After Enron's fraud on California during the 2001 electricity crisis became clear, a lot of politicians felt they had to give back their Enron contributions. Our consumer group was the beneficiary of a few of those returned dollars, since we fought the energy industry's deregulation schemes.
Now Open Secrets reports AIG's contributions, from employees and related political action committees, to federal lawmakers totaled $9.3 million over the last decade, with an exact 50%-50% split between Democrats and Republicans. AIG sure knows how to hedge its bets.
Well, Mr. President and members of Congress it's time to give back the money and Consumer Watchdog's insurance reform project, which has tangled with AIG for decades, is proud to accept your donations at this link.
Below are the top recipients of AIG cash as recorded by Open Secrets, leading with the president. Consumer Watchdog would be honored to put AIG employees' dough to work against the insurance industry's agenda in Congress this year, including federal deregulation to gut state insurance laws, where top AIG donees will use AIG's collapse as an excuse, of course.
| Senate | Obama, Barack | $104,332 |
| Senate | Dodd, Chris | $103,900 |
| Senate | McCain, John | $59,499 |
| Senate | Clinton, Hillary | $37,965 |
| Senate | Baucus, Max | $24,750 |
| Presidential | Romney, Mitt | $20,850 |
| Senate | Biden, Joseph R Jr | $19,975 |
| House | Larson, John B | $19,750 |
| Senate | Sununu, John E | $18,500 |
| Presidential | Giuliani, Rudolph W | $13,200 |
| House | Kanjorski, Paul E | $12,000 |
| Senate | Durbin, Dick | $11,000 |
| House | Perlmutter, Edwin G | $10,500 |
| House | Rangel, Charles B | $9,000 |
| Presidential | Edwards, John | $7,850 |
| Senate | Corker, Bob | $7,400 |
| House | Smith, Chris | $6,900 |
| House | Neal, Richard E | $6,500 |
| Senate | Rockefeller, Jay | $6,500 |
| Senate | Reed, Jack | $6,000 |
Too bad we don't have a government for the people.....
and not for the self serving people who run it.
But Chris Dodd, who I have striven to like after his 'friend of Angelo' moment, just comes out of this smelling nothing like a rose, no matter how often he offers to explain, no matter that in the outrage of the moment, he probably did remake the provision re compensation at the request of feckless and spineless folk in the Treasury, who blamed him of late for doing what it turns out they strained mightily to persuade him to do. The fact that AIG had given him so damn much money just makes it look like it was all too easy for Dodd to acquiesce.
And meanwhile, a bill that might help out voters consumed by credit card debt, so far as I know, has languished on his desk since July.
Please explain.
In the late 1990s, a drive to fully regulate swaps was squashed by Congress, with the support of then-President Bill Clinton’s Treasury Department. Instead of regulation, which could have prevented the A.I.G. fiasco, a law was passed in 2000 that deregulated swaps. By then, the Treasury secretary was Lawrence Summers, who is now Mr. Obama’s chief economic adviser.
There are many other examples where rules were blocked, eliminated or ignored. They all make painfully clear that what is needed is a comprehensive response — to restore rules, develop new ones as needed and enforce them day to day; to reassert the government’s regulatory mission; and to reaffirm the centrality of solvency, safety and soundness of financial firms, and of investor and consumer protection.