Koch Brothers Involving Themselves In Democratic Politics Again

As we saw a few days ago, the Koch brothers are starting to interfere with Democratic candidates for election. Ironically, the first person in line for their filthy money was DCCC chair Ben Ray Lujan. Also ironically, no one has asked him to step down. Why would they; it's the Democratic Party. And now the top Koch front group, Americans for Prosperity, is handing out more cash to Democrats

They've cooked up a new ad campaign, beginning Memorial Day weekend-- radio, print, digital and direct mail-- targeting Republican and Democrats in Congress who voted for the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending package in March. There is a companion plan to support candidates who voted against it. 145 Republicans and 111 Democrats voted for it and 90 Republican and 77 Democrats who opposed it so there are plenty of targets. The selections were very strategic.

A Koch spokesman, Bill Riggs: "It’s time to take a hard look at what lawmakers say, and what they actually do when it comes to reining in overspending. The $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill passed by Congress in March showed a complete disregard for fiscal responsibility. Both parties are responsible for putting the country on an unsustainable fiscal path, which is why AFP is committed to holding both parties accountable."

Very few of the Republicans they chose to target (like Kentucky's Hal Rogers, Bob Aderholt of Alabama and Idaho's Mike Simpson are in any danger of losing and most Republicans they're rewarding need the support for crucial races-- Dave Brat (VA), Glen Grothman (WI), Jim Renacci (OH), Steve Pearce (NM), Jason Lewis (MN), Tom Garrett (VA), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Rod Blum (IA) and Mike Coffman (CO). On the other hand, some of the Democrats being targeted can be seriously hurt, particularly Matt Cartwright (PA), Beto O'Rourke (TX) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL). Example" Hal Rogers' opponent this cycle, Ken Stepp, has raised $524 compared to Rogers' $539,915. The Koch brothers opposition is a joke.

Down The Rabbit Hole With Paul Ryan And Ayn Rand

Remember when Canter and McCarthy screwed up on the Farm Bill and Boehner had to pull it? It just happened again-- this time with the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development funding bills. The House of Representatives is now officially an out-of-control madhouse. Boehner is just another Member with an agenda, who some Republicans follow and others ignore. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY), as far from a "moderate" as you'll find in their crazy caucus, issued the following statement concluding that the conservative sequestration scheme is wrecking the economy and ruining the country and must come to an end.

“The Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development funding bill that was pulled from floor consideration today was the first major attempt by the House to consider and pass an Appropriations bill that funds domestic programs under the austere level delineated under the Budget Control Act and the House budget resolution.

“The bill today reflected the best possible effort, under an open process, to fund programs important to the American people-- including our highway, air and rail systems, housing for our poorest families, and improvements to local communities-- while also making the deep cuts necessary under the current budget cap. In order to abide by sequestration budget levels, this bill cut $4.4 billion below the current, post-sequestration total to a level below what was approved for these programs in 2006-- over seven years ago.

“I am extremely disappointed with the decision to pull the bill from the House calendar today. The prospects for passing this bill in September are bleak at best, given the vote count on passage that was apparent this afternoon. With this action, the House has declined to proceed on the implementation of the very [Ryan] budget it adopted just three months ago. Thus, I believe that the House has made its choice: sequestration-- and its unrealistic and ill-conceived discretionary cuts-- must be brought to an end. And, it is also clear that the higher funding levels advocated by the Senate are also simply not achievable in this Congress.

“This Congress must now deal in a productive way to address the nation’s crippling deficits and debt to put our budget back on a sustainable and responsible path. This means that all government programs-- not just those on the discretionary side of the ledger-- must be reduced. Spending reductions in mandatory and entitlement programs, which are the drivers of our deficits and debt, are the most effective way to enact meaningful change in the trajectory of federal spending. The House, Senate and White House must come together as soon as possible on a comprehensive compromise that repeals sequestration, takes the nation off this lurching path from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis, reduces our deficits and debt, and provides a realistic topline discretionary spending level to fund the government in a responsible-- and attainable-- way.”

