FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, September 30, 2010

White challenges Perry on influence of $17 million in political contributions

Rick Perry’s Unanswered Questions #4

HOUSTON — In light of an explosive report released today showing Perry has received $17 million in campaign cash from his political appointees and their spouses, Bill White challenged Perry to admit to the influence political contributions had on his decision-making or account for the $17 million coincidence.

"Do you admit or deny that political contributions have influenced your appointments? If you’re going to deny it, are you telling Texans it is a coincidence that you raised $17 million since 2001 from appointees?" asked Bill White.

This week, White launched a series of "Rick Perry’s Unanswered Questions" as the 25 year career politician refuses to answer questions at debates or editorial boards.

Bill White earlier this year released an ethics plan designed to end the use of state offices as part of a self-serving, partisan political machine. He outlined a new approach to appointments, an end to Perry’s infamous revolving door, and measures to make more information available to the public.

One of the measures in Bill White’s ethics reform plan, available at  www.billwhitefortexas.com/ethics, spells out campaign contribution limits for political appointees.

The report released by ethics watchdog group Texans for Public Justice is available at http://info.tpj.org/reports/pdf/Perry%20Patronage2010.pdf.

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Contact:
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Our momentum is building towards Election Day, just 34 days from now.

Yet many Texans still aren’t sure who they’re voting for in the governor’s race. Voters who know something about me support me.

You can shape this race by letting undecided voters know there’s a real alternative for our state’s future.

We don’t have much time. We must reach out to undecided voters before early voting starts on October 18.

Sign up to help us identify undecided voters in Houston, and help get our supporters to VOTE EARLY.

The “Liberal” Main Stream Media as well as the Right Wing Echo Chamber (FoxNews, Talk Radio) has been playing up a perceived attack by President Obama  and Vice-President Biden on the left flank of the Democratic Party base. Liberals must not allow these entities to cause a false issue to metastasize into a destructive argument between the Whitehouse, Congress, and the Liberal base. After-all the President and the VP are absolutely correct.

First of all read the entire Rolling Stone interview. It is an excellent piece. The encapsulation that he makes of his accomplishments is on point. That it was watered down is called Democracy. It was not watered down mostly by Republicans but Conservative and Corporatist Democrats. So his fight was not only with the GOP but with the Right flank of his own party. To believe that the President embarrassing  these Democrats early in what we expect to be monumental changes in our social, international, & domestic policies going forward is naive. This passage of the interview should give us all pause. It is likely the second most important answer he gave.

Rolling Stone Question:

You’ve passed more progressive legislation than any president since Lyndon Johnson. Yet your base does not seem nearly as fired up as the opposition, and you don’t seem to be getting the credit for those legislative victories. There was talk that you were going to mobilize your grass-roots volunteers and use them to pressure Congress, but you decided for whatever reason not to involve the public directly and not to force a filibuster on issues like health care. What do you say to those people who have developed a sense of frustration — your base — who feel that you need to fight harder?

President Obama’s Response:

That’s a bunch of different questions, so let me see if I can kind of knock them out one by one.

One of the healthy things about the Democratic Party is that it is diverse and opinionated. We have big arguments within the party because we got a big tent, and that tent grew during my election and in the midterm election previously. So making everybody happy within the Democratic Party is always going to be tough.

Some of it, also, has to do with — and I joke about it — that there’s a turn of mind among Democrats and progressives where a lot of times we see the glass as half-empty. It’s like, "Well, gosh, we’ve got this historic health care legislation that we’ve been trying to get for 100 years, but it didn’t have every bell and whistle that we wanted right now, so let’s focus on what we didn’t get instead of what we got." That self-critical element of the progressive mind is probably a healthy thing, but it can also be debilitating.

When I talk to Democrats around the country, I tell them, "Guys, wake up here. We have accomplished an incredible amount in the most adverse circumstances imaginable." I came in and had to prevent a Great Depression, restore the financial system so that it functions, and manage two wars. In the midst of all that, I ended one of those wars, at least in terms of combat operations. We passed historic health care legislation, historic financial regulatory reform and a huge number of legislative victories that people don’t even notice. We wrestled away billions of dollars of profit that were going to the banks and middlemen through the student-loan program, and now we have tens of billions of dollars that are going directly to students to help them pay for college. We expanded national service more than we ever have before.

