Too Much Money Sloshing Around Without Strict Regulation Corrupts Democracy-- Always

The Trump Regime has been working to rig the campaign finance rules in preparation for his reelection efforts; more on that below. It has also ordered the gutting of the task forces protecting elections from foreign meddling. At an earlier time in history, a leader like Trump would have been dragged out of his palace and lynched... or guillotined. We don't do that any more. Betsy Woodruff wrote yesterday that "Two teams of federal officials assembled to fight foreign election interference are being dramatically downsized, according to three current and former Department of Homeland Security officials. And now, those sources say they fear the department won’t prepare adequately for election threats in 2020." Who would have guessed?

“The clear assessment from the intelligence community is that 2020 is going to be the perfect storm,” said a DHS official familiar with the teams. “We know Russia is going to be engaged. Other state actors have seen the success of Russia and realize the value of disinformation operations. So it’s very curious why the task forces were demoted in the bureaucracy and the leadership has not committed resources to prepare for the 2020 election.”

The task forces, part of the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), were assembled in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. One focuses in part on securing election infrastructure and the other focuses on foreign influence efforts, including social media disinformation campaigns.

...The election task force has worked to shield election infrastructure from foreign efforts to change vote counts. And the foreign influence task force is working to publicly reveal efforts by foreign actors to shape American political discourse on social media—in the hopes of significantly expanding Americans’ understanding of the threat. It was also designed to improve DHS’s coordination with foreign allies who face the same threat, and to help DHS better alert the private sector about threats.

To help guarantee even a chance at reelection, the colossally unpopular-- even hated-- Trump moved quickly to rig his fund-raising operation by having Mnuchin institute a Treasury Department rule that allows political 501 (c)(4) dark money "charities"-- which can take massive amounts of illegal money from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Brazil and other Trump allies from around the world-- and pass them on to Trump's campaign without anyone knowing.

On December 12, the Senate voted 50-49 to abrogate the rule, Susan Collins (R-ME) voting with every Democrat and Thom Tillis (R-NC) absent. Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy immediately declared that the legislation would not get a vote in the House... so it died-- at least for the session.

Things have changed after the midterms. The Democrats control the House and this rule change would easily pass. But the Senate is Trumpier now and it's less likely the Democrats could get it through-- if McConnell even allowed it to come up for a vote again, which is unlikely. Meanwhile campaign finance watchdogs are furious because Mnuchin and Trump are encouraging foreign interference in U.S. elections.

Titled the “Spotlight Act,” legislation from Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jon Tester (D-MT)-- accompanied by an identical bill from Rep. David Price (D-NC in the House-- would overturn the rule change and restore donor disclosure to the IRS.

“At a time when our elections are plagued by unlimited corporate spending, anonymous donors, and illegal foreign meddling, the Trump administration’s decision to obscure millions in dark campaign money weakens our already failing campaign finance system and diminishes the power of voters,” Price said in a statement.

Dark money groups reported nearly $148 million in outside spending to the FEC during the 2018 cycle, not including money spent toward so-called issue ads aired before election season and other undisclosed political efforts, and contributed more than $176 million to super PACs.

Foreign nationals are prohibited from making federal contributions and politically-active groups cannot use foreign funds to influence elections. Though the IRS doesn’t directly enforce the foreign money ban, the FEC or Department of Justice (DOJ) could request an unredacted version of a politically-active nonprofit’s tax returns in order to assess whether it had received foreign money, said Brendan Fischer, director of federal reform at the Campaign Legal Center.

McClatchy reported in July 2018 that Special Counsel Robert Mueller likely got access to the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) hidden donors as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

A few weeks later, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the IRS rule change, just hours after the arrest of alleged Russian agent Maria Butina-- accused of infiltrating the NRA.

The NRA spent a record $54.4 million in 2016, much of which went to help elect President Donald Trump, all while keeping its donors hidden as a dark money nonprofit. In a letter to Wyden, the NRA said it received roughly $2,500 from Russian sources in 2016.

Mnuchin justified the IRS rule change by noting it will prevent confidential donor information from leaking-- as it did in 2013 when the IRS posted unredacted tax forms revealing donors to the Republican Governors Association Public Policy Committee. He also noted that nonprofits must continue to keep donor information in their own records.

Even if the bill reached the Senate floor and passed both chambers, President Donald Trump would be waiting on the other side with a veto ready-- and a two-thirds override appears impossible. The December 2018 resolution passed with just 50 votes, with every Republican except Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) voting nay.