This was a worse mess than the Farm Bill fiasco. The Republicans, as a party, are incapable and/or unwilling to fund anything other than the Military Industrial Establishment that the last plausible Republican President warned them about. They've followed Paul Ryan down a rabbit hole where there is no Social Security, no Medicare and no Medicaid and where everyone worships Ayn Rand. These people are not in the real world-- and they control, more or less, the House of Representatives... and half the state governments, not just in the crazy, secessionist South, but in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan. On the federal level, when the House Republicans try using Ryan's fantasy budget to draft actual budgets for actual functions of the government, they fall flat on their faces and... well impossible situations like what happened on Wednesday happen. It's pure nihilism in the real world and if it isn't stopped by the American people at the ballot box next November, or children and grandchildren will curse us to eternity-- and with good reason.

The House Republicans don't have the political will-- even without taking the House or Senate Democrats into account-- to pass any of this Ryan-ordained Randian garbage. There's no way to fund the rest of the government outside the military while keeping faith with Ryan's crackpot budgetary constraints. Even Hal Rogers understands that now. "Unrealistic and ill-conceived discretionary cuts must be brought to an end." He's talking about the whole insane edifice Ryan and his Wall Street pals have imposed on America through blackmail and threats. From the Associated Press report on the mess:

As the House measure faltered, a companion bill in the Senate seemed likely to be killed by a GOP filibuster on Thursday for the opposite reason. It breaks the budget limits of sequestration, the automatic cuts required by Washington's failure to strike a bipartisan budget deal.

The twin developments reflect the broader dysfunction in Washington over the budget. All sides want to reverse the crippling sequestration cuts but a partisan impasse over tax increases sought by President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies and cuts to so-called mandatory programs like Medicare and food stamps demanded by Republicans shows no signs of breaking.

Congress leaves Washington this week for a five-week vacation; the battle will be rejoined in the fall.

Cuts in the House transportation measure were made deeper by a Republican move to cut an additional $40 billion-plus from domestic programs and transfer the money to the Pentagon. That left the transportation measure $10 billion, or about 18 percent, below the Senate's bill.

...A spokesman for GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy of California said the Republican majority's top vote counter was confident he would have been able to round up enough votes to pass the bill if there were more time for debate.

The move comes as companion legislation in the Senate may be filibustered to death on Thursday by Republicans because it exceeds budget levels called for under the automatic budget cuts.

"Voting for appropriations legislation that blatantly violates budget reforms already agreed to by both parties moves our country in exactly, exactly the wrong direction," Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said.

"The collapse of the partisan transportation and housing bill in the House proves that their sequestration-on-steroids bills are unworkable, and that we are going to need a bipartisan deal to replace sequestration," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chief author of the Senate bill. "And while we work toward that, we should pass the bipartisan Senate transportation and housing bill and show our constituents that we are putting them and their communities above partisanship and political games."

Week's Best Word: Flimflammery

It was Dana Milbank who used it but he was clearly referencing Paul Krugman's classic 2010 column The Flimflam Man, for many people the introduction to the now infamous Paul Ryan. Friday, Krugman re-introduced his readers to the term, again, in reference to Ryan: After the Flimflam. This time it's the new/old Ryan so-called "budget" Krugman is targeting, which he recognizes not only "isn't serious" but is "essentially a cruel joke." Back in 2010 Krugman denounced his budget/roadmap as "obviously fraudulent: huge cuts in aid to the poor, but even bigger tax cuts for the rich, with all the assertions of fiscal responsibility resting on claims that he would raise trillions of dollars by closing tax loopholes (which he refused to specify) and cutting discretionary spending (in ways he refused to specify)... Since then, his budgets have gotten even flimflammier... The good news is that Mr. Ryan’s thoroughly unconvincing policy-wonk act seems, finally, to have worn out its welcome. In 2011, his budget was initially treated with worshipful respect, which faded only slightly as critics pointed out the document’s many absurdities. This time around, quite a few pundits and reporters have greeted his release with the derision it deserves."

