Hey, It's not illegal if we make it a law, right?

[Accountable]

Bipartisan ripoffs, payoffs, fraud, and kickbacks are the rule in Washington, rather than the exception. The media sensationalizes the infighting, but what do they ignore?

Here's one that Bill Moyers had on his show, Moyers & Company:

http://billmoyers.com/segment/u-s-rep-peter-welch-on-amgen’s-sweet-senate-deal/

From the transcript:

... Just a couple of days before the inaugural festivities, The New York Times published some superb investigative reporting by the team of Eric Lipton and Kevin Sack, and their revelations kept running through my mind. The story told us of a pharmaceutical giant, Amgen, and three senators so close to it they might be entries on its balance sheet: Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus – a Democrat -- and that powerful committee’s ranking Republican, Orrin Hatch. A trio of perpetrators who treat the United States Treasury as if it were a cash-and-carry annex of corporate America.

The Times story described how Amgen got a huge hidden gift from unnamed members of Congress and their staffers. They slipped an eleventh hour loophole into the New Year’s Eve deal that kept the government from going over the fiscal cliff. And when the sun rose in the morning there it was, a richly embroidered loophole for Amgen that will cost taxpayers -- that's you and me -- a cool half a billion dollars. Yes -- half a billion dollars.

and:

... just two weeks before this backroom betrayal of the public trust by elected officials and the mercenaries they have mentored, Amgen pleaded guilty to fraud. ...

... Amgen agreed to pay $762 million in criminal and civil penalties. The company had been caught illegally marketing another one of its drugs. ...


... Amgen's friends in the Senate recouped some two thirds of the fine they just paid for fraud ...

It's legal because they say it's legal. It's the stuff that goes on while they keep the less informed pointing partisan fingers at each other. We vote out dems & replace them with repubs - and vice versa - thinking that we're making a difference.

When are we going to wake up? They are Republocrats. They coordinate and cooperate behind the scenes, while giving us a show that makes the WWE jealous.

There is no rule of law in Washington, and will be none so long as we keep re-electing Republocrat corporate lackeys.

 

[Stone]

Let's not leave out the corruption at State levels......it's there. too.

example:
Texas' culture of corruption

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/news_columnists/article/Texas-culture-of-corruption-2219796.php

 

[Minor Axis]

When are we going to wake up? They are Republocrats. They coordinate and cooperate behind the scenes, while giving us a show that makes the WWE jealous.

I agree. The Amgen deal is BS. I am disgusted. I don't support politicians who conduct themselves in this manner.

 

[Accountable]

I agree. The Amgen deal is BS. I am disgusted. I don't support politicians who conduct themselves in this manner.

That these guys keep getting reelected astounds me. From what I can tell, their whole campaign strategy is to remind people that voting for anyone else means losing the influence that having a senior member brings.

 

[Dana]

Bipartisan ripoffs, payoffs, fraud, and kickbacks are the rule in Washington, rather than the exception. The media sensationalizes the infighting, but what do they ignore?

Here's one that Bill Moyers had on his show, Moyers & Company:

http://billmoyers.com/segment/u-s-rep-peter-welch-on-amgen%E2%80%99s-sweet-senate-deal/

From the transcript:


and:


It's legal because they say it's legal. It's the stuff that goes on while they keep the less informed pointing partisan fingers at each other. We vote out dems & replace them with repubs - and vice versa - thinking that we're making a difference.

When are we going to wake up? They are Republocrats. They coordinate and cooperate behind the scenes, while giving us a show that makes the WWE jealous.

There is no rule of law in Washington, and will be none so long as we keep re-electing Republocrat corporate lackeys.

Republocrats... I like that and I absolutely agree.