuses'?

March 19, 2009 | Posted by Jamie Court

After Enron's fraud on California during the 2001 electricity crisis became clear, a lot of politicians felt they had to give back their Enron contributions.  Our consumer group was the beneficiary of a few of those returned dollars, since we fought the energy industry's deregulation schemes.  Now Open Secrets reports AIG's contributions, from employees and related political action committees, to federal lawmakers totaled $9.3 million over the last decade, with an exact 50%-50% split between Democrats and Republicans. AIG sure knows how to hedge its bets.

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The state of electronic medical record privacy

March 18, 2009 | Posted by Jamie Court

A newspaper reporter just called to ask about the state of privacy under electronic medical records, which will now be spreading thanks to $20 billion in the federal economic stimulus plan.  Electronic medical records can help avoid medical mistakes, like those suffered by Dennis Quaid's newborn twins, but the privacy protections under the stimulus bill need to improve.

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