Yes, this time, Krugman isn't alone in his denunciation of Ryan's anti-Serious Budget. Even very conservative Kentucky Congressman Hal Rogers, Boehner's Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said Ryan "cuts too much", especially given how much Republicans have slashed discretionary spending in the last two years ($100 billion already). Rogers knows Boehner would kick him out of his committee chair if he voted NO, so he says he'll vote yes, "reluctantly," putting his own career and ability to raise money from wealthy donors ahead of the interests of his own constituents. And Greg Sargent, at the Washington Post says Ryan is making Mitt Romney look like Robin Hood by comparison.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has just completed its analysis of the Paul Ryan budget, and it confirms once again just how regressive the GOP fiscal vision really is-- and how absurd GOP intransigence on revenues remains. The key finding:

The Tax Policy Center estimates that cutting individual rates to 10 percent and 25 percent, repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax and the tax increases included in the Affordable Care Act, and cutting the corporate rate from 35 percent to 25 percent would add $5.7 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. Thus, if House Republicans want to cut these taxes and still collect the revenues they promise, they’d have to raise other taxes by $5.7 trillion.

In other words, to pay for these tax cuts, the Ryan plan would require nearly $6 trillion in new revenues generated by closing loopholes and deductions. TPC’s Howard Gleckman says it is “hard to imagine” how that sum could be generated, which is to say, it is “hard to imagine” how tax cuts of this size would be paid for.

But there’s another point to be made here. The Ryan plan requires Republicans to find $5.7 trillion in new revenues via loophole closing to pay for these enormous tax cuts, which would hugely and disproportionately benefit the wealthy. But Republican are not willing to agree to cede one-tenth that amount in new revenues to reduce the deficit, to get some of the entitlement cuts they say they want, and to stop the sequester. Remember, Obama’s deficit reduction plan asks for $580 billion in new revenues in exchange for over $900 billion in spending cuts. Obama’s revenue ask is one-tenth the $5.7 trillion Republicans are willing to scrounge up in new revenues to pay for the Ryan plan’s tax cuts. But that one-tenth is too much, even though it would give Republicans the spending cuts they want and would stop the sequester Republicans have said is a threat to the country’s military and economy.

...The tax cuts described in Ryan’s budget would generate a huge windfall for high-income taxpayers. On average, households would get a cut of $3,000. But those in the top 0.1 percent of income, who make $3.3 million or more, would get a whopping $1.2 million on average-- a 20 percent increase in their after-tax income.

By contrast, middle-income households would get an average tax cut of about $900. Those in the bottom 20 percent (who make $22,000 or less) would get $40 and one-third of them would get no tax cut at all.

Now, back to Krugman's column, which emphasizes that the really serious way to deal with the economic problems that ail the country would be to turn to the one serious budget that has been introduced so far-- the Back to Work Budget from the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

We could definitely do worse than the Senate Democratic plan, and we probably will. It is, however, an extremely cautious proposal, one that doesn’t follow through on its own analysis. After all, if sharp spending cuts are a bad thing in a depressed economy-- which they are-- then the plan really should be calling for substantial though temporary spending increases. It doesn’t.

But there’s a plan that does: the proposal from the Congressional Progressive Caucus, titled “Back to Work,” which calls for substantial new spending now, temporarily widening the deficit, offset by major deficit reduction later in the next decade, largely though not entirely through higher taxes on the wealthy, corporations and pollution.

I’ve seen some people describe the caucus proposal as a “Ryan plan of the left,” but that’s unfair. There are no Ryan-style magic asterisks, trillion-dollar savings that are assumed to come from unspecified sources; this is an honest proposal. And “Back to Work” rests on solid macroeconomic analysis, not the fantasy “expansionary austerity” economics-- the claim that slashing spending in a depressed economy somehow promotes job growth rather than deepening the depression-- that Mr. Ryan continues to espouse despite the doctrine’s total failure in Europe.

No, the only thing the progressive caucus and Mr. Ryan share is audacity. And it’s refreshing to see someone break with the usual Washington notion that political “courage” means proposing that we hurt the poor while sparing the rich. No doubt the caucus plan is too audacious to have any chance of becoming law; but the same can be said of the Ryan plan.

