SEIU Tells Anti-Health Care Democrats That There Will Be A Price To Pay-- Does Blanche Lincoln Have Something To Worry About?

Bad Democrat, good Democrat

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is one of the most powerful of the reactionary engines in America, right up there with the Republican Party, Fox News and Hate Talk Radio. According to this morning's Politico the Chamber's top lobbyist sent a letter thanking 12 Finance Committee members who voted against both public option amendments, i.e., all the Republicans, of course, plus one conservative, anti-family Democrat, Blanche Lincoln. The Chamber pledged to continue funding their careers.

In the past labor unions have contributed $580,495 to Lincoln;s campaigns and so far this year they have given her, cluelessly, $36,100. Put health care reform aside for a moment and recall that Lincoln is the only Democrat who vowed-- at a Chamber of Commerce meeting coincidentally-- to cross the aisle and vote with the Republicans to filibuster Employee Free Choice, thus guaranteeing that the Labor's #1 priority will never even be voted on. Last time Lincoln had to face Arkansas voters-- 2004-- the Chamber of Commerce donated over $160,000 to members of Congress. Their two biggest investments, in either house-- were for the most reactionary Chamber water carriers in the Senate, Jim DeMint of South Carolina ($15,000) and Richard Burr of North Carolina ($10,000). But #3 was Blanche Lincoln ($7,600), more than Ben Nelson, more than Jim Bunning, more than Chuck Grassley, more than Orrin Hatch, more than Arlen Specter, John Thune... even more than Chamber of Commerce love-child Dan Boren.

This year the SEIU's PAC has already given Lincoln $5,000-- same as what they gave anti-worker fanatic Chuck Grassley (who returned their check). Lincoln didn't have the decency to return their check-- and is hoping for more. Yesterday SEIU president Andy Stern warned conservative Democrats like Lincoln that there would be a "price to pay" if they joined in the Republican filibuster against health care reform. It is widely agreed that the only Democrats contemplating such a move are Ben Nelson, who is, in effect, a lobbyist for the Insurance Industry, and, of course, Blanche Lincoln, who has always put her donors demands above her constituents best interests.

Stern said if members like Nelson decide to vote against the bill, he could live with that. But filibustering it to prevent it from being voted against is beyond the pale. "If the Democrats have told people like ourselves, supporters for a long time, 'Just give us 60 votes. Give us the money, give us 60 votes and we will show you what we can do.' Well, it's show time."

SEIU has had people on the ground in Arkansas looking at possible opponents for Lincoln. So far the only Democrat to step up is a neo-Confederate maniac who is actually-- as hard as this is to believe-- even more right-wing than Lincoln! The 6 or 8 or 25 Republicans in the race are like a circus side show. That leaves the two independents, Trevor Drown and Green Party nominee John Gray.

It isn't likely that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will be sending any love letters or donations to Alan Grayson for moving the discussion along and making people understand that Americans are dying every single day because of the mean-spirited-- and bought-and-paid-for-- Republican obstructionism in regard to health care reform. Stern, however, singled him out for praise:

"They have no health care plan and they are letting people continue to suffer," he said.

"I think what Rep. [Alan] Grayson is right about is that the Republicans have no plan," Stern said, referring to the Florida Democrat who said earlier this week that the GOP approach to health care would result in more Americans dying.

"And while they have no plan, people are suffering and people are dying. That is an issue and they should be held accountable. And the insurance companies are even worse because people have been paying for their health care can't get it when they need it and then they suffer and die."

Although Grayson asked Georgia Republican Tom Price, the crackpot who filed-- and then dropped-- the resolution of censure against him, to be his campaign finance chairman, Blue America isn't taking any chance and we've already managed to collect over $25,000 for him from over 775 netroots donors. Wanna join in and let a real American hero know we have his back? You can do it here.

