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Page 19 of 20
POLITICS
- The cost to try to influence the 2008 election could exceed $3 billion in TV advertising, according to the TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group. This is nearly twice as much as what was spent in 2004. In 2006, $2.3 billion was spent on political and issue advocacy TV commercials. It is predicted that more than $800 million will be spent on TV ads in the battle for the White House. (CNN, October 17, 2007)
- The projected cost for next year’s presidential and Congressional elections continues to skyrocket toward $5 billion. By next Election Day, the two presidential nominees are expected to break the $1 billion mark in combined spending—a 50% rise over the outrageously high price of the 2004 campaign. (Campaign for Sale, New York Times editorial, December 2, 2007)
- Since George Bush has been in the White House, the oil and gas industry has spent $393.2 million on lobbying the federal government and contributed $82.1 million to federal candidates, parties and political action committees, 80% of whom were Republicans. (Big Oil, Big Influence, NOW, 11/23/07)
- As a result, in 2005, Bush signed an energy bill from a Republican-controlled Congress that gave $14.5 billion in tax breaks for oil, gas, nuclear power and coal companies. Furthermore, the Energy Policy Act of 2005, based upon the recommendations of Vice President Cheney’s energy task force, rolled back regulations, expected to save energy companies $3.6 billion over a decade, the oil companies considered burdensome. (Big Oil, Big Influence, NOW, 11/23/07)
- The money devoted to energy industry lobbyists has continued to rise, from $63.3 million in 2005 to $73 million in 2006, which is expected to be eclipsed again in 2007. (Big Oil, Big Influence, NOW, 11/23/07)
- With a democratic Congress, their impact has wained but in many cases where regional interests come into play (the importance of the coal or automotive industries in many states, for example), democrats are on board with the energy industries and rewarded financially for their allegiance. (Big Oil, Big Influence, NOW, 11/23/07)
- There is concern that there is a systematic effort to deny the vote to hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of citizens in the 2008 elections as the vote is in danger of manipulation and outright suppression. With efforts to use Attorneys in the Justice Department to keep Democrats from voting and allegedly targeting people based on race and ethnicity, particularly in key battleground states; the jamming of voting machines, ways to reject ballots and declare the losing candidate the winner; and making it more difficult to register primarily minority, poor, elderly and disabled voters by requiring photo IDs or using unethical methods to intimidate voters trying to vote by challenging their vote on specious evidence. . (Will the Vote Be Fair? NOW on PBS 11/30/07)
- The lobbying ranks include 37 former Senators and 158 former members of the House and it is estimated that there will be dozens of current members planning to quit before the expected watershed election next year. And the financial rewards are substantial as many of these former legislators have become millionaires through their lobbying activities alone. (The Capitol’s Rich Afterlife, New York Times, November 30, 2007)
- Business lobbyists, nervously anticipating Democratic gains in next year’s elections, are racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety, labor and economic rules, believing they can get a better deal from the Bush administration that from its successor. (Business Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote, New York Times, December 2, 2007)
- For example, automakers are trying to persuade officials to set new standard for the strength of car roofs—standards far less stringent than what consumer advocates say is needed to protect riders in a rollover. Coal companies are lobbying the Interior Department for a regulation that would allow them to dump rock and dirt from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams and valleys. Employers want to secure changes in rules that will cut back family and medical leave before the election. The Supreme Court has held that a new president cannot arbitrarily revoke final regulations have already have the force of law. To undo such rules, a new administration must provide a compelling justification and go through a formal rule-making process, which can take months or years. On another issue, the Environmental Protection Agency is drafting rules that would allow utility companies to modify coal-fired power plants and increase their emissions without installing new pollution-control equipment. (Business Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote, New York Times, December 2, 2007)
- At the same time corporate and trade associations are recruiting Democratic lobbyists and they are talking with democratic political hopefuls. For example, defense contractors have met with Hillary Clinton and other candidates. (Business Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote, New York Times, December 2, 2007)
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