So where is this all going? Realistically, we aren’t likely to get a Grand Bargain any time soon. Nonetheless, my sense is that there is some real movement here, and it’s in a direction conservatives won’t like.

As I said, Mr. Ryan’s efforts are finally starting to get the derision they deserve, while progressives seem, at long last, to be finding their voice. Little by little, Washington’s fog of fiscal flimflam seems to be lifting.

Republicans Get Down To Dividing Up The Spoils

The new Republican House chairmen are busy doling out subcommittee chairs this week. Yesterday there was a big hurrah when Texas freak Lamar Smith, tragically the new head of Judiciary, eliminated the House's most anti-Hispanic bigot, Steve King (R-IA) as the top Republican on the Immigration and Enforcement panel. Not that anyone is too excited about the slug he picked instead, California racist Elton Gallegly (although... Gallegly's district is now around 25% Hispanic, which will lead to some interesting organizing possibilities). Still, it's great to get Tom Tancredo's successor's hands off the steering wheel. Smith seemed to target the two worst and most conspicuous clowns on his committee, King and Louie Gohmert, with denial of advancement.

But the big subcommittee moves yesterday were all about Appropriations-- the fount of free-flowing corporate bribes. Or I should say "founts," plural. Regardless of which party is in control, all the most corrupt Members try to get on Appropriations. Under Republicans it was Abramoff's favorite committee and under Democrats, Jack Murtha used it the same way Republicans do. Boehner knew he couldn't get away with reinstating as blatant a criminal as Jerry Lewis as chair so he made sure someone just as corrupt, but less likely to get indicted, Hal Rogers (R-KY), "the Prince of Pork," got the plum assignment. And this week Rogers selected his "12 cardinals," the all-powerful subcommittee chairs whose main functions will be to squeeze money out of special interests for Republican election campaigns.

The biggest source of corruption has always been the Defense subcommittee-- that's where Lewis served before becoming Appropriations Chair and that're why Duke Cunningham is now serving time in a federal prison. It's certainly one of the most singularly corrupt places on Capitol Hill and Rogers picked a singularly corrupt earmarker as subcommittee chair, C.W. Bill Young of Florida, who was granted a rules waver to get the position, despite his reputation of playing fast and loose with the taxpayers' money. Rogers deemed Jerry Lewis (and Young), "chairmen emeritus," a make believe position that allows these 2 crooks to sit on all subcommittees.

Heading the Appropriations Committee's Agriculture subcommittee will be Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) who had also wanted the defense position, Rogers said. [Kingston immediately announced he will work to deny food safety efforts any funding, working hand in hand with Frank Lucas, new head of the agriculture Committee another vicious opponent of food safety.]

The Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee will be overseen by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and the Energy and Water subcommittee will be overseen by Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.).

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) will head the Financial Services subcommittee while Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) will head the Homeland Security subcommittee formerly headed by Rogers. Aderholt is switching subcommittees from the Legislative Branch subcommittee.

The Labor and Health and Human Services subcommittee will be headed by Rep. Dennis Rehberg (R-Mont.).

The Interior and Environment subcommittee will be headed by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) while the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs subcommittee will be headed by Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas). Culberson had been seen as in line for chairman of the Homeland Security appropriations panel. [Simpson is eager to do his bit to end the EPA's regulatory functions by defunding them and leaving the environment to the polluters, his campaign financiers.]

Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) will be in charge of State and Foreign Operations while Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) will be in charge of the large Transportation spending account.

Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) will head the Legislative Branch subcommittee which controls the smallest amount of spending. He is switching from the Military Construction subcommittee to do so.

Know Your Congress: Meet incoming House Appropriations Committee chair Hal Rogers, prince of the new GOP, uh . . . revolution???

"When it comes to the issues of cutting spending, creating jobs, dealing with Obamacare, reforming Congress -- this unites all of our members, including all eighty-five brand-new ones. There's no daylight between the freshmen and any of our members or the leadership.”