The Recovery Act alone represented the largest investment in research and development in our history, the largest investment in infrastructure since Dwight Eisenhower, the largest investment in education — and that was combined, by the way, with the kind of education reform that we hadn’t seen in this country in 30 years — and the largest investment in clean energy in our history.

You look at all this, and you say, "Folks, that’s what you elected me to do." I keep in my pocket a checklist of the promises I made during the campaign, and here I am, halfway through my first term, and we’ve probably accomplished 70 percent of the things that we said we were going to do — and by the way, I’ve got two years left to finish the rest of the list, at minimum. So I think that it is very important for Democrats to take pride in what we’ve accomplished.

All that has taken place against a backdrop in which, because of the financial crisis, we’ve seen an increase in poverty, and an increase in unemployment, and people’s wages and incomes have stagnated. So it’s not surprising that a lot of folks out there don’t feel like these victories have had an impact. What is also true is our two biggest pieces of legislation, health care and financial regulatory reform, won’t take effect right away, so ordinary folks won’t see the impact of a lot of these things for another couple of years. It is very important for progressives to understand that just on the domestic side, we’ve accomplished a huge amount.

When you look at what we’ve been able to do internationally — resetting our relations with Russia and potentially having a new START treaty by the end of the year, reinvigorating the Middle East peace talks, ending the combat mission in Iraq, promoting a G-20 structure that has drained away a lot of the sense of north versus south, east versus west, so that now the whole world looks to America for leadership, and changing world opinion in terms of how we operate on issues like human rights and torture around the world — all those things have had an impact as well.

What is true, and this is part of what can frustrate folks, is that over the past 20 months, we made a series of decisions that were focused on governance, and sometimes there was a conflict between governance and politics. So there were some areas where we could have picked a fight with Republicans that might have gotten our base feeling good, but would have resulted in us not getting legislation done.

I could have had a knock-down, drag-out fight on the public option that might have energized you and The Huffington Post, and we would not have health care legislation now. I could have taken certain positions on aspects of the financial regulatory bill, where we got 90 percent of what we set out to get, and I could have held out for that last 10 percent, and we wouldn’t have a bill. You’ve got to make a set of decisions in terms of "What are we trying to do here? Are we trying to just keep everybody ginned up for the next election, or at some point do you try to win elections because you’re actually trying to govern?" I made a decision early on in my presidency that if I had an opportunity to do things that would make a difference for years to come, I’m going to go ahead and take it.

I just made the announcement about Elizabeth Warren setting up our Consumer Finance Protection Bureau out in the Rose Garden, right before you came in. Here’s an agency that has the potential to save consumers billions of dollars over the next 20 to 30 years — simple stuff like making sure that folks don’t jack up your credit cards without you knowing about it, making sure that mortgage companies don’t steer you to higher-rate mortgages because they’re getting a kickback, making sure that payday loans aren’t preying on poor people in ways that these folks don’t understand. And you know what? That’s what we say we st
and for as progressives. If we can’t take pleasure and satisfaction in concretely helping middle-class families and working-class families save money, get a college education, get health care — if that’s not what we’re about, then we shouldn’t be in the business of politics. Then we’re no better than the other side, because all we’re thinking about is whether or not we’re in power.

After an administration official signaled to wrap up the interview, according to Rolling Stone the President left and then came back in for a final statement. His statement follows and could not be stated any better. This is the best statement of the entire article and directly appropriately.

One closing remark that I want to make: It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election. There may be complaints about us not having gotten certain things done, not fast enough, making certain legislative compromises. But right now, we’ve got a choice between a Republican Party that has moved to the right of George Bush and is looking to lock in the same policies that got us into these disasters in the first place, versus an administration that, with some admitted warts, has been the most successful administration in a generation in moving progressive agendas forward.

The idea that we’ve got a lack of enthusiasm in the Democratic base, that people are sitting on their hands complaining, is just irresponsible.