There's a new cop on the beat at the House Financial Services Committee, a committee the banisters and their lobbyists have always thought-- and for good reason-- was there to do their bidding. Even when it was controlled by Democrats, chairman Barney Frank accepted millions in bribes and never let the regulating get "out of hand." Now the banksters and lobbyists will have to face down serious reformers with a serious agenda: Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Elizabeth Warren protégée Katie Porter (D-CA). The committee is still dominated by crooks and bribe takers, from ranking member Patrick McHenry (R-NC) to a pacel of bribe-hungry Blue Dogs and New Dems like Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ), Jim Himes (New Dem-CT) and Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY).

Let's take a minute and see how much the Finance Sector schmeired each member of the current committee in the last cycle. This is sickening, especially if you have this in mind when you read it. And remember, this is for just one cycle. Some of these members have taken millions in bribes from the banksters over time.

The names of the freshman members on the committee have their names in red on the list below. They haven't had enough time yet to get the really big bucks flowing in yet-- at least most of them haven't. But most of them will.

• Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)- $1,985,233
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC)- $1,692,156
• Andy Barr (R-KY)- $1,491,455
• Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)- $1,427,138
• Steve Stivers (R-OH)- $1,357,140
• Sean Duffy (R-WI)- $1,314,213
• French Hill (R-AR)- $1,160,462
• Bill Huizenga (R-MI)- $1,039,719
• Ann Wagner (R-MO)- $1,012,350
• Lee Zeldin (R-NY)- $960,750
• Carolyn Mahoney (D-NY)- $779,561
• Jim Himes (New Dem-CT)- $766,617
• Katie Porter (D-CA)- $691,718
• Tom Emmer (R-MN)- $652,679
• Ed Perlmutter (New Dem-CO)- $636,580
• Trey Hollingsworth (R-IN)- $622,300
• Ted Budd (R-NC)- $606,530
• David Kustoff (R-TN)- $585,288
• Bill Foster (New Dem-IL)- $581,335
• Dean Phillips (New Dem-MN)- $580,192
• Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY)- $564,100
• Roger Williams (R-TX)- $519,355
• David Scott (Blue Dog-GA)- $512,750
• Denny Heck (New Dem-WA)- $512,140
• Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA)- $480,437
• Sean Casten (New Dem-IL)- $471,722
• Joyce Beaty (D-OH)- $454,085
• Brad Sherman (D-CA)- $452,225
• Scott Tipton (R-CO)- $447,376
• Alex Mooney (R-WV)- $446,970
• Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)- $437,900
• Maxine Waters (D-CA)- $431,256
• Jennifer Wexton (New Dem-VA)- $424,685
• Juan Vargas (New Dem-CA)- $415,313
• Frank Lucas (R-OK)- $391,850
• Bryan Steil (R-WI)- $369,602
• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)- $354,794
• Nydia Velázquez (D-NY)- $351,849
• Peter King (R-NY)-$335,925
• Vicente González (Blue Dog-TX)- $301,502
• Barry Loudermilk (R-GA)- $300,099
• Warren Davidson (R-OH)- $288,750
• Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH)- $284,389
• Denver Riggleman (R-VA)- $280,943
• Lance Gooden (R-TX)- $255,000
• Stephen Lynch (D-MA)- $229,618
• Lacy Clay (D-MO)- $212,220
• Bill Posey (R-FL)- $197,350
• Al Lawson (New Dem-FL)- $136,352
• John Rose (R-TN)- $127,999
• Al Green (D-TX)- $119,688

[less than 6 figures in a cycle means the member has sworn off bribery and this is just normal contributions from tellers and realtors and individuals in related fields]

• Sylvia Garcia (D-TX)- $94,836
• Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY)- $90,189
• Madeleine Dean (New Dem-PA)- $88,151
• Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)- $82,690
• Alma Adams (D-NC)- $79,290
• Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)- $73,363
• Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)- $60,526
• Jesús "Chuy" García (D-IL)- $50,958

The tweet above was used in a Reuters story last week by Pete Schroeder and Michelle Price, Banks Weight Whether To Embrace Or Avoid Progressive Firebrand Ocasio-Cortez. I was laughing when I read it because the reaction from the banksters and their lobbyists isn't that different from the reaction of the Democratic establishment. "Barely a month into the new Congress," they wrote, "financial lobbyists in Washington are already strategizing how to handle the star power of rookie Democrat lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The Democratic Socialist and Wall Street critic joined the 60-member House Financial Services Committee in mid-January and more than a dozen lobbyists interviewed by Reuters say the 29-year-old activist and former bartender is too high-profile to ignore." They have the same problem Pelosi and Hoyer have.

Richard Hunt, chief executive of the Consumer Bankers Association, said he had not encountered a lawmaker like Ocasio-Cortez in more than 20 years in Washington. “She has the ability to influence unlike a lot of other freshmen.”