-- Speaker-to-be John Boehner,
to The New Yorker's Peter J. Boyer

by Ken

In the above Countdown clip, after profiling Hal Rogers of Kentucky, the "Prince of Pork," as the incoming chair of the mighty House Appropriations Committee, Keith is joined by Dave Weigel for a segment on the staffing-up of the new House, studded with lobbyists snatched straight from K Street and retreads from the staffs of the very old-line GOP-ers whom the Teabagger Class of '10 claims to be in revolt against.

It's shaping up as a curious revolution. Oh, I don't doubt that it will be as horrible, and as bloody, as feared. But the new House majority is looking rather, well, curious.

On Tuesday Howie wrote a post called, "Are House Republican Freshmen Cleaning Up The Mess-- Or Embracing The Corruption?," inspired in part by Washington Post political reporter Dan Eggen's Monday report "Incoming GOP freshmen rapidly embracing big-money fundraisers," suggesting that before they've even found out where to hang up their coats, the Teabagging revolutionaries of the GOP House Class of '10 are acculturing to the Beltway of doing things. Eggen followed up on Wednesday with another report, "New Republican lawmakers are hiring lobbyists, despite campaign rhetoric."

And yesterday Politico's Chris Frates reported that the man who's charged with overseeing the revolution, Speaker-to-be "Sunny John" Boehner, has hired, as his policy director," Brett Loper, "senior executive vice president at the Advanced Medical Technology Association, was deeply involved in the health care debate and fought against the fees Democrats ultimately assessed the industry to help pay for reform." Frates:

“I'm very pleased Brett will be joining our team,” Boehner said in a statement. “There are few people who are better equipped to help our new majority change the way the House works and advance a new governing agenda that reflects the will of the people we serve.”

But Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation, a government transparency group, called the move “business as usual,” noting that Loper’s now “in a much better position to help his old employer.”

“The public thinks that they’re electing a radically new Congress. And the freshmen may change but the people with power in Washington are always the same,” Allison said.

Is there enough room inside that tiny Republican tent?

In a related development, taxophobic Teabaggers who were whipped up for a couple of days by ideological bellwethers Sen. Jim DeMoron and the Club for Growth were left fist-pumping in the wind when, apparently, Mr. No-Tax himself, Grover Norquist, passed along the word that, on the contrary, people who really hate taxes support the "compromise" package. (Brian Beutler's got a nifty piece on his new blog-within-a-blog at TPM.)

Of course for those of us who are more or less equally -- however differently -- appalled by all the factions thrown together inside the New Republican Majority's still-not-very-big tent, it's pretty much impossible to take sides. Oh sure, we can breathe the gentlest sigh of relief at the selection of Michigan's Fred Upton to chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but that's not because there's anything good to say about Upton. It's because, as Noah pointed out in his "Freakshow Politics" piece yesterday, the front-running contenders for the job were John Shimkus and Joe Barton, genuine lunatics and unapologetic total corporate whores. (Noah took a closer look at the Bible-thumping, science-defying Shimkus today.)

The thing about Upton, though, is that the Teabaggers hate him. For goodness' sake, they supported a primary challenge by death-to-taxes nutjob former State Rep. Jack Hoogendyk. And for more sensible reasons they can't be thrilled with the House GOP caucus's choice of Hal Rogers to chair the Appropriations Committee. In that Tuesday post I mentioned above, Howie described Rogers and his chief rival for the Appropriations job, longtime DWT Republicrook fave Jerry Lewis, as "two of the worst and most corrupt earmarkers in the history of the Congress."

In the Dec. 13 New Yorker "Political Scene" piece on "Sunny John" Boehner from which I quoted at the top of this post, a decently reported piece that nevertheless stays safely within the confines that would easily pass muster with the Village Media Review Board, Peter J. Boyer, devotes much attention to the lengths to which Sunny John has gone to accommodate the ideological fire-breathers among his 85 freshmen. And much has been made -- by infotainment newsers attempting to project the Orange Man's, um, vision of leadership -- of the fact that alone among recent House Republican leaders he has no historic ties to the Appropriations Committee, by recent tradition the breeding ground for House GOP masters.