Everybody out there has to be thinking about what’s at stake in this election and if they want to move forward over the next two years or six years or 10 years on key issues like climate change, key issues like how we restore a sense of equity and optimism to middle-class families who have seen their incomes decline by five percent over the last decade. If we want the kind of country that respects civil rights and civil liberties, we’d better fight in this election. And right now, we are getting outspent eight to one by these 527s that the Roberts court says can spend with impunity without disclosing where their money’s coming from. In every single one of these congressional districts, you are seeing these independent organizations outspend political parties and the candidates by, as I said, factors of four to one, five to one, eight to one, 10 to one.

We have to get folks off the sidelines. People need to shake off this lethargy, people need to buck up. Bringing about change is hard — that’s what I said during the campaign. It has been hard, and we’ve got some lumps to show for it. But if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren’t serious in the first place.

If you’re serious, now’s exactly the time that people have to step up.

This election should be a no brainer. There should be no enthusiasm gap. After-all

• if you know the Republican’s agenda is comprised of proven and provably failed policies and
• that if they get into power they will prevent the enactment of beneficial policies thus far passed in Congress and
• will prevent the bad policies still on the books from being mitigated and
• these policies will have a material impact on your income, wealth, and health

then why do you need to be enthused or encourage to vote in your best interest.

My Liberal and Progressive friends & leaders I watch every day on MSNBC, CNN, blogs, vlogs and all the other outlets need to start leading. We know what the results of losing Congress would be, a severe stall in progressive policies. The average liberal, progressive, or moderate voter may think they are sending a message to show disgust by not voting. We need to let them know that they are sealing their fate if they don’t.

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Many have already unbeknownst to themselves already have the thought process of the masses in “Banana Republics” as they allow the sound bites from the oligarchy to control their thoughts and emotions. Little do they know they are the seeds of their own demise.

Op-Ed Columnist

Downhill With the G.O.P.

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: September 23, 2010

Once upon a time, a Latin American political party promised to help motorists save money on gasoline. How? By building highways that ran only downhill.

I’ve always liked that story, but the truth is that the party received hardly any votes. And that means that the joke is really on us. For these days one of America’s two great political parties routinely makes equally nonsensical promises. Never mind the war on terror, the party’s main concern seems to be the war on arithmetic. And this party has a better than even chance of retaking at least one house of Congress this November.

Banana republic, here we come.

On Thursday, House Republicans released their “Pledge to America,” supposedly outlining their policy agenda. In essence, what they say is, “Deficits are a terrible thing. Let’s make them much bigger.” The document repeatedly condemns federal debt — 16 times, by my count. But the main substantive policy proposal is to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, which independent estimates say would add about $3.7 trillion to the debt over the next decade — about $700 billion more than the Obama administration’s tax proposals.

True, the document talks about the need to cut spending. But as far as I can see, there’s only one specific cut proposed — canceling the rest of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which Republicans claim (implausibly) would save $16 billion. That’s less than half of 1 percent of the budget cost of those tax cuts. As for the rest, everything must be cut, in ways not specified — “except for common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops.” In other words, Social Security, Medicare and the defense budget are off-limits.

So what’s left? Howard Gleckman of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has done the math. As he points out, the only way to balance the budget by 2020, while simultaneously (a) making the Bush tax cuts permanent and (b) protecting all the programs Republicans say they won’t cut, is to completely abolish the rest of the federal government: “No more national parks, no more Small Business Administration loans, no more export subsidies, no more N.I.H. No more Medicaid (one-third of its budget pays for long-term care for our parents and others with disabilities). No more child health or child nutrition programs. No more highway construction. No more homeland security. Oh, and no more Congress.”

The “pledge,” then, is nonsense. But isn’t that true of all political platforms? The answer is, not to anything like the same extent. Many independent analysts believe that the Obama administration’s long-run budget projections are somewhat too optimistic — but, if so, it’s a matter of technical details. Neither President Obama nor any other leading Democrat, as far as I can recall, has ever claimed that up is down, that you can sharply reduce revenue, protect all the programs voters like, and still balance the budget.

CONTINUED

Op-Ed Columnist – Downhill With the G.O.P. – NYTimes.com

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While Democrats are scared to campaign on their accomplishments, Republicans are not embarrassed about vociferously attacking the stimulus bill as a product that created no jobs while begging the government for dollars claiming it will create jobs in their district.