At the same time, we're also collecting more to keep our TV ads running across Arkansas. Take at them and see if you want to help warn voters that their senator could single-handedly scuttle health care for them and for all of us.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE MESS-- THE VERY PROFITABLE DISMANTLING OF CIVIL SOCIETY

George Bush sewer system-- joke may be on us

Yesterday Scholars & Rogues featured a pretty ominous look at the serious deterioration of basic American infrastructure. The author, Dr. Denny, points out that our otherwise preoccupied government is normally only moved to action by catastrophes-- like the deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis last year. So that bridge is nearly fixed. They're waiting for a spate of disasters before they do anything preventive. They may not have to wait long and we have far more than "failing bridges to find, fund and fix." Dr. Denny is left cold by the leadership abilities of the current presidential candidates to lead us successfully through a real crisis. Just to keep up, the U.S. would need to spend $225 billion per year for 50 years-- $11 trillion. McCain definitely has a couple wars he'd rather wage. But the country's infrastructure-- not just roads and bridges but also dams, sewage systems, drinking water systems, air traffic control, nuclear plants, electricity transmission lines, levees...-- gets a grade of D. Unfortunately, national politicians don't usually find infrastructure sexy.

Wall Street does, I found out on the radio yesterday. Tens of billions of dollars are coming out of the firms that brought us the real estate and mortgage collapse and going into buying up infrastructure. Alarm bells went off when I heard that the sleazy GOP vulture capital firm Carlisle Group-- whose real estate arm went belly up recently-- is buying up sewer systems and roadways. And they're only one of many.

Republicans want to reduce taxes and let the infrastructure go to hell so that the public supports selling it all off to for-profit companies. Democrats are too cowed to stand up for government functions that have been delegitimized by greed obsessed Republicans (and Blue Dogs and DLC Democrats). So... on to the predators. Today Morgan Stanley-- and I assure you a more unscrupulous and cut throat firm you will never find-- announced that it has raised $4 billion to target investments "that provide public goods or essential services in sectors such as transportation, energy and utilities, social infrastructure and communications." Global Infrastructure Partners (General Electric and Credit Suisse) have capped their infrastructure fund yesterday at $6.5 billion. A new Carlyle subsidiary, Carlyle Infrastructure Partners, formed specifically-- and under heavy political protection-- to rip off American taxpayers and ratepayers is investing $1.5 billion in transportation and water and wastewater facilities, including roads, bridges, tunnels, airport facilities, maritime ports, transit projects and other public benefit infrastructure in the US and Canada. Henderson Investors, CVC Capital Partners, Macquarie (Australia), Rreef, Citigroup, Ferrovial (Spain), Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Alinda are all up to the same thing.

Infrastructure assets such as utilities, toll roads and airports are attractive to financial bidders like banks and pension funds because of their stable cash flow despite having lower growth rates than other private equity opportunities. GE had disappointing first-quarter earnings, but its infrastructure segment performed better than expected.

The money being ante-ed up for infrastructure projects by private capital is at historically high levels.

New roads, railways, oil pipelines, hospitals and schools: the world is an infrastructure financier's oyster. In Mumbai, for instance, there are plans to build an extension of the city to house 15 million people - nearly double the size of London's population. One UK banker who returned from there last week said: 'I left London depressed at the state of the markets. Going there, you see that there are people making huge sums of money.'

Even in the developed world, there are signs that we do not have the infrastructure to cope with continued economic and population growth. Blackouts, road congestion and capacity problems in airports and on railways are commonplace in both the US and Europe. In addition, an ageing population means different kinds of healthcare facilities are needed.

The question is: how are these essential building blocks going to be financed? There has been a decline in governments' willingness or ability to pay for new facilities in the past 15 years. Among the developed countries, government outlays on capital projects fell from 9.5 per cent of overall spending in 1990 to 7 per cent in 2005, according to the OECD.

Increasingly, it is the private sector that world leaders now rely on to fill the funding gap.

...What attracts investors to infrastructure is solid cashflows - user charges and tolls - which provide the opportunity to borrow larger sums to pay for acquisition and investment costs. However, there have been concerns that infrastructure funds have borrowed too aggressively against cashflow, compromising the efficient running of facilities.