However, it's hard not to read turning the committee over to Hal Rogers as the political equivalent of hanging out a sign that says --

"OPEN FOR BUSINESS AS USUAL DURING REVOLUTION"

#

Are House Republican Freshmen Cleaning Up The Mess-- Or Embracing The Corruption?

When House Minority Leader John Boehner came up against Arizona anti-earmark fanatic Jeff Flake, he booted him off the Judiciary Committee (see video at the bottom of this post). Boehner didn't like Flake reminding Congress that Republican lobbyist supreme, Jack Abramoff, "referred to the Appropriations Committee as an earmark favor factory" nor did he appreciate that Randy Duke Cunningham was just the tip of the earmark/bribery scandal that plagues the House Republicans. Today Boehner's happy to allow Flake onto the Appropriations Committee although many Members see Boehner's move not just as something that was forced on him, but as a cynical exercise in naming a corrupt old-time earmark crook-- either Jerry Lewis or Hal Rogers-- to the committee chair. [UPDATE: In a major slap to teabaggers, Hal "Prince of Pork" Rogers was anointed the next chairman of the House Appropriations Committee as Boehner and Cantor whistled a couple bars of "Let the Good Times Roll," gently, behind the curtain.]

Jerry Lewis??? Hal Rogers??? These are two of the worst and most corrupt earmarkers in the history of the Congress. If Rove hadn't gotten rid of two U.S. Attorneys Lewis would be rotting in prison next to his junior partner Duke Cunningham now. Surely the newly-elected freshmen propelled into office by Tea Party populism wouldn't let this happen, right? No, wrong. They've only been in DC for a matter of days and the teabaggy freshmen are seeing things in a new (old) light. They're embracing lobbyists and corruption like starving kids in a candy store.

After Francisco "Quico" Canseco beat Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Tex.) as part of the Republican wave on Nov. 2, the tea party favorite declared: "It's going to be a new day in Washington."

Two weeks later, Canseco was in the heart of Washington for a $1,000-a-head fundraiser at the Capitol Hill Club. The event--hosted by Reps. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) and Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.)--was aimed at paying off more than $1.1 million in campaign debts racked up by Canseco, much of it from his own pocket.

After winning election with an anti-Washington battle cry, Canseco and other incoming Republican freshmen have rapidly embraced the capital's culture of big-money fundraisers, according to new campaign-finance reports and other records.

..."The lobbyists are all saying, 'Welcome to Washington; let me help pay off your debt,'" said Nancy Watzman, who tracks political fundraisers for the Sunlight Foundation, a watchdog group. "It's particularly interesting when so many of this year's freshmen were running against Washington. But as soon as they get elected, they come to Washington and put out their hand."

...Incoming GOP lawmakers have held more than a dozen "debt retirement" fundraisers over the past month, according to a partial tally by the Sunlight Foundation. Examples include incoming representative Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), who held a debt-retirement dinner at Carmine's Restaurant last Wednesday night; required donations were $2,500 for guests and $5,000 for sponsors, according to an invitation.

Spokesmen for Walberg and many other newly elected lawmakers did not respond to requests for comment about their post-election fundraising.

Rep.-elect Bill Flores (R-Tex.), a retired energy executive who held a debt-retirement reception Nov. 17, received post-election contributions from political-action committees for, among others, Deloitte, ExxonMobil and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. Flores, who ousted Democratic veteran Chet Edwards, also forgave himself more than $600,000 in personal loans, FEC records show.

The financial advisors group also gave $2,500 each to more than a dozen other incoming legislators including Rep.-elect Dan Benishek (R-Mich.), who held a Nov. 18 fundraiser, records show. Benishek took in last-minute donations from Johnson Controls, Delta Airlines and the K&L Gates lobbying firm, records show.

Benishek is a surgeon and abortion opponent who won the seat being vacated by centrist Democrat Bart Stupak (D-Mich.). He campaigned against "ungodly spending" in Washington and pledged not to seek earmarks, which designate federal funds for local projects.

Andrew Theodore, an Alexandria, Va., consultant who raises money for Benishek and nine other GOP freshmen, said the need to pay off debt is particularly acute this year. "This is the biggest freshman class we've had in a while, and as a result you just see more debt out there," he said.

