Consumer Watchdog – Keeping Politicians Honest - Dirty Money Watch

Put corporate political spending to a vote

March 10, 2010 | Posted by Carmen Balber

When the US Supreme Court decided to allow corporations to spend money directly on campaign advertising, they opened the floodgates to excessive spending by companies to change the outcome of elections. The long-term solution is a...

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Wellpoint's mistress of evasion

February 24, 2010 | Posted by Judy Dugan

When Wellpoint CEO Angela Braly doesn't like a question, she's a regular Houdini of evasion and blame-shifting. Her testimony in front of Congress today managed to turn denial of health care into "efficiency" and put the blame for 39% yearly premium increases onto Blue Cross policyholders who dared to get sick.

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More ways for Wall Street to twist arms in Congress

January 21, 2010 | Posted by Carmen Balber

The Supreme Court just gave Wall Street (and the rest of the corporate world) the go ahead to spend unlimited money running ads for and against political candidates. According to the Court's logic, it shouldn't make a difference for voters, or politicians calculating election strategies.

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Neutralizing Lieberman and his ilk

December 16, 2009 | Posted by Judy Dugan

This sizzling editorial (two words you can't often use together) in the New York Times lays out the damage Sen. Joe Lieberman has singlehandedly done to health reform. It's the best argument you could find for following the call of my colleague, Jamie Court, to dump the Senate's 60-vote "filibuster rule" that lets industry mouthpieces like Lieberman play a suicide bomber role against reforms.

 

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Joe Lieberman and the corporate capture of health reform

December 14, 2009 | Posted by Judy Dugan

When Sen. Joe Lieberman said last week that he might favor a health reform bill that traded away a "public option" for letting people over 55 buy into Medicare, he must not have checked with his bosses first. Now that the...

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