And globalization means this travesty won't just be happening in Mumbai... but also in Manhattan. You think the Chinese and Arabs own us now? Just wait.

A few weeks ago I met a really smart guy at a party in Virginia, Andy Stern, president of the SEIU. Last week he and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius did an editorial for the Christian Science Monitor, Main Street, Not Wall Street, Should Fix Crumbling U.S. Infrastructure. They're right but swimming against a powerful, perhaps irresistible, tide. And Wall Street has the money it takes to buy off the politicians it needs to buy off. Their investments in crooked Democrats like Rahm Emanuel, Melissa Bean, Harold Ford and the like are as valuable to them as their investments in Republicans. There is no public interest; just bottom line; and just try telling Rahm Emanuel something different.

At its best, America's infrastructure has powered our economic prosperity, created well-paying jobs, and served the public interest.

Today, however, it has fallen into a dangerous state of disrepair. The Minnesota bridge collapse last summer brought home the urgency of repairing and modernizing our nation's system of highways, bridges, tunnels, power plants, transmission lines, and airports.

But doing so will be prohibitively expensive. Current plans seek to exploit the nation's need for private profit. But there's a better source of capital at hand: public pension funds.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $1.6 trillion is needed in the next five years alone just to maintain the adequacy of existing infrastructure.

...It would be a monumental mistake to turn the future of America's infrastructure over to the same crowd that brought us the subprime crisis, an economy loaded down with debt, and recession.

We should know better by now than to create a scenario where bridges and highways are sliced and diced like subprime loans into financially engineered "collateralized infrastructure obligations."

America needs a large source of stable, long-term capital to build the system of buildings, roads, and power supplies needed to sustain the country. We need a source of capital that values infrastructure because it provides a reasonable rate of return, strengthens the overall economy, and doesn't burden users with excessive fees.

Enter that source of capital:

Public pension funds, which are responsible for the retirement benefits of more than 18 million Americans, have more than $3 trillion in assets, and a long-term investment approach consistent with the stable returns that infrastructure assets generate.

Pension funds could buy and build infrastructure, putting the profits to work for the retirement of workers, not for the benefit of Wall Street CEOs.

See? Didn't I say he was a smart guy? Let's hope his support for Obama is going to mean at least this.

I spoke with a couple of the Blue America candidates about the problem with infrastructure, Regina Thomas, a long time member of the Georgia legislature and Martin Heinrich, head of the Albuquerque City Council, both of whom have spent a great deal of time and energy dealing with the problems of crumbling infrastructure in their local areas. Senator Thomas told me the deterioration in the last 7 years was symptomatic of Republican government. "They're just reactive to a situation where they should have been pro-active. Then they capitalize on catastrophic situations to make millions for themselves and their cohorts... this is shameful, at best-- oh! I forgot they have no shame when it comes to making money for themselves... We all drink the same water, breathe the same air and walk the same soil-- sooo...do they think that they can take their dollars, hide in a bubble and not be afffected by the irresponsible inactions to our environment?"

Although the disaster of Hurricane Katrina's weakened and destroyed leeves hit closer to home for Regina and her constituents, Martin has had similar experiences with the underlying philosophy of Republican governance. "For the past eight years we have been a country without a plan," he told me. "We have given no thought to the future. The voices that spoke out about long term planning fell largely on deaf ears. America's greatness comes from our innovation and foresight, and to ignore infrastructure, which plays such a critical role in commerce and Americans' daily lives, is simply short-sighted. Our country has already dug our children a hole that will be extremely difficult to climb out of and to create yet another structural disadvantage is to do them a great disservice."

Savvy members of Congress like Regina Thomas and Martin Heinrich are a first step towards climbing out of that hole and cleaning up the unimaginable mess George Bush is leaving us. Please consider visiting our Blue America page today and lending a hand to Regina and Martin. They both deserve it. (Anyone who donates to both in the next 24 hours gets a Blue America thank you CD-- a surprise.)