They have done the same thing with healthcare reform. They take credit for individual features or support individual features, They know Americans do not readily realize that for the entire healthcare reform to work, all parts must be in place.

One can only conclude that the moderate Democrats are scared that if they go all out against the wealthy that take advantage legally of the structural problems with our form of capitalism that they will be financially disadvantaged in any election. I wish they would realize that an honest message that details the failing American condition and the reasons behind it is much more powerful than all the negative adds if they learn to use guerilla marketing techniques out to effectively get out the message. The media is complicit but in today’s world we can make it less so. After-all much of President Obama’s decline in the polls seem to be effected by unanswered guerilla marketing techniques on the Right.

I hope Americans realize there is a tipping point where everyone becomes aware that they were screwed, and God help us then. We will react like any other third world country.

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The super-rich got even wealthier this year, and yet most of them are paying even fewer taxes to support the education, job training, and job creation of the rest of us. According to Forbes magazine’s annual survey, just released, the combined net worth of the 400 richest Americans climbed 8% this year, to $1.37 trillion. Wealth rose for 217 members of the list, while 85 saw a decline.

For example, Charles and David Koch, the energy magnates who are pouring vast sums of money into Republican coffers and sponsoring tea partiers all over America, each gained $5.5 billion of wealth over the past year. Each is now worth $21.5 billion.

Wall Street continued to dominate the list; 109 of the richest 400 are in finance or investments.

From another survey we learn that the 25 top hedge-fund managers got an average of $1 billion each, but paid an average of 17 percent in taxes (because so much of their income is considered capital gains, taxed at 15 percent thanks to the Bush tax cuts).

The rest of America got poorer, of course. The number in poverty rose to a post-war high. The median wage continues to deteriorate. And some 20 million Americans don’t have work.

Only twice before in American history has so much been held by so few, and the gap between them and the great majority been a chasm — the late 1920s, and the era of the robber barons in the 1880s.

And yet the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, which conferred almost all their benefits on the rich, continue.

Democrats have decided to delay voting on whether to extend them for the top 2 percent of Americans or for the bottom 98 percent until after the mid-term elections.

Democrats have thereby given up a defining issue that could have enabled them to show the big story of the last three decades — the accumulation of almost all the gain from economic growth at the top — and to make a start at reversing it.

When will they ever learn?

Robert Reich: The Super Rich Get Richer, Everyone Else Gets Poorer, and the Democrats Punt

This is my iReport friend from New York. I could not have said this any better nor as passionate.

 

 

Many of the comments made on my post strike me as so typically Republican as opposed to Democrat and Liberal. So just for fun, I thought I’d sound off as "how I see Republicans.

I have heard so many things said by Conservatives and Republicans on many of my posts and from family members and friends that are Republican.

Some have accused me of not liking Republicans. That’s simply not true. I have many friends that are Republican but many more that are Liberals.

It’s the views and opinions that Republicans often have, that I just don’t understand. I try. Maybe they just lack the experiences I’ve had that could change them.

Some of these beliefs just appear to be uncaring and callous. I was Republican at an earlier time in my life. I was rich and lost it through a series of unavoidable events.

I had a daughter that was born pre-maturely, had insurance and they dropped us because the bill for intensive care came to more than $280,000!

I’ve lived through hard times after being rich, after owning my own companies, and after thinking all you have to do is work hard and you can succeed.

I still believe that. I also believe that we need social safety nets for Americans that have fallen on hard times- to give them a hand up and get them back on their feet. I believe in a sense of responsibility and civility and social responsibility.

Here, in this report, I put on the face I’ve seen since being a Republican, having lived through hard times and find myself coming out the other side…changed for the better.  It’s not just about me now, it’s about others and what I can do to help.

Just having some fun, so don’t get all hyper on me. This is a glimpse into my mind..a reflection of what I’ve heard said to me by my Republican friends and some iReporters.

Would some Conservative want to do the Reflection of the Liberal’s mind? Maybe I could get better perspective on what you find annoying about Liberals.

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Republicans are not yet in power and they are already promising the titans of finance that follow CNBC that they will use reconciliation to vote policies that most of us know are against the middleclass interest.