...An economics major and self-confessed “science nerd,” Ocasio-Cortez campaigned on issues that put her at odds with the financial industry, including separating commercial and investment banking, breaking up large banks, and forgiving student debt.

Central to her campaign has been the rejection of corporate campaign dollars, closing off a traditional avenue for industry access and influence on Capitol Hill.

Now lobbyists fear that her enlarged platform will help the first-term junior lawmaker push her ideas into the mainstream and are trying to figure out how best to respond.

Lobbyists representing big banks, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup, Bank of America Corp, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley, which have embraced progressive causes such as diversity, inclusion, gun control or above-minimum wages, want to push these credentials. They also want to highlight how they employ thousands of people in Ocasio-Cortez’s district in Queens and the Bronx, they said.

Smaller and mid-size firms, meanwhile, want to distance themselves from Wall Street titans and emphasize their critical role as community lenders.

Several financial lobbyists, noting she lacks a financial services background, said they were keen to meet with Ocasio-Cortez to explain their business models and issues.

Paul Merski, executive vice president at the Independent Community Bankers of America, said the group had contacted the lawmaker’s office and was hoping to schedule a meeting. He added his focus would be to draw the distinction between larger financial firms and ICBA’s members, which as small community lenders have built-up “tremendous goodwill” across the aisle.

Spokespeople for JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of a Capitol Hill event on Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez said the appointment of progressives like her to the panel “sends a very powerful message” to the financial industry.

She said she wanted to pursue aggressive oversight and expose financial corporations’ role in broader areas of concern, such as the detention of children in privately-funded facilities on the Mexico border.

“We can leap back in and say, what does a responsible financial sector looks like?”

Other lobbyists worry, however, engaging her could backfire, especially if Ocasio-Cortez uses social media to publicize the meeting. For example, she went on Twitter to name and shame corporate lobbyists at a Congressional freshman orientation event in December.

“The fear is, it’s like going in to talk to the FBI, anything you do or say can be used against you,” said one lobbyist for a major bank.

Lobbyists note how Ocasio-Cortez has already ignited a public debate on climate change and inequality by calling for a Green New Deal and proposing a 70 percent tax on income exceeding $10 million, an idea Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman has endorsed.

Waleed Shahid, a former campaign aide and a spokesman for Justice Democrats, the progressive group that recruited Ocasio-Cortez, said her ability to raise public awareness about complex issues had caught the establishment’s attention.

“She can really explain what is happening with Wall Street in a way the public can understand it, and that’s why Wall Street is terrified.”

Speaking to Reuters, Ocasio-Cortez did not rule out listening to industry concerns to arrive at responsible regulation, but said “they have more than enough sympathetic ears” on the committee.

“We also saw in 2008 just a lot of advocacy for policies that were at its core totally irresponsible. But they were dressed up as conservative fair-minded measures,” she added.

Saikat Chakrabarti, chief of staff for Ocasio-Cortez, whose Twitter handle is @AOC, had his own message for the industry: “@AOC is here to hold Wall Street accountable, not be your buddy,” he Tweeted on Wednesday in response to this story.

The financial industry faced a similar challenge in 2012 when newly elected progressive firebrand Elizabeth Warren joined the Senate Banking Committee and her grilling of bank executives and regulators won her a national following.

But while Warren was well-known as a consumer advocate before joining Congress, she did not have the same social media platform as Ocasio-Cortez. Isaac Boltansky, director of policy research at Washington-based boutique investment bank Compass Point Research & Trading, said that whichever bank slips up next will get “taken to the woodshed in a way that we haven’t seen before.”

Often caught flatfooted by Warren, the industry hopes to rebuild bipartisan support it enjoyed in Congress before the 2007-2009 financial crisis. And with many incumbent centrist Democrats smarting after Ocasio-Cortez called them out for doing big business’s bidding, some see an opportunity to divide and conquer.

Several lobbyists told Reuters they believed they could isolate Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives on the financial services committee by building coalitions with moderate Democrats, such as fellow New York Representative Gregory Meeks, and centrist Republicans.

They said they would also lean on Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, a Democrat and a liberal who has pledged to work across the aisle, to rein in the progressive wing.

I'm sure they would-- and will. And they can always get their man Steny to crack the whip when push comes to shove. He's not on the committee but the Finance Sector has been very nice to him-- to the tune of $6,865,814 in bribes since 1990-- and that ain't chump change. Nor is the kind of money that people contribute to a politician because they like his sense of humor or how sharply he dresses. They expect Hoyer to deliver-- and he always does. This has long been the single most corrupt committee in Congress-- and the lobbyists, the banksters and the members who have been fattened on their bribes-- the Gregory Meekses, the Josh Gottheimers and the Patrick McHenrys are not going to give up all their power just because of some damned progressive busy-bodies butting in on their business.