Theodore also scoffed at the idea that accepting money from corporate PACs and lobbyists is at odds with the anti-Washington message of the 2010 class.

"These guys ran against Washington, but they ran against the bad parts of Washington--the bloated bureaucracy and Nancy Pelosi's agenda," he said. "That's not a contradiction to take money from a trade group or corporation that represents free-enterprise principles."

One trade group active since the midterms is the Dealers Election Action Committee, the PAC arm of the National Automotive Dealers Association. The group has made donations to at least a half dozen incoming freshmen over the past month, including Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) and Jim Renacci (R-Ohio.), FEC records show.

Incoming House member Robert Hurt, who railed against "union and special interest money" during his campaign against Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.), received contributions for debt retirement from Rolls-Royce, Verizon Communications, Yum Brands Inc. and others. Overall, Hurt received more than $600,000 from PACs in 2010, according to the FEC.

Rather than castigating career criminals like Lewis and Rogers you can expect cynical, already corrupted freshmen like Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Raul Labrador (R-ID), Jim Renacci (R-OH), Robert Hurt (R-VA), Quico Canseco (R-TX), Tom Walberg (R-MI) and Dan Benishek (R-MI), just to name a few who are already nurturing lucrative financial relations with earmark-hungry lobbyists-- but only Republican lobbyists of course-- to be asking the likes of Lewis and Rogers how to make Congress a profitable experience for them. And Jeff Flake, who would be the Appropriations Committee Chair if Boehner and the GOP were serious about cleaning up the corruption-- can just pull out his hair again.

A Fox News investigation-- the whole thing is worth watching but be sure to watch the section, at 32:00-- about Boehner firing Jeff Flake from the House Judiciary Committee for being being too aggressive fighting congressional corruption.

The Two Poorest Districts In The Country And Polar Opposite Views On Health Care Reform

Although Max Baucus has veered dangerously off the path to create an expensive and unsustainable welfare system for wealthy health care and insurance corporations-- his campaign donors-- at the expense of the middle class, Obama has always insisted that his vision of health care reform was all about bringing in as many families as possible who aren't adequately covered and are just one tragedy away from complete ruin. It's a worthy goal and a real test for the Obama presidency. Is he going to go with the Baucus Caucus-- which certainly includes Rahm Emanuel, his malevolent Chief of Staff-- or is he going to make good on the promise of Hope he made to the American people?

Let's take a look at the two poorest congressional districts in the United States-- NY-16, basically the South Bronx, which gave McCain his smallest percentage in last year's election (5%) and is represented by a strongly progressive advocate for working families, José Serrano; and KY-05, the mountainous eastern part of Kentucky where McCain won his biggest percentage in the state of Kentucky (67%), which is represented by a reactionary corporate tool, Hal Rogers who isn't an advocate for families but mealy mouthed supporter of "family values." The median income in NY-16 is $19,311 and the median income in KY-05 is $21,915. Rogers' district is the reddest in Kentucky with nearly a 16 PVI for Republicans while Serrano's district offers a 41 PVI for Democrats. Any political change in either district would come on a primary level, not in a general election. Rogers is the most reactionary member of the Kentucky House delegation (ProgressivePunch score of 2.37, not quite as bad as Dan Burton but worse than Tom McClintock) and Serrano is near the top of the New York delegation (with a score of 87.17).

There are few districts in the country where people would benefit more from the passage of meaningful health care reform than in these two districts. 22% of the people in KY-05 are uninsured, 146,000 people and 126,000 of them would be eligible for high-quality, affordable health insurance if a bill like HR 3200 passes. Rogers is a complete shill for the Insurance Industry and the Medical-Industrial Complex, which have lavished approximately a quarter million dollars in thinly veiled bribes on him. He is an unyielding opponent of health care reform, as strongly against it as Serrano is for it. Serrano has signed two letters saying he won't vote for bogus reform that doesn't include at least a public option. His district is even worse off than Rogers' with 159,000 uninsured people (24%), of which 139,000 would gain access to high-quality, affordable health insurance if HR 3200 gets signed into law.

Let's look at the stats on how HR 3200 would impact each district according to an official report from the House Energy and Commerce Committee. First Rogers' KY-05:

• Help for small businesses. Under the legislation, small businesses with 25 employees or less and average wages of less than $40,000 qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance. There are up to 10,700 small businesses in the district that could qualify for these credits.

• Help for seniors with drug costs in the Part D donut hole. Each year, 7,500 seniors in the district hit the donut hole and are forced to pay their full drug costs, despite having Part D drug coverage. The legislation would provide them with immediate relief, cutting brand name drug costs in the donut hole by 50%, and ultimately eliminate the donut hole.

• Health care and financial security. There were 1,500 health care-related bankruptcies in the district in 2008, caused primarily by the health care costs not covered by insurance. The bill provides health insurance for almost every American and caps annual out-of-pocket costs at $10,000 per year, ensuring that no citizen will have to face financial ruin because of high health care costs.

• Relieving the burden of uncompensated care for hospitals and health care providers. In 2008, health care providers in the district provided $173 million worth of uncompensated care, care that was provided to individuals who lacked insurance coverage and were unable to pay their bills. Under the legislation, these costs of uncompensated care would be virtually eliminated.

• Coverage of the uninsured. There are 146,000 uninsured individuals in the district, 22% of the district. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that nationwide, 97% of all Americans will have insurance coverage when the bill takes effect. If this benchmark is reached in the district, 126,000 people who currently do not have health insurance will receive coverage.

• No deficit spending. The cost of health care reform under the legislation is fully paid for: half through making the Medicare and Medicaid program more efficient and half through a surtax on the income of the wealthiest individuals. This surtax would affect only 850 households in the district. The surtax would not affect 99.6% of taxpayers in the district.

Rogers' district is 97.1% white and is considered the OxyContin capital of America, which may explain why there are so many dittoheads in the area. There isn't a district in the country where so many poor people vote for politicians so dedicated to policies designed to maintain the status quo. Now let's look at how passage of HR 3200 would impact Serrano's district:

• Help for small businesses. Under the legislation, small businesses with 25 employees or less and average wages of less than $40,000 qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance. There are up to 7,300 small businesses in the district that could qualify for these credits.

• Help for seniors with drug costs in the Part D donut hole. Each year, 2,900 seniors in the district hit the donut hole and are forced to pay their full drug costs, despite having Part D drug coverage. The legislation would provide them with immediate relief, cutting brand name drug costs in the donut hole by 50%, and ultimately eliminate the donut hole.

• Health care and financial security. There were 640 health care-related bankruptcies in the district in 2008, caused primarily by the health care costs not covered by insurance. The bill provides health insurance for almost every American and caps annual out-of-pocket costs at $10,000 per year, ensuring that no citizen will have to face financial ruin because of high health care costs.

• Relieving the burden of uncompensated care for hospitals and health care providers. In 2008, health care providers in the district provided $156 million worth of uncompensated care, care that was provided to individuals who lacked insurance coverage and were unable to pay their bills. Under the legislation, these costs of uncompensated care would be virtually eliminated.

• Coverage of the uninsured. There are 159,000 uninsured individuals in the district, 24% of the district. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that nationwide, 97% of all Americans will have insurance coverage when the bill takes effect. If this benchmark is reached in the district, 139,000 people who currently do not have health insurance will receive coverage.

Insurance industry lobbyists and CEOs aren't exactly José Serrano's biggest fans and the Insurance Industry has only donated $15,650 to his campaigns since he was elected in 2 decades ago. The district is 3% white-- so an ethnic mirror image of Rogers' just like Serrano's championing of poor working families is a mirror image of Roger's unswerving support for the elites that run the plutonomy that keeps his constituents in poverty and ignorance. Yesterday Rogers eagerly voted against funding for ACORN, an organization dedicated to helping lift poor working class families out of poverty. Serrano was one of only 75 congressmen with the guts to stand up to the right-wing noise machine's continuing